7th July 2042

There I was, revisiting those times of when I was a player, those were the great days. The Ballon D'ors, the ground, the fans, the teammates, the titles. Those memories were great. Although I love to see Thiago every now and again and go away for the weekend with Antonella, I really do miss football. "It's been great in retirement, but I'm ready to go back to football" I said to Antonella. "I want to work in England" I said, she was shocked. "Why? Everything is fine here? Argentina have some good teams here as well? You know, River Plate, Boca Juniors, teams like that, why can't we stay here?"
"I want to feel the buzz of the Champions League again, the European feeling, the Premier League!"
"I'm not stopping you, but I am staying here Lionel!"
"No, please, come to England with me!"
"No, Lionel, you're 54 years old! You should be relaxing!"
"I've missed that spark in my life for a long time now, I want to get it back"
"Oh, thanks! Get out!"

So that was it, football divorced me from my wife, but lets face it, footballs better.

Arsenal unveil Lionel Messi as new manager

Arsenal chairman Tom Elliott has announced that former 5-time Ballon D'or winner Lionel Messi is the man to take over from Irishman Matt Mahon who's time at the London side was nothing more than excellent since his reign started in October 2040 after leaving his previous role at Southampton. During his 2 year stay at the club he won 2 Premier League titles and 1 Community Shield. Lionel Messi has not been at the Emirates Stadium since 2018 when he played against Arsenal in the round of 16 in the Champions League where Barca won 2-0 (4-0) on aggregate. This is Messi's first job in football since retiring aged 35 in 2022. If Messi wins as many titles as he did as when he was a player, Arsenal fans will take no time into liking the Argentinian who was linked with a move to Arsenal as a player before. "It's been a boring 20 years for me, ever since I retired in 2022 I have felt I had lost something. Being back in football, especially Arsenal has pumped new energy into me. I remember playing at the Emirates in the Champions League back in the 2010's I think, what a beautiful ground it is, the fans, the pitch, the atmosphere were all great. The Emirates is in my top 2 stadiums in the world, number 1 is Camp Nou as it was home to me for over 20 years, I hope to make a new home in the Emirates" said the former Argentinian magician. Messi won 27 titles, was runners-up 9 times and 3rd placed once in his time at Barcelona, individually though, Messi won 34 1st place honours, 15 2nd place and 4 3rd place. Messi spent his whole playing career with the Catalan side, making 550 appearances in all levels of Barcelona, C, B, and the senior side and he scored 349 goals for them altogether as well. He made his international debut for Argentina against Hungary in August 2005 and made 154 appearances for his country, scoring 78 goals. Messi started his career at Barcelona in the 2002/03 season, breaking into the 1st team in 2004, after spending time at Barcelona 'C' and Barcelona 'B', making a combined total of 32 appearances and scoring 11 goals. During his time with Argentina and Barcelona, Messi's team lifted the Under 20 World Cup in 2005, won the Spanish Super Cup 5 times between 2005 and 2011, won the UEFA Champions League 5 times between 2006 and 2020, won the Olympic Games in 2008 and 2016, won the Spanish Cup in 2009 and 2012, won the European Super Cup 4 times between 2009 and 2020, won the Club World Championship in 2009 and 2011 and won the World Cup in 2018.

Messi has built up a phenomenal record of 27 competition wins throughout his career: LIGA BBVA (Barcelona: 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2011), Club World Championship (Barcelona: 2009 and 2011), Under 20 World Cup (Argentina: 2005), World Cup (Argentina: 2018), Olympic Games (Argentina: 2008 and 2016), UEFA Champions League (Barcelona: 2006, 2009, 2011, 2018 and 2020), European Super Cup (Barcelona: 2009, 2011, 2018 and 2020), Spanish Cup (Barcelona: 2009 and 2012) and Spanish Super Cup (Barcelona: 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2011)

Messi has been recognised for his talent and achievements with several awards: Won the Under 20 World Cup Golden Ball, Under 20 World Cup Golden Shoe, European Golden Boy, World Player of the Year on four occasions, World Golden Ball on eight occasions, UEFA Champions League Golden Boot on five occasions, UEFA Champions League Best Player on four occasions, Club World Championship Best Player on two occasions, European Golden Shoe on three occasions and Best Player in Europe on five occasions.

So if Messi was better than one thing than Matt Mahon, it is he was by far, a better player. Mahon started his career at Irish side Sligo Rovers in 2017, he scored 3 goals in 6 games before moving to rivals Shamrock Rovers for £275,000 and proved he was worth it by scoring 11 goals in 9 appearances in his first season at Rovers, he then went on to make 58 appearances and scoring 32 goals before moving to Championship side Ipswich Town on a free transfer where he scored 6 goals in 12 appearances in his first season before firing Ipswich to the Premier League with 26 goals in 45 games. In his first season in the Premier League he was Ipswich's best player, scoring 14 goals in 37 games. His goalscoring ability was spotted by fellow Premier League side Reading who snapped the Irish striker up for a bargain £400,000 in the 2023-24 season, he did well in his first season at the Madejski Stadium, scoring 9 goals in 25 appearances. Mahon spent the next 10 years at the Berkshire side making 261 appearances and scoring 113 goals before retiring before the start of the 2034/35 season. Even after spending 10 years at Reading, his only trophy there was the Capital One Cup. But throughout his player and management time he has won, the All-Ireland cup with Shamrock Rovers in 2019, Sky BET Championship Champions with Ipswich in 2022, The Capital One Cup with Reading in 2030, into his management he won the Sky BET League 1 with Northampton in 2037 before winning the Sky BET Championship as a manager with Stoke City in 2039 and then winning the Premier League in 2041 and 2042 and the Community Shield in 2041. Mahon's longest time at a club as a manager was at Arsenal where he stayed there for 2 years before leaving his role after a boardroom bust-up with chairman Tom Elliott before Messi took his role as manager.

This is the only way Messi will ever sign with Arsenal xD

Nice start mate, keep it up!

You may be wondering, what have Arsenal been up to all these years? Here you are:
Arsenal have always been title contenders ever since the start, but couldn't win a trophy until 2032, over the 30 years, they have never finished any lower than 7th place.

They finished 7th in the 2013/14 and 2018/19 seasons, which surprised people because the season before 2013/14 Arsenal finished 2nd, 4 points behind eventual winners Man City but level on points with Chelsea whose goal difference was 3 goals behind Arsenal's +15 GD. But they finished 6th the season before the 2018/19 season so Arsenal were on a bit of a bad run, so it was understandable they finished lower than expected, André Villas-Boas was the manager in this season and he was sacked immediately after the season finished having been manager since December 2017. After Villas-Boas' sacking, John van den Brom was hired as new manager 5 days after the sacking of Villas-Boas and his reign at Arsenal was very successful, he was manager for 7 years and came runners-up in the Europa League in 2020, won the F.A. Cup in 2021, then won the Community Shield, they finished runners-up again in the Europa League in 2023, and won the F.A. Cup and Community Shield once again in 2024 (See the pattern?) he then won the Capital One Cup in 2025, and came extremely close to winning the Champions League after losing in the final in 2025 and then left his role 20 days after his final trophy at Arsenal, the F.A. Cup again. Once van den Brom left, the job went to Frenchman Didier Deschamps who was sacked 6 months after joining. Turk Murat Yakin then took on the vacant role and like van den Brom, lost in the final of the Champions League. Yakin was sacked 11 months after joining and Yann Kermorgant came in the winter of 2027, although it took 2 years to get his first bit of silverware, winning the Capital One Cup in 2029 but finished runners-up in the F.A. Cup in the same year, in 2030, won the F.A. Cup but left 2 months later to manage Porto, he is now managing Sheffield United. Then arguably Arsenal's best manager came in July 2030, Valery Karpin managed Arsenal between 2030 to 2035. He won the Community Shield in 2030 and then won the F.A. Cup runners-up, Europa League winners and European Super Cup winners all in the same year, 2031. In 2032 he won the Premier League and the Community Shield. In 2033, he came runners-up in the Capital One Cup, won the F.A. Cup, won the Premier League once again, finished runners-up in yet another Champions League Final and won the Community Shield. In 2034, he won the F.A. Cup and the Community Shield. Then in 2035, he won the Premier League again before devastating fans by retiring just 2 days later. Surprisingly, the managers job was handed back to Yann Kermorgant after an unsuccessful time at AS Roma, winning no trophies in his 1 year there, before Roma he had managed France for 2 years between 2032 and 2034. But Kermorgant only won 1 trophy, the Community Shield before being sacked after 7 months in December. Kermorgant's role was handed to former Chelsea and FC Bayern Munich player Romelu Lukaku after a successful reign at Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain. Lukaku came runner-up in the Champions League in 2037 but was then sacked 7 months later. After Lukaku, former Italian midfielder Lorenzo Crisetig came in and led Arsenal to win the Capital One Cup and Europa League, he also finished runners-up in the European Super Cup before being sacked in 2040. Now here is Arsenal's most recent ex-manager. Matt Mahon, Mahon came in from Southampton and in 2041 he finished runners-up in the Capital One Cup, won the Premier League and won the Community Shield, in 2042, he won the Premier League again whilst winning the Champions League before leaving his role which is now current manager Lionel Messi's. Now you have heard about the managers, let's see who is in the Arsenal Best Eleven:

GK: Wojciech Szczesny Apps: 791 Goals: 0
RB: Hubert Kallenbach 2022-36 Apps: 744 Goals: 5
CB: Jose Leiva 2025-38 Apps: 535 Goals: 5
CB: Téji Brun 2018-34 Apps: 728 Goals: 6
LB: Vincent Hafner 2033-40 Apps: 221 Goals: 26
DM: Hyun-Ho Lee 2024-38 Apps: 579 Goals: 64
CM: Jack Wilshere 2007-28 Apps: 743 Goals: 116
CM: Zeljko Dwyer 2029-39 Apps: 443 Goals: 123
AMR: Liam Robertson 2019-34 Apps: 771 Goals: 274
AML: Declan Hayward 2024-37 Apps: 619 Goals: 296
ST: Rob Carpenter 2030- Apps: 567 Goals: 306