By the time you read this, months will have passed in our universe. Multiple seasons passed in Sunderland’s universe. Abdoulaye Kouyate was worth his 145m transfer fee. So was everyone else.

I took a few weeks off, but I decided to load up the last save I made before retiring. You know, just to see what would happen.

This happened:

We won the Champions League in 2030!

(We also won the Premier League in 2029, but came 2nd in 2030.)

2031 was our year, though, including a rainy night in Sunderland where we put Barcelona to the sword.

The season and the save culminated in this:

A brilliant treble, with a comfortable win in the league, an amazing comeback from 0-2 down to City in the FA Cup final to win it 3-2, and a 4-0 over Bayern Munich in the Champion’s League final.

I ended up buying a young Italian striker that was even better than Kouyate, and we tore through everything. The side could still be incrementally improved, but Sunderland are truly one of the best teams in the world.

And with that our journey really does end. I may putter around with another save, but I don’t plan to blog about it. Next year, perhaps, I’ll be back with something for FM22.