The Nottingham Forest takeover of English football had seen our exciting young team rack up four consecutive Premier League titles - a feat the great man Sir Alex Ferguson never achieved at Man UFC - and reach a maiden Champions League Final in 2031.
Nottingham Forest bagged back-to-back Premier League titles as they lifted what was probably one of the worst seasons in terms of quality but certainly delivered final-day excitement. That said, I was worried about a lack of attacking threat, which I prioritised addressing in the summer of 2029.
The streets of Nottingham were painted red as Forest fans flocked to see their heroes parade the Premier League trophy for the first time in club history. That saw us tick off another objective of this Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge, winning the title one season earlier than the great man.
This Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge attempt is really heating up as we added a fourth trophy and qualified for the Champions League automatically for the first time in 2027. But now the pressure was on as we had just two years in which to match the great man's achievement of winning the English title within seven seasons.
An exciting May 2026 saw Nottingham Forest win both the FA Cup and the Europa League against fellow English sides. That takes us to a total of three trophies in four seasons, leaving us 35 short of the 38 that Sir Alex Ferguson won with Man UFC. We also now have three seasons to win the Premier League with Forest.
The rapid rise of Nottingham Forest saw us reach the Champions League semi-finals and confirm a 2nd season of European football as we dropped from 4th to 7th on the final day of the 2024/25 campaign. But last season had massively boosted our finances with £86m in the bank.
Early in June, we got the announcement that our 5th-place finish would mean the two-times European champions would play in the new-look Champions League format! However, we were nowhere ready to compete in the Champions League.
In the first part of our attempt at the Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge, we took control of Nottingham Forest on 6 November 2022 and just about kept them in the Premier League in an exciting final-day relegation fight. Now a big rebuild was required to strengthen an under-par and bloated squad.
With Football Manager 2023 nearly done and dusted, I was running out of save ideas having completed all my long-term series. But I took inspiration from a few of the lads on the FM Library, who'd all taken on the intriguing-looking challenge to emulate the achievements of arguably the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson.
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