In real life, Sir Alex Ferguson announced the 01/02 season would be his last, although he eventually overturned that decision when his team was struggling. As we roll into season 5, Fergie is looking at building his most dominant Man Utd side yet and shows no sign of slowing down.

His forays into the transfer market are a sign of intent

Yes, it is disgusting that Figo costs £3m less than Alan Rogers. Elsehwere Liverpool are trying to get back on par with the champions after falling off the pace and sign England’s Ugo Ehiogu.

To give you an idea of context, here is the transfer market at the start of the 5th season:

Yes that is Joonas Kolkka of Crystal Palace fame. Anyway, the season gets underway with the usual curtain raiser

A real classic as ever – Mark Kennedy the hero. However, it’s time for the merry-go-round to start up again

It’s good to see PSG bring forward Blanc’s appointment by 12 years. Hopefully this will make them less dominant but I doubt it. One other important managerial change:

What I would give to see that in real life. Here’s how the table looks at the start of November – as you can see Man Utd are on another big unbeaten run and with only 5 goals against, it’s all very ominous.

At the bottom meanwhile, new boys Ipsich are propping things up and Everton’s yo-yo existence is continuing. But look at Kinnear’s impact on Spurs!

There’s also some huge news as two time Footballer of the year Marashliev is on the move. To Leicester.

Whilst the actual best striker in the world heads off to Real Madrid – we’ve seen this before though..

At Auxerre, I negotiate a Champions League qualifier against the Moldovan champions to get us in the group stages – and also my first manager of the month award.

The group draw is decent too, though there’s a sizeable object in the way

With 2nd not guaranteed to go through (6 group winners plus best 2 runners up back in the old days) I need to beat Real Madrid at our place to have any chance, I was pretty annoyed when this happened:

Fergie time seems to exist on the continent too! And yes, I am looking for a Walrus to play alongside Eggiman (and a Jerome to pair with Robson…)

Terrible puns aside though, here’s Ligue 1 at this stage of the season:

Marseille seem to have taken over as the form team, helped by the fact they seem unpenetratable. Monaco are falling off the face of the earth without the Champions League money, they look certain to cash in on Thierry Henry to balance the books. Meanwhile, I’ve signed my old pal Erik Nevland

The CL money has meant I had a little bit to spend at last, otherwise I’ve had to rely on a bunch of free signings or bargains

So, things are generally good but I’m desperate to go back to the Premier League, once I’ve banked the reputation for the Champions League games I should have no trouble. It’s a World Cup year so there’ll be plenty of movement in the next 12 months.

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