Hello there, and welcome to the end of season one. My Aberdeen side, or the Disco Dons as I like to call them, are doing rather well. So well that we reached the end of March top of the Scottish Premier League and just as it looked like we were going to coast to the title, Rangers decided to activate the big club release clauses on our best two strikers. Sure, that just provoked Chelsea into bidding for Sean Devine, where he ultimately went, but Mainwaring went to Rangers and that bugs me a huge amount. Anyway, the only way to get over that is to win the league and be a hero. But who the bloody hell is going to score my goals?

We manage to eek out a win against Dundee United with young Robert Dunn climbing off the bench to nick the three points. At this stage, it doesn’t matter how we do it

That puts us 11 points ahead with 21 to play for. Even with no strikers, I like those odds.

A win at Hibs with goals from Tomlinson and Emmers moves us a step closer, but it’s an Old Firm double header that follows. Firstly, it’s Rangers in the cup…at Celtic Park.

Did they really need to buy my forwards?

A rare off day from the lads and we won’t be winning the Scottish Cup, but I’ve got my eyes on a bigger prize.

Celtic visit Pittodrie…

They are, simply put, not currently a threat. Henrik Larsson can’t do it all by himself.

The table looks pretty nice now. 13 points ahead, 15 available. One more win and the title is heading to Aberdeen

It’s Motherwell who stand between us and the destiny I set out to achieve a month ago

Motherwell aren’t very good.

Weeeee are the Champions, my friend. With four games to spare!

Lovely stuff. I’d say we’ll be playing in the Champions League next season, but the Scottish Champions have to negotiate two preliminary rounds before reaching those lucrative group stages, so I won’t be sewing on those Champions League patches just yet.

Speaking of which, the calibre of teams in the semis is pretty disgusting

Hopefully none of those four lie in wait in said Preliminary Rounds…

We do still have to go to Ibrox, and having learned the lesson of the cup semi, I switch to a 5-3-2 for the tricky away trip – John Curtis paying for himself in moments like this

Martin celebrates by pointing to the ‘Champions’ patch on his sleeve whilst standing in front of Andrew Mainwaring, sitting in the stands for Rangers as he’s not deemed worth of a spot in the match day 14. Martin’s a good lad so I can’t bring myself to tell him that Mainwaring will get a winners medal too having played most of our matches.

A routine win over St Johnstone rounds off the season and the table shows us to be 20 (TWENTY) points better than Rangers. Well, I wasn’t expecting that.

Dundee Utd pipping Celtic to third is quite something too. St Johnstone had a strong season.

The Scottish Cup is an Old Firm affair and Celtic claw back some pride thanks to Jay-Jay

Meanwhile south of the border, Arsenal are the champions!

Whilst in, er, Belgium, Standard Liege won the league

Barcelona took the Champions League glory, some guy called Guardiola getting on the scoresheet.

The English FA Cup final saw a surprise win for Blackburn, who can be very happy with their third placed finish and Cup win.

All that leaves is the 1998 World Cup. England and Ireland both made it through the groups only to lose in the last 16 to Austria and Norway respectively. The semi-finals saw 10 goals scored…

So it’s Brazil vs Italy in a repeat of the 1994 final…only this time, Italy won.

Sad for Dida, I would have liked a World Cup winner on the books and I doubt Maldini will fancy the move. Anyway, awards time

ME. And Phil Mulryne.

Whilst over in England…Man Utd players win the awards but none of the trophies. Standard.

That’s the first season in the books, and it’s fair to say we have overachieved slightly. Still, the hard work is only just beginning – we’ve got the Champions League to try and dominate, whilst maintaining our Premier League crown is not going to be easy against the resources Rangers have. I’ll be back next week with the start of season two, and it’s not a bad draw in the first round…

See you soon.

My new book The World According to Championship Manager 01/02 is available now in paperback and on Kindle!