Way back in August 2019, fledgling English football manager Robí di Lathamé took the reigns of Sporting Lisbon. Now, 21 years later at the age of 56, I was preparing for my final match as a football manager.
My return to Italy with Juventus, some time on from a failed time at Cagliari, was a resounding success. We pipped Inter to the Serie A title and won my first Champions League and the club's first in 44 years since 1996.
My Beta FM21 save sees me begin the new game in Italy's Serie A with sleeping giants AC Milan. Despite winning 18 Italian titles, the club only has two since 1999. It also has seven European Cup titles to its name, but none since 2007. And it only has one cup win since 2011. So there's plenty of space to restore glory to Milan.
With the in-game Football Manager 2020 clock ticking past 20 years, a new challenge was afoot as title specialist Robí di Lathamé took one last gamble in a career that's soon to come to a close. With the new Football Manager about to land, I decided to move on from two titles with Feyenoord and joined Italian giants Juventus.
This Journeyman save has certainly been an interesting adventure. Having started out as a mission to rebuild Sporting Lisbon that immediately delivered massive success, we then went on to rebuild Valencia, fail at Cagliari, bring glory back to Dortmund and Man City. Not to mention international excitement with United States, Denmark and England.
After a ridiculously unfair sacking by Cagliari, my club managerial stock was in danger of being tarnished after being given the heave-ho by my last two clubs.
Cagliari headed into the Winter break in January 2033 on the back of five successive draws but 13 games unbeaten in Serie A. That had us occupying the Europa League positions, but well beyond the ambitious Champions League goal that the board had bizarrely set in the summer.
When I took the role as Cagliari manager, the board wanted a top half finish then to work on becoming the "best of the rest" in Serie A. However, as soon as we ticked over into the 2032/33 campaign they suddenly expected us to qualify in the Champions League places.
Our first full season in Sardinia had seen us nicely improve Cagliari's fortunes to finish in 8th place, just 3 points away from qualifying for Europe. This blog will look back on our key performers in the 2031/32 Serie A season.
Heading into 2032, Cagliari Calcio were being well and truly carried into the top half of Serie A by the goals of star striker Thomas De Lucia. The Italian, our newly appointed vice-captain, had scored more than half of our goals.
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