Florentino Perez is said to be convinced his plan to launch the European Super League will come true in the next few seasons already. While the tournament wouldn’t include any European giants (except for Real Madrid and Barcelona) in the early days, the general feeling is that they would eventually agree on joining the project which promises to be way more beneficial for the participating clubs than the existing Champions League.
What if the major competition kicked off right now? We’ve emulated the first three seasons through Football Manager 2024 and got some mindblowing results that changed the history of football forever.
Fasten your seat belts, we’re getting ready for the takeoff.
Season 1
Manchester City became the first and only side to win the Super League right after claiming the UEFA Champions League. Paris Saint-Germain finished second while Barcelona completed the top three.
The main Super League founders, Real Madrid, only finished seventh and decided to bring back Rafa Benitez to replace Carlo Ancelotti who only knows how to win UEFA tournaments.
‘Surprise surprise’
Bayern replaced Thomas Tuchel with… Diego Simeone despite staying up in the top division.
Almost all the participating Serie A clubs, Inter Milan aside, proved incapable of competing in the Super League. Juventus were so frustrated about it they went for SEAN DYCHE straight afterwards!
Erik ten Hag was succeeded by… Quique Setien at the end of the season.
‘These cows are now mine’
Here are some of the biggest player moves that took place in the first season:
- Victor Osimhen from Napoli to Chelsea (€71m)
- Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid to Man City (€26.5m)
- Rafael Leao from Milan to Tottenham (€70m)
- Dayot Upamecano from Bayern to Inter Milan (€65m)
- Theo Hernandez from Milan to Bayern (€61m)
- Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Napoli to… Real Sociedad (€55m)
- Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen to Man City (€40m)
- Leandro Trossard from Arsenal to Barcelona (€40m)
- Lamine Yamal from Barcelona to River Plate (loan)
The number of Man City players in the first Team of the Year is staggering. Bernardo Silva (11 goals, 7 assists) won the Player of the Year while Pep Guardiola was expectedly named the Manager of the Year.
Season 2
It’s season two and you may spot some surprising new names here: Spurs, Villa, but also Al Hilal with Neymar (now it’s just the Global Super League) and Boca Juniors.
Still, the Citizens look unstoppable, but look how high Inter Milan and Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea are! Trust-the-process has worked after all?
Tottenham look quite hopeless, but wanna know who their manager is?
Alright, maybe Saudi clubs actually aren’t that bad after all?
Here are some big moves two seasons into the Super League:
- Dusan Vlahovic from Juventus to Real Madrid (€80m)
- Serge Gnabry from Bayern to Real Madrid (€57m)
- Heung Min Son from Tottenham to Real Madrid (stop them please, €42m)
- Wojciech Szczesny from Juventus to Chelsea (€16.5m)
Just a few changes to the Team of the Year which is still dominated by City.
This time we see Mo Salah and Kevin De Bruyne here. The Egyptian would actually win two Ballon d’Ors in a row before something absolutely wild happens to him… we’ll reveal it at the end of the piece.
Season 3
This is where the real madness begins.
First of all, Arsenal win it.
Secondly, this is the season when Leo Messi is back in European football. You’d never guess who he decided to join…
MANCHESTER UNITED! He actually reunited with Quique Setien in one of the weirdest scenarios ever – even for Football Manager. Although he got just three goal contributions in 16 Super League matches, Old Trafford was the place he hung his boots at… what does Cristiano think of it?
Cristiano apparently didn’t care much. He was too happy about playing in the Super League where he scored more goals than Leo (three against two) despite dropping back to the second tier (that’s when he retired, obviously).
Mysteriously, they both scored in their final encounter against each other. What a beautiful ‘last dance’.
Some important movements happen in the managerial merry-go-round at the end of the season:
- Jurgen Klopp takes over at PSG after some well-deserved rest
- Mikel Arteta leaves Arsenal to give way to Zinedine Zidane
- Quique Setien says bye to United as Luis Enrique comes in
One thing that left us absolutely stunned is that both Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk decided to join Arsenal before retiring.
Nah, it’s barely possible to imagine Liverpool without these two, isn’t it? However, while Virgil van Dijk seems to go nowhere, the Egyptian might very well leave Liverpool at the end of this season alongside Jurgen Klopp.
Salah is nearing the final year of his contract. It’s quite likely that if Liverpool don’t cash in on him this year, they will have to let him go for free in the summer of 2025.
As of now, Salah’s most likely destination in real life is believed to be Saudi Arabia: our betting partners Megapari rate this move at 2.62 which means a 38.2% probability.
The best XI is so different now… and look, all of these Arsenal players are currently part of Mikel Arteta’s squad. They’ve finally shifted City from the throne and did it in style, with Bukayo Saka winning the Ballon d’Or.
Dreamers keep on dreaming you say? In reality, Arsenal could make their first step to dethrone Man City already this season - they are going toe-to-toe with the Citizens in the Premier League title race. Besides, in the Champions League, they are rated as one of the top-5 favourites to lift the trophy. Brace yourselves: European nights return next week!
