Sir Alex Ferguson’s haul of 38 trophies at Man UFC may have seemed insurmountable when we took control of struggling Nottingham Forest 16 years ago. However, it was suddenly just two successes away after a period of absolute dominance at the Brian Clough Arena. I’d also become the third greatest Football Manager ever, only behind Pep Guardiola and the great man himself.
Speaking of managers, Guardiola is now out of the game having become Director of Football at Napoli, where he previously managed as well as Arsenal, Newcastle, Freiburg and Sociedad. Other interesting managerial roles include Arne Slot at Arsenal, Wayne Rooney at Brentford, Simone Inzaghi at Chelsea, Antonio Rüdiger at Palace, Pedro Neto at Fulham, Domenico Tedesco at Liverpool, Matías Almeyda at Man UFC, Paul Warne at Norwich, Eddie Howe at Sheff U, Antonio Conte back at Spurs since 2033, Jürgen Klopp at West Ham since 2029, Zinedine Zidane back at Real, Julian Nagelsmann at Inter, Mikel Arteta at Bayern, John O’Shea at Napoli and Xabi Alonso has led Atalanta to two Serie A titles.
The summer of 2039 saw homegrown Johnny O’Hanlon leave after 406 Forest league appearances after refusing to renew his contract and joined Middlesbrough. I also moved on a few players I didn’t feel were up to it, which saw centre-back Giuliano Mignemi join Real Madrid for £49m and left-back Emir Mrguda go to Norwich for £27m. Then in January, we sold holding midfielder Agustín Cicchetti, who was 30 and wanted stupid money, to Inter for £25m and backup homegrown keeper Alaaedine Beleid, who refused to sign a new contract, to Spartak Moscow for £15m.
It was getting increasingly difficult to use the £900m transfer budget I’d amassed, but we did bring in midfielder Ciprian Redinciuc for £2m from Chindia Targoviste. And he was joined in the first-team squad by homegrown winger Jan Mészáros, centre-back Myles Verrall, who’s converting to a left-back because I failed to find any in the transfer market and midfielder Andrew Dorrian.
Targeting 8 In A Row
The 2039/40 campaign began with a bang as a Lautario Arias brace and Luís Pereira hat-trick inspired a 5-0 battering of Arsenal to win a 6th consecutive Community Shield. Then midfielder Aymeric Vandendriessche and Arias goals led a 3-1 win over RB Leipzig in the UEFA Super Cup – which saw me equal SAF’s 38 trophies at Man UFC.
We took that into the season opener, putting six past Blackburn thanks to braces by Arias and winger Milo Bedini. Tom Ritzy Gilcher made 11 saves at Arsenal while Pereira nicked the only goal, which bucked our trend of losing against all of the other top-eight sides last season. That kickstarted a strong opening, including Pereira’s brace in a 4-0 win over Brentford, an Arias hat-trick as we hammered Sheff U 5-0, and a 6-game clean sheet streak before we drew my 1,000th match 1-1 at Newcastle.
We established our dominance on the league as an Arias hat-trick led a 4-0 hammering of Liverpool then a 5-0 thumping of 2nd-place West Ham in early December. And we remained unbeaten through to a surprise 3-0 defeat at Leeds. We bizarrely played Spurs twice in a week before Christmas, beating them 3-1 away then drew 1-1 at home. But we went into 2040 with a 12-point lead over West Ham.
First Chance At Beating SAF’s Trophy Tally
A rotated 11 lost to Bournemouth in the FA Cup 3rd round, but eased into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals with wins over Southampton, Bradford and Fulham. We faced Villa in the semis and took control with a first-leg 5-0 thrashing. A fully rotated team lost 3-2 away with promising 17-year-old homegrown winger Brooklyn Ellender scoring his first for the club. In the Final, we took on holders Newcastle, who beat West Ham 6-5 in the semis, with a chance to surpass SAF’s trophy haul. We absolutely dominated the final, having 25 shots to 10 but couldn’t score and eventually lost 1-0 to a 117th-minute extra-time winner.
Racing To Another Title
We began the 2040s with a 3-0 win at home to Newcastle inspired by Ellender’s hat-trick of assists. The good form continued through to winning 3-0 at West Ham led by a Pereira brace, which moved us a huge 17 points clear in late February. Two goals by Arias, a towering Jean-Pierre Sauvage header and holding midfielder Ludger Schade’s first for the club earned a dominant 4-0 win at home to Villa, which wrapped up an 8th title on the bounce. And that took us past SAF’s record with a 39th trophy at Forest!
I threw the youngsters in for the final few games but a Pereira hat-trick saw us sign off by battering Bournemouth 6-2. That saw us finish on 96 points, 15 clear of Man UFC and 23 clear of Liverpool and West Ham. Pereira had loads of injury problems but still scored 22 in 27, but Arias was the league’s top scorer with 26 in 32. And Post topped the assists chart with 16 and Gilcher led the clean sheets with 23. That saw Arias take the English Footballer of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year awards away from Pereira for the first time in 7 years.
Champions League Defence
Our Champions League defence began with a 1-0 defeat at Napoli but responded by thrashing Atalanta 5-0 led by an Arias brace before back-to-back Pereira hat-tricks saw us win away games at København and Saint-Etienne. Giant striker Sauvage bagged a brace and assisted two as we thumped Dortmund 5-2, Arias and winger Filip Post scored two each as we got the same result at Porto, and Pereira’s hat-trick led a 5-0 win over Salzburg. And we qualified in 5th as a rotated side lost 2-0 to Sociedad.
Saint-Etienne lay in wait in the last 16 and we won 3-0 away and 3-1 at home. Next up was Bayern and Pereira earned a 1-1 in Germany before his hat-trick led a 4-2 home win as we racked up 28 shots and 4.06 xG. Barcelona followed and another strong home performance saw Pereira score twice in a 4-0 victory and a 1-0 loss at Camp Nou sent us to back-to-back finals.
That set up a Final against Borussia Dortmund at Atatürk Olympic Stadium. Centre-back Jorge Pavas had a knock going into it, so we lined up:
Gilcher; Vinícius, Stejskal, Fernández, Rozemiro; Schade, Vandendriessche; Bedini, Post; Arias, Pereira
Subs: Sauvage, Soro, Pavas, Redinciuc, Ellender, Dorrian, Wakaso, Sebastião, Reina, Mészáros, Verrall
Dortmund started brighter and had a goal disallowed through our former player Herrero then forced two good saves out of Gilcher. But we made the breakthrough as Arias scored his 40th of the season with our first shot on target. We had the better of the second half but missed a mass of chances and allowed Herrero in for the equaliser. I made a few changes, which paid off as Schade sent homegrown hero Ellender in to calmly finish into the far corner – and etch his name into Forest folklore.
Nottingham Forest won back-to-back Champions Leagues and another league and European double!
Greatest Manager Of All Time!
The Champions League success not only took me to 40 trophies at Forest, it also made me officially the greatest Football Manager of all time! I surpassed Sir Alex Ferguson on the worldwide Hall Of Fame, moving to 5,634 points with 12 English titles and 4 Champions League successes.
Despite a mass of injuries this season, Pereira still finished as our top scorer with 42 goals plus 10 assists in 45 games. Arias followed him with 40 goals and 9 assists and Sauvage scored 20 and got 8 assists. Post led the way with 26 assists plus 13 goals, Vandendriessche got 20 assists and 9 goals and Bedini got 18 assists and 11 goals.
Now that I’m officially the greatest manager of all time, what’s the next challenge? Well, we’re still one short of SAF’s haul of 13 Premier League successes, so there’s maybe a few seasons still in this save.
Can we make strides towards that tally moving into the 2040s? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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