EPL Challenge (The Ultimate Premier League Experience) FM2005 [Established Clan]

AsherDSSc · July 2, 2005

im wrecked

EmmYouEffSee · July 3, 2005

Bouchard Hangs Up The Mop...Perhaps For The Last Time

After 7 years of Premiership football, three Champions League qualifications, 2 F.A. Cup finals, 2 UEFA Cup Semi Finals and a partridge up his pear tree 'World Class' manager Sam Bouchard has sensationally called it quits on his football career. Bouchard who managed both Tottenham Hotspur and later Aston Villa was brought into football after seeking compensation through being attacked from Jaques Santini at Spurs.

Bouchard took time out of his now....empty schedule to pass comment on his ex-fellow managers, his close friends in the game.

On Niall Murphy ;

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Mr Murphy, a superb manager with some skills in communication that would put William Tell to shame. He's got the ability to walk into Liverpool in a nice suit and walk out with it all in tact....he's got some talent. The man could charm his way out of a paper bag....if it's possible i beleve...unless it's Mo's bag - in which i think Mo'd want to keep him to torture him or something....Anyway - He's somebody i've felt i could learn from and neumerous times i've gone to him for advice on the game, and it's paid off enormously, unfortunatly not when talking about players....he usually just steals them from me. Lovely bloke, you just can't tell him about anything valuable....he'll nick it </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

On Rick Boult ;

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Rick Boult..(laughs)...deary me, top lad. Terrible taste in hair colour, but a top lad none the less. An eye for a bargain and also a job from what i've seen....A players dream but a Chairman's nightmare...that's the man. I remember him begging me for players that were borderline reserves when I was at Spurs, which i duly gave him thinking i wasn't really helping much - now he looks set to become a proud holder of the very coverted Premiership medal and i can honestly say it couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. He's a bit of a bellend for not selling me Eto'o last season, but i'll let that slide now, he's made it to the big time, it'll probably go tits up next season as the curse will no doubt continue...but well...good luck eh! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

On Danny King ;

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">A man with a very high reputation from some other continent joined the EPL a few years back and to be honest I was quite sceptical. That wasn't neccessary at all as he's proven himself to be a top man in football and indeed in the Premier League. He's defeated Europe, he's defeated the EPL intirely and he's beaten me - who else can say that? Very little i presume so the man stands alone. He's a man of skill, physical presence, mental ability and of course a little mystery.....probably be quite suited to the Crystal Maze going on that but hey we shall see! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

On Ben Jackson ;

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Ben's come under quite a bit of stick for his striking looks....very much like his counterpart Michael who suffered very much the same thing. The two differ very much - Michael owns a large estate spending all his money on Childeren and the fun fair...Ben owns Birmingham....a place that's not fun nor fair at times and certainly isn't a place for childeren. The subtle difference lies in the personality and i can definatly say that Ben's never cum over a little queer....least to my recollection. Anyways, he's spent all of his money and has found a talent for bringing people to the inbred part of the country very well. Full marks to the man who surely will get his hands on more silverware in the future. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

On Andy Nilsen ;

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The self proclaimed 'Greatest Of All Time' has really proven things in the last few years. Winning the league with a shoddy outfit...yes. Taking that club to the hights that should've followed...ehhh...Egg on his mush i beleve. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke . He managed to score many wins against my sides when i was around in the game and for that I take my hat off to him. He's got some ability in that brain of his, however it does show at times in some perculiar manners! He's got the ability and i'm sure he'll succeed once more....probably in the Indonesian 2nd Division or when everybody else is on holiday or something - still, he'll get there once more </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

On Mo Ilyas;

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Mr Ilyas, always out for a bargain and a bit of a hand when it comes to te tactics. I did try and help on neumerous times however it only lead to battering...after battering........after battering by my side - ahh well . One day he'll learn and learn for the better - probably after i send over pictures of the current methods that i've got, it should help him out a little for the rest of the season. He's been given quite a tough hand in the form of Fulham but so far he's done quite well...accept when it came to accumulating a price for players....still needs a little work my friend...just a bit of tweaking eh! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

To all those that Bouchard couldn't mention he shared his expression of joy for - David Pagi, a man who's ability to dissapear at the drop of a hat can be matched by nobody. Neumerous ins and outs of the Premier League over the past few years were also noted, just not to the extent that others were....Bouchard insisted that they were still important...just not important enough (Only joking lads, x)

----------------------------------------------

On a more serious note, I'll be back with FM 2006 if that is Niall will take me back...or if Mel will let her new Husband off the ball and chain for 3 nights a week to play with a bunch of cool people online

It's been an absolute pleasure, you've entertained me to no end - long live the EPL Challenge

AsherDSSc · July 4, 2005

In A League of There Own

With 11 games left in the current English Premier League season, Manchester United have regained there grip on the title. After Everton, Pompey and indeed Chelski last season got there paws on the trophy, many pundits are now saying its heading back to where it belongs in the Old Trafford trophy cabinet. Rafa Benitez tried and failed to regain the crown, but after some wonderful managerial decisions by current manager Rick Boult, it seems all but certain the United fans will once again be able to call themselves the Champions of England.

Current Top 6

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | Rick | Man United | | 27 | 23 | 2 | 2 | 84 | 30 | +54 | 71 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | Dan | Chelski | | 26 | 17 | 5 | 4 | 68 | 25 | +43 | 56 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | Ben | Birmingham | | 27 | 17 | 5 | 5 | 56 | 26 | +30 | 56 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | Pagi | Tottenham | | 27 | 18 | 1 | 8 | 56 | 32 | +24 | 55 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Arsenal | | 27 | 17 | 3 | 7 | 65 | 32 | +33 | 54 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | Niall | Everton | | 27 | 16 | 4 | 7 | 61 | 26 | +25 | 52 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

United Enter European Campaign

After last years disapointment of no European football, Boult has also sent out messages to the rest of Europe with there demolition jobs over Juventus, Vfb Stuttgart and Dinamo Bucharest in this years UEFA Champions League. United qualified for the 1st Rnd Knock out stages after just 3 games and when the draw was made, Lazio were doomed to face the Red Devils with the 1st game being played at the Theatre of Dreams.

UEFA Champions League Group F

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | Rick | Man United | | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 3 | +9 | 16 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Juventus | | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 5 | +3 | 10 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Vfb Stuttgart | | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 7 | -4 | 6 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Dinamo Buc. | | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 10 | -8 | 1 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Recent Results

English Premier League

Manchester United [2]: Silvano, van der Vaart

Portsmouth [1]: Yankov

Andy's Pompey have fallen way short of many expectations this year but nobody has an explanation as to why this is. I personally believe too many players are bought and sold leaving Nielsen with only a 26 player squad but millions in the bank. This game was pretty much a formality afer going 2-0 up making it another double over Pompey this season.

F.A Cup 3rd Round

Barnsley [1]: Collins

Manchester United [3]: Ammendolea, Chivu, Rooney

Assistant took control due to Boult being intoxicated

English Premier League

Tottenham Hotspur [1]: Gokdeniz

Manchester United [4]: Eto'o, Rooney (2), Ammendolea

Spurs have been hanging around the 2nd place mark in the league all season but a few bad results have seen them slip to 4th. I never relish going back to White Hart Lane but afer a shaky start the lads did there bit and with Rooney scoring a brace towards the end it gave me some selection problems for when Ronaldinho returns from international duty.

F.A Cup 4th Round

Manchester United [7]: Rooney (2), Quaresma, Seitaridis, van der Vaart, Cerci, Delgado

Queens Park Rangers [0]:

As the scoreline would suggest, a very 1 sided result. A United team with many faces missing still managed to put in a performance the first team would have been proud of and again Rooney stole the show with 2 goals of quality early on asking questions of the managers attempts to sell him abroad.

English Premier League

Manchester United [8]: van der Vaart, Rooney (2), Ammendolea (2), Eto'o, Fabricio (2)

Aston Villa [0]:

As anyone who reads my reports will know, if you attack United at OT your going to get punished. Sam's Villa came to Old Trafford not in high hopes but still looked to create chances with an attacking formation. Ammendolea finshed smarly after 2 minutes setting the tone for the game and even 8 wasn't a fair scoreline as the 11-0 drubbing of Ben's Boro' early last season could have easily been surpassed. After the game Bouchard resigned from his post and I for 1 am going to miss him immensely.

English Premier League

Wolverhampton Wanderers [3]: Musson (2), Dunn

Manchester United [4]: Rooney (3), Fabricio

After holding United to a draw at Old Trafford, this wasn't going to be easy, As the scoreline suggests it was a very open game and the Reds had to come from behind 3 times to take all 3 points. Rooneys hatrick made it 10 goals in 6 games for him but he still might not start against Everton next week.

Manager Comment

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> The league is ours to lose now. We've put in a great effort this season to take the trophy off Chelski and barring some sort of disaster, we've succeeded. The attacking players i have at my disposal are without doubt the best in the world and the team now have the attitude of 'If you score 6, we'll score 7' and its working. Don't get me wrong i love keeping clean sheets but the fans want a show putting on and we try to give it to them. The squads looking very healthy with possibly only the defence needing strengthening but i've got 2 more signatures coming in the summer to bolster the attack. Were still flying high in Europe with that kicking off later this month and were through to the 5th Round of the F.A Cup where we face the managerless Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

STFC will rule again · July 4, 2005

Loved the descriptio of me in your final report for a while Sam . Hope to see you back soon so I can inflict more defeats on you .

STFC will rule again · July 4, 2005

15th January 2011

Man City 1

Smolarek 24

Birmingham 4

Esposito 2 Owen 32, 66 Fernandez 81

Having been in impressive form, this was a game that I was expecting three points from. It started off well

with Esposito finding the net two minutes into the match as he smacked the ball past the despairing City keeper's dive. Even though our opponents equalised, two goals from Owen and another goal from Fernandez sealed the points to help us continue the great run of form we've been on lately.

FA Cup 4th Round

22nd January 2011

Walsall 1

Williams 11

Birmingham 2

Zurawski 22 Arfa 78

This game had the potential for a cup upset with Walsall looking impressive as they took the lead and had

a couple of chances to further add to their lead before we managed to get back into the game with a well taken goal from the veteran Zurawski. The winner came from the returning "French Phenomonen" Arfa who cut in from the left-side of midfield, took the ball past several players before rifling the ball into the bottom right hand corner to secure the win which took us into the next round which will be up against Charlton.

29th January 2011

Birmingham 2

Basturk 18 Rosenberg 75

Bolton 0

Having made several changes for the game to give some of the first team players a well needed break, I was still quite confident that the team I sent out would do the business. Another superb solo goal from Basturk and a powerful shot from Rosenberg sealed the points for us.

2nd February 2011

Blackburn 0

Birmingham 1

Harbuzi 76

Looked like being one of those games where every shot never looked like finishing up in the net with their keeper in very good form and some poor finishing from the strikers. That was until the ball broke to Harbuzi who then despatched the ball into the net past the keeper to leave us very happy at going home with all three points.

Season Review So Far

Having settled on a formation, tactic and starting lineup, we're finally showing our true form as a team which is shown by our 3rd place in the league at the moment. We've still got to face Chelsea, Everton and Man Utd in a row soon but i'm hopeful that we can get something out of those games and end up in the CL spots which would be a tremendous achievement for us come the end of the season.

Fernandez left during the transfer window as a 25m bid from Chelsea was too good to turn down, especially given

that he wanted wages that were totally out our wage structure which was a shame as i'd loved to have kept him.

I secured a forward to replace him which was Grillo from Man Utd for a fee of 5m, he looks impressive and should lessen the blow off losing Fernandez and i'm sure with the experience of Owen alongside him, they'll hopefully strike up a good partnership to help us keep going with our recent run as we look to secure a CL spot for next season.

The money from the Fernandez deal has also given me some breathing space in the old bank balance as we're losing money every month due to not having a big stadium and it'll also allow me to bring in some re-inforcements for hopefully ourCL campaign next season.

BelfastNiall · July 4, 2005

I'm fed up of reading about you guys winning. Where's Mo?

BelfastNiall · July 4, 2005

This is a tribute...

Can't let the untimely passing of young Sam go without comment. This is a sad day for EPL Challenge as Mr Boo Chard was one of our most active twits, I mean members, regularly turning up for the game, getting on his old Sam Soap Box and passing comment on all the issues of the day - such as who was the best lookin bird in Big Brother, who was the biggest idiot in er, Big Brother and being a particularly vociferous critic of the Ferguson regime at Man Utd whenever they lost a match - which gives me one last opportunity to mention the FA Cup Final once again and how good Arsenal are at taking penalty kicks.

Unfortunately as Sam, like Rick, is indeed a Man Utd fan, his opinions were usually only fit for the recycle bin but we were able to overlook that as he strived (and failed ) to win trophies at Spurs and Aston Villa. Sam was always a dangerous opponent and a much improved manager from his stint in EPL Challenge for 03/04 where he just bought old, geriatric players and got beat almost every week. Sam possibly would have won the FA Cup with Villa had his machine not decided to kick him out of the game after 8 minutes but that was the way things went for Bouchard. An unlucky chap but as he danders off hoping to be lucky in luurve - we wish him all the best of luck in attracting the latest piece of skirt that has caught Sam's ever wandering eye. God knows he will need it....

Seriously though, Sam will be fondly remembered and hopefully will be back in for FM06 when I hear there may be a vacancy at some team like newly promoted Wigan or West Ham on the go. Â£50 to arrive by the first day for the season though young Sam and your application will definitely be stamped "approved" by my self appointed second in command, Rickster Boult. All the best and by the way, Mel laughed her knickers off at your song list!!

AsherDSSc · July 4, 2005

Another Tribute...

I don't know exactly how many people out there read this EPL thread other than its members, but the fact Terrence is leaving us is a great shame. Ok he might not be the best looking (obviously i am) or the smartest (obviously me again) but he brought laughter to the clan which only 1 other person could bring (me for a 3rd time.)

His updates were not up to my high standards, and i may have beaten him 8-0 just before he left, but i'll always remember Sam as the guy who tried and failed to be me Haircuts were copied, tactics stolen, cars vandelised but the lad never gave up and for that i applaud him.

Come to think of it, that isn't much of a tribute, just me gloating....

I can't really say too much as i'd be here all day, i'll just leave it with Sam 'EPL Legend'

BelfastNiall · July 4, 2005

Now Rick, I could just about take you nominated yourself as Second in Command.

Then I could just about take you nominating yourself as an EPL Legend!!

But stealing my banner for your posts!! That is an outrage!!

AsherDSSc · July 4, 2005

What do you mean YOUR banner...

I made that banner with my own 2 hands and everybody in EPL including myself are getting sick and tired of your childish outburts

STFC will rule again · July 5, 2005

Go to your rooms without your tea until you've thought about your argument

BelfastNiall · July 8, 2005

Silverware returns to Goodison Park

Everton once again have a nice shiny trophy in the cabinet as the Carling Cup returns to the club for the first time since 2006. Now there has been a lot of guff talked about it only being the Carling Cup by envious managers, however it has to be pointed out that this season every manager in the game was chasing this trophy with their best efforts, as with a strong Chelsea and Man Utd in the game, it is now an important piece of silverware to be snapped up. Here's how it was won in grand style beating most of the other managers in the game.

Round 3 - Boult Bludgered

The cudgels came out and Rick "Pour me Another(hic) Boult's Man United are sent scampering back to Manchester with their tails firmly placed behind their legs on the back of a 3-0 hiding at Goodison Park. Everton were off and running and Boult was back on the drink.

Round 4 - Boro Bashed and Bruised

10 men Everton win at the Riverside despite Kim Kallstrom receiving his marching orders in the first minute. A 2-1 win sets up a Quarter Final tie with Champions Chelsea.

Quarter Final - King Capitulates in extra time

Chelsea equalise with 8 minutes left to bring the game into extra time. However, the introduction of Petrov and Gilardino sees Everton romp home with a 3-1 win to see off King's men for the second time this season. Always nice beating the sugar daddy's boys.

Semi Final - Nilsen Not at the Races.

After an exhilarating 4-4 draw at Fratton Park, Everton score early against 10 man Portsmouth at Goodison and are never in any danger of missing out on a return to Wembley. Portsmouth now firmly established as mid table has beens.

Carling Cup Final

Everton 3 - 0 Tottenham

So the big day arrived as the Carling Cup Final featured a resurgent Everton side against the current FA Cup holders and UEFA Cup holders Tottenham Hotspur managed by David Pagi. A few weeks earlier, Everton had dumped Pagi's side out of the FA Cup in the 4th Round recording a convincing win to give the Toffees a psychological edge going into the final. The Everton management and players were confident as Pagi's men seemed to be suffering from Wembley nerves, taking an absolute age to get out of the dressing room and into the tunnel. The game plan for Everton was to keep dangerman Stuart Downing quiet and team selection reflected that as Nigel De Jong moved to right back and was assigned a one to one job on the England winger.

After a good opening Everton soon took the lead when Italian maestro Alberto Gilardino fired home after 20 odd minutes to ease Everton into the lead. With Spurs' main threat coming through the probing and long shots of Tomas Hitselsberger, Everton couldn't relax until one of our star men lived up to his billing scoring a wonder goal just before half time. Christian Wilhelmssen, who was cruelly discarded by Chelsea manager Danny King for a bargain Â£5m pounds two seasons ago, picked the ball up just outside the Spurs half. With not many options in front of him, the Swedish winger proceed to run at the Spurs defence sparking fear and panic into Pagi's eyes. As Wilhemssen beat the first man, then the second and approached the last defender protecting Akineev in the Spurs goal, Wembley rose to it's feet in anticipation of a superb individual effort. As Wilhelmssen weaved his way onto goal, the finish was exquisite as Everton moved two in front. Into the second half, with the ineffective Downing now replaced by Gambino, Spurs were soon out of the game as an injury left them down to 10 men having made all three subs. With minutes remaining, Cana fired home to make it 3-0 and a convincing, one sided final was over. Murphy was a trophy winner again:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Firstly I'd like to say unlucky to Spurs. Pagi has done a great job down there to turn them back into one of England's top sides. However, I'm delighted with this win. We've been slightly disappointing in cup competitions for the past few seasons and it was our target at the start of the season to capture one of the cups this season. Now we've won the Carling Cup - despite some very difficult ties to negotiate - we hope to go on and also lift the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup as I look to re-establish Everton as the best side in England. With the strength and finances of some of our rivals, that is probably the hardest challenge I've ever faced in football. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

FA Cup 5th Round

WBA 2 - 2 Everton

First game against WBA under new manager Daniel Caruso provided us with a step into the unknown down at the Hawthorns making this a tricky tie. Daniel is probably unaware but I have never lost a game down there although we came very close to being knocked out here, just a few days after the Carling Cup Final. With half of my squad not in great condition and suffering some major injuries (Perea in particular) I was delighted when Kim Kallstrom fired home a curling effort to give us the lead in the first half. However, to their credit WBA came back at us and when the went 2-1 ahead and most of my side looking knackered, I didn't hold out much hope of a comeback. However, Murphy's sides never give up and with 4 minutes to go, Giovanni Dos Santos scored a beautiful lob from just outside the six yard box to bring the game level. A great moment as I thought we were gone. As I anticipated a replay though, the referee awarded WBA a penalty in the 91st minute giving Hersi the chance to win the game for Albion. Isaksson though fancies his first FA Cup Winners medal and as I anticipated FA Cup exit and disappointment, the Swedish keeper stood firm to save the penalty and send the game to an immediate replay, 3 days later at Goodison Park.

Everton 2 - 1 WBA

In contrast, I have a poor record vs Albion at Goodison but nerves were soon settled when Kallstrom again scored to make it 1-0. However, Albion's boss Caruso quickly proved he is no mug by encouraging his side once again to come back from behind. At 1-1 WBA were unlucky not to take the lead when Charisteas hit a shot off the post. His failure meant that when Vittek fired home with six minutes remaining, it was Everton who progress to the Quarter Finals and a home tie against Sheffield Wednesday.

FA Barclaycard Premiership

Hoping to put enough points together to sneak into the top 4 and the Champions League spots in the last nine games. Should have had a few more points recently than we have taken. Chelsea arrived at Goodison and Danny King was desperate to avoid a third defeat this season to the Toffees and inspired his side to come back from 3-1 down (courtesy of a Gilardino hat trick) to luckily nick a 3-3 draw and a point. A 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford and forcing Rick to change his formation to a 4-1-3-2 just highlighted that there is no team Boult fears more than Everton. A lucky win for the United Reds was recorded when Ammendolea scored in the first half. A disappointing 0-0 draw vs Leicester City followed, Leicester having caused all of us a lot of trouble this season. Still it could be a lot worse, just ask Andy Nilsen.

Mr Leeds United · July 9, 2005

Back in business and a horror injury

After a bit of a rocky start but my next game vs Fulham lived up to my expectation with West Brom picking up all 3 points in a 1-0 away win where luck today was on are side. Firstly Refreshed from injury Delgado came back and pounced on a mistake by Fulham goalie Ochoa a minute before half time. 3 mins before that Fulham experieced Australian winger Brett Emerton had to be strched off with a injury. 8 mins after half time another struck of luck came for us when Fulham Swedish striker Marcus Berg got sent off so that was another stroke of luck for us. Even with 1 man advantage the game was balanced untill with 15 mins to go Fulham were pressing hard, which nearly paid off but with my German goalie Sascha Schwarz pulling off some magnificant saves and a mixture of bad finishing by Fulham. Man of the Match went rightly so to my goalie Sascha Schwarz.

Next came a F.A cup 4th round tie against Balckpool Away. I decided to play my 2nd team which made us confortably win 2-0 in this match with Mitch Van Bovene wrapping the game up within the first 15mins but despite 2 sending off in the second half to 2 Balckpool defenders we still came under pressure so Man of the Match went to my reserve goalie Marko Knezevic.

Next Came up Manchester City at home who were 18th one place below us so this was a crucial relegation battle match, which ended in a very exciting and entertaining match finished 5-2 with us having come back from being one goal down twice. First with Macken starting city off then Delgado pegging back 14mins later, imedialtly after that Pezzarossi makes it 2-1 to City. Ten minutes later in the space of 2 mins Charistaes and Hersi makes it 3-2 to West Brom. Then 9 mins later Charistaes again makes it 4-2. But disarter struck in the 56 minute, when just back from injury Cesar Delgado was strecthed off with a suspected broken leg and could be out for 7 months, so that was his season over. Then in the 86th minute Youssouf Hersi raps it up with him and Angelos Charisteas putting in a 10/10 performance but Charisteas pick up the man of the match award. After the match I told my players that how were gonna play like that for the rest of the season.

Now with a striker crisis coming along again I had to scourer the transfer market for suitable players, thank God for generous manager of Manchester United Rick Boult whoâ€™s team were 1st in the league. He offered me the chance of loaning out players he did not need so, I quickly pounced on his offer with only 3 days of the transfer window left open so I got 21 year old French centre forward Khiri Achraf and 27 year old Serbia and Montenegro Striker Danko Lazovic on 3 month loans untill end of April. I also saw we were very weak down the right flank with only new boy Anton Ferdinand suitable for that role in my eyes, so I tried to get Ricardo Quaresma from Manchester United but the player refused, so I had a problem but then a agent aproaches me saying a player called Alan Storrie wants to join your club great I said and I got shown some footage of a match he played in at Middlesborugh when they romped Doncaster 4-0 and Alan Storrie was the assist in every goal and even scored one of them, so I thought Iâ€™m placing a bid, although Boro holded out Â£6m I felt he is going to bring us Â£ in return.

Next came up Bolton Away, where all signings had there chance to impresss me today. Thing did not look good 8mins in when Manu del Moral hit one just outside area to kick Bolton off, but immedialtely from the kick off new boy Alan Storrie hit a great thorough cross in to loan signing Danko Lazovic to level the score. Due to a mixture of poor finishing and great goalkeeping the sides were level for untill the 92nd minute when disarter struck as Phil Connor of Bolton Wanderers hit a 30 yard which went past out of position Sascha Schwarz. So the Man of the Match went Bolton Substitute Julian Gray.

Next up came Blackburn Rover at home, where thing were looking up again with a healthy 4-1 win. Firstly the rout got started by new boy Alan Storrie making it 1-0, before half time Charisteas made it 2-0. After half time John Stead own goal made it 3-0 to us, then 66 minutes in Heinze gives Blackburn a way back into the game by scoring a own goal and making it 3-1, but then 8 mins later the game was put beyond all doubt by 22 year old Belguim Left winger Wouter Vandermieren makes it 4-1 with a great curling long range effort. The man of the match without a doubt was Wouter Vandermieren.

Next came up another relegation battle this time away to Queens Park Rangers in which we romped to a 2-0 win. Achraf putting us 1-0 up then deep into the second half substitute Bradley Wright-Philips rounds off the 2-0 win. Which boosts us up into 16th. The man of the match was Scottish new boy winger Alan Storrie.

Next up came Nialâ€™s Everton in the F.A cup 5th round we had a big advantage as our player were rested for a week unlike Nialâ€™s who were all tired. The match itself was quite evenly matched with both side pressing in certain periods of the game. The goals started when West Brom failed to clear a corner so Kallstrom from outside the area hits one with his powerful left foot. In the second half West Brom equalised with a great finish from Mitch Van Bovene. We should of had the game rapped up before 75 mins but for Charisteas finishing but despite all that we score to make it 2-1 with Marko Dinjar hit one from outside the area similar to Kallstrom goal. Then in the 88th minute West Brom fail to clear the ball out of the box and Dos Santos for Everton Levels the score. But deep into stoppage time we have the chance to win the game after Lorik Cana foul on Rodriguez awards us a penalty, so Hersi steps up but gets his penalty saved by a magnificant Andreas Isaksson who get the Man of the Match award and the match goes to a replay. It would of been criminal to rob the game in injury time after the sides were mostly even througout the match.

Exactely 3 days later come the replay so Nialâ€™s playerâ€™s are even more tired tan before so I have more believe we can win this game. So we get started and yet again Kallstrom hit one from 25yards out and Everton have 1-0 advantage and Van Bovene equalised 20 mins later before half time. After half time it was more of Evrton piling on pressure and in the 86 minute it paid off with Robert Vittek giving Everton a 2-1 win. Man of the Match went to Everton Defender Jouaville Jerome who was a rock at the back for Everton. So the F.A cup dream over for another year letâ€™s hope for better luck next year.

Next up I played Andy Nilsenâ€™s Portsmouth at home although Andy had his assitant manager took charge due to him having to be at another appoitment, but his touch of genius was needed tonite as we romped to a 3-0 easy win, with Achraf, Rodriguez, and substitute getting the goals for the easy win. Man of the Match was Hersi after creating and involved in all play today. This result put me into 15th postion in the league

Next was a trip to White Hart Lane to play David Pagi Tottenham. A very thrilling but disappointing match . Firstly back from loan Matteo di Legge who was in for Alan Storrie broke the deadlock within 8 mins and put us 1-0 up. Tottenham 20 mins later score through Gokdeniz but still I had the belief we could win with a host of chances we had after. After half time Calaio scored for Tottenham to make it 2-1, but still we pressed on and on and there goalie Akinfeev was pulling off some worldclass saves. Still pressing and pressing Tottenham rapped it up after hitting West Brom on the counter and Tim Janssen finishing it off. Final score 3-1. Man of the Match without a doubt went to Tottenham 25 year old Russia Goalie Igor Akinfeev.

The next to match was one the fans would be outraged if we lost the first was against local rival Aston Villa the next was against our other local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers. So first up was Aston Villa at home where we came up tops with a 3-1 win..Danko Lazovic started the rout then substitute Soma makes it 2-0 in 80th minute. Villa pegged one back to make it 2-1 through Â£75,000 a week Djbrill Cisse then Soma in stoppage time puts the icing on the cake and made it 3-1 final score. Despite us winning the match Villa player Daniel Bierokfia got the Man of the Match award. Sot the result pleased the fans and gave them high expectation for the rest of the season matches. Next was the other rival match against Wolverhampton Wanderers Away where we went back home with a nervous 2-0 win. Despite being 2-0 up it was Wolves who were pressing and very fortunate not to score if it wasnâ€™t for the poor finishing. It started when Ross for Wolves cleared the ball into his own goal to put WBA 1-0 up 10mins before half time Hersi pounced on the rebound from Kaspar Schmeichel to put the final score 2-0 to West Brom . The man of the match went rightly so to Youssouf Hersi capping a 10/10 performance.

Next up for 3rd time this season was Nialâ€™s Everton at home, where we triumphed to a 3-0 win. Danko Lazovic started the scoring 5 minutes in, 6 minutes later Khiri Achraf scored scored to make it 2-0 and Hersi in stoppage time rounds off the rout. With no real pressure from a weak Everton side, this result pleased me , the fans the board and even more importantly the players. This redult boosted me from 15th to 12th

Next was a new test against 2nd in the league Chelsea managed by Danny King, I knew this would be a tough battle but had every confidance and win to prove we belong challenging for the Tittle . The match ended in total failure in a 3-0 loss with Dinjar and Storrie playing abosoulute *****.. Sivok started Chelsea off then Fernandez and Kallon rounding off a 3-0 home win for Chelsea. That was not the performance I wanted and I was disgraced by my players performance.

Next came Rickâ€™s Manchester United but managed by his assitant manager due to him having other appointments already won the title Man utd did not need to put out a fashionablr side. Achraf was playing for Man utd after him and Danko Lazovic loans expired on that day. The match ended in a confortable 2-0 win with both team having chances. Youssouf Hersi gettinf both goals in 27th and 39th minute to beat Manchester United. Man of the Match went indefinaltly to Hersi with a 9/10 performance. I was extremely pleased my player bounced back after the embarissing Chelsea defeat.

Manager of the Month

After stunning performances from my team this month the Premier League has decided to give the Manager of the Month to me. I was pleased to recieve the award and dedicated it to all the player that put hard work in for me in that past month.

Next match was Leicester Away where I expected nothing less than 3 points as they were only 2 places below us . We broke the deadlock in the 43th minute when Anfelos Charisteas scored from a Wouter Vandermieren cross. In the closing stages Leicester were putting us under pressure and in 88 minute we went down to 10 men after Zdenek Pospech was streched off and we already used all our substitutes. Man of the Match went to Wouter Vandermieren.

Now we come to the last game of the 2010/2011 season vs Charlton at home where I wanted all 3 points if we were gonna have any hope of finishing 11th and the highest we possibly could. We started the game going 1-0 up in 6 miniutes thorugh a Angelos Charisteas headed corner. Storrie soon made it 2-0 in the 24th minute.Van Bovene made it 3-0 midway through the second half. Shortly after Hersi lob over the Charlton goalie amde it 4-0 to complete the win. With no real pressure this was a fairly easy win and put me in the final league position of 11th. Man of the Match was Yousouff Hersi.

After coming in on Boxing Day of this season I have turned this club from the brink of relegation in 17th to 11th in the Space of 6 months and next season the fans expect sucess from this turbulant season so expectations will be high. So when me and the squad meed up on July 1st we will be training hard for a Title challange and Silverware is guarenteed next year for all you loyal West Bromwch Albion supporters Thank you for keeping behind me and team.

Signing Completed for next season

(D/DM R) Kasper Bogelund from Everton for Â£2.5m

(AM RLC )Aaron Lennon from Aston Villa for Â£2.2m

(SW/D C) Trent McClenaham from Tottenham for Â£!m

(M LC) Peter Whittingham from Aston Villa for Â£675k

(D/DM C) Borja from Zaragoza on a free transfer

(F LC) Guiza from Southampton on a free transfer

Playerâ€™s going out

(D/DM RLC) Simone Padoin to Birmingham for Â£8.5m

(F LC) Gabriele Cipriani to AC Milan for Â£2.5m

(DC) Alessio Salerno to Tottenham for Â£1m

(AM/F RC) Bradley Wright-Phillips to Wolverhampton Wanderers for Â£500k

(D/DM R) Zdenek Pospech to Queens Park Rangers for free

(DMC) Alessandro Rocca to Catania for free

(DMC) Sergei Tsepluhin to Deportiva La Coruna for free

Mr Leeds United · July 9, 2005

League table

Dunga99 · July 10, 2005

Anyone know how many more posts there has to be before we start a new page

Mr Leeds United · July 10, 2005

I dunno just keep typing and will soon be there

Dunga99 · July 10, 2005

Good idea nice report by the way mate

Mr Leeds United · July 10, 2005

cheers took me 8 hours yesterday did it between matches when u lot were playing CL or Wefa cup or I finished early

AsherDSSc · July 10, 2005

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Now with a striker crisis coming along again I had to scourer the transfer market for suitable players, thank God for generous manager of Manchester United Rick Boult whoâ€™s team were 1st in the league. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Speaking the truth

Dunga99 · July 10, 2005

Well done for Rick winning the League.

AsherDSSc · July 10, 2005

Thanks very much

I didnt just win the league though, i dominated it

Dunga99 · July 10, 2005

See you could have been gracious like me and Niall about winning the premiership but you have to add a comment like that.

goat261 · July 10, 2005

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dunga99:

See you could have been gracious like me and Niall about winning the premiership but you have to add a comment like that. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

i was gracious to when i won it wasnt i?

BelfastNiall · July 10, 2005

Website updated. Usual place

Mr Leeds United · July 10, 2005

at last

Paul is the bomb · July 11, 2005

how does the game run with this many online players? i have found any more than 3 players causes a 15 second delay when pressing the mouse.

thanks

AsherDSSc · July 11, 2005

We use hamsters there much faster

Mr Leeds United · July 11, 2005

yey were on next page now to wreck it again lol

Dunga99 · July 11, 2005

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Paul is the bomb:

how does the game run with this many online players? i have found any more than 3 players causes a 15 second delay when pressing the mouse.

thanks </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Try doing this to fix the lag

STFC will rule again · July 11, 2005

It's A Beautiful Day In Brum

A glorious day in the UEFA Cup final between Birmingham City and Fulham as Birmingham Manager Ben Jackson finally had his hands on the trophy that he had been cruelly denied with the loss to Tottenham in the final last season.

We managed to grab a word with a clearly delighted Birmingham manager and found out his thoughts after the game and at securing the first trophy in his reign at the club.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">"I'd like thank my team for securing the first trophy of hopefully many at this club. Having had such a great fun to the UEFA Cup final last season, only to be denied by Pagi's resurgent Tottenham team, I thought that we could go one step further this season and am delighted to have been proved right. I'd like to say it was an honour to have played Mo's Fulham team in the final but I would be lying ;-) and I can promise the fans that with some more top quality signings we will be pushing all the way to add more trophies to the cabinet which will hopefully include a Premiership trophy." </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

UEFA Cup Final

18th May 2011

Birmingham 3

Adu 86, 90 Rosenberg 90

Fulham 0

Billed as 'a game you must miss' by some of the other managers in the league, the Clash of the Titans between

Birmingham and Fulham was turned on it's head with three of Fulham's players deciding to try taking apart the more skillful players that Birmingham possess leaving the referee no option but to send them off .

This gave the Birmingham players the opportunity to take control of the game as they put three late goals away

to secure the win and trophy. We're sure that Fulham will return bigger and better under their manager Mo and

you'll have to be sure to not miss the next match between the two sides as it's bound to be explosive .

AsherDSSc · July 13, 2005

Oh What A Night

Manchester United - Treble Winners

Andy Cullen · July 14, 2005

Good work lads, this thread has been a good read

keedo666 · July 14, 2005

D'Ardenne IV PROMISES VILLA THRILLER

Im tempted to open with the usual cliche that an unknown manager has been unveiled at Aston Villa and the fans are upset i have been given the job but as its late and im verifiably ****ed im not going to! Instead i will simply issue a declaration of intent, with regards to all the major trophies and competitions both domestic and continental, that i intend to put Villa on the map. Whats that i hear some heckling from the fat lad in the chelsea shirt in the front row(Yes danny i mean you), you doubt my ability as a manager, well my message to you is simply bring on game two of the season...im going to take you down to china town!(If i lose the match the aforementioned sentence was never here).

Anyway on a more serious note my plan is to lower the age of the squad as the majority of the players are the wrong side of 30, and see if i can finish in the european placings in the league, a difficult task give the quality in EPL Challenge, but its "tight at the top". Im in the intertoto cup so will have a jilt at europe but am not holding out for too much...a decent cup run would please deadly Doug with some funds dripping into his pockets.

So the transfers so far

IN

Postiga-Chelsea-Â£10.25m

Failed at spurs as we all know but has improved as a player and had success at chelski, however abramovich' need to bring in another four SC over the summer led to postiga being recycled, and i was pleased for him to sign on.

Gouillot-Marseille-Â£5.5m

Incredidly promising dynamic french prospect, who looks like a future world class SC,10 u21 games 10goals says it it all really, and hes inclined to hit a 40 yard stinker.

Out

Barker-Newcastle-2.9m

good player but had no future except as a squad player, and with the chairman giving me a miserly budget,was shipped out

Van Nistelrooy

Free transfer to Sheffield Wednesday as i needed to shift his substantial wage from my budget, at 35 not the SC he once was but still sad to see him go.

some brazilian DC-Everton-Â£5m

Dont even know his name but played well in intertoto, at 28 was not going to develop further so took the cash and ran!

Watch this space more wheeler dealing surely to come.

Results

FC Nartin

Away won 4:1 goals-cisse 3,lampard 1

Home won 2:0 goals-Moore 1,nolan 1

Only cisse understood my pre match talk(he is french after all) and he raced to a hatrick before half time. Introducton of lampard at the interval led to a further goal...an easy win.

The home leg was a dull affair with the opposition offering nothing and i scored 2 simple goals.

Maritimo

Home 3:0 goals-drogba 2,nolan 1

Away 0:0

Comftorable win in front of a sell out villa park as we played with attacking verve and the Maritimo defence was overwhelmed.

The return leg was equaly one sided but there GK played a blinder!

Bochum

Home 1:0 goals-Nolan 1

Tight game with few chances but Vorisek and Nolan controlled the midfield superbly enabling our superiority to tell with a neatly taken goal by Nolan on the stroke of half time. A resoloute defensive performance in the second half enabled us to come away with a clean sheet meaning an away goal at Bochum should kill the tie....heres's hoping.

So a solid start to my managerial career at Vila, but i will have to continue my good start as the hatchet man deadly doug ellis is waiting to cut my jacob' off at the first opportunity.

Dunga99 · July 16, 2005

This has not been the greatest season for Chelsea Football Club finishing the without a single Trophy. It was a hard year with Manchester United in awesome form for the whole season and never really suffering from a bad patch in form. Our bad patch came early on in the season when we only took 2 points from 15 and we never really recovered from that and as a result the fans were on my back for most of the season. Reaching my second Champions League Final in the space of two year was a major plus but to lose like the way I did was a major low .

Resultsâ€¦

Premiership Game 23

Aston Villa 1

Davenport 31

Chelsea 3

Dâ€™Alessandro 56 Nilmar 86 Robinho 90

Man of the Match: Alessandro 10/10 Chelsea

Attendance-58459

Refereed by Lewis Roach

This game turned out to be last game against Sam as he is taking a much needed break to recharge his batteries. This game was all Chelsea but Villa scored against the run of play from a corner. Second half and still itâ€™s all Chelsea and then man of the match Alessandro hits a sweet 30 yard shot to pull us level. Then a quick double from Nilmar and Robinho gave us the victory. Farewell Sam you will be missed buddy

3-1 Win

FA Cup 4th Rd

Chelsea 4

Berbatov 2, 37 Postiga 17 Boateng 90

Leicester 0

Man of the Match: Borre 10/10 Chelsea

Attendance-50286

Refereed by Andrew May

Berbatov got us of to a good start scoring in the first 2 minutes and once Postiga had doubled our lead the game was over as Leicester had nothing left to throw at us. Berbatov scored his second of the game from just outside the box and Boateng scored in the dieing seconds of the game to take us into the next round of the cup. 4-0 Win

Premiership Game 24

Chelsea 5

Dâ€™Alessandro 21 Guarin 80 Boateng 87 Donaldson og 89 Tuncay 90

Manchester City 1

Vargas 32

Man of the Match: Alessandro 10/10 Chelsea

Attendance-50611

Refereed by Mike Riley

This is about as one sided a game that there could be with Chelsea controlling the game from start to finish but coming into the last 10 minutes of the game we found ourselves drawing. It was the usual story with Chelsea having shot after shot stopped by the Manchester City keeper who was on a 10 and then they scored with the 1 and only shot on target. In the last 10 minutes of the game Chelsea got the breaks scoring 4 goals and getting the 3 points there play deserved. 5-1 Win

Premiership Game 25

Chelsea 5

Sivok 24 Cani 27, 42 Postiga 39 Boateng 53

Wolves 1

Dunn 7

Man of the Match: Pander 9/10 Chelsea

Attendance-45232

Refereed by Jason Wilkinson

A chance to give Wolves some payback after the defeat I suffered to them at the start of the season. It didnâ€™t start to plan with old Birmingham City player David Dunn scoring first. Knowing Wolves formation always works well against mine I changed things around and that was the turning point in the game. Chelsea were awesome after that putting 5 past a team that outplayed and outclassed us earlier in the season.

5-1 Win

Premiership Game 26

Everton 3

Gilardino 34, 39 & 50

Chelsea 3

Dâ€™Alessandro 27 Boateng 59, 72

Man of the Match: Gilardino 10/10 Everton

Attendance-44178

Refereed by David Lloyd

After a good start from Chelsea we found ourselves 1-0 up thanks to Alessandro (that goal scoring midfield player) until Everton scored with there first attack to level the game then Lobont who usually is a world class keeper makes a massive **** up and passes the ball straight to Gilardino who slot the ball past him to give Everton the lead. Second half some more dodgy goal keeping lets Everton take a 3-1 lead and it time for all out attack and Boateng takes to pitch to replace Cani and he makes an impact scoring both goals to level the game and then Fernandez breaks clear and his shot beats the keeper only to hit the post that would have given Chelsea the deserved win. 3-3 Draw

Transfers Inâ€¦

Fernandez from Birmingham for 25 million

I did want to bid for Fernandez at this point of time as he was refusing to sign a new contact and I could get him on a free in a couple of years but Manchester United making a bid forced my hand. I was the man who first brought Fernandez to the premiership and I knew what a class player he is, so I couldnâ€™t let him fell into the hands of our deadly rival United.

Premiership Game 27

West Ham 0

Chelsea 3

Carretto 5 Postiga 35, 67

Man of the Match: Kallon 9/10 Chelsea

Attendance-35621

Refereed by Alan Wiley

With a big game against Manchester United next I rested some players knowing West Ham isnâ€™t exactly the strongest team in the premiership. Carretto got the lads on the way with a volley from outside the box before Postiga double sealed the win with 2 well taken goals in each half. 3-0 Win

Premiership Game 28

Chelsea 7

Terry 21 Fernandez 46, 68 & 73 Tuncay 58, 78 Cani 88

Manchester United 2

Rooney 12 Smylie 25

Man of the Match: Fernandez 10/10 Chelsea

Attendance-54934

Refereed by Mark Halsey

This has to be my best result since I became manager of Chelsea FC. Make not doubt about this game Chelsea took Manchester United apart making there manager look like a pub football manager at best . With all the early chances going to Chelsea Rooney scored against the run of play only for Terry to level the game from a corner. Then Manchester United had the cheek to score again against the run of play only for Fernandez to open his account for Chelsea. After that there was no stopping Chelsea as they tore them apart with total football and Rick Boult was seen heading down the tunnel after the fifth goal went in. In short Manchester had no answer for Chelsea quick flowing football and thatâ€™s the double over them this season in the league. 7-2 Win

After the game King said

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Mr Boult your boys took one hell of a beating out there today. There been a lot written in the press coming from you about how great you are so this was a timely reminder </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Fernandez also gave a quick interview after his hat trick.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">It is true that Manchester United did try and sign me but they couldnâ€™t reach a deal with Birmingham City. I was more than happy to sign for Chelsea as Danny King was the first manager to give me my chance in the premiership and after a result like that I know I have come to the right club. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Premiership Game 29

Portsmouth 0

Chelsea 1

Robinho 90

Man of the Match: SWP 9/10 Portsmouth

Attendance-39631

Refereed by Mike Riley

This was the best time to face the one season wonders with there morale at rock bottom. As usual this was a tough match as Andy knows exactly how to play against my formation. I had to wait until the last kick of the game for buy of the season Robinho to slot home the ball. 1-0 Win

FA Cup 5th Rd

Southampton 3

Sparv 18 Buyten 42 Guiza 76

Chelsea 2

Postiga 25 Robinho 68

Man of the Match: Taddei 10/10 Southampton

Attendance-32147

Refereed by Andrew Fry

This wasnâ€™t a good game for Chelsea that spelt the end of there FA cup run. It seemed every time Southampton went on the attack they scored with even a defender Buyten scored a 35 yard free kick pass my goal keeper. Southampton was worth the win as Chelsea just didnâ€™t turn up for this game. 3-2 Defeat

Champions League 1st Knockout Stage 1st Leg

Inter 1

Alberto 85

Chelsea 3

Dâ€™Alessandro 14 Postiga 59 Robinho 81

Man of the Match: Alessandro 9/10 Chelsea

Attendance-85595

Refereed by Andrew Fry

Chelsea in Europe are in a different class of the own. This was a re-run of last years final and it was almost the same result apart from Inter getting a goal in the last 5 minutes against the run of play. My Champions league run might be the reason why I still have a job at Chelsea which stops Ben Jackson ordering his new seat and desk for the office.

3-1 Win

Premiership Game 30

Leicester 0

Chelsea 0

Man of the Match: Cani 9/10 Chelsea

Attendance-29856

Refereed by Peter James

What a boring game with either team creating much. Chelsea had the best of the chances but just couldnâ€™t put them away. This had been the main problem this year with us trying to retain the title which is drawing to many games. 0-0 Draw

Champions League 1st Knockout Stage 2nd Leg

Chelsea 1

Berbatov 28

Inter Milan 0

Man of the Match: Lobont 8/10 Chelsea

Attendance-54868

Refereed by Lubos Michel

This game was settled by a lethal finish from Berbatov and some fine goal keeping from Lobont as Chelsea booked themselves into the next round. Again Chelsea was good for the win but could and should have scored more goals. 1-0 Win

Premiership Game 31

Chelsea 3

Robinho 22, 25 Fernandez 72

Charlton 0

Man of the Match: Fernandez 10/10 Chelsea

Attendance-42152

Refereed by Mark Halsey

Good to get back to winning ways after my last draw in the premiership with Robinho and Fernandez running riot up front with some lethal finishing again. No matter how many games I win I canâ€™t keep up with Manchester United as they always win too. So the league is heading towards Old Trafford. 3-0 Win

Premiership Game 32

Southampton 2

Sparv 28 Eliakwu 48

Chelsea 2

King 51 Dâ€™Alessandro 58

Man of the Match: Taddei 9/10 Southampton

Attendance-32216

Refereed by Uriah Rennie

Iâ€™m beginning to hate Southampton first they knock me out the FA cup then they have the cheek to go 2 goals ahead of me with there first two shot on target. A headed goal from a corner from King got us back into the game and that man again Dâ€™Alessandro leveled the game but we couldnâ€™t get the winner our play deserved. 2-2 Draw

Champions League Qtr Final 1st Leg

Werder Bremen 0

Chelsea 2

Tuncay 2, 45

Man of the Match: Rosicky 10/10 Chelsea

Attendance-42947

Refereed by John Graham

I got the easiest draw in the quarter final against Werder Bremen but I didnâ€™t want go to weak in this game as this is my last chance of a trophy this season. Tuncay has been a good player for my in the Champions League bid since he signed from Manchester United and he didnâ€™t let me down . He scored a double in the first half to all but kill of this tie. Werder Bremen didnâ€™t offer us any problems in defence and we could have scored a couple more goals but Iâ€™m still happy about this result. 2-0 Win

Premiership Game 33

Chelsea 1

Tuncay 40

Arsenal 1

Chevanton 24

Sent Off: Carvelho 2 mins Chelsea Barreto 34 Arsenal

Man of the Match: Evra 8/10 Arsenal

Attendance-54920

Refereed by Steve Dunn

Arsenal was the last team to beat me in the premiership so I was looking for some payback but that idiot Carvelho got sent off within 2 minutes of the first half. Chevanton scored and Arsenal was all over me but then the referee sent of Barreto which gave us a way back into the game. Tuncay then made a darting run from midfield and scored a lovely goal but again we couldnâ€™t find the winner and I blame Carvelho for these dropped points. He was fined two weeks wages for that red card and he will be on his way in the summer out of the club. 1-1 Draw

Champions League Qtr Final 2nd Leg

Chelsea 4

Berbatov 38 Guerra 55 Nilmar 59 Carretto 82

Werder Bremen 0

Man of the Match: Nilmar 10/10 Chelsea

Attendance-48873

Refereed by Kenny Clark

Another 4 star performance by Chelsea in Europe bushing aside Werder Bremen to book themselves a place in the semi final of the Champions League. I was able to rest Robinho for this tie but it didnâ€™t make any difference with Chelsea having too much class for Sun bed nicking Germans. 4-0 Win

Premiership Game 34

Birmingham 0

Esposito missed pen 17 minutes

Chelsea 3

Robinho 28 Rosicky 60 Nilmar 62

Man of the Match: Rosicky 10/10 Chelsea

Attendance-39923

Refereed by Mark Clattenburg

With the Birmingham manager again stating that he is open for approach for the Chelsea Job this was a must win game and again like the game at Stamford Bridge the Chelsea fans was singing you can keep Ben Jackson and put him up your backside by the end. It could have been a different game if Esposito has scored the penalty but I still think Chelsea would have won this game. 3-0 Win

Premiership Game 35

Chelsea 3

Sivok 33 Fernandez 36 Kallon 78

W.B.A 0

Man of the Match: Cani 9/10 Chelsea

Attendance-50395

Refereed by Peter James

This was my first game against the new WBA manager Daniel Caruso. Unlucky for Daniel Chelsea was on top form at the time of this meeting and they tore WBA apart even using mainly a second team due to the forthcoming semi final in the Championâ€™s League. Fernandez is looking the real deal since his 25 million pound move from Birmingham scoring one and setting up another. 3-0 Win

Champions League Semi Final 1st Leg

Real Madrid 1

Villa 77

Chelsea 1

Tuncay 9

Man of the Match: Tuncay 9/10 Chelsea

Attendance-74937

Refereed by Gianloca Papersesta

Chelsea really should have won this game by half time but apart from Tuncay getting his usual goal in Europe Chelsea missed a hat full of chances. Second half and Real Madrid came more into the game with ex Portsmouth star Villa hitting the net and in the end Chelsea was lucky to escape with a draw. 1-1 Draw

Premiership Game 36

Liverpool 0

Chelsea 3

Boateng 2 Berbatov 13 Fernandez 34

Man of the Match: Lobont 9/10 Chelsea

Attendance-60867

Refereed by Howard Webb

To be honest I didnâ€™t expect to win this game because with a game against Real Madrid in 4 days time and with the tie on a knife edge I rested the whole first choice 11. We got off to a flying start thanks to a headed goal from Boateng followed by a trade mark finish from Berbatov 11 minutes later. Fernandez seals the game with another impressive goal running 25 yards then shooting. 3-0 Win

Champions League Semi Final 2nd Leg

Chelsea 4

Robinho 3 Nilmar 30 Tuncay 59 Dâ€™Alessandro 80

Real Madrid 0

Man of the Match: Gallas 8/10 Chelsea

Attendance-54860

Refereed by Ai Uluyol

A very good win against the Spanish champions Real Madrid. Robinho got us of to a prefect start after only 3 minutes with a great solo goal and then Nilmar double the lead before half time. Second half more the same with Tuncay and Dâ€™Alessandro getting in on the act scoring one a piece. The news that Manchester United had beat Juv over two legs thanks to there assistant will see an all English final . 4-0 Win

Premiership Game 37

Chelsea 1

Tuncay 82

Fulham 0

Man of the Match: Robinho 10/10 Chelsea

Attendance-54914

Refereed by David Lloyd

I always seem to get some luck against Mo Fulham and this time it was no different, after some great defending from Fulham Tuncay found himself with some space just outside the area and slotted the ball home to keep up my fine record against Fulham. 1-0 Win

Premiership Game 38

Manchester City 2

Mutu 3 Renato 52

Chelsea 1

Nilmar pen 31

Man of the Match: Weidenfeller 9/10 Man City

Attendance-47879

Refereed by David Lloyd

How many games have I had like this season? To be honest I have lost count we have all the play and chances Manchester City score with there only attacks on goal and then the goal keeper turns into superman and saves everything I can throw at the them apart from a penalty. 2-1 Defeat

Champions League Final

Chelsea 1

Robinho 64

Manchester United 3

Ihan 17 Silvano 93, 105

Man of the Match: Jose Moreira 10/10 Chelsea

Attendance-82901

Refereed by Carlos Megia Davila

Manchester United has been awesome this season but as I have already beaten them twice this season I was hopeful. When Manchester United goal keeper Jose Mareria gets a 10 and the man of the match award for his performance you havenâ€™t got a chance to beat them. Chelsea had the better of the chances but the main differences in the match was the goal keepers and when Ronaldinho came on to the pitch he did change the game.

Chelsea Team

GK Lobont 7

RB Gallas 7

LB Bridge 7

CB Terry 7 ©

CB Bonera 7

DMC Carretto 7

MC Dâ€™Alessandro 7 sub 91 minâ€™s Cani 7

MC Rosicky 7 sub 61 minâ€™s Tuncay 7

AMC Robinho 7

FC Berbatov 7 sub 53 minâ€™s Postiga 7

FC Nilmar 7

Manchester United Team

GK Moreira 10

RB Seitardis 9

LB Ilham 8

CB Ferdinand 8

CB Chivu 7 ©

DMC Baptista 8

MC Silvano 10

MC Eto 7 sub 72 minâ€™s Ronaldinho 7

MC Vaart 10

FC Ammendolea 7 sub 71 minâ€™s Cerci 7

FC Rooney 10

Players stats..

Goals

1st. Robinho 21

2nd. Berbatov 17

3rd. Tuncay 15

4th. Nilmar 13

5th. Cani 11

Average Rating..

1st. Rosicky 8.21

2nd. Robinho 7.89

3rd. Dâ€™Alessandro 7.86

4th. Nilmar 7.79

5th. Berbatov 7.68

Most App..

1st. Lobont 46 (2)

2nd. Bridge 41

3rd. Terry 39

4th. Rosicky 34 (2)

5th. Robinho 31 (5)

Most Asts.

1st. Rosicky 17

2nd. Cani 15

3rd. Dâ€™Alessandro 13

4th. Tuncay 12

5th. Nilmar 11

Man of the match..

1st. Rosicky 8

2nd. Dâ€™Alessandro 7

3rd. Cani 5

4th. Vanden Borre 3

5th. Tuncay2

Chelsea Team

GK Lobont

RB Gallas

LB Bridge

CB Terry ©

CB Bonera

DMC Guarin

MC Dâ€™Alessandro

MC Rosicky

AMC Cani

FC Robinho

FC Nilmar

SB1 Stuhr-Ellegaard

SB2 Vanden Borre

SB3 Tuncay

SB4 Berbatov

SB5 Postiga

Now we are going to take a look and see how my buys have done on there first season at the club

L King from Tottenham for part/ex

What has happened to this player? He still has the class of a good defender but his fitness level is very poor. King hasnâ€™t been able to replace either Terry or Bonera in the heart of the Chelsea defence this season. Miss

Guaria from Tottenham for 15 million

Again his fitness level wasnâ€™t great when he first arrived but what a player his is. Still only young and will be a major force in the coming season for Chelsea push towards more trophies and league titles. Major Hit

Fernandez from Birmingham for 25 million

Only played a hand full of games so far but his best game for the club so far has to be the game against Manchester United where he got a hat trick. Was cup tied in the Champions League this season and with him in the team next season I believe we can win it again. Major Hit

Dunga99 · July 16, 2005

Season 2011/12 Predictions

Andy - Portsmouth aka One season wonder

Last season must have been Andy worse season since he took over at Portsmouth but with them not playing any kind of European football this season it should help there league form. Many people believe Portsmouth are a one man team who without Pazzini would be fighting relegation every year but Andy is a class manager and I think he could push for a Champions League place this season.

League: 4th

FA Cup: Qtr Final

Carling Cup: Semi Final

Europe: N/A

Action Jackson â€“ Birmingham

Ben is becoming the new Andy selling off all his good players for good money. He really landed on his feet getting the multi million pound squad which another great manager had built. Gave Birmingham City fans a taste of success last season by winning the Uefa cup last but really needs to be playing Champions League football.

League: 3rd

FA Cup: Semi Final

Carling Cup: 4th Roundl

Europe: Winners Uefa Cup

Daniel Caruso â€“ WBA

Daniel is the new manager to the clan picking up the pieces left by Mark Dâ€™Ardenne at WBA. He has already had a few impressive wins against good teams, the best beating Manchester United last season. His new signing Cassano will get him goals if he can keep him happy and I can see a good season coming for Daniel.

League: 9th

FA Cup: 5th Rd

Carling Cup: Semi Final

Europe: N/A

Danny King â€“ Chelsea

With Manchester United in this league most of us are playing for second place in all competitions. Chelsea will need to turn some of last season draws into win this season to have any hope of catching up with Manchester United. With the signing of Brazilian Kaka we should close that gap.

League: 2nd

FA Cup: 4th Rd

Carling Cup: Runners up

Europe: Runners up Champions League

Mark Dâ€™Ardenne â€“ Aston Villa

The curse of Newcastle and WBA has now taken over at Aston Villa to work his special kind of magic. Mark has taken over a really old team but with the signing of Postiga he will be able to score goals but I can only see a season of trouble for the Villa fans as they head towards the championship.

League: 18th

FA Cup: 4th Rd

Carling Cup: 4th

Europe: Qtr Final Uefa Cup

Mo IIyas â€“ Fulham

Mo is one of the best managers in the premiership but with one of the tightest chairmanâ€™s in the business he always has to work cut out with a small budget. Was unlucky last season in the Uefa cup final having 3 men sent off but had one of the results of the decade beating Milan 6-0 in the semi final.

League: 7th

FA Cup: 5th Rd

Carling Cup: Qtr Final

Europe: Semi Final Uefa Cup

Niall Murphy â€“ Everton

Again Niall is another top manager working with a limited budget. Everton have some class players in the form of Gilardino and Kallstrom but like a lot of the teams in the premiership now most of the stars are getting old. Only time will tell if Petrov will be the driving force behind the team again this season or are his legs past there best. Also will Niall assistant manager be able to carry on his good work while he is in honeymoon is another question.

League: 5th

FA Cup: Runner up

Carling Cup: Winners

Europe: Runner up Uefa Cup

David Pagi â€“ Tottenham

Tottenham is back in the Champions League where they belong thanks to Pagi. This is Pagi first season in the Champions League in Football manager and as a result his league form will suffer. I can see Tottenham having an average season unless they make a big name signing in the transfer market but Tottenham are a tough team to beat under David now.

League: 6th

FA Cup: 5th Rd

Carling Cup: Qtr Final

Europe: Qtr Final

Rick Boult â€“ Manchester United

What an awesome season Manchester United had under Rick Boult last season. The main question is can he repeat the success he had, in this manager opinion he can with the best squad in the league and no fewer than 8 world class forwards to pick from in every match. Only way I can see Manchester United slipping up is if Rick starts to spend more time in the pub than the training ground like he did a couple of season ago but again they will be the team to beat.

League: 1st

FA Cup: Winners

Carling Cup: Qtr Final

Europe: Winners

kndusr19 · July 16, 2005

Season 7 â€“ To be or not to be[\B]

End of season key game highlights:[\B]

Birmingham 0â€“0 Fulham[\B] EPL

Mo was glad that Ben was away as Ben has a top quality side at Birmingham and would have taken all three points with his presence at the side line. This was a surprisingly dull affair, something that Fulham are use to now .

Fulham 0â€“1 West Brom[\B] EPL

Dan has to be possibly one of the contenders for manager of the after taking over West Brom this season who were in the relegation zone and gently pushing them towards a mid-table position. If Dan had taken the helm at West Brom at the start of the season they would be pushing for an European place this season. A mistake by the Fulham defence, led to Delgado taking advantage and finishing clinically to give the Baggies the lead just before half-time. Fulham huffed and puffed in the second half but could not blow the brick house West Brom defence down in the second half.

In order to liven up Fulham, Mo visited Amsterdam for a few weeks and left his Assistant Manager in charge. The assistant manager did ok in Moâ€™s absence, the two most worrying results being that he managed to lose 2-1 at Upton Park to West Ham in the FA Cup 5th Rnd. Whilst also losing at home to Sampdoria 1-0 in the Uefa Cup 2nd Knockout Rnd Leg 1.

Sampdoria 0â€“1 Fulham[\B] EURO Cup 2nd Knockout Rnd Leg 2

When Mo returned with a few magic mushrooms to boost his lads for the second half of the season, he found a mammoth in trying to keep Fulham in Europe by turning a 1-0 deficit. Fortunately a Fulham strike against the run of play helped to take the game to penalties after the game finished 1-1 on aggregate. The Fulham players regularly practice penalties and this showed through as Fulham progressed into the next round with well taken penalties.

Fulham 2â€“0 Everton[\B] EURO Cup Qtr Final Leg 1

Mo took advantage of playing at home in the first leg and played beautiful attacking football to score two goals. After the two goals, Fulham operated more defensively in order not to give an away goal.

Tottenham 3â€“3 Fulham[\B] EPL

High flying Pagi was furious after this result, Mo was just grateful . After a see-saw and box to box football that Fulham are not really use to, Fulham grabbed a deserved equaliser to take a point from their local rivals.

Everton 1â€“0 Fulham[\B] EURO Cup Qtr Final Leg 2

After losing 2-0 in the first leg, Niall resorted to Ricks successful formation of 4-1-3-2 to break down Fulham. Mo told all his players to hold the ball and frustrate Everton to which Fulham are masters at now unless they have an off day. Everton scored one goal late one, but I think the following congratulation remark sums things up by Niall:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">â€˜f**k me wd Mo, i'm so fe*ked at that i'm off to get a beer, robbed. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Milan 3â€“1 Fulham[\B] EURO Cup Semi Final Leg 1

After knocking out Niall from the Uefa cup this season, Mo had achieved his target for the season and any further progression was a bonus. Milan showed top quality in their awesome line up from Dida to Podolski and will be favourite to get to the final after showing an awesome display of inspiring football to lead by 3-1 in the first leg of the semi-final.

Fulham 0-0 Everton[\B] EPL

Everton came to Fulham with a very defensive set-up, which was not surprising considering Everton were having an awful time in the EPL in the second half of the season.(Please do not email me about lack of reports by Niall, as his reports are based on wins than losses , hopefully Niall win start writing again next season )

Fulham 6-0 Milan[\B] EPL

The best result to date in Moâ€™s career at Fulham, apart from knocking Niall out every once in a while . The usual suspects in the Milan line-up. With Fulham having nothing to lose, Fulham attacked from the start and played football at Craven cottage that has never been seen before. Mo was please with the result but reprimanded all the players afterwards for not showing enough respect to their opponents and not sticking with Moâ€™s tried and tested boring football.

Chelsea 1â€“0 Fulham[\B] EPL

Not a bad loss to Dannyâ€™s Chelsea who having been firmly secured second spot in the EPL in this seasonâ€™s campaign. Top man.

Fulham 0-2 Man Utd[\B] EPL

A bad home loss to the best manager with the best team in the EPL. Rick did not even bother to watch this match, busy down the ritz bar .

Fulham 0-3 Birmingham[\B] EURO Cup Final

Considering Fulham had just faced Chelsea and Man Utd in their last two league games in the EPL for this season. Morale in the Fulham dressing room was moderate. Fulham and Birmingham played well until Fulham defender Veron said to the ref he was a blues supporter. The ref gave Veron his marching orders. Mo re-arranged things and continued to stifle Birmingham until former Blues player Emerton said to Ben that for selling him to Fulham â€¦â€¦â€™he preferred to play boring football at Fulham than to be a blue nose like the refâ€™â€¦Emerton got his marching orders. A few minutes later another Fulham player was sent off, at that moment Captain Kolo Toure got injured in the game after Fulham had made all their 3 subs. With only 7 players on the pitch for Fulham, Birmingham scored 3 times in the last few minutes of the match to win the tie. Mo tried to complain about the ref to the FA, but was informed that no such procedures are at place to complain. Congratulations to the Ben, a worthy champion.

Fulham have had the best season to date with Mo at the helm. With another season completed, Fulham have managed to hold onto 8th place in the EPL, and thus ensuring them another stint in the Uefa cup via the intertoto route like last season (The other managers currently love Mo in the intertoto cup, as preseason is twice as long now ) . Fulham have their stadium expanded to 33k from 30k, way hay!. For the first time in EPL history have also managed to finish above Everton and Portsmouth!

Next seasons targets

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>

<LI>Try to hamper Everton.

<LI>Do well in the cup competitions.

<LI>Last, but not leastâ€¦..try not to get sacked.

BelfastNiall · July 16, 2005

Season 2010/11

Well after winning the Carling Cup I had two further cups to go for as I turned Evertonâ€™s attention to these competitions as we had no chance of challenging Man Utd or Chelsea for the title. Last season was all about trying to blood some new younger â€œregenâ€ players with my existing star players and unfortunately it didnâ€™t really have a lot of success as the squad players failed to be good enough to really push the club on. Ah well, thatâ€™s the gamble and the pre-season was spent off loading many of the players that in the end were pretty bad rolls of the dice.

Anyway, the FA Cup run ended in farce to the winners of the Championship, Sheffield Wednesday, which as Danny King likes to remind me (after he got beat by Brondby in the European Cup (ho ho) was not my first FA Cup shocker as Everton boss. Basically after Wednesday somehow managed to get out of Goodison Park with a 1-1 draw, brilliant coding by SI timing my replay with the majority of my team away on international duty, a much weakened side failed to break the deadlock after 120 minutes of football at Hillsbrough. In the dreaded penalty shoot out, a quick look at my squads penalty taking skills left me in little doubt that the man in most danger would be the bloke in Row X, Seat 26 in the stands, rather than the Wednesday goalkeeper. This proved to be correct as this bloke proceeded to get hit on his nut by 10 shots as both sides competed to see who could take the worst penalties in the world ever!! In the end, we won easily and that meant my FA Cup wet dream was kaput for another year.

Well in EPL Challenge, the hardest aspect of the game is deciding which manager you like to beat the most as there are so many competitors. Could it be Danny King and his sugar daddies team? Or Rick Boult who thinks heâ€™s the best manager in the game cos he manages one of the biggest clubs in the world? Which reminds me. Why is he still here after he promised us he would leave if he won the EPL and we let him walk it to make sure. Or Andy â€œGoatâ€ Nilsen, my old rival, who has turned *****?

Or perhaps it is the dour footballing outfit known as Fulham, managed by my nemesis Mo Ilyas, who only turns up every session to annoy the hell out of me and slow the game to a crawl? Well in the UEFA Cup Mo beat me 2-1 on aggregate after winning 2-0 at Craven Cottage, and with his 11 man defence somehow getting out of Goodison Park with only a 1-0 defeat after I had tried every trick in the book to try and get a goal out of the miserable bastardsâ€¦.However, I was to have the last laugh as Mo ended up getting slaughtered in the final by Benâ€™s Birmingham, which was quite amusing since the referee obviously took a dislike to Moâ€™s 11 man defence as well, sending 3 of the hatchet men off. Lovely!!

So a final position of 9th was all in all, pretty pathetic really though as usual I have my excuses handyâ€¦Injuries, suspensions, bad luck â€“ you name it â€“ we had it. The players were pish poor but the manager remained pretty good and at a gala evening at Lancaster Gate, the Irishman was awarded the Manager of the Year award. The look on Boultâ€™s face was a picture as the air turned blue and ladies looked embarrassed.

Martin Petrov was again the star performer, just ahead of Alberto Gilardino. The Carling Cup was won in a season where I managed to beat most of the other guys, but didnâ€™t do as well as usual against the AI teams.

In the summer we offloaded a number of players, Iâ€™ll not bore you with all of them but the major outs were Wilhelmssen for Â£4m to Liverpool despite his 10 goals and 22 assists last season and Suazo for Â£550K. The major talking points of the summer were:

Nigel De Jong â€“ heâ€™s currently unhappy and wants a new challenge. This makes me very unhappy and everybody else delighted. Thus Nilsen, King and Boult spent all summer trying to get me to part with the Dutch international defender, but none of them came up with a good enough offer, so heâ€™s still here, on a 3 year contract. Hands off.

Jose Antonio â€“ at last I found a wonderkid playing at Bochum. This 21 year old striker will hopefully justify a Â£15m outplay and become the new Petrov/Gilardino.

Daniele Di Rossi â€“ signed from Juventus for Â£20m. A class, class, yep, class midfielder who I intend to make Danny Kingâ€™s third big mistake after Wilhelmseen and Kompany.

Mido â€“ free from Chelsea, Iâ€™ve signed him on a one year deal. A former Pompey hero.

The returning legends - Yes three of my old boys have returned to the club.

Valdo, the wing wonder who I had flogged a few years back for Â£30m to Chelsea and was then offloaded to Valencia by Danny King, returns from Spain to the man who made his name, thatâ€™s me by the way in case you were wondering.

Ledesma â€“ at the time he was a squad player for me. I sold him to Palermo and heâ€™s turned magic in the Italian sun. Now heâ€™s back on Merseyside dancing round opposition midfielders.

Burzanovic â€“ forced to sell this winger as a youngster for nothing due to work permit issues, was able to bring him back to the club after a season at Santander where he netted 11 goals from the wings.

Kehl â€“ experienced midfielder bought on a Bosman. Cana makes a switch to Fulham for Â£5.25m pounds and Pedretti who was aging goes back to France for Â£6m.

With a few more gambles made, with the difference that this time, some of them actually look quite good, Iâ€™m confident that if I can get the season finished before getting wed, I may be a surprise contender for the title.

Team:

GK: Isaksson

RB: De Jong

LB: Reveillere

CB: Yobo

CB: Kompany

MC: Kallstrom

MC: De Rossi

MR: Valdo

ML: Petrov

CF: Gilardino

CF: Jose Antonio

goat261 · July 16, 2005

The beginning of the end?

After 4 years of Portsmouth challenging the big boys, the low resources have finally taken there toll with Portsmouth having to sell a lot of players to prevent themselves from going bankrupt.

Finishing 10th and getting knocked out of the Champions league by eventual winners in the quarter finals 3-2 seemed to be the beginning of the end for the Nilsen era at Portsmouth. However Nilsen had other ideas so began the revolution down in the south coast with day after day, night after night all he could think about was his beloved Portsmouth and how he could turn things around to once again contend with the big boys.

First of all in came more backroom staff to help run the club in a more successful manner then in came the psychologists to help the players get over there disappointing season (yes they went insane). After everyone was happy the most important aspect was building the squad with fresh talent so in came

Van Der Vaart

After 6 years of chasing this guy I finally was able to meet Uniteds demands by exchanging him for Boogaart and Daniel Carvalho

Lahm 20m

No need to introduce him as Iâ€™m sure everyone knows that he is world class

Frey 8m

Another world class player to fill the space that as been haunting me for years

Cardoza 8.5m

Class right winger and heâ€™s only 24

Spector 5m

Another defender to bring some depth

Massaro 3.4m

Young class left back

Crespo 3.7m

20 year old classy midfielder

Oskiz free

Back up striker

Alavos free

Another back up striker

Also 2 Portsmouth legends joined to propel us back to the big time

Fritz free

Andreasen 2m

After buying these I needed to make some sales so out when some dead wood and some that are past there prime.

Pellegrini 41m

Barreto 10m

SWP 9m

Diego 8.5m

Hubschman 6.5m

Wiese 5m

Arteta 3m

De La Cuesta 1.5m

The team is now ready for this season

GK Frey / Jarrastein

DL Massaro

DC Morgan / Spector

DC Andreasen

DR Lahm / Heitinga

DML Schulz / Bondel

DMC Mascherano / Crespo

MC Van Der Vaart / Yankov

MR Fritz / Cardozo

AMC McFadden / oskitz

SC Pazzini / Alvalos

So on to the new season that could make or break Portsmouths long term success (stay tuned as I think this season will be a roller coaster of emotions)

Dunga99 · July 16, 2005

Where is last season report. I want to hear about the great season you had

BelfastNiall · July 16, 2005

and how you narrowly avoided the sack.

STFC will rule again · July 18, 2005

2010/11 SEASON REVIEW

It was an extremely good season as we finished 6th in the league and won the UEFA Cup. The only slightly disappointing part was the league where our form dropped off, with the chance of CL football slipping away.

Decided that we need to bring in some money to help fund some new signings to strengthen the team and squad so Michael Owen left with us not able to meet his wage demands and with him being out of contract end of the seaason so went to Real Madrid for 6m, Labinot Harbuzi went to AC Milan for 25m which was too good an offer to turn down and Freddy Adu joined up with Harbuzi after a 30m offer from AC Milan which was also too good an offer to turn down.

This has left the club with a very substantial bank balance and the club have given me most of that to re-invest if and when needed. The board and fans are currently delighted with the job i've done so far so it's look extremely good at the moment.

2011/12 SQUAD OVERVIEW

GOALKEEPER

Jose Manuel Reina GK - Main goalkeeper at the club, gives the defence confidence with assured displays.

Lee Williams GK - Given his chance to be the second goalkeeper at the club.

DEFENCE

Joao Dias D R - Has taken over the right back position as his own with his consistent performances.

Hugo Freitas D/DM R - Will have to up his game if he wants to regain his position in the team.

Mark Gonzalez D/DM L - Has superb ability and is also an impressive defender who likes to get forward.

Erik Edman D/DM L - Experienced player who helps give good depth to the defence.

Simone Padoin SW/D/DM RLC - Very assured centre back who has slotted well into central defence.

Brede Paulsen Hangeland D/DM C - Adds experience and good heading ability to the centre of defence.

Tom Huddlestone D/M C - Can play in both defence and midfield so adds good depth to the squad.

Stuart Matthews SW/D C - With some good performances, could push for a place in central defence.

MIDFIELD

Ahmed Yahiauoi DM RC - A very impressive defensive midfielder with a tremendous long shot..

Mathieu Flamini DM C - The club captain who leads by example and links the defence and midfield.

Christopher Eagles AM RC - Can play in several different positions and very consistent performer.

Mauro Esposito AM/F RLC - Can play either left or right wing and still going well despite his age.

Michael Essien AM RC - Classy player who has made the attacking midfielder position his own at the club.

Yildiray Basturk AM C - Still one of the top midfielders at the club even with him getting on in years.

Hatem Ben Arfa AM/F LC - A superb winger who gives opposing defence all sorts of problems with his pace.

ATTACK

Luca Grillo S C - A good targetman who comes up with a goal when needed and works hard for the team.

Marcus Rosenberg S C - Has to be the bargain of EPL as he has scored goal after goal since joining.

Marco De Vita S C - The inital performances have been encouraging and is improving all the time.

Have also lined up deals for a new striker and a new right winger with them both arriving in the January transfer window to finish off the squad. The striker being the most pressing signing as we've started the season off ok but have been lacking someone to finish off the good moves we've been creating but hopefully the new signing will solve that problem.

AsherDSSc · July 18, 2005

Manchester United - Treble Winners

Thousands of United fans flocked to the streets today as the mighty Red Devils paraded round the streets of Manchester in an open top bus showing there 3 pieces of silverware. Having matched the achievements of the 1999 campaign, many believe it was much harder this time round with Chelski's millions but for sure Boult will go down in United history next to the likes of Busby, Ferguson and Liggins. In what was a long hard season, he managed to pull together his squad of huge talent to win the English Premier League, Champions League and F.A Cup. The EPL victory was the sweetest for the Yorkshire born manager dominating it from start to finish almost breaking the 100 point barrier on the way. A 15 point gap to nearest rivals Chelski showed the dominance and, although the Russians did the double over United, Boult got revenge beating them in the final of the Champions League.

English Premier League

All records were broke this season with the highest goal tally, most amount of points and least amount of defeats all bettered. United led from pretty much the opening day of the season and while most teams suffered a bad patch during the season, they managed to keep form from start to finish ensuring a 15 point gap come the end of the season. With Chelski doing the double over us however, it leaves us plenty of room for improvement for the fast apporoaching new campaign.

F.A Cup

The F.A Cup was pretty much handed over to United without any real scares. With all the big guns drawn against each other in early rounds and shock exits for Everton and Chelski in the latter stages it left just Southampton, QPR and Manchester City in the competition at the Semi Final stage. Southampton were easily despatched leaving an all Manchester Derby which left the fans drooling at the mouth.

Manchester United [4]: Mokoena, Ronaldinho (2), Eto'o

Manchester City [2]: Chamakh, Pothead

With Manchester City being relegated, I was very confident of victory even though it was a final and a Manchester derby. Things went quite smoothly with Silvano giving us the lead before Chamakh levelled against the run of play. A few introductions at half time completely changed the game and we raced to a 4-1 lead before Mutu pulled a goal back late on nothing more than a consolation.

UEFA Champions League

United hadn't been in the Champions League now for about 4 seasons so it was a relief when I managed to finish 2nd in the last campaign and get us in the competiton. Juventus were drawn in the early group stage but were bowled over by our attacking play. They were also drawn in the Semi Final and were battered 7-2 over 2 legs. This left an all English final against Chelski who had the upper hand over United in the league campaign doing the double over them

Manchester United [3]: Ilhan, Silvano (2)

Chelski [1]: Robinho

In a result which saw us lift the trophy, the victory was hardly convincing. We rode our luck at times with some fine goal keeping and poor finishing but managed to hang on in there. The game was 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes so Extra Time was needed. With both teams tiring it was United to draw first blood with Silvano scoring a peach of a goal from the edge of the area. With Chelski then looking to attack, the young Italian got his 2nd of the game and killed off any chance of King's men coming back into it.

STFC will rule again · July 19, 2005

Did someone accidently delete Pagi's post? that must be the reason why he's not put his report up .

David Pagi · July 19, 2005

Pagi Ponders New Signings

At this moment Spurs currently lie in 5th place although fortunately we have a game in-hand over 4th place (Rick's Man Utd)and if we grab all 3 from that fixture we'll exchange positions with Rick's mob. I suppose it could be said we're slighty underachieveing given our 3rd placed finish last season and with that obviously the delights of the Champions League, (a first for my FM managerial career). Yes I probably am underachieveing but no one could have envisaged the recent rejuvenation of the teams of yester year Everton and Portsmouth, both gaffers seem to have assembled a squad matching something like their previous title winning selves.

I am currently pondering whether to splash some cash on a supposed "big name" by selling some of the more highly valued squad members in order to propell us into a more competitive side. Although the consequences could be fatal if it does not work out.

[b} Champions League Action {/B}

Given the fact that I was prior to this season " a Champions League virgin " the team have performed impressively

Beat Finnish minnows HJK 7-0 at home and 4-1 away easy easy easy \o/

Managed to see off Italian giants Inter Milan 3-0 at home one of Spurs finest performaces under my reign with an inspired performance by Gokdeniz grabbing a brace of goals, thats why i payed the money!!!

Inter Milan in their own back yard the visual delight that is the San Siro are a different beast though as they ripped us to shreds creating chances at will although we had opportunities of our own. Calaio scored on (3mins) after Gokdeniz created havoc in Inter's backline again forcing Toldo to parry straight into Calaio's path for an open goal 1-0 yesssssssssss \o/ Two late Inter goals ****Â£$ on my parade though as Dickhoff obviously the German equivalent of Dickov and Oliveria scored. These two late goals were the unfortunate consequences of Daniels 60min injury then having to replace him with Tainio a defensive mid by trade overwhelmed by Inters attacking play and Inters decision to switch to 424.

Lost (H) Man U [/b}

Former Spurs manager Rick Boult arrived at White Hart Lane to the resounding sound of Boos and Jeers from the Spurs faithful 1. because he didn't do a good job, and they love me and 2. because he's a traitor for buggering off as soon as Man U came calling. As far as on the pitch affairs are concerned we dominated the majorty of the play but just lacked that predatory play in the final third, and Moreia was in fine form tipping, flicking and palming everything Defoe and Calaio could kick at him. I would say we should have scored at least 2 but Moreia and a lack of compusure upfront prevented any goals from materialising. The solotary goal that did occur was a real kick in the teeth as Moreira helped himself to an assist, smashing a kick upfield none of my defenders even bothered to try and intercept the kick and Eto'o gratefully collected Moreira's pass and easily tapped past a stranded Akinfeev. Man win 1-0

{B] Lost (A) Brum

The rivalry continues........... The rivalry between me and Brum boss Ben stems from our Uefa Cup campaign of a few seasons back, where we also hotly contested a 4th place finish in the Premiership. With me it's pity for Ben's underachievement, with him obviously envy of my tactical nous, as he seems to think it's ok to blatently nick other people's formations because he can't create his own French fancy Essien smashed in a 35 yard screamer very reminicent of his long shot he scored against me at Chelsea, to put Brum 1-0 up. Soon after Rochemback said whatever you can do I can do better and rocketed a 35 yarder himself BOSH! 1-1. (86mins) Janssen put us 2-1 up converting Downings left wing cross. Late on Eagles spoilt the party after Ben Afra scampered down the left flank completely free (for some reason no b*&^% wanted to go tackle him just stood their admiring his footwork) Afra delivered a measured cross to Eagles waiting free on the far post to header with aplomb.2-1 (90mins)

Won (A) WBA {/B}

New EPL recruit Dan had dished out some impressive performances to my fellow EPLers prior to this fixture so I knew it would not be as easy as first perceived given WBA's low Premiership placing, and thats exactly how the game pand out. Last season's Supporter's Player Of The Season Gokdeniz crafted the first as his trademark mazy dribble and shot could only be fumbled into the path of serial sub assasin Janssen to tap in an open goal. Then the two customary Spurs subs combined to seal the points, as Gambino threaded the ball through to Mosquera to smash the ball home into the top right.

Won (H) Leicester [b}League Cup Quarter-Final[/b}

I anticipated a tricky little tie prior to this match and thats exactly what occurred. Der Hammer opened the scoring unleashing 1 of his trademark howitzers from a 35 yard free kick KISS MY FACE! Former Spur Andy Reid exploited some space down the left flank delivered a peach of a cross despite the attentions of Speight and Youla smashed home the header for Leicester's equaliser. It wasn't untill the last kick of Extra Time that we converted the winner our general play duly deserved. Der Hammer whipped in an in swinger for Dawson to grab his first for the club EAT MY GOAL.

keedo666 · July 20, 2005

As the season reaches its midway point(were about 20th december) i thought i should write an update for my legions of fans. First of all only 2 sessions have been played since my last update-unfortunately for me i missed a 12 hour session on saturday and my team sufered for it- picking up only 10 points from approximately 16 league games(pretty pathetic given the quality of my team)and only one league victory was collected-thanks very much Pagi . My much heralded return led to a series of 4 wins(later reduced to 3 courtesy of a game restart-gggrrrrrrr) and a loss(becoming 2 losses-once again courtesy of the game restart) to rick's man utd team who we all agreed(except rick) that i could have won haha . So it could of been my best EPL session to date- but "dark forces" ruined it for me-but it was still decent with some much needed wins picked up in the EPL, with my team rising from 17th to 13th!

here are some stats to illustrate my point-

villa under D'Ardenne

played-13

won-8

drawn-2

lost-3(should be only 2 but the restart ruined me-yes i am whinging like Rick!)

Villa under incompetent ASS MAN

played-25

won-4

drawn-7

lost-14

Also bearing in mind that the wins came against lesser teams in the early rounds of the cups!

So as the january transfer window approaches i will be looking to strengthen my squad further, and to basically knock Niall out of the UEFA CUP and get to the top 10 in the prem-difficult but definitely possible!(not knocking Niall out of europe....thats easy )

On the other hand my fans expect me to win the EPL- and to be honest there living in a dreamworld- so lets see if i can see out the season without being sacked!

Just one more point i can confirm that rumours circulating in the Birmingham Neptune are in fact true...John Prescott has been appointed as the new ball boy at Villa Park, and as Doug Ellis's health continues to deteriorate the Villa faithful lick their lips at the prospect of some serious money to spend when the hatchet finally falls on the big man upstairs!

keedo666 · July 20, 2005

can a Mod please sort out the Villa banner thats meant to be on the top of the previous post...cheers

BelfastNiall · July 20, 2005

Season 2011/12 halfway

Come on boys lets keep the thread going.

BelfastNiall · July 21, 2005

Everton await King's Kapitulation

With the season hitting the halfway point Everton sit in second place in the table, ten points behind Danny King's Chelsea side who as expected are sitting on top of the table. Given that the oil mogul Abramovich has already done his utmost to land another title for the London outfit by handing King a further huge sum to spend on another world class player in January, it would be a real shock if Chelsea were not to capture the title back from a rather poor Manchester United outfit at the end of the season.

Everton though, do have a game in hand over Chelsea and by winning that and with the potential to take three points at Stamford Bridge which we did last season, there is a possibility that the gap could in time close to four points. On the whole, in the short term Chelsea will be hard to stop but in reality their team is ageing and Danny King has yet to prove that he can rebuild the team to compete in the new decade. On the other hand, Everton's side now has a youthful look to it and with several excellent young prospects hopefully about to emerge in the near future, the club are in a very good position to continue to challenge for the title over the next few seasons.

The Carling Cup 3rd Round

Fulham 3 - 2 Everton

The defence of the Carling Cup failed in very unlucky style at the hands of Mo Ilyas after the Toffees had taken a two goal lead in the first 30 minutes through the boot of Kim Kallstrom. However, a good comeback was completed by Mo's side. Afterwards I heard strange choking noises coming from the Fulham manager's office. At the time I thought Mo must be suffering from a heavy dose of flu, but in fact it was the early "death rattle" of the Ilyas, as Al Fayed slayed the Fulham manager a few weeks later as Mo's P45 arrived in the post. I laughed and I laughed until my sides hurt.

FA Barclaycard Premiership

Ok can't remember all the games we have played due to two mammoth alcohol fuelled sessions at the weekend, but here are some of the key games so far this season.

Manchester United 1 - 0 Everton

Somehow the absent Boult's side managed to get away from this fixture with three points. The Toffees put in a very good performance but on the day were undone not by the plentiful skill of the many world class players at Boult's disposal, but from a corner routine which resulted in a very unfortunate loss to last seasons treble winners. At the end of the game, Murphy felt confident enough to declare that "United are on the way down" and that his Everton team "had the potential to leave Boult's outfit trailing in their wake this season."

Everton 0 - 1 Chelsea

Again, when you are playing the top two teams in the country you need a slice of luck and today we didn't have it. Reverted to a more open game in the first 30 minutes to try and gain an early advantage but it was Chelsea who did the early damage. After reverting back to a more solid formation, a very even game was fought out with Chelsea sneaking out of Goodison with the points.

Everton 3 - 0 Fulham

Mo was quite simply blown away in this match. There is no need to add any more.

Arsenal 1 - 3 Everton

Rediscovered the winning habit at Sammy Lee's Arsenal with a well deserved win.

Everton 1 - 1 Birmingham

Entertained the UEFA Cup holders and Ben's side go down as the best team we have played this season, although we should have won the game when we were awarded a late penalty with the scores locked at 1-1.

Liverpool 1 - 3 Everton

Another hard fought Merseyside Derby as Everton fired themselves into the lead through top man Alberto Gilardino just before half time. An atrocious defensive mix up let Liverpool equalise just seconds after former Everton Christian Wilhelmssen was dismissed for a second bookable offence for the Reds. Despite Liverpool continuing to look dangerous in a 3-4-2, wonderkid Jose Antonio soon began to work wonders down the left flank and a late salvo saw Everton win at Anfield for the first time in a few seasons.

WBA 2 - 3 Everton

Despite Albion pegging us back twice in this game, Murphy and Everton's extra class saw the soon to depart (thankfully) Caruso defeated again.

Everton 4 - 0 Wolves

Demolition of Wolves who aren't the same side away from Molineaux where they give everybody a hard game. A brace from Gilardino and the rapidly becoming an Everton legend, free signing Mido wrapped up the win.

Everton 2 - 0 Southampton

Kim Kallstrom scored another screamer to add to his repertoire of classic strikers before Gilardinho proved Everton's class by knocking home a second goal after Saints had played well but largely shot from a comfortable range for Isaksson to handle with ease.

Bolton 0 - 0 Everton

Hard though it is to belief, thrice sacked at the Reebock Stadium David Pagi VIIIVIXV is attempting to claim he left a legacy at Bolton that has enabled them to sit in the top half of the table. Pagi has a great sense of humour. They are a hard team to beat there though and Murphy left satisfied with a point.

Everton 1 - 0 Sheffield Wednesday

Revenge was sweet for last years cup defeat at the hands of Wednesday, Mido scoring a late winner.

Portsmouth 1 - 1 Everton

And so it was off to Portsmouth for a top of the table clash against Andy Nilsen's outfit who sat in second place, three points above Everton prior to the game, although Everton had a game in hand. Andy Nilsen has been very quiet lately and his last managerial update failed to cover the fact that last season Portsmouth were abysmal finishing in 10th place and that Nilsen was probably only a few games away from the sack at Fratton. However, this season Andy has turned it around again, similar to Everton and therefore there was once again an extra edge to the tie. Both managers have been consistently loyal to their clubs and both managers have the same ideas in that football is a 4-4-2 for us - none of these long arrows to in between the strikers favoured by Boult, or King's wingless wonders up at Stamford Bridge. Murphy went into Fratton Park looking to extend his unbeaten run at this ground to three games and over Portsmouth to 6 as Murphy has held the advantage in this tie over the past couple of seasons.

Portsmouth started the game well as Everton were content to sit deep and let the south coast outfit pepper the goal from a safe distance. The first talking point was how Pompey created their first chance. A disgusting foul on defensive lynchpin Vincent Kompany saw Pompey create an early effort when the Everton defender was off the field receiving treatment. For the first 20 minutes, Pompey had most of the play but didn't create anything meaningful. After this Everton came into the game. A great effort from De Rossi drifted just wide. Gilardino came close and Jose Antonio wasted a good opportunity by firing weakly at Frey in the Pompey goal. Half time came, 0-0 and no doubt about it, Everton finished the half the stronger side.

Into the second half and Portsmouth were obviously fired up by Nilsen's "come on lads, this is our cup final" speech at HT and began to dictate the game once more. However, Everton were coping easily until Nilsen brought on Oskuitz on 58 minutes. Shortly, Lahm on Portsmouth's right flank was able to beat De Jong for the first time by flicking a long ball punt towards Oskitz. With good control, the Pompey striker (who showed more than the woeful Pazzini on the day) shot home with a vicious shot from just outside the box. A wonder goal and to be frank, it was the only way Pompey were going to break us down. Everton moved from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 in response and although Oskitz hit two more cracking efforts, he'd had his luck for the day and they drifted wide. Mido and Petrov came on for Everton, who began to probe diligently, quietly and effectively, Kallstrom and De Rossi began to impose themselves on Pompey's midfield duo of Mascherano and Van Der Vaart. Gilardino hit one, brilliantly saved by Frey.

For the last half an hour it was all Everton on the front foot, but would the deserved goal materialise. Indeed it did as a lovely ball down the left flank saw ex-Pompey man Mido control instantly. Looking up, he saw the Pompey defence exposed and hovering awaiting the pass was the man you want to be there, Gilardino. Instantly Mido swung a delicious ball into the path of the Italian hitman. Gil was in and Gil rarely misses as Frey was left flapping at thin air as a composed strike nestled into the bottom corner. GOAL!!!! Nilsen was distraught and as is his way, it was luck who deserted him again, but then Nilsen's interpretation of a football match is legendary in its unerring inaccuracy.

After the game Murphy stated,

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">This was a tough challenge. Nilsen has done well to get Portsmouth back amongst the challengers after he was written off by nearly everyone last season. This is a good point for us and once again we have dominated large parts of the game here at Fratton Park. This proves that Everton are a better side than Portsmouth and I expect us to go on a run now and confirm our side as the only challenger to the Russian's billions. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

So far the defence has been solid, we've looked dangerous all over the park and the big players are responding. Everton have had some disastrous second half's to seasons before though so lets hope this isn't going to happen again. Murphy wants the Champions League and the competition misses his presence.

Marlow · July 21, 2005

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by keedo666:

can a Mod please sort out the Villa banner thats meant to be on the top of the previous post...cheers </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

BelfastNiall · July 22, 2005

Probably playing for second place but some good results for Everton keeps us ahead of Goaty boys Pompey....

FA Barclaycard Premiership

Everton 0 - 0 West Ham United

No!!!! Disastrous result at Goodison as second from bottom West Ham cling on for dear life to snatch a point after Everton fail to take one of their numerous chances. With Chelsea continuing to win these two points dropped were even more crucial.

Leicester 5 - 2 Everton

Well I just don't know what happened here. Leicester are a very good side with Mpenza and Youla up front and a number of other impressive players in their team but after going 1-0 and then 2-1 up through Valdo and a Ledesma screamer, all was going to plan until the last few minutes of the first half when Youla headed home to equalise. Into the second half and Isaksson was responsible for conceding our second penalty on the day. Once again, ex-Everton defender Grygera stepped up and slammed the ball past the Swedish keeper. Leicester were very impressive, continuing to dominate the game despite changes by the Toffees and rubbed further salt into the wounds and effectively killed Everton's chances of the title by adding two more goals. To the relief of all other managers, Murphy was stunned into silence for at least 10 minutes after this game.

Everton 2 - 1 Manchester United

After two disappointing results we faced the defending champions at Goodison Park at a particularly bad time. With Boult changing to a 4-4-2 formation he caught me by surprise against my 4-5-1 and as a result United dominated the opening 11 minutes of the game but were unable to break down a resolute Everton defence. After 11 minutes Murphy reverted back to 4-4-2 and immediately Everton began to dominate proceedings. Almost at once a long throw by up and coming Italian left back Cataglia beat the entire United defence as Gilardino moved in to open the scoring. United responded but soon a lovely flowing move on the counter attack saw great combination play between Valdo, Gilardino and then onto the amazing left foot of Kim Kallstrom who smashed the ball home from 30 yards leaving Moriera standing there like a big fool.

Despite a nice move from United resulting in E'too scoring just before HT, Rick's move to his favourite long run midfield runs in a 4-1-3-2 was negated by moving back to 4-5-1 with Ledesma mopping up the play aimed at the attacking midfielder. Despite Boult's boys having good spells of play, Everton still created a number of good chances to give the scoreline a more comprehensive look to it, but a MOM performance by the United goalkeeper kept it respectable for Boult, with his Champions under pressure now to deliver a Champions League spot.

Tottenham 1 - 2 Everton

With Pagi having beaten my side on our last two visits to White Hart Lane the boys were well aware that a stern test of our credentials would be in store down in London. With Spurs' tactic now quite familiar to the Everton management, we knew that if we could keep certain key men quiet then we'd have a chance to take the points. Indeed that is exactly what happened as De Jong marshalled Gambino and from the right back berth was able to release Gilardino onto two one on ones with Paul Robinson in the Spurs goal. As expected, the best Italian striker in the Premiership was as deadly as he was at Fratton Park, putting Everton 2-0 up after 25 minutes. In the second half, Spurs were a much better side and Mosquera pulled one back for them just after the hour. Resolute defending continued to keep Spurs at bay until in the very last minute, Pagi's supersub Theo Janssen almost snatched a point for Spurs when he got into a goalscoring position in the box, with his shot thudding off a post. A very good win for my team against a quality side.

FA Cup 3rd Round

Everton 2 - 0 Tranmere Rovers

With Tranmere sitting at the bottom of the Championship we expected a comfortable win even if reserves and youngsters got an outing. The deadlock was broken by one of my possible stars of the future, a young Spanish striker called Fernandez opened the scoring. A second was added later by Mido to set up an intriguing 4th Round game at home to Mark D'Ardenne's Aston Villa.

Overall news: The contrast at the top couldn't be starker. At Stamford Bridge, Roman Abramovich gives Danny King another Â£25m to buy striker Pelligrini from Bayern Munich. His nearest challenger is forced to offload two players, German defender Werner Wolf to Aston Villa for Â£4m and striker Edixon Perea back to Roma for Â£5m just to stay out of administration. That is an illustration of the competition we face, not to mention that Danny King has 22 world class players at his disposal. However, Everton will continue to fight to the end. We will not submit to the new order of modern football.

Sign In

EPL Challenge (The Ultimate Premier League Experience) FM2005 [*Established Clan*]

Recommended Posts

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

EPL Challenge (The Ultimate Premier League Experience) FM2005 [Established Clan]