Twelve months on from becoming Champions of the Netherlands, AZ Alkmaar were reflecting on a solid if unspectacular campaign. Manager Robinho Lazaró had done an impressive job of promoting homegrown youth while keeping his promising AZ side competitive.
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.
Footballing overachievement is seemingly always accompanied by the threat of your best players being poached by bigger clubs. And Robinho Lazaró found that out in the summer of 2025 as his AZ Alkmaar's 2nd place finish in Eredivisie saw big teams across Europe raise interest in his top performers.
AZ Alkmaar made a promising start to life under Robinho Lazaró, who'd been impressed with his side's efforts to finish 4th in Eredivisie in 2023/24. However, these early seasons don't really matter too much in our bid to become national and European champions with a team of academy products.
Having completed my Football Manager 2024 Pentagon Pursuit adventure far quicker than anticipated, I struggled for a while to find a new save that would bring us something a little bit different. So I went back to my own 24 Teams to Manage on FM24 guide (shameless plug) and took my own medicine to select an exciting new challenge.
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