Season 22 – Bayern Munich, Bundesliga
Media Prediction: 1st from 18
Board Expectations: Win the league
Given a transfer budget of £66m I offered £50m as a take it or leave it to River for their DC, and they accepted. This was the end of my transfer activity for this season, and after an opening day defeat at Leverkusen I wasn’t convinced I’d done the right thing.
Within the next few games we had won the UEFA Super Cup, but were knocked out of the DFB Pokal, again at Leverkusen, and I thought we had a real domestic challenge on our hands this season.
The FIFA Club World Cup was a walk in the park, with a 5-0 semi final win and a 4-1 final win over, guess who? That’s right, River Plate of Argentina.
We breezed through our group in the Champions League, and by the winter break had a 7 point lead in the league. The very first game back saw that lead stretched to 10 points as we hammered Leverkusen 4-1 at home, and we powered on to our 6th successive Bundesliga title. Clinching the title after 28 matches were played.
Back in the Champions League we had comfortably beaten Valencia in the 1st KO round, before a 1-1 draw at The Emirates Stadium gave us the advantage in the quarter final against Arsenal. A thrilling 5-3 win followed in Munich and the draw saw us up against Shakhtar, with the glamour tie being Barcelona v Aston Villa.
I wanted to make sure we made the most of being home first, but a 6-0 win far exceeded my expectations. Winning 2-1 in Donetsk confirmed our place in successive finals. Barcelona beat Villa 3-2 on aggregate to provide our opposition in the final.
In what seemed to be a carbon copy of last years final, we hammered at the door in the first half, only managing to take a 1-0 lead at half time. The 2nd half began much more end to end, but we scored the crucial second just after the hour mark. Barca pulled one back before WonderHammer claimed his hat trick in the last ten minutes. An injury time goal made us sweat a little, but the boys held on easily and we had won back to back Champions Leagues \o/
Funnily enough, and just to prove that the DFB Pokal is a (seemingly) small priority for clubs, a 2.Bundesliga team won it this season, beating Dortmund in the final.
Position – 1st (18)
P:34, W:28, D:3, L:3, F:124, A:37, Pts:87
Season 23 – Bayern Munich, Bundesliga
Media Prediction: 1st from 18
Board Expectations: Win the league
The board gave me £140m to spend, so I promptly went out and got the World Cup Player of the Tournament from Chelsea, an 18 year old CB from Liverpool, a promising young AM/FC, an established AM/FC from West Ham and a GK who signifcantly improved that position for us.
Out went my previous 2 GKs who had battled for the no 1 jersey for the last two seasons, and a ruck of young players who weren’t up to standard. Transfers in cost £96m, while we recouped just £8.75m on sales.
Hoffenheim seemed to close the gap a little this year, leapfrogging Leverkusen as a result, but they were still distant challengers as we romped to the league title, and even managed to get a goal difference of over 100, along with a record points tally.
We won the European Super Cup and Club World Cup again, and the reserves did much better in the DFB Pokal this season when they won it at Karlsruhe’s expense.
We strolled through the group stage of the Champions League, before despatching Celtic in the first knockout round. A comfortable win over Aston Villa in the quarter final led us to the semis, where Barca lay in wait. An absolute classic of a tie saw us edge the odd goal in 15 in the first minute of stoppage time at the Camp Nou, after a 5-5 draw in Munich in the first leg.
The final was a repeat of 1999, and funnily enough it was in Spain once again, although not the Camp Nou this time
This was our third straight Champions League final, and it was our most straightforward one yet. We surged into a 2-0 lead within 25 minutes, before Man Utd pulled a goal back on the half hour. Just before half time we went 3-1 up, before controlling the second half without being able to add to our tally.
Fortunately Man Utd couldn’t create anything either, and we held on comfortably to win the premier European competition once more.
Position – 1st (18)
P:34, W:31, D:1, L:2, F:124, A:21, Pts:94
I am now the top English manager in the Hall of Fame, 3rd in Germany, 7th in the world, and 19th in Europe (my trophies with River aren’t used for this one!).
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