CM00-01: The Return of the Wonderkids P30 – Dear Liza…

We are back, but the squad is smaller, older, perhaps a little balder. We’ve got it all to do. Champions League, Super Cup and we still need to bag a League Cup and qualify for the Intercontinental Cup. We were ran very close last year in the league and I worry that sacrificing the league for these cups will get me the sack. In light of this, we make some 97-98 minus man additions:

How Madsen is 29 and uncapped is beyond me. It’s a record spend for us so the board will probably be impatient for success. And what a way to make a statement in the Charity Shield…

The media are expectant:

I’ve probably put too much pressure on the team, but the board are happy with my response. If it was going well 5 minutes ago…it’s not now.

Behind the scenes there’s discontent after Duarte slagged the club publicly.

Litos picks up a 3-match ban. Joyous. Taking the piss in Litos. Despite being seeded, the Champions League draw is horrific. Ajax have an unreal side and have just spent £20m on Trezeguet.

Relief as we achieve a ‘good win’ thanks to Goodwin. Charity Shield and now Super Cup on the list.

Ricken has not been worth the money we spent on him, and, as we are forced into signing long-term target wonderkid Deco by Arsenal bidding, we let him go.

We think we’ve broke the spell at Spurs only to throw away a two-goal lead.

Early doors, it’s not looking good.

The Champions League also gets off to an exceptional start…

…exceptionally crap. We get lost in Amsterdam. It never rains…

Finally, we string together some competent results:

Arsenal, meanwhile, now have a front two of Palermo and Crespo:

Can we not knock it? Man Utd are rubbish so this is painful.

Consistently inconsistent. I didn’t see that coming.

Well positioned half-way through the group.

We are as weak as piss (as ever) in the League.

Vogel out for a month and holes all over the bucket. Afanou has been so terrible he’s now not even making the bench. It just gets better as an ageing Phillips and Sunderland take the points with complete ease.

A 2-2 draw with Wimbledon follows. Nothing is working. Are we really that far past our best?!? Pedersen came in as cover and proceeded to get a 3-game ban too. We are light on centre backs.

We should be assured of qualification with another win. Hopefully. We manage to find a win in the league to keep the board at bay but the players are already panicked.

Daniel Jensen, such a selfless man. T***. The next result is good and bad at the same time. We now need to avoid defeat against Vienna to get through. I’d rather have been over the line.

This. This is what we should be doing week in week out.

We narrow the gap to 10 points.

Is it recoverable? At this stage absolutely.  We can boogie, and by that, I mean we have no problem scoring.  But we have the joint 3^rd worst defence in the league. Our main centre backs are pushing for their mid-30’s and there’s little cover. That said, we’ve added two trophies, the League Cup is yet to start and we’re still in the Champions League. Hopefully a respectable league position will suffice for the board. See you next time as we look to resurrect our league form.

You can follow Andrew on twitter: @KingOfTheRooks