With EURO 2024 ongoing and England just about scraping into the last eight, it got me wondering how good this current set of players are and how they'd fare as a club side. To put that to test, what better way than to put the current England squad into the Premier League?
The dreaded financial glitch affecting Eredivisie on Football Manager 2024 means this could well be the end to our second attempt at the Wonderkid Factory challenge. It comes at an annoying time, considering Robinho Lazaró was establishing AZ Alkmaar as a dominant force in the Netherlands, with three titles in four years, and taking on Europe's elite.
AZ Alkmaar won a second Eredivisie title in three years with a team comprised wholly of players produced by the club's youth academy. The challenge now was to try and compete in Europe as they re-entered the Champions League in the 2029/30 campaihn.
The exciting crop of youngsters at AZ Alkmaar outperformed even their loftiest expectations as they usurped the big three to become champions of the Netherlands for the third time in 2027. The challenge now was for Robinho Lazaró and his young squad to build on that success.
The wonderkid factory project at AZ Alkmaar was progressing very nicely as Robinho Lazaró led the club to two 2nd-place finishes in three seasons. He'd also reduced the AZ squad to just five players who didn't come through the club's academy heading into the summer of 2026.
Robaato Rasamu had achieved a task that seemed almost impossible 23 years ago. The Japanese manager had gone from total obscurity to lifting all five major continental trophies in Europe, South America, North America, Asia and Africa.
The city of Stuttgart was awash with football fans celebrating VfB Stuttgart becoming Champions of Germany for the first time in 37 years. The fans were unanimous that Japanese manager Robaato Rasamu was the man responsible for this success, and celebrated shoulder to shoulder with their hero sinking pints of craft beer across the city's numerous beer halls.
VfB Stuttgart came into 2044 absolutely flying and posing serious questions over FC Bayern's ability to make it 32 consecutive Bundesliga titles. So manager Robaato Rasamu didn't think too much work was required in the January transfer window.
Trebor Mahtal had well and truly rewritten Bolton Wanderers history as, four years on from the departure of Big Sam Allardyce, he led the Trotters to their maiden English title. But he wasn't content with that, as he eyed up defending the title and improving their European form.
A tactical switch had seen VfB Stuttgart kick onto a new level at the end of 2042, sitting nicely in the Champions League group phase but massively trailing the seemingly unbeatable FC Bayern. And that uptick in form saw 58-year-old Japanese manager Robaato Rasamu handed a new deal worth £31k per week until June 2047 to continue his good work at the club.
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