A Football Manager Career

24: The 2040 European Football Championship

Before that hard work could begin, I had to focus all my attentions on another huge competition with the 2040 Euros. I had been a little complacent with the job since winning the World Cup with there not being anything that interesting happening, but now another tournament had come around I was fully focussed and determined to win. This wasn't just because we were the World Cup holders and the favourites to win it, but because it was being held on home turf in Scotland and Wales. Sure, this wasn't actually England, but it was close enough and it was still the UK (at the time of writing).

Whilst I was ready and raring to go, Houghton was not and I had to leave him back home in Barcelona because of the constant injuries. It was a big blow as he was the absolute focus and conductor of our build-up play and there simply wasn't another playmaker I could find anywhere near his level. One of the reasons we had been so reliant on his creativity was England's inability to produce a striker anywhere near the required standard to replace the long retired Harry Kane. Once again, however, I had come up trumps and the youngster I had snapped up for Arsenal from the Championship had fast become the best in the country and was now more than ready to show his quality on the International stage. 

We had drawn Spain, Turkey and Slovakia in the groups and he went and scored at least two against all of them and almost single-handedly got us into the 2nd round.

We were given quite a nice tie against the Czech Republic in Cardiff and I was delighted about this because a lot of the lads were looking incredibly tired. We had half a dozen players from Manchester United and, as you know, they had had an incredibly long season because of their European commitments and many of them were looking completely exhausted. I didn't want to rest them as whilst the Czech Republic weren't the hardest side we could draw, they were still a team to be cautious of, however the coaching staff made it clear I had no choice but to bring in some fresh legs.  I was proved right in my concerns as they made it an incredibly tough game for us and in the end I had to suck up the risk and throw on our best players on the hour mark to ensure that it wasn't dragged out to the gruelling frustrations of extra time. The good news was that this worked as Summerfield grabbed us a late brace with goals in the 80th and 90th minutes to get us the victory. The bad news was that one of the other players I brought on, Manchester City's world class left midfielder Eric Owusu-Ansah, picked up a knock in the game and whilst he was able to see out the remainder of the match with us out of substitutes, the injury turned out to be worse than we thought and he had to sit out the rest of the tournament. This was obviously bad news, but we had progressed to the next round and that's all that mattered.

For the Quarters we were up against my beloved lads Scotta and Celenza and their Italian teammates. Despite these two players alone giving Italy the potential to be one of the most attacking and potent nations in world football, Alessandro Nesta set them up to sit back and defend with neither of them given a chance to show their true qualities. Nesta's defensive mentality did make it an admittedly tough match for us, however I was far happier with this attitude than if they'd be unleashed to attack us with their full flare. It was a tough grind, but our pressure in their box finally won through and they fouled us in the box to get us a 65th minute penalty which Summerfield gleefully smashed down the middle for the win.

The lads were still exhausted, but we were now into the Semis and so any fatigue was obliterated by the adrenaline and excited of the potential win. Nonetheless, Turkey took us to extra time at the Millennium Stadium and it took Summerfield until the 101st minute to get us the victory. We now had just three games to prepare ourselves for the final at Celtic Park and my only job as manager was to make sure that Summerfield remained fit and healthy.

Unsurprisingly, we were once again facing France. They had sailed through the competition easily and were undoubtedly not just the other best side in the tournament, but were the other best side in the world. However, we had beaten them in the World Cup and there was absolutely no reason that we couldn't beat them again.

And, at half-time, we were proving this thanks to a 12th minute Marguet own goal. It was an unlucky interception and I felt for the lad, but at the same time I was obviously delighted. We went in at half-time with not a single player higher than 70% condition however and my assistant was frantically telling me that we had to make substitutions. How could I do this though? We were just 1-0 up in the final of the World Cup and not a single one of my lads wanted to leave the field so I sent them all back out again, but with the instructions to sit a little deeper and to focus on counter attacking. In the 66th minute we got a second thanks to my forced Houghton replacement Andy Gilchrist's blistering run down the middle of the pitch. He found himself with all the space in the world after countering France's counter-attack and he beat the keeper with an incredibly powerful shot. With just twenty-six minutes left we were leading 2-0 in the final of the Euros and it was entirely ours to lose.

Two minutes later A. Madrid's Kevin Burel knocked in a header from a corner. And then, just six minutes from the end, he knocked in another to take us to extra-time.

Both sides were absolutely exhausted and extra-time was just a delay until the inevitable penalties with us too demoralised and tired to attack, and France unwilling to risk another counter of their counters.

This is too painful for to drag out any longer: We lost 5-4 after Chelsea's striker Karl Clarke missed our final kick. We had thrown away a 2-0 league in a major final and I shut off my screen and curled up on the sofa devastated with two tubs of Aldi ice cream.