The Journeyman: Part 59 – Searching For Club Four

After a ridiculously unfair sacking by Cagliari, my club managerial stock was in danger of being tarnished after being given the heave-ho by my last two clubs.

That meant the next role was important, so I was happy to wait. There weren’t any opportunities that appealed until the Manchester City came up in the summer. I applied and eventually got offered an interview, which I think went pretty well. However, they chose some guy called Marco Rose who was managing Dortmund.

So, I applied for the Dortmund job, having just turned on the German leagues for the 2034 season. And this time it did go well, as the German giants approached me with a 3-year offer worth £32,500-a-week.

After six years with Sporting Lisbon, four years with Valencia, and two years with Cagliari, we were now on the way to Germany with Borussia Dortmund.

The new board had a fair amount of expectations, including playing entertaining and attacking football, signing players who are under 18, from domestic rivals and German, signing high reputation players and making the most of set-pieces. They also want us to qualify for the Champions League with our league position.

That may not sound too unreasonable, but Dortmund have only finished in the top three once in the last three seasons – having won the Bundesliga in 2029 and 2030. Bayern have won the title 9 times during this save, including the most recent season (2032/33), with Dortmund winning 4 and Leverkusen doing so in 2032.