Trebor Mahtal's Project X, his bid to tick off the final letter of his Alphabet Challenge, began pretty well as he led Neuchâtel Xamax to a 2nd-place finish in Raiffeisen Super League and caused a few upsets in the Europa League.
Cup success in Japan with Kawasaki Frontale saw Trebor Mahtal win a major trophy with clubs beginning with 25 different letters. That left just the troublesome X - which is actually impossible as there is no playable club beginning with the letter X - remaining to complete the Alphabet Challenge, which Mahtal had no dubbed as Project X.
Trebor Mahtal led AC Milan to its first-ever Europa League success in 2056, ticking off the 16th letter of his Alphabet Challenge. That meant that, after 32 years as a Football Manager, the 72-year-old now had 10 more letters remaining to complete this epic journey: C, D, F, G, H, I, K, Q, X and Y.
After overseeing a massive firesale of around 40 players and signing zero replacements in his first six months in Switzerland, Trebor Mahtal led his young FC Zürich side to an unexpected second place in Raiffeisen Super League. He now faced the dilemma of whether to continue putting faith in homegrown youth or bolster the squad with additions.
Free-scoring Valencia ran riot to lift LaLiga and help Trebor Mahtal hit the halfway mark on his Alphabet Challenge, in which he bids to win a major trophy with a club beginning with every letter of the alphabet. But the world-class manager was only out of work for two days before being offered an interview.
A love affair with Europe's third club trophy continued as Trebor Mahtal's FC Zürich lifted his fourth Europa Conference League in 2046. Mahtal now wanted to build on that success by improving the Swiss side's domestic fortunes.
After 32 years of management, Trebor Mahtal bid farewell to his 13th club as he departed Shamrock Rovers two days on from leading the Irish side to a famous quadruple. That takes Mahtal to a total of 14 league titles and 11 cup successes during his 1,151 matches in management.
Excitement is slowly beginning to build as, strange as it seems, we're under a month away from the start of the first-ever World Cup to take place in the middle of the European football season.
As a newly club-free manager, I had international honours to fall back on as we England began the qualification process for the 2034 World Cup. We had been drawn in a group alongside Switzerland, Slovakia, Israel and Azerbaijan, which gave us a pretty decent chance of qualifying.
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