Back in 2020, I signed a deal to take over at my beloved Bolton Wanderers, who were languishing down in League Two and in dire financial trouble. In the 20 years since, we’ve transformed them into five-times winners of the Premier League and Champions of Europe with a billion pounds in the bank balance.
I’ve now been in charge of Bolton for 7,250 days and taken charge of 1,030 games, winning 517, drawing 252 and losing 261. That puts me first on the all-time list of games managed by Bolton bosses but some five years behind the reign of Charles Foweraker. In my time, we’ve won seven leagues, four cups and gotten three promotions, scoring 1,611 goals and conceding 1,068. I’ve bought 117 players for a value of £405 million and sold 160 for a total of £1.1 billion.
A prominent feature of this save has been our academy products, which have played a key role in our promotions and ongoing success. We have 10 Trotter Talents in the current first-team while the likes of David Roberts, Nana Martin, Darragh Bonner, Luke Johnson, Jack Salter, Solomon Suraka and Dylan Smart are part of the overall best 11:
English football in 2040
We’ve won the last five titles, while Man United have been the dominant force of the entire save with seven. So we’re closing in on them. The major surprise of the save so far was Spurs getting relegated in 2038/39, but they’ve just bounced back at the first attempt. Next season will see Derby, Norwich, West Brom, Bournemouth, Watford as the only sides who didn’t start in the top tier competing in the Premier League.
The team that’s had the biggest development has probably been Notts County, who’ll compete in the Championship next season. While Barnet are in League 1 and Bromley and Dulwich Hamlet are up in League 2. No club has really had a fall from grace – not even from the Championship to League 2 – but Brentford are in League 1 and Cheltenham just dropped into the National League North/South.
European / International football in 2040
English football is well and truly dominating the European scene. Our Champions League win was the fourth successive English success after Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal, while Inter just ended a seven-year domination of the Europa League, which included two Everton wins and one for Villa and West Brom.
Belgium are the current World Champions after winning World Cup 2038, following wins for Argentina, France, Portugal and Spain. This summer saw Euro 2040 take place, which was won by France who beat Spain 4-1 in the final, after wins for Portugal, Italy and two additional French successes.
Best Players in the World in 2040
Our man Martial Diaby is included on the list of the world’s highest reputation players. The best player is considered to be PSG striker Oguzhan Topcu, who’s scored 156 in 227 league games for them since leaving Spurs. He’s closely followed by our former midfielder Juan Maldonado, who’s now also at PSG, but I’m convinced our Germán MartÃnez is much better than him.
Other leading players are Liverpool’s Maikel van der Meulen, who they signed for £156 million, Barca’s ridiculous striker Léonard Fru, PSG winger Carles MartÃ, English midfielder Jacob Ashcroft who signed for Real Madrid from Bournemouth, PSG winger Bixente Mansur and free-scoring Arsenal striker Rolly Tshibuabua.
Notable Managers in 2040
There’s been considerable manager changes in the last few years. Current Premier League managers are: Wolfgang Schneider at Arsenal, Didier Deschamps at Aston Villa, Chelsea just sacked current PSG defender Marquinhos, Juraj Kucka at Derby, Benni McCarthy doing a great job at Everton, regen manager Ben Goodall at Leeds, Will Hughes at Leicester, Austrian manager Christian Ilzer just joined Liverpool from AC Milan, Frank Lampard at Man City, Mauricio Pochettino at Man United, Nemanja Maksimovic at Newcastle, Matthew Wells at Norwich, Mike Garrity at Southampton, regen manager Louis Collins at Tottenham, Watford just sacked Philippe Clement, Matt Miazga at West Brom, former Cork boss Colin Healy at West Ham and Gary Hooper at Wolves.
Other notable managers in England include Paul Pogba at Bristol Rovers, Wayne Rooney at Burnley, Youri Tielemans at Fulham, Ben Chilwell at Nottingham Forest, Bernardo Silva at Reading.
While looking abroad sees Peruvian player Paulo Guerrero in charge of Real Madrid, Thierry Henry is at Barcelona, Pep Guardiola is at Inter, Leon Goretzka is at Roma, Zinedine Zidane is at Bayern, Julian Nagelsmann is at Dortmund and Unai Emery is at Porto. While Diego Simeone and Andrea Pirlo are still at Atletico and Juventus!
On the international front, Scott Parker is the England manager, Raphael Varane is France boss, Jaap Stam is Holland boss, Eddie Howe is Spain boss, Luis Enrique just became Belgium boss, Raúl is Turkey manager and Hernan Crespo is Argentina boss.
Join us next time as we look to defend our league and European titles and step into the FIFA Club World Cup and European Super Cup for the first time!
Football Manager Addict 
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