TNSSO - Comments

27th May 2027

Serie A
Matchday 36

I rested everyone for this game with the Europa League Final on the horizon, so I'm really not going to read too much into this result.

Time for the biggest game of the entire season and possibly the biggest game in Udinese's history as we go into the Europa League Final. The stage was set and Borussia Dortmund's home would be the host for the occasion.

Fans and pundits alike can't seperate the two sides and the general consensus is that this could go either way!

I have been here once before with Antwerp back in 2024, losing on that occasion to Aston Villa. Hopefully, I can taste success this time around.

The Lineup!

Europa League

Final

The game had a nervy and cautious approach from both sides and neither team had a meaningful chance until the 26th minute when we took the lead through a rather fortuitous goal, when Rolando Mandragora's shot from just inside the box hit Stiven Shpendi on the way through which directed the ball past the goalkeeper who had already committed and dived the other way! Well, that was until the goal was ruled out for offside!!! We started to assert ourselves a little more after that but went into the break still level at 0-0 despite creating a couple of good chances. The lads came out for the second period looking fired up after my motivational team talk at half time and it took less than 8 minutes to get our noses in front. Who else but Sergio Camello with his 34th goal of the season after latching onto Walace's through ball. Unfortunately on 65 minutes Camello had to be hauled off with an injury, to be replaced by Simone Pafundi in a False Nine position that I had used him in on numerous occasions this season despite him being primarly a midfield player. On 73 minutes he made his impact, dropping in deep to play a one-two with Mandragora through the middle of the pitch, before passing through the Sevilla defence for Shpendi to run onto it...one touch, two touches, sets himself and scores! It wasn't over yet though as Sevilla pressed forward and on 86 minutes, they had one back when a powerful effort from Tiago Gouveia beat Perin from 10 yards out! Game on it was!! But we kept our cool and some beautiful passing football saw us control the final minutes of the game to bag the club's first ever and my first ever European trophy!!

Most of the squad played their part in the competition and a total of 25 medals were handed out! It was a big call to put Mattia Perin between the sticks for the final after Elia Caprile had played most games in the competition, but it was a decision that paid off! I simply went for the more experienced keeper for the big occasion!

Serie A

Matchdays 37 & 38

Just the matter of a couple more league games to play to tie the season up then and to be honest, I haven't cared less about two football matches in my career so far!

Serie A

League Table

So it's a 3rd placed finish for us after an impressive season where we overachieved against our predictions in both the media and with the bookies. AC Milan are a serious force right now and 6 Serie A title wins in a row is extremely impressive! Pescara could be the first team I've ever seen go a whole season without a single win!

10th May 2027

Europa League
Quarter Final 1st Leg

There is no denying I wanted us to go out there and put in a strong performance and put this tie to bed before the away trip to Holland in the second leg. A storming first half performance might have done just that. Disappointing to concede one in the second half, but I honestly can't see us losing by three goals in the second leg.

Serie A

Matchday 31

With some tired legs in the squad, I was forced to make a number of changes and the result didn't go our way. It proves to me that although we are very good when we have our strongest 11 out, we are still lacking quality in depth.

Europa League

Quarter Final 2nd Leg

Not as convincing as the first leg, but we cruise through nonetheless.

It's Newcastle for us in the semi final!

Serie A

Matchday 32

Back in domestic action, we record a decent win away at Bologna, with young striker Torsten Petereit coming off the bench to score the winner.

Serie A

Matchday 33

An easy win against one of the sides who are fighting for their lives to stay up this year. Based on this evidence, they have their work cut out!

Europa League

Semi Final 1st Leg

Alexander Isak has an incredible 38 goals in all competitions this season for Newcastle and he proved to be a major handful for our defence! But we have our own not so secret weapon in Sergio Camello and his 32nd goal of the season secured an important win for us in the first leg, but it's still all to play for back in the North East of England.

Serie A

Matchday 34

Ten changes were made to the starting lineup to rest everyone for that all important 2nd leg against The Magpies in Europe. Pescara haven't won a game all season, so I still expected us to get the result and we did with ease.

That result sees us set a new club record for the most points ever accumulated in a Serie A season!

Europa League

Semi Final 2nd Leg

An unbelievable ending to this game, but GET IN, GET IN, GET IN - we are through to the final!!! With just 2 minutes of the game we looked like we were going through, until Tammy Abraham scored the goal that levelled up the tie. With the match looking like it was going to extra time, Sergio Camello had other ideas and he rounded the keeper in injury time to score the most important goal of his career so far!

It's Sevilla who await us in the final! We have every reason to think we can get a result against them after beating them 4-2 in the group phase earlier this season!

Serie A

Matchday 35

A good win back in Serie A against possibly the biggest disappointment of the season. By their standards, Roma have had an awful campaign and I didn't ever really feel like we wouldn't win this game, despite the fact it should be a tough one on paper.

It was a win that ensures we will be playing Champions League football next season!

We are also continuing to break more club records as well!

Serie A

League Table

With only 2-3 games remaining of the season, AC Milan have been crowned champions for the 6th straight season. We have moved up to 2nd with a game in hand over Juventus as well. In all fairness, now we have guaranteed qualification for the Champions League, the rest of our Serie A games are a formality now and there is only one game that matters for us...that Europa League Final!

5th April 2027

Serie A
Matchday 25

Not the easiest away day, so a credible point gained.

Serie A

Matchday 26

We come from behind to win away at Atalanta. This is a very, very good result and the performance was exceptional. Hopefully we are hitting top gear at the right time.

Europa League

Round of 16 First Leg

Perfect result away from home in the first leg as we win the game and don't concede. We've set ourselves up nicely to go through against one of the stronger sides in the competition, but Roma will know they are still in it and we have to have our wits about us in the second leg.

Big game coming up in the league before that 2nd leg though, as it's 3rd vs 4th!

Serie A

Matchday 27

Neither team could gain an advantage over the other as we share the points in a tightly contested game.

Europa League

Round of 16 Second Leg

WOW! I did not expect that! Possibly the most impressive victory of my whole managerial career to date!!

Serie A

Matchday 28

Sergio Camello is in sensational form at the minute and he scores another hat trick here against his old club!

We can have no excuses with the Europa League draw as we've probably drawn the weakest side left in the competition.

Serie A

Matchday 29

Before we worry about Europe, we had a couple more league games to play first beginning with a really tough fixture away at Inter. But we come away with another good away point.

This year's youth intake isn't too bad. I'm not sure if there is a future superstar in the ranks, but there are a couple who might one day make the first team squad at least.

Andrea Marchetti could one day become a decent centre back if he develops in the right way.

But it is goalkeeper Simone Frasca that is generating the most excitement for the future as he is tipped to one day be the main man between the sticks.

None of our players this year make the top 50 wonderkids list though!

Serie A

Matchday 30

We dominated here from start to finish and 2-0 was a bit of a let off for Sampdoria in all honesty.

Serie A

League Table

AC Milan are looking nailed on to win the league title again as we approach the final run in. Whilst we look very good for Champions League qualification this season, with a 10 point gap to 5th and a game in hand as well. Roma have pulled themselves away from the relegation threat after their awful start, but you have to feel for those poor Pescara fans who haven't seen their team win all season!

18th February 2027

Transfer News: My first signing of the January window sees me reunited with a player from my Antwerp days. Prince Aning spent a season on loan with us a few seasons back and I have now signed him on a permanent deal for my newer club. I've paid £9.5 million to bring him here from Dortmund.

Transfer News: 

With a new arrival, is another departure. Thilo Kehrer has only ever really been a squad player for me and always struggled to impress me enough to hold down a regular first team place. So I decided to move him on and he joins Galatasaray for a fee of £7.75 million.

Coppa Italia Fanta

Third Round

Some clinical finishing from my lads here proved the difference as we go through to the next round, where we will face a tough tie against Juventus.

Injury:

 It's lucky I did go and sign a new left back in Prince Aning, as my other left back will now miss 3 months of action with injury!

Transfer News:

 I then used every last bit of the transfer budget to bring in a new centre back! Croatian international, Bosko Sutalo, has cost us £33 million (£24 million up front) but immediately becomes my best option at the heart of the defence. He's been at Porto for the last 4 seasons where he has made 100 league appearances, maintaining an average rating of about 7.20 every single season!

Serie A

Matchday 20

Sutalo went straight into the starting lineup and gave a solid debut as he helped us towards a clean sheet and a victory over Palermo.

Europa League - Group Phase

Matchday 7

A Camello double earned us victory over Spurs with the winner coming in injury time to ensure our opponents return to London with nothing.

Serie A

Matchday 21

Due to tiredness in the squad, I rotated heavily with 9 changes to the starting lineup. It did us no favours and although we were the better side, we couldn't find the breakthrough and have to settle for a single point against a side battling relegation.

Europa League - Group Phase

Matchday 8

With both of us looking to cement a place in the top 8 in the group phase, it was bitterly disappointing from our side that we didn't look up for this from the off! A poor performance!

Despite the defeat, we do manage to secure 7th place and a place in the last 16 without needing to play the additional knockout round. Bayer Leverkusen, Leeds, Rennes and Mainz all go through as well with unbeaten records. Villarreal were also unbeaten so will be disappointed to have only managed a 14th placed finish, but it just goes to show just how competitive this new format is.

Coppa Italia Fanta

Quarter Final

What an absolute rollercoaster of emotions in this game! From 1-0 down, to 2-1 up, to 3-2 down, to then equalizing with just seconds of the 90 left! Only for Mancini to go and get sent off in extra time for a two footed lunge and leave us in the ****! Unfortunately, we couldn't hold on and we go out of the competition - I'm devestated but this was a fantastic game to be involved in!

Serie A

Matchday 22

Mancini at least scored here to go a little way to making up for his sending off in the last game, as he bagged our second goal on our way to an easy win back in the league.

Serie A

Matchday 23

A funny old game this for Bosko Sutalo who scored twice before being sent off right on the stroke of half time. Luckily, we managed to see out the second half and hang on for the win.

Serie A

Matchday 24

That makes it 3 wins in a row in the league. Another nice performance.

Serie A

League Table

We are up to 3rd in the table and although we are 11 points behind the leaders AC Milan, probably more importantly we are 10 points clear of 5th placed Napoli, which means we have put ourselves in a strong position to mount a serious challenge for Champions League qualification this season, with 14 games remaining.

As far as the Europa League goes, it will be an all Italian affair in the last 16 as we take on Roma.

9th January 2027

Serie A
Matchday 14

Two absolute worldies from Rolando Mandragora saw us come from behind twice to level things up against Bologna. Then in the 6th minute of stoppage time, we broke away on the counter attack only to see Camello's shot saved by the keeper. However, from that resulting corner, Walace got up ahead of all the Bologna defence at the far post and headed his effort back across goal and into the back of the net for a fantastic win!

We are definitely a different animal when at home and that Bologna result now extends our home unbeaten run to 10 games.

The board approached me with a view to expanding the wage budget at the club. We now have £1.5 million per week available with a current spend of £1.25 million.

I therefore reduced it back down to £1.38 million per week which moved £7.2 million into the transfer budget for the upcoming January transfer window.

Serie A

Matchday 15

I fully expected an easy win over newly promoted Cosenza and I wasn't left disappointed as we smashed them for 6!

Injury:

 The win did come at the cost of a major injury to emerging right back, Per Andreas Kvia-Egeskog, who will now potentially miss the rest of this season. The youngster was starting to be introduced into the first team with 7 appearances this season so far, so it is gutting for him to now have his progress halted.

Serie A

Matchday 16

Roma have been the big underachievers of the season so far and currently look like they are gearing up for a relegation battle in the 2nd half of the season!! So getting the win here was possibly expected, but winning in the capital is no mean feat under any circumstances and we'll take it!

Europa League - Group Phase

Matchday 6

A solid performance and good result out in Denmark and it never really looked in doubt.

Serie A

Matchday 17

With Pescara rooted to the bottom of the table without a single win this season, I'd have been ****** if we didn't win this one.

We've been on a decent run lately and 4 straight wins in the league has seen us rise to 2nd in the table, but we now face the biggest challenge of the season so far as we prepared to take on existing champions, AC Milan, in a top of the table clash.

Serie A

Matchday 18

A really close game that could have swung either way. Unfortunately, for us it wasn't in our favour today!

As we move into the January transfer window, the board present me with a nice surprise! They are increasing my transfer budget quite significantly.

Transfer News:

 Before I had chance to do anything with my new wad of cash, there was a departure from the club. Gerard Deulofeu has been awesome for me, but he came to me with three individual excuses to leave the club over the last 3 months. The first was that he was homesick, before whinging about his playing time this year. Finally, he demanded a transfer as he wanted to apparently join a bigger club...so he has opted to join Brondby!! They buy him for £1.5 million - his contract was running out at the end of the season so it was either get something now, or nothing at the end of the year.

Serie A

Matchday 19

We were on the back foot for long periods of the game, but we managed to hold on in the end for a good point!

Serie A

League Table

Not much change up top with the front two as AC Milan continue to stake a claim for their 6th straight title. At the half way stage of the season now and we are doing alright, but the same cannot be said for Roma who haven't improved and continue to struggle!

26th November 2026

Serie A
Matchday 8

A good result against one of the best teams in the league.

Europa League - Group Phase

Matchday 3

We dominated the first half, but couldn't score! However, a much improved second half display in front of goal saw us cruise to a scoreline that was more expected from us here against the minnows from Liechtenstein.

Serie A

Matchday 9

A pretty tight game that could have gone either way, but with home advantage on their side, it's Lazion who just about nick the points.

Serie A

Matchday 10

After failing to win any of our last 3 in the league, it was imperitive that we got a result here. The lads were told as much in my pre match team talk and it seemed to spur them on to a good performance and a comfortable victory. Much better!

Serie A

Matchday 11

With injuries and tiredness setting in, I had no option than to play Scott McTominay at centre back for this one. But he was quality there along with the rest of the back line as we block out one of the best attacks in the division. Unfortunately, we couldn't nick one at the other end to get the win.

Facilities:

 The junior coaching budget has had another boost at my request and is now operating at an exceptional level.

The clubs facilities all round are looking extremely impressive now!

Europa League - Group Phase

Matchday 4

Sevilla are the Europa League specialists, having won the competition more times than any other team (6). So to beat them here is a real statement from us and should put everyone on high alert that we are not just here to make up the numbers this season.

Elsewhere in the comp, there was an absolute ridiculous result out in Norway!

Serie A

Matchday 12

It took for us to go 1-0 down here to actually wake up and start playing. Luckily, we still had enough time to score a couple of goals and turn the game on it's head.

Serie A

Matchday 13

Sassuolo have made a good start to their season and sat 3rd at kick off, so this was a really impressive victory for us and one that saw us leapfrog them in the table too!

Serie A

League Table

AC Milan lead the way, but Juventus are keeping close tabs on them under Pep. After that there are a whole host of teams covered by just a few points and we are in that mix right now. Pescara are struggling up at this level and already look destined to go straight back down, whilst Roma have had a dreadful start to their season as well!

Europa League - Group Phase

Matchday 5

Our 100% record in this year's Europa League comes to an end in Yorkshire, courtesy of one set piece goal.

Europa League

Group Phase

We are still in amongst the top 8 in the league at the moment though and with 3 games left, it's still very much in our hands to qualify automatically for the last 16 which is the aim. Our final 3 games are against Brondby, Tottenham and Rennes.

8th October 2026

Serie A
Matchday 1

If you could pick your ideal opponents for the first day of the season, it would be against a newly promoted side and that's what we got here. A comfortable win to kick off the season, with two new signings both scoring debut goals.

Looking at our fixtures for the group phase of the Europa League, there is no reason why we shouldn't be winning all of our opening 3 games and getting off to a decent start. That should set us up nicely to qualify for the knockout stages and I'll be disappointed if we dont make it to the last 16 automatically by finishing in the top 8.

Transfer News:

 With European football this season, we are going to have a busier schedule throughout and that means more tiredness in the squad. So Jevon Simons comes in on loan for the season from Benfica to bolster numbers. He isn't likely to be good enough to hold down a regular first team place, but should provide adequate cover.

Serie A

Matchday 2

I won't lie...I was nervous based on our away form in the second half of last season, but we got the job done to make it two wins from two.

This year's transfer window is now closed and the pressure will certainly be on me to perform this season after we were the biggest spenders in Serie A.

Serie A

Matchday 3

A poor result on the face of it, but then a draw is OK when we went down to 10 men at 2-1 down. Noa Lang with an awful challenge that saw him see a straight red!

Europa League - Group Phase

Matchday 1

Our first taste of European football under my management was an away day in Greece and it resulted in a win! We had to come from behind but got it done in a game I expected us to win.

Serie A

Matchday 4

Another nice away win back in Serie A. It was the first time we would have to play on a Sunday after a Thursdsay night away in Europe but the lads coped with it well enough.

Serie A

Matchday 5

Quite simply not good enough as we suffer defeat for the first time this season!

Serie A

Matchday 6

Back at home we were much more solid and record a decent victory over Fiorentina! Sergio Camello has had a good start to life at the club, scoring 5 times in 6 league games.

He's been so good in fact, that he wins the Player of the Month award for September.

Europa League - Group Phase

Matchday 2

Camello is absolutely flying and it only took him 38 minutes against Lillestrom to get his first hat trick for the club! It allowed me to take him off at half time and give him a much needed rest.

Serie A

Matchday 7

We were good going forward but poor at the back and it means we only take a point from the game.

And defending will be tougher over the coming weeks without Felix Oduokhai who has been our best performing centre back so far this year.

Serie A

League Table

We are 7 games into the season and sit 3rd in the table. However, champions AC Milan and Juventus (under the newly appointed Pep Guardiola) have already opened up a 4 point gap at the top. Long way to go yet though.

17th August 2026

A few youngsters were released from the club this Summer alongside right back, Kingsley Ehizibue, who is nowhere near good enough for us and proved that with consistently poor performances last year.

Whilst the two older players I signed last Summer to bolster the squad both leave on free transfers as well. Steven Berghuis joins Fenerbahce whilst Renato Steffen is off to Young Boys.

And the first monetary departure from the club this Summer is Santiago Bueno who makes his loan move to Roma permanent for £4.9 million.

Transfer News:

 So now we turn our attention to the new arrivals. The first one is a freebie. Charlie Patino hasn't developed into a first team player for Arsenal, but at 22 years old, he still has plenty of potential and the fact I had an opportunity to pick up a talented youngster for nothing to bolster the midfield numnbers, I couldn't say no.

Transfer News:

 Another English player comes through the door this Summer in full back Brandon Williams. He can play down both sides and I am hoping his pace, work rate and determination are going to prove great assets for us down the wings. He signs from Gladbach for a fee of £10.5 million...a fee the board agreed to pay extra as I had already spent all of my budget on the two players below.

Transfer News:

 Last season we had two strikers here on loan, so this season I desperately wanted to sign one on a permanent basis to be our main man up top. Segio Camello might have only scored 18 goals in 71 games for Torino, but his attributes suggest he should be scoring many more than that and I've taken an £18 million punt that I can get better out of him!

Transfer News:

 Then for my biggest signing of the Summer, Stiven Shpendi. The 23 year old Albanian winger came through Italian ranks which means he is going to help with my squad registration rules, but it is his performances over the past two seasons that have caught my eye. 10 goals in either season for Sampdoria and then PSV, plus 9 assists for PSG on top of that last year as well. He should hopefully prove well worth the £25 million I have paid for him.

Transfer News:

 And this year's loan signing to compete for a place up front is Bayern Munich's wonderkid, Tostren Petereit. He is 19 now and ready to show his parent club that he has what it takes and he will get the opportunity to show that with us this season, after scoring 12 times for Dresden in the 2.Bundesliga last year.

Transfer News:

 I have to balance the attacking numbers a little and Isaac Success had definitely fallen down the pecking order, so I decided to offload him. He joins Elche for £2.5 million.

Injury:

 Well this isn't ideal. My first choice right back has picked up an injury that will see him miss the first couple of months of the season at least!

Transfer News: I still needed another attacking player that could play down the right wing to compete with Deulefeu for his place in the team, but I only had £5 million left in the transfer budget. I turn back to Belgium and one of my old rival clubs to sign Noa Lang from Club Brugge. The deal is worth £20 million overall with £5 mil paid up front and the rest coming in installments over the next 3 years.

Injury:

 Then another big injury before the start of the season as we lose the wonderkid striker for 2 months!!

Injury:

 These pre season injuries are becoming a bit of a joke now!

Barring a defeat to Barcelona, pre season pretty much went to plan.

And with the Summer business that has been done, the bookies think we'll do slightly better this season and finish 5th. At 15/1 odds though, we are a decent outside bet to lift the title although every team will have to go some to stop AC Milan winning their 6th straight Serie A title.

END OF SEASON 2025/26 REVIEW

The aim at the start of the campaign for me was to get Udinese back into European football and we achieved that. The first half of the season set us up nicely and although our away form in the second half of the year was pretty bad, we still managed to achieve our goal! A good first season in Italy for me!

We made the quarter final of the Coppa Italia and there is no real shame in going out to Roma on pens.

Overall Squad Stats

The New Arrivals

The Best 11

Club Awards

League Awards

I'm a little shocked that Gerard Deulofeu didn't make the team of the season after setting a new Serie A record for the most assists in a campaign.

The supporters main expectation for next season is to push on and qualify for the next European competition in the rankings, the Europa League.

But then there was a turn up for the books...it would seem that we will be in the Europa League next year instead of the Europa Conference League! Six teams from Serie A will go into the Champions League which must be largely down to the fact Juventus won the Europa League this year, but finished outside of the top 4. It's done a couple of teams below us a favour too and there will now be 9 Italian teams competing across Europe's three competitions next year.
 

Commercials

Finances

With the bank balance standing at more than £100 million, the board are certainly backing me after leading them to European football with a healthy transfer budget and plenty of room to maneuver in the wage budget as well!

In Belgium, it was a 4th straight title for Antwerp, although that was it for this year as Erik ten Hag could only lead them to the semi finals of the Croky Cup and lost in the Supercup as well.

24th May 2026

Serie A
Matchday 32

A big, big win that takes us past the magical 60 point mark. The 62 points that we now have would have been enough to secure a top 7 finish in the last 3 seasons, but this year I feel it will take a bit more so we now have a new target of 70 points for the season. Now if we achieve that, that tally has been enough to get top 4 for the last 3 seasons and that would be some achievement for us!

It's fair to say we are doing something right as a football club as we are the 3rd most profitable over the last year in Serie A, despite having no financial benefit of European football.

Serie A

Matchday 33

With Lazio sitting just above us in 3rd place, I didn't expect us to win this game if I'm honest but one thing I have realised this season is that we are much more of a force at home than away and that advantage came through for us here. The win sees us close the gap between us and them to just 1 point.

Serie A

Matchday 34

We can only manage a draw at Atalanta, despite creating some really good chances in the game. The referee and VAR ruled out two goals for us for the narrowest of offsides which was slightly frustrating.

Then we had a nice influx of cash into the club again as another sponsorship deal worth over £25 million is announced!

Serie A

Matchday 35

Our suspect away form comes into question again! We should never have lost this game based on the stats as we had more than 20 shots at goal, but couldn't put our chances away and in defence we were poor!

With three games of the season remaining, we are 5th and well in with a shout to finish in the top 7. However, our last 3 games are against Juventus, AC Milan and Napoli!!!

Serie A

Matchday 36

We actually put up a decent fight here against a side that have won 13 of their last 15 games in all competitions. When Pogba was sent off, I was hoping we might be able to fight back and get a draw at least, but it wasn't to be.

In the Coppa Italia final, AC Milan overcame Bologna to lift the trophy and complete the domestic double. Milan are becoming extremely dominant in Italy as they now have 4 Serie A titles in a row too and have run away with it a bit this year too!

Serie A

Matchday 37

Fresh from their cup victory, I feared the worst going into this one against the champions. But under all the scrutiny of our recent results, the lads pulled a performance out of the bag and an injury time winner from Emanuel Vignato is nothing short of massive for the football club!

The result was massive as it secures us a top 7 place and entry into one of Europe's competitions next season! Even if we lose to Napoli and Fiorentina win on the final day, we will remain above them as we have the better head to head record.

Now we can still finish anywhere between 4th and 7th depending on the last round of results, which will determine which European competition we take part in next year and how much prize money we will get this season too.

Serie A

Matchday 38

We finish the season with a defeat, although we really didn't deserve to lose the game as we were the better side throughout.

Serie A

League Table

So it's a 7th placed finish for us and Europa Conference League for us next season! I have to say I'm totally confused by how the league sorting works though as Fiorentina have jumped above both us and Roma into 6th, despite us having a better head to head record and goal difference?! 

4th April 2026

Out in Belgium, Erik ten Hag does have Antwerp in contention for another title, although he isn't finding things as easy as I was over the last couple of years and Club Brugge fans will be excited at the prospect of their club regaining the title.

Serie A

Matchday 26

Genoa are very much in a relegation battle as they come into this game in 18th position in the table. It was therefore a game that we should be winning, so it's very disappointing that we didn't!

Injury: 

Another first team regular out as we lose left back, Zaidu Sanusi for nearly a month! The squad is very quickly becoming short of numbers in key positions.

Serie A

Matchday 27

Beating one of the best teams in the league is extremely tough in this division at the best of times, but to attempt to do it with 3-4 of your key players missing from the matchday squad is nigh-on impossible. However, for a long time it looked like we were going to pull off the result against all the odds and in the end it's gutting to have to share the points with Inter getting such a late equalizer. If you'd have offered me a point before the start of the game, I'd have taken it, but under the circumstances it's a bitter pill to swallow.

Our next game against Torino would represent a personal milestone for me as I reach 200 games in management. Hopefully, the lads can mark the occasion with a win!

Serie A

Matchday 28

It was by the narrowest of margins, but the lads carved out a win to celebrate my milestone.

Serie A

Matchday 29

Our away form has been patchy at best of late and that was once again backed up here as we suffer another disappointing defeat.

Talking of disappointment, it's fair to say my first youth intake at Udinese is a pretty basic one. There isn't a single player here that stands out as a future star.

Serie A

Matchday 30

Some of our rivals for the top 7 positions had lost before we kicked off here, which made this a must win game for us! We duly delivered, with Kuol the star of the show with his first half hat trick.

Our next game was, without a doubt, a massive one in terms of the top 7 race. 6th vs 5th as we go away to Fiorentina.

So what I didn't need was my number 1 keeper getting injured for the next few weeks :-(

Serie A

Matchday 31

In a tightly contested game, neither side could garner an advantage although with us being a few points ahead, the draw is better for us than them.

Serie A

League Table

With just seven games of the season remaining, we are very much in the running for a top 7 finish. However, we still have to play Bologna, Lazio, Juventus, Milan and Napoli who are all in the top 8 themselves, so it won't be easy to stay where we are now!

Meanwhile, the 50 best wonderkids in world football are announced and we have one player named in the list. It's newly signed right back, Per Andreas Kvia-Egeskog who I brought to the club in January and is currently on loan at Viking. He is listed as number 43.

16th February 2026

Injury: We kick off this update with a problem...a very big problem! Mattia Perin is out with injury for potentially the rest of the season! My number 1 keeper has been a revelation since I brought him to the club last Summer, keeping more clean sheets in the league than any other keeper! He is going to be sorely missed...and desperately needs replacing before the window closes.

Serie A

Matchday 22

This is exactly the sort of game that is a must win if we want to finish in the top 7. So I'm glad we did it easily.

Injury:

 The win over Frosinone came at a cost though as McTominay will now miss nearly a month of action!

Serie A

Matchday 23

Awful...absolutely ****** awful!

Transfer News:

 On deadline day, there was a big, big departure from the club. Jaka Bijol was widely seen as our best option at centre back in the squad, but when Arsenal came sniffing around and were willing to pay £32.5 million for him, with £24 million up front, I couldn't say no. He leaves for London and I wish him the best. I then had 4 hours to replace him!

Transfer News:

 In fact, it took me only an hour to get the replacement centre back through the door as I'd been working on a deal in the background. Leo Ostigard has been a first team regular in Serie A for Sassuolo for the last 3 seasons and has been maintaining decent average ratings during that time. He has a minimum fee release clause of £10.25 million which I met and he is now a Udinese player.

Transfer News:

 I also signed a centre back for the future as well. 19 year old Simone Battistelli is a decent defensive prospect that was at Atalanta, but he's now with us as I paid £3.6 million to bring him here.

Transfer News:

 And finally a new keeper! Desperately looking around for an Italian keeper that could be our number 1 for the next few seasons, I came across Elia Caprile who was playing as Brentford's number 1 in the Premier League. He is only 24 years old and better than any other keeper we have at the club, so he's a great signing who definitely improves us. Financially it was a good deal too as he cost us £15.5 million but is immediately worth double that upon signing for the club. It also means I now have no less than 9 Italian players in my first team squad.

Tranfers News: 

Well I say finally, there was one more addition with 45 minutes of the window remaining. Just a loanee to bolster the midfield numbers as Manchester United's wonderkid, Kobbie Mainoo, joins us for the rest of the season.

In amongst all that transfer business, the board agreed to upgrade the training facilities as well.

Coppa Italia Fanta

Quarter Final

Both goalkeepers were immense for 120 minutes so it was only right the game went to a shootout to put them both in the limelight. Unfortunately, it's us who come out on the wrong side of the shootout and we're out of the competition. This is a feeling I'm not used to as it's the first domestic cup game I've lost for 3 years.

Serie A

Matchday 24

Our recent run of bad results had seen us drop down to 15th position in the league form table, so it was so important to get the win over 16th placed Spezia! A first half brace from Rijkhoff set us on our way before Samardzic capped off a nice move with a lovely curled effort from just inside the box in the 2nd period. In injury time, Rijkhoff was able to cap off an excellent performance up front by completing his hat trick.

Injury: 

We seem to be having some **** luck with injuries of late and another key player will now miss a month of action as Gerard Deulofeu picked up a calf strain the Spezia game.

One of the things I love about being a football manager is being able to revitalize the careers of players that may have struggled under previous management regimes. Deulofeu is a perfect example of that this season as he has 6 goals and 14 assists for me in all competitions. Prior to my arrival, he'd only managed 15 goals and 6 assists in 93 league appearances over the last 3 years. It's fair to say he is enjoying playing in my tactic and in the role of right inverted winger for me.

Serie A

Matchday 25

After playing out a cup game where neither team could score in 120 minutes of football just a couple of weeks back, this game always had a feeling that if either team could find a way through, then 1 goal would be enough to nick the win. Unfortunately, that goal went Roma's way and we walk away with nothing.

Serie A

League Table

AC Milan are starting to open up a small gap at the top, although Napoli have the opportunity to go with them if they win their game in hand. We remain 4th and 7 points clear of 8th place at the moment...yes I'm not getting carried away and top 7 is still the target this season! It's certainly fair to say that this is a much more competitive league than the Belgian one where my Antwerp side romped to success over the last couple of seasons.

21st January 2026

Coppa Italia Fanta
Second Round

A solid second half performance saw us turn this game on it's head and progress to the next round! I've become accustomed to winning the domestic cup in Belgium over the last couple of seasons, so I'd love to go deep in this competition!

Serie A

Matchday 18

We finish the year 2025 with the biggest win of our season so far! I was worried when Juve brought it back to 2-2 within 16 minutes of the second half, but we dug deep and Scott McTominay hit a blinder from outside the box to seal the points in the end.

I may not have been Antwerp manager for nearly 6 months now, but that isn't stopping me still picking up awards from my time with the club!

As we check in with my old club, it would seem that Erik ten Hag has picked up where I left off and currently has my old club at the top of the Jupiler Pro League as they bid to win their 4th straight title.

They look likely to progress from the group stage of the Champions League as well, whilst he also has them still in the Croky Cup. I'm pleased to see that they haven't fallen apart!

Transfer News:

 Turning attentions back to my current club now though and as soon as the January window opened, I wasted no time spending that £14 million that the board gave me. In through the door is a right back for the future in the form of Viking's Per Andreas Kvia-Egeskog. The 18 year old signs for £2.4 million but will immediately go back to Viking on loan for the rest of the season.

Transfer News:

 The big signing was Emanuel Vignato who comes in from Bologna. The winger brings impressive flair and dribbling ability and should be an exciting one for the fans to watch, whilst he also increases our quota of Italian players at the club. I paid exactly £10 million to bring him here.

Serie A

Matchday 19

Our first game of the new calendar year ends in defeat as Napoli proved to be really tough opposition. I'd go as far to say they are the best team we've played since I've been in Italy.

Serie A

Matchday 20

Rolando Mandragora getting sent off in the opening few minutes of the game for a two footed lunge put us under pressure from the off. Despite the sending off, we still dominated possession with 60% of it and created 12 chances too...one more than our opponents. However, some poor finishing from us combined with some suspect defending meant we come away with nothing.

Transfer News:

 With 5 centre backs in the side and no European football, it was inevitable that one would get a lack of football. That was the case for Santiago Bueno and he was starting to get itchy feet about leaving the club. For now he joins Roma for the rest of the season on loan, but they have an optional buy clause worth £4.9 million to make the deal permanent. They are also paying half his wages and £75k per month for the duration of the loan.

Coppa Italia Fanta

Third Round

It's not always about how many shots you have in a game...it's much more important to look at the quality of the chances you create, and that was proven here. Both sides had 15 shots at goal, but the difference was that 8 of Verona's were classed as long shots, where as only 2 of ours were in the long shot category. Any team can get shots in from 20-30 yards in all day long but you're never going to score regularly from those distances...it's all about quality and we were quality in the attacking department today.

Serie A

Matchday 21

We beat Parma 1-0 earlier in the season and replicated that result here. It wasn't pretty but it is a win!

Serie A

League Table

We are now sitting 4th in the league and 5 points off the leaders. I continue to maintain the European qualification was the aim this season for me and that means we need to finish in the top 7. Over the last 3 seasons, 60 points has been the benchmark for a top 7 finish, so that's my initial aim, so we need 5-6 more wins.

One of the shining lights of this season so far has been Scott McTominay. The Scottish midfielder has been absolute quality for us throughout the campaign so far. He is chipping in with goals and assists and seems to be nailed on for at least a 7.2 performance in every game! Not a lover of the guy IRL, but here he is becoming the first name on the teamsheet for me.

14th December 2025

Garang Kuol has been in fantastic goalscoring form of late and that was enough to earn him the Serie A Player of the Month award for October.

Serie A

Matchday 11

Garang Kuol to the rescue as he comes off the bench to score the only goal of the game!

Serie A

Matchday 12

This was one of those games that definitely had the potential to be my first loss as Udinese manager, so I'm quite surprised we managed to win it as easily as we did.

Serie A

Matchday 13

Atalanta should be doing better than they are! They only have 15 points this season so far, so we were probably expected to win this one but we were made to work hard for it.

There is no denying my start to life in Italy has been sensational with a 14 match unbeaten run, only conceding 3 goals in the process!!

Our next game could be one that saw us see defeat for the first time though as we faced Bologna who are flying and sit 3rd!

Serie A

Matchday 14

Sure enough, we do taste our first loss under my management. For the first time, we didn't look assured in defence at all and Bologna took full advantage of that. Now it's all about how we bounce back!

Now this is a nice little touch. Come January, I'll have a bit of cash to spend after the board boost my transfer budget from nothing!

Facilities:

 The board must be feeling in generous mood as they also stick some extra cash into the junior coaching at the club!

...And with a little persuading, the youth recruitment gets a boost as well!

Serie A

Matchday 15

After losing for the first time under my management, this would be a chance for me to see what my players are made of. And they showed me plenty as we bounce right back with a win!

Serie A

Matchday 16

Lazio were just better than us. Not really much else I can say, but we struggled to compete.

Serie A

Matchday 17

This was always going to be our toughest game of the season. They were the better side so deserved to win, but it's disappointing to give away two penalties.

Serie A

League Table

Back to back defeats have seen us relinquish top spot in the league and title favourites AC Milan have now opened up a 4 point lead. My aim at the start of the season was to qualify for some level of European football next season and we are still very much in the hunt to achieve that as we approach the half way stage so it's not time to panic just yet.

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