After 15 years in charge of Truro City, Perran Trevelyan had successfully led his hometown club all the way from the Vanarama South into the Premier League. The city of Truro enjoyed one of the wildest parties Cornwall had ever seen as cider, traditional ales and gin flowed freely among the fans and their footballing heroes ahead of the club, founded in 1889, celebrating its 150th season by playing in the top tier.
Heroic captain Drew Meyler, who’d played 373 league games since coming through the Truro academy in 2036 and making his debut in the National League, just lifted the Championship trophy to reach the big time. He celebrated the title wildly alongside fellow homegrown talents like George Bartley, who’d played 320 league games since coming through in 2028, the younger crew led by Euan Whyte, Karnell Pook and Frederick Adade, a mass of South Americans and a handful of African recruits.
Trevelyan quietly withdrew himself early in the celebrations to begin planning for the mammoth task of staying in the Premier League. A few days after the title success, he got a call from Arsenal to potentially their vacant managerial role, which he swiftly rejected, before being offered the ultimate honour of becoming the Brazil manager, which he was a little more tempted by but didn’t need the distraction.
The manager got some assistance from the Truro board, who invested around £8m into the training and youth facilities and handed the manager a £39m transfer budget and a £536k wage budget, of which they were spending £170k at the end of the previous season. That was boosted by selling a handful of backups for around £20m, including backup midfielder Jim Egan going to Preston for £4.7m and homegrown defender Karenll Pook to Stoke for £2.5m. And Trevelyan used some of that cash to dish out new contracts to his best players, including Bernard Touré now on £68k a week.
Trevelyan moved early to secure some exciting new talents, and four recruits arrived as the transfer window opened. They were led by new club record signing wonderkid striker Maurício Genofre for £5.75m from Sport Recife. He was joined by another wonderkid in Croatia international centre back Marin Borko for £3m from Osijek, promising 18-year-old Brazilian sounding Colombian centre back Edílson for £3m from Tolima and Brazilian/Uruguayan striker Abílio for £525k from Danubio. Trevelyan felt they needed some experience, so he paid Juventus £1.7m for Harvey Elliott, now 35, before adding backup right wingback Rodrigo Palacio for £2.1m from Estudiantes (RC).
Trevelyan stuck with the 3-5-2 approach that had transformed their fortunes last season. Genofre comes in up top alongside Touré with wonderkid pairing Alejandro Silva and Joao Paulo in midfield in front of academy star Kane Atkinson and a wonderkid defensive trio of Enzo Parra, Gabriel Larrea and Borko. Trevelyan firmly expected a tough challenge with the step up but, if some of these promising youngsters could quickly fulfil their potential, they could be competing with England’s best sooner rather than later.
Truro City In The Premier League
Unsurprisingly, the bookies gave Truro no hope of survival in their first season in the Premier League, predicting them to finish 20th with 800/1 title odds. Their closest challengers were likely to be Everton, Reading and Bristol City. Man City are 9/5 favourites ahead of holders Man United (5/2), Tottenham (9/1), Newcastle (11/1), Chelsea (12/1) and Liverpool (20/1). Man City won the title in the first 8 seasons of this save, which took them to an incredible 12 successive titles in total. But they’ve only won two since, with United winning it in 2032 and the last two, Liverpool in 2033 and Newcastle’s first in 2035.
Truro began life in the Premier League with a tough first week, especially as goalkeeper David Navalón suffered a lower back fracture in pre-season. First up, they welcomed Arsenal to Truro City Stadium and held firm to limit them to two shots on target and earned a solid 0-0. Next up, they travelled to Old Trafford to face reigning champions Man United and applied themselves well as, after conceding early on, Genofre scored his first for the club before United nicked a late winner. truro got their first top-flight win on the board with an excellent performance at home to Brighton. They went behind early to Brighton’s only shot on target but dominated from then on, and left wingback Vanderson Pereira crossed for Touré to tap home after half an hour and Paulo and Bartley wrapped up a 3-1 win. A 0-0 followed at Palace, and Silva claimed the season’s first Young Player of the Month award.
An impressive start continued as Genofre and his replacement Afeez Akinde earned a 2-0 win at home to Aston Villa and Genofre bagged twice and laid on the other for Paulo in a superb 3-1 win at Bournemouth. And Abílio’s first goal and a Silva strike earned a 2-1 win at home to winless Norwich, which took Truro to the ludicrous heights of 3rd in the Premier League heading into the first international break! They came crashing down to earth with a 4-1 defeat at Spurs, but bounced back with Navalón’s seven saves inspiring a smash and grab 3-2 win at home to Man City thanks to Genofre, Paulo and an own goal. Genofre was at it again a week late, bagging a brilliant hat trick to inspire a 3-2 win at Southampton, which won him both the Player and Young Player of the Month.
The Truro Premier League dream continued as Genofre and Touré goals earned a 2-1 win at Anfield, which amusingly pushed Liverpool into the bottom three. A strong run ended with a 2-0 defeat at Brentford before Truro’s first taste of Monday Night Football saw Akinda and Abílio earn a narrow 2-1 win at home to Bristol City. A tricky December looked to be in store as it began with a defeat at fellow high-flyers Leicester. But Elliott’s first goal for the club inspired a win at Reading before a dire 0-0 with struggling Everton. And they finished the best year in club history with a rotated side only losing 1-0 at Newcastle and a 3-1 defeat at home to leaders Man United.
But Truro were massively exceeding all expectations, sitting in a ridiculous 6th place on 34 points, already well clear of any relegation concerns. Trevelyan firmly expected them to drop off, but was so proud of what his players had achieved so far.
Away Struggles See Truro Drop Off
A sad moment saw homegrown Bartley depart the club in January as he wasn’t good enough for the Premier League and was getting upset about his gametime. After 325 league appearances – third only to Sammy Raybould’s 402 and Meyler’s 379 – 46 goals and 58 assists since coming through the academy back in 2029, Bartley moved to Stuttgart for £5.75m. Trevelyan replaced him with another Brazilian prospect as Pedrao joined for £5.5m up to £9.75m from Fluminense and promoted improving Spaniard Domingo Pena, who’d joined for £1.2m from Sevilla in the summer.
Unlike previous seasons, Trevelyan chose to play squad players in the cups and exited in the third round of the Carabao at Liverpool and fourth round of the FA Cup at Brighton. That gave them the chance to focus on the league, and 2039 began with Adade’s first goal of the season and Navalón’s six saves earning a very impressive 1-1 at Arsenal. Genofre ended a 13-hour goal drought with a brace leading a 4-1 thumping of struggling Palace, who’ve been consistently in the top seven over the last decade, and repeated the feat in a 5-1 hammering of Bournemouth.
Truro struggled away from home, including a 3-2 defeat at lowly Norwich, but they did nick a 2-2 at Chelsea that saw Antonio Conte sacked for a second time after eight years at the club. And Genofre and a Silva screamer defeated a struggling Liverpool, who’d gone 23 games without a win and found themselves 10 points adrift of survival going into the final seven games.
Truro’s form was pretty up and down and their outside chances of European qualification faded away. But the big talking points were elsewhere. Firstly, Liverpool, the 2033 Premier League winners, continued to play terribly and were relegated with three games remaining along with city rivals Everton. At the other end of the table, Truro’s efforts were bettered by their fellow promoted sides as Bristol City and Leicester, who in fairness spent a combined £140m, battled it out for the final Champions League place, with 2 points between 4th and 6th going into the final day. But in the end, they both missed out to Brighton. At the top, Man United and Tottenham were tied on points with three games remaining but Spurs typically blew it to hand United another title.
Truro at least finished the season well with a 3-2 win at home to Newcastle. That saw them finish in a very solid 9th place with 57 points after 16 wins, 9 draws and 13 defeats, scoring 57 and conceding 54. Genofre’s final day goal saw him impressively win the Premier League Top Goalscorer award with 21 in 38, one more than Brighton’s Oliver Crofts. The striker also claimed the PFA Young Player of the Year and was named in the Premier League Team of the Year.
Brilliant First Premier League Campaign
Trevelyan was delighted at how Truro’s first Premier League campaign had played out. They started the season superbly and unsurprisingly faded away at the end. But his youngsters had performed superbly this season. The pick of the bunch was undoubtedly Genofre, who scored 21 in 39 with 7 assists and a club-high 7.16 average rating. Paulo also impressed with 9 goals and a joint-club high 8 assists tied with Silva. Abílio chipped in with 7 goals and 5 assists, but the likes of Touré (3 goals and 5 assists in 24) and Akinde (5 goals in 24) needed to deliver more.
Truro finished the season with nine wonderkids in the first team. And that potential was confirmed by Genofre becoming the club’s first NxGn winner, along with Borko coming in at 15th. Furthermore, the Truro under 21s won the Premier League PDL, coming 2nd in the league then beating Fulham 2-0 in the final led by Abílio scoring 18 in 21.
Could Truro build on this impressive first season in the Premier League and potentially push for European qualification? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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