This is going to be a long, long, LOOOONG post today because we had so much go down off the pitch and on it as we finished up a CRACKING second season at Napoli.
Okay first up it was on the pitch. I didn’t want to mention it a lot because I kept expectations low. You have to remember we drew 1-1 in the league stage against Man City and the first leg being at home it surprised the hell out of me
Of course we had both Nico Gonzalez and Ake who were former City players. It shows how dominant we can be at home. And given the second leg was letting them have the ball but staying firm with a 0-0 draw away from home meant we were through to the semi final and we faced off against the defending champions and the team that knocked us out in Arsenal and once again the first leg was thankfully at home and I was scared once again because I know their quality but our home stadium is a stronghold and it showed
That one goal they wound up scoring could be our undoing if we don’t focus up away from home. Last time out they overturned a 1 goal deficit and this time they managed to keep it to two goals.
But the second leg was comfortable and it was all thanks to Gyokeres which wound up being a repeat of the second leg against Liverpool
We had to be sharp yes but them losing their striker and having Martinelli who scored a blatant offside goal never left the result in any doubt.
And with that apparently this meant Napoli reached their first ever Champions League final in their 101 years which surprised me so much when I got asked it in the press conference
This is a great of Italian football and even with this kind of achievement we have made even more history. And PSG needed penalties to overcome Real Madrid so it would be them in the final with us at FC Barcelona’s stadium.
Before we get into that we will have to take things off the pitch because United were floundering and were in danger of not even qualifying for Europe and I was waiting so hard in the wings for it to open up because it said this in Job Security
And what’s even better was the club was OPEN to a takeover which was MEGA news to hear
And after a while this came up in my inbox
That kind of reason is something I have never seen before which was interesting. 3 options came up for the vacancy which was Yakin who manages the Swiss national team. Deschamps who manages Juve and Allegri who manages Milan and these were the responses. Only one of them reacted positively to things
So I decided to throw my hat in the ring before the season ended
I still can’t get over how in the beginning of being “reborn” I was straightaway given the interview for the United job 😂 and I genuinely couldn’t do it even if I wanted to. But this time we have a mega chunk of miles to make the journey easily.
After a while there was the inevitable board takeover option. Debt was just piling up with the lack of continental money after they went out fairly early in the knockout playoff round I believe.
Glad to know the Glazer’s GROSS misinterpretation of the value of this club extends to FM as well 😑
But some of the news items popping up made my ears perk up instantly
HALLE-FREAKING-LUJAH. It will be a tycoon who will most likely take over which is much needed seriously. Just like there is a tycoon at Liverpool it will be a Tycoon V Tycoon derby matchup which will be spicy.
And the identity of the tycoon was revealed to be from France which was intriguing because the investor from the first save game I did was Qatari. Tycoon is still a tycoon nonetheless.
All I can say about this kind of news is:
And after a while the news was official
You know you got the PERFECT candidate to kick off your era at Man United Mr. Boulay 👀. His resume is in your inbox right now. Any day now ⌚.
And also confirmation that the RAT has officially left the building 👍 and a GODDAMN TYCOON has taken the rightful place
And the difference to the finances was instantly obvious
I was dreading things if I still had to work with GLINEOS(Glazers + Sir Jim and INEOS) given the paltry bank balance but now I REALLY want this job.
Alright. Back to the pitch and we managed to sweep a domestic treble with the SuperCoppa, Coppa Italia and Serie A of course as expected
And of course we had Napoli’s first ever Champions League final against PSG who actually LOST out on their league to Marseille who ALSO had a Tycoon takeover before and that somehow beat PSG’s foreground owner and mega budgets. Another thing to remember is we got a historic win against them 1-0 in the league stage too which was huge.
I am happy to note we did manage to BEAT them and bring the Champions League for the first time to Naples.
Shooting was godawful but they weren’t any better and we managed to seal 4 trophies in the second season at Napoli which feels like a huge achievement to ever do. I thought it’d happen with United but look I’m not going to disregard this kind of a gift horse from a VERY RARELY misfiring PSG. But with that we managed to win a rare quadruple in Italy.
One thing I did not realise this would trigger is the bonus I had in some contracts for winning this Champions League which surprised me even though I put that there thinking we are still far away from winning this competition. I underestimated my own team it seems 😅
The fee to Chelsea was done before I even came in. This totals up to 2.47M GBP. It sounds like a lot but with how much we got from the competition money this was a drop in the ocean really.
And with that we have attained 5 star status as a manager
And over this journey we have won a staggering 17 trophies. 4 in India, 3 in Saudi Arabia, 1 in Turkey, 3 in Greece and now 6 in Italy. The languages known shows the journey we took as well which feels nice to see.
And once the season ticked over I checked on United’s finances and I almost passed out
This makes me more and more eager to want the interview ASAP. And after a while after the takeover was sorted out the message arrived
I’m sorry, ACCEPTABLE??????? Your only other option was a manager who is at Monaco who is barely in the same POSTAL CODE as me. Given I signed a new contract how in the world are you ever thinking this isn’t a gift? And I’m trying not to be arrogant I swear but this somehow still being deemed acceptable when I won Europe’s TOP COMPETITION just recently with freaking Napoli for the FIRST GODDAMN TIME and I’m only an ACCEPTABLE FIT!
Okay okay I got to calm down. The interview was interesting. Given my history that I hopped between jobs a lot in this reborn state that was being discussed. Thankfully I have no plans to move away from United ever. The other interesting question being asked was if me being a supporter of this club will affect how I manage. Given I have a better CV than other people who were fans of this club(cough cough Ole) I never think that to be a problem whatsoever. But now the media fallout happened
Honestly no matter how you start in FM you ALWAYS come to settle on Gegenpress don’t you? 😂.
After a bit of managing things out to keep speculation low the offer did manage to show up in the end and after the documents were signed we finally made it:
From India to Manchester, we have managed to make it to where I should be.
And with that we got a fallout to manage because United only qualified for the Europa League which means given they played in the UCL last season(We beat them if you remember those 2 red cards for Napoli) there are quite a few players to manage expectations for.
But I never thought I’d get a shot to win all 3 UEFA Competitions until this very job.
So let’s get to work
