Shama Deadman has now been a football manager for five years… but his career hasn’t exactly gone to plan.
Job 1: Cambrian & Clydach. Solid first season, almost promoted in the second season, then all it fell apart and Shama resigned midway through the third.
Job 2: Espinho. Solid first half-season, almost promoted in the second season, then all it fell apart and Shama resigned midway through the third.
After leaving Portugal in Part 20, Shama is back at the job centre, just as the 2024/2025 season is ending. In today’s chapter, we will find out where he goes next. As an added bonus, I’ll also take a closer look at the football world in 2025, as we’ll see which teams have won the major leagues and competitions during the first five seasons of this save.
THE JOB HUNT
After leaving the tyre fire that was Espinho, I took some time out to assess my options. My first two managerial jobs had not ended with as much progress as I’d hoped for, so I desperately needed to get my next move right.
Though I preferred to wait until 2025/2026 before continuing my career with a fresh start, I would consider jumping back in if a good opportunity arose late in the current campaign. As it happened, there were three such jobs that caught my eye in March.
Falkirk were 5th in Scottish League One and looking for someone to take them back towards the top flight, but they turned me down for Alan Archibald [never heard of him – Chris]. I also failed to get even an interview from FC Vaduz – Liechtenstein’s premier club, who were playing in the Swiss second division.
I had a little more luck in Hungary, where Siófok – another second-tier side – offered me an interview. I made all the right noises when speaking with the chairman, and I was looking forward to joining a club where former Watford and Ipswich striker Tamás Priskin would be my chief scout.
Ah well. Maybe not.
And with that, my 2024/2025 season was officially over. I decided to wait until the flurry of post-season sackings before resuming the job hunt. In the meantime, I decided to check in on my former employers.
Espinho went for a surprisingly big name to replace me, with former Lyon and Brazil centre-back Cris coming in as manager. Results were mixed, but he did at least keep them out of the drop zone.
Interestingly, Paulo Agostinho and Lamine Fernandes finished as Espinho’s joint-top scorers, with nine goals apiece. When I left the club, Agostinho had scored nine goals and Fernandes a big fat zero, so you can probably guess who benefitted most from Cris’ appointment!
The Tigres were moving on, and now it was time for me to do likewise. By the end of May, I had applied for nine different jobs across the continent. Just like with Clyde and Coleraine in previous years, if any clubs dithered over my application for too long, I would withdraw my interest.
Well… it turned out that a lot of European football chairmen were masters of procrastination! A couple of clubs in Romania took 30 days to offer me an interview. Vorskla Poltava – who’d just been relegated from Ukraine’s top flight – and former Hungarian giants Honvéd also took their sweet time to respond to my application.
But they were all emergency responders compared to Jagiellonia Białystok. The Polish Ekstraklasa side really took the Michal, inviting me to an interview 39 days after I’d applied for the position! Five-and-a-half weeks! David Blaine spent almost as long living in a glass box!
There were three clubs who actually responded to my interest seriously and quickly enough. PAS Giannina had finished 4th in Greece’s Super League 2, missing a play-off place by just four points. The chairman gave me some tough questions, but I felt the interview went well. Unfortunately, I lost out to a man who’d already managed 14 Greek teams in 20 years.
My wait for an interview at Le Mans was also fairly short, though it still took 24 days rather than 24 hours. Having run their last Ligue 1 race in 2010 before crashing into liquidation, they had gone back on track in the lower leagues before stalling in the third-tier Championnat National. Now they needed someone to steer them in the right direction again. (No more racing puns, I promise.)
I went further in the process with Le Mans than I did with PAS. The French part-timers invited me to suggest any changes to their backroom staff – which I believe was a sign that they were about to offer me the job. However, I had second thoughts about their financial stability and pulled out at the last minute.
That wasn’t the only reason why I turned Le Mans down, though. You see, I’d been in talks with a second club in Hungary – and unlike Siofók a few months earlier, they actually offered me the job!
I’d been approached by four-time Hungarian champions Győr, who fell from grace a decade ago and were now a mid-table team in the second tier. Going by their transfer and wage budgets, though, they appeared to be in a pretty solid financial position.
I was being offered an initial one-year contract, and a 50% increase on my previous salary at Espinho. If I could stabilise this team in my first season, I would be given more time to deliver on promotion – and perhaps restore this club to its glory days.
After a difficult start to my managerial career, rebuilding Győr could be a springboard to bigger things. I accepted the offer, and the chairman couldn’t contain his delight.
Pack the biros and Rubik’s Cubes! We are off to Hungary!
THE FOOTBALL WORLD IN 2025
ENGLAND
| SEASON | FA CUP |
| 2020/2021 | Man City 2-0 Liverpool |
| 2021/2022 | Man City 4-1 Aston Villa |
| 2022/2023 | Norwich 1-0 Liverpool |
| 2023/2024 | Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa |
| 2024/2025 | Liverpool 2-0 Tottenham |
Liverpool started the decade as they meant to go on, winning an unprecedented five straight Premier League titles between 2020 and 2024. Jürgen Klopp has built a dynasty at Anfield, with his gegenpressing often proving too much for the Reds’ opponents.
Manchester City were Liverpool’s strongest challengers for several years, but Pep Guardiola’s departure as manager in 2023 – to be replaced by club legend Vincent Kompany – saw their own empire crumble. Kompany’s tenure was not a success, and he was sacked at the end of the 2024/2025 season after City failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 14 years.
After several years outside the top four, Tottenham were the team who suddenly ended Liverpool’s reign as champions in 2025. In their first season under new manager Marinos Ouzounidis, Spurs unexpectedly beat Chelsea to lift a first league championship since 1961. Glory at last for club captain Harry Kane, who was named PFA Player of the Year for five consecutive years despite not scoring more than 16 league goals in a season.
Though Leicester pipped Chelsea to 6th place in 2021, the ‘Big Six’ have not been breached since then. Despite that, there has been some success for the so-called lesser clubs. Leicester have won two Europa Conference League titles, Norwich lifted their first FA Cup in 2023, and Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin has finished as the PL’s top scorer three times.
france
| SEASON | COUPE DE FRANCE |
| 2020/2021 | Brest 2-1 PSG |
| 2021/2022 | PSG 2-0 Lyon |
| 2022/2023 | Stade Reims 3-1 Lyon |
| 2023/2024 | Marseille 2-1 Troyes |
| 2024/2025 | PSG 2-0 Lyon |
As expected, Paris Saint-Germain’s endless riches have turned Ligue 1 into little more than a procession. Since seeing off Marseille’s challenge by a single point in 2021, PSG have extended their streak to eight consecutive league titles. Their zenith came in 2023/2024, when they scored 100 goals, collected 108 points, and won 36 games out of 38 – the odd ones out being inexplicable home losses to Lens and Lorient.
Marseille’s challenge to the monopoly was short-lived, though they did win the Coupe de France in 2023. The competition had earlier seen unexpected victories for Brest (who shocked PSG to win their first major trophy in 2021) and Stade Reims.
In the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 seasons, it was Lyon who were the best of the rest when it came to Ligue 1. followed by Lille and most recently Bordeaux. The latter have benefitted largely from former midfielder Zinedine Zidane’s return to Les Girondins as manager in February 2025.
GERMANY
| SEASON | DFL-POKAL |
| 2020/2021 | Hoffenheim 2-1 Köln |
| 2021/2022 | Dortmund 3-1 FC Bayern |
| 2022/2023 | Wolfsburg 1-1 Hamburg (4-2 PSO) |
| 2023/2024 | Dortmund 3-1 Hamburg |
| 2024/2025 | RB Leipzig 4-2 Frankfurt (aet) |
It has been 13 years since any team other than Bayern München won the Bundesliga. Hansi Flick and his German giants were most imperious in 2023/2024, when they suffered just a single league defeat (to Wolfsburg). Legendary striker Robert Lewandowski subsequently retired, but Leroy Sané has taken over as the team’s main attacking outlet.
That being said, Bayern’s dominance has not been absolute. They haven’t won the DFB-Pokal since 2020, only reaching one Final in 2022. They were beaten 3-1 by Dortmund, who have since finished league runners-up in three straight seasons under Marco Rose. Having narrowed the gap to just four points in the season just gone, hopes are high that BVB will be back on top very soon.
RB Leipzig were runners-up in 2021 and 2022, but recent years have not been kind to them in the league, though Roberto Mancini did deliver a first DFB-Pokal in 2025. Meanwhile, Hertha BSC’s big spending over the last three years has recently delivered the Berlin club their first top-three finish since the turn of the millennium.
ITALY
| SEASON | COPPA ITALIA |
| 2020/2021 | Inter 1-0 Juventus |
| 2021/2022 | Inter 1-1 Juventus (PSO) |
| 2022/2023 | Inter 2-1 Juventus |
| 2023/2024 | Inter 2-0 Atalanta |
| 2024/2025 | Lazio 1-0 Inter |
Juventus’ nine-year reign as Serie A champions was brought to a sudden end in 2021, as they dropped down to 3rd place. The Atalanta fairytale continued as they finished runners-up for the first time, but it was Simone Inzaghi’s brilliant Lazio side – fronted by goal machine Ciro Immobile – who halted their 21-year title drought.
The changing of the guard didn’t last. Juve kept faith in under-pressure coach Andrea Pirlo and were rewarded the following season, when they regained the scudetto by a record 29 points. They have since won another three consecutive league titles, despite strong challenges from Fiorentina in 2023 and Inter in 2025 – giving them 40 in total.
The Coppa Italia, meanwhile, has been almost exclusively in Inter’s possession recently. Antonio Conte’s side have reached five consecutive Finals, winning the first four – including three consecutively against his former side Juventus. The Nerazzurri’s stranglehold was finally broken in 2025, as a single goal from Lazio’s Spanish midfielder Nico brought the Coppa back to Rome.
SPAIN
| SEASON | COPA DEL REY |
| 2020/2021 | Atlético 2-1 Villarreal (aet) |
| 2021/2022 | Barcelona 2-1 Real Madrid |
| 2022/2023 | Atlético 4-1 Real Madrid |
| 2023/2024 | Real Madrid 3-1 Villarreal |
| 2024/2025 | Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Valencia |
Madrid has been the place to be in Spanish football lately. For three consecutive years between 2021 and 2023, it was Diego Simeone’s Atlético who ruled the roost, with their rock-solid defence and clinical counter-attacking delivering three La Liga titles and two Copas del Rey.
After dispensing with Zidane and then Marcelo Bielsa, Real Madrid finally got back on top after making Pedro Martins their coach in 2023. Real regained the championship in Martins’ first season, and after spending £125million on Liverpool’s elite playmaker Eduardo Camavinga, they blew everyone away in 2024/2025. 101 points, 101 goals, just one league defeat – 3-0 at home to eternal rivals Barcelona.
It’s been a difficult five years for Barça, who have won only one major trophy. The much-criticised Ronald Koeman was finally sacked as manager after a humiliating 5th-place finish in 2023/2024 – their first season following Lionel Messi’s retirement. Though Los Culés came a very distant 2nd behind Real in 2024/2025 under the returning Luis Enrique, hopes are high that a new era of Catalan dominance may begin soon.
EUROPEAN COMPETITIONS
| SEASON | EUROPA LEAGUE | EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE |
| 2020/2021 | Arsenal 2-0 Ajax | n/a |
| 2021/2022 | Inter 1-0 Milan | Leicester 1-1 Chelsea (3-2 PSO) |
| 2022/2023 | Atlético 1-0 Arsenal (aet) | Valencia 1-0 Monaco |
| 2023/2024 | Porto 3-3 Tottenham (6-5 PSO) | Arsenal 6-1 AZ |
| 2024/2025 | Chelsea 1-0 Villarreal | Leicester 2-2 Milan (5-4 PSO) |
In the last five years, the Champions League has been dominated by north-west English clubs – and Juventus. The Old Lady got to four consecutive Finals, starting in 2021, when Liverpool annihilated them with a Sadio Mané hat-trick. Cristiano Ronaldo’s side endured more pain in 2022, losing on penalties to his old club Manchester United, before being outsmarted by Liverpool again a year later.
However, it was third time lucky for Juve against the Reds in 2024, when Weston McKennie’s 89th-minute winner exacted sweet revenge and brought the European Cup to Turin for the first time in 28 years. The most recent showdown was an all-Manchester affair in Dortmund, which United won thanks to an early own goal from City striker Lautaro Martínez.
The Europa League has seen five different winners, with Arsenal losing once in 2021 and losing to Atlético two years later. There were mixed fortunes for their London rivals in the following years, as Tottenham were beaten by Porto on penalties after a six-goal epic, while Chelsea took the spoils most recently. The only Final not to feature an English team was 2022’s Milan derby, in which Romelu Lukaku ended Inter’s 12-year wait for a continental title.
The Europa Conference League began in 2021/2022 and has been mainly ruled by English teams since then. Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester have won the competition twice on penalties – against Chelsea in 2022 and Milan in 2025. In between, there was a narrow win for Valencia – and a much more emphatic one for Arsenal, whose striker Eddie Nketiah bagged three goals as they demolished AZ.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS
The delayed European Championships didn’t disappoint, as Italy returned to the international scene with a bang. Roberto Mancini’s side only conceded two goals en route to the Final – both against Denmark in a tricky Quarter Final, before Ciro Immobile’s penalty knocked out world champions France.
The Azzurri would face a youthful England side spearheaded by Manchester City playmaker Phil Foden, who was voted the best player at his first major tournament. Gareth Southgate’s side scraped past Poland on penalties before exacting Semi Final revenge on Croatia, scoring four goals in a dominant first-half display.
However, Gareth Southgate’s charges were outmatched in the Final. Two goals inside 35 minutes from top scorer Immobile put Italy in firm control, and a second-half header by young centre-back Alessandro Bastoni effectively sealed the title. Dele Alli did pull one goal back for England, but Italy were crowned European champions for only the second time.
The first ‘winter’ World Cup was a forgettable one for South America’s giants, as Brazil suffered a shock early exit to Algeria, while Uruguay and Argentina both fell prey to Denmark’s dark horses. The Danish Dynamite were eventually defused in the Semi Finals by Portugal, whose talisman Cristiano Ronaldo would end his international career by leading them into their first global Final.
Awaiting them in the decider was a Germany side who’d been rejuvenated under new manager Markus Gisdol. 20-year-old Karim Adeyemi devastated the Dutch in the Quarter Finals before Timo Werner’s brace against Spain put ‘Die Mannschaft’ on the brink of a record-equalling fifth World Cup.
Golden Ball-winning forward Leroy Sané broke the Final deadlock for Germany after 63 tense minutes. That looked like being the only goal until Portuguese right-back João Cancelo grabbed a stunning leveller deep into stoppage time. Germany recovered from that quickly and retook control in extra-time, as Sané scored again before İlkay Gündogan’s penalty sealed a famous 3-1 win.
With Southgate quitting after an early World Cup exit, Valérien Ismaël was the surprise choice to become England’s new manager. The Frenchman – who most recently got West Brom promoted to the Premier League – took his adopted nation to a second straight Euro Final after crushing Belgium and Ukraine. Was football finally coming home?
If it was, they needed to overcome Portugal, who went into their first tournament without Ronaldo since 2002 but were still masters of game management. Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes had taken over as the Seleção’s talisman, bagging the crucial goals against France and Netherlands as they closed in on a second Euro crown in three attempts.
After 37 minutes, Portugal looked dead certs, with an early hat-trick from Leeds goal machine Youssef Chermiti putting them 3-1 ahead. However, they didn’t count on Harry Kane scoring twice before half-time, sealing the Golden Boot with his 7th goal of Euro 2024. His former Tottenham team-mate Alli (now at Real Madrid) completed an epic turnaround early in the second half to deliver England’s first major trophy in 58 years!
| YEAR | AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS |
| 2022 | Senegal 1-0 Ivory Coast |
| 2023 | Ivory Coast 1-0 Tunisia (aet) |
| 2025 | Algeria 2-0 DR Congo |
| YEAR | ASIAN CUP |
| 2023 | Australia 1-0 Japan |
| YEAR | GOLD CUP |
| 2021 | United States 1-0 Jamaica |
| 2023 | Mexico 2-2 Jamaica (6-5 PSO) |
| 2025 | Mexico 1-1 Jamaica (9-8 PSO) |
| YEAR | COPA AMÉRICA |
| 2021 | Argentina 2-2 Uruguay (4-3 PSO) |
| 2024 | Argentina 2-0 United States |
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post.
Please come back next Monday for Part 22, where Shama officially begins the third leg of his journeyman career. After plenty of pre-season transfer business and tactical testing, we’ll see how his Győr team are shaping up ahead of the 2025/2026 NB II season!
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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