A strong first season with Borussia Dortmund flowed straight into a big summer of football with England in South Korea. But I'd doubled up my international commitments by keeping a close eye on bringing in new talent to bolster the Dortmund squad.
Valencia CF had just secured back-to-back titles in emphatic style, undefeated and racking up 102 points. We backed that up by completing the double-double, also winning the Copa del Rey for the second successive season.
Twelve games into a first title defence since 2004, Valencia CF were unbeaten and just one point off pacesetters Barcelona moving into November 2028.
Our third season in Spain, and ninth of this save in total, was an unmitigated success as Valencia CF lifted their first La Liga trophy for 24 years. Not only that, we also won the club's first Copa del Rey title since 2019.
Heading into the final two months of the 2027/28 campaign, Valencia CF were tantalisingly close to their first La Liga title since 2004. But Real Betis were hot on our tails, just 2 points behind in the league and our opponents in the upcoming cup final.
After 10 games of their 2027/28 La Liga campaign, Valencia CF were sitting pretty at the top of the table and a club record unbeaten run of 13 matches in all competitions.
A second season in Valencia saw us lead Los Cules to an unexpected second place finish, only behind an increasingly ridiculously good Real Madrid. We'll take a quick look back at the season just gone and our key players throughout the campaign.
We came into season two in Spain in need of a fairly substantial rebuilding effort to strengthen a threadbare squad and replace several Valencia CF stalwarts and one big-name departure.
Our first season with Valencia after six years of glory in Sporting was an unprecedented success, wrapping up third place in La Liga and winning the Europa League.
Last time out, we'd made a superb start to life in Valencia by winning eight of our first ten matches and only trailed a goal-crazy Real Madrid and Barcelona. And our form was near enough totally reliant on a free-scoring 33-year-old Son Heung-Min playing as a makeshift striker.
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