Truro City established themselves in the top flight, securing yet another club-record high finish of 8th in the Premier League in 2040. The club was also preparing to move back into the newly expanded Truro City Stadium ahead of season three in the top tier.
The summer saw a sad moment as stalwart defender Drew Meyler left at the end of his contract. The Irishman departed after a record-breaking 421 league appearances since coming through the academy in 2027 and making his debut in League Two.
Off the field, Truro cleared their debts, and a recent lack of spending saw them come into the new campaign with £200m in the bank and a transfer budget of £120m. That was boosted by Manchester City amusingly paying £2.7m to hire Zinedine Zidane as director of football, which Trevelyan didn’t particularly want, and Spurs paying £2.6m for his assistant, John Heitinga. They also sold backup strikers Abílio, who wanted ludicrous money to stay considering he scored 5 in 35 last season, for a new club record £19.5m to Wolves and Marlon Ortega back to Colombia’s Nacional for £6.5m. That strong financial position saw the board agree to further improve the youth facilities and fund another stadium capacity increase, which will boost Truro City Stadium to 33,700 when works are completed in November 2041.
With that significant income, Trevelyan decided to eventually invest some of it in midfield wonderkid Dieter Peterson for a new club record £20m rising to £35m from Middlesbrough, ahead of the likes of Arsenal and Man United. He then gambled on Japanese striker Takaaki Wakabayashi, who had great attributes, had scored 38 in 50 for Kawasaki Frontale and won the golden boot at the Olympics, for £10m and signed attacking midfielder Sascha Ablinger for £3.5m from Moreirense.
Having sold his backup strikers, Trevelyan decided a fresh approach was required. He switched to a narrow 4-3-3 that gave star man Maurício Genofre more freedom up front and looked to build on their short passing style. New captain Alejandro Silva shifts forward to support Genofre alongside Bernard Touré, who Trevelyan hoped would enjoy more goal involvements from a deeper position, and Enzo Parra will move across to right back as homegrown Frederick Adade suffered a broken leg early in the season. But the manager was quietly confident, considering the quality of players like Brazil internationals Joao Paulo and Genofre, who scored twice on his Brazil debut in the summer.
A Flying Start To Premier League Season 3
The bookies clearly rated Trevelyan’s transfer business as they boosted Truro’s chances to a 12th-place finish and 100/1 title odds. Man City are 5/4 favourites to retain the title ahead of Man United (4/1), Newcastle (9/1), Spurs (10/1) and Villa (15/1). While Liverpool and Everton both returned to the Premier League alongside Norwich.
Truro’s new approach looked very nice indeed as they strolled to a 3-0 win at Palace through Parra, new boy Peterson and Silva. They were equally impressive at the new-look 26,142-capacity Truro City Stadium as they dominated Norwich by 14 shots to 3 and 60% possession, but had to make do with Genofre’s tidy finish ensuring a 1-0 victory. And a good start became an excellent one as Touré and Paulo goals plus another clean sheet bagged a victory at Arsenal that moved Truro to the top of the Premier League for the first time.
Truro finally conceded to draw 1-1 with Newcastle, but they avoided defeat in the first 10 games. Touré and Paulo braces in a 5-2 thrashing of winless Sunderland saw them set a new club record of 18 games unbeaten in the process. The run looked likely to end at City, especially as captain Silva was absent after leaving a bar in the early hours of the morning, but his teammates stepped up with a strong defensive performance that limited City to just four shots and nicked a 1-0 win through attacking midfielder Adélcio, who’d impressed on loan in the Championship for the last two seasons. The form showed no signs of abating as they went to Brighton and the in-form Paulo scored two more in a 3-0 victory.
The superb start finally ended by getting dominated 4-0 at Man United. But Genofre’s brace led a 2-1 win over struggling Liverpool to send Truro top of the league heading into the new year. Truro had a game in hand but led City by 1 point, Villa by 3 points and Newcastle by 4 points.
Best FA Cup Performance So Far
Peterson and Wakabayashi scored their first Truro goals as they defeated Bristol Rovers in the Carabao Cup third round. Derby were dismissed 4-1 before a rotated team got dominated at Chelsea. In the FA Cup, Truro eased past Preston 3-1 and Barnsley 1-0, before midfielder Abdul Turay’s late goal defeated West Brom 3-2 to reach the quarter-finals for the first time. A “local” derby saw Truro entertain Bristol City, which attracted a sellout crowd and a new gate receipts record of £850k, and David Navalón made six saves as Genofre and Ablinger strikes earned a 2-1 victory to book a place at Wembley. Truro got the worst side of the draw against Man United while Brighton took on Ipswich.
Truro lost both Silva and Genofre to injury, so Trevelyan didn’t hold too much hope of an upset, which deepened as United scored their first shot from a corner. Truro weren’t laying a finger on United so Trevelyan fired them up and got an immediate result as Touré sent Wakabayashi in for the equaliser. Touré was at it again 9 minutes later as he crossed for Whyte to whip into the top corner from 20 yards, only to immediately concede an equaliser. Truro had the better of the game but it drifted to extra time and United scored 70 seconds into it. And they slipped to a pretty disappointing 3-2 defeat.
Can Truro Maintain A Title Challenge?
Truro began 2041 with an exhausted squad and a rotated team earned a 1-1 at Norwich. The homegrown duo of Turay and Euan Whyte defeated lowly Southampton 2-0 in their game in hand before a 1-1 with Palace and losing 1-0 at home to Arsenal and 2-0 at Newcastle. It looked like the wheels had fallen off for Truro’s tired team, so Trevelyan gave them a week off training either side of the Barnsley cup game. But that didn’t do too much good as they struggled to a 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth.
They finally got back to winning ways as Genofre’s brace led a dominant 3-1 win at home to Bristol City. And, after a poor draw at Sunderland, they bounced back in style with two rare goals by homegrown midfielder Kane Atkinson inspiring an impressive 3-0 win at home to leaders City, who mustered one shot.
That sent Truro onto another decent run, including new England international Peterson scoring twice in a 4-0 demolition of Brighton, that, combined with City going four without a win, propelled them right back into the title mix. Indeed, with five games remaining, Truro trailed City, who had a game in hand, by a point and led John Terry’s Newcastle by a point but had a 12-point gap back to Man United in 5th. But Truro probably had the easier fixtures.
Game 1 – Chelsea (10th, home): Man City won their game in hand at Norwich to move 4 points clear. Truro’s run-in began with a tough test just three days after the FA Cup semi defeat with Silva and Genofre both still injured. But Paulo stepped up in their absence, slamming home a penalty and rifling home from 20 yards to secure a 2-1 win. City beat Spurs 3-1 to stay 4 clear, but results elsewhere ensured Truro not only qualified for Europe for the first time but booked their place in the Champions League.
Game 2 – Reading (9th, away): Three days later, and without training after the Chelsea game, Tury nicked a 1-1 at Reading. City also drew 0-0 at home to Arsenal but Newcastle beat United 2-0 to go 3 points off the top.
Game 3 – Brentford (14th, away): A much-needed week off saw Truro get a quick start as Touré scored a screamer after 7 minutes. Whyte doubled the lead from a corner and, despite Brentford getting one back, they held on for a narrow win to keep the pressure on. Elsewhere, a huge game saw the top two go head-to-head and Newcastle beat City 2-1. That saw the top three split by just one point with two games remaining!
Game 4 – Man United (5th, home): Silva and Genofre returned for two huge games, starting with entertaining United. But Truro’s title dreams ended as they failed to show up in a 3-0 defeat while Newcastle won 1-0 at Everton with a Mastantuono goal and City drew 2-2 with Southampton. That took Newcastle top for the first time all season and they nicked the title with another Mastantuono goal beating Brighton 1-0. Truro also won 1-0 at Liverpool while City lost at Bournemouth.
Those final day shenanigans meant Truro leapfrogged City into a mighty 2nd place finish in the Premier League. They finished on 79 points after 23 wins, 10 draws and 5 defeats, only missing out on the title by 4 points, and scored 67 and conceded just 34. Navalón kept the joint-most clean sheets with 14, while Parra, Marin Borko and Paulo made the PFA Team of the Year.
So Close, Yet So Far
It goes without saying that Truro’s youngsters have made massive progress this season. They came within 4 points of becoming champions of England and within extra time of making a first FA Cup Final. But to secure the club’s first taste of European football was a massive deal, considering they were in non-league just 14 years ago.
Paulo very much stepped up as the best player at the club, leading the way with 19 goals plus 7 assists in 43 games. Genofre scored 18 with 6 assists in 39 games and Touré’s contributions stepped up a level with a club-high 17 assists and 9 goals. Parra got 6 goals from right back and Silva chipped in with 14 assists. But it was unsung Brazilian left back Vanderson Pereira who was statistically their best performer with a 7.33 average rating and 9 assists.
Truro couldn’t really progress any further domestically without winning the league or winning a first major cup. But that would probably be a considerable task given an already thin squad would now have to compete in European competition.
Could Truro compete in domestic and continental matters? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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