Hello and welcome back to the penultimate CM9798 Summer Special, if you missed it you can catch up with last week here. It’s been a pretty daft ride so far don’t you think? What could possibly be dafter…well. In the first summer special, we tested just how good Man Utd’s defence was, cruising to the title playing no ‘keeper, but…who was the driver of this success you ask? Well, there’s only one way to find out…

WOW! What have I done?!? A squad of Beckham’s, Butt’s, Neville’s, Giggs’, Johnsen’s, Keane’s, Schmeichel’s, Scholes’ and Sheringham’s facing off against each other for the title of best player. All the clubs have been set up identical, all playing at Old Trafford and they will all play 5-4-2 passing.

What could go wrong?…Well, worth noting from the outset, we broke CM9798 with our first test…

(48-0 over two legs led to minus goal stats…)

Too many goals and the game crashed. As we know Schmeichel Utd will be the whipping boys everyone who plays them can now only field 7 players to keep the score down and if they play AI teams we’ll allow the grey players to be selected to prevent the game crashing here on in. There’s some new comedians in town…

We will try and look how that goes down at some point! Before a ball is kicked, my money is on good old Phil Neville if you had not guessed. There are some pulsating games as the ten Ronny’s destroy Sheringham.

My favourite so far is Phil Neville beating a real side…

Oh and he’s taken the first shot in the Neville-Neville derby…

The battle of the bad boys went the way of Nicky Butt and Keane was clearly not happy about it…

As you’d expect, old Keano is in a world of his own.

Schmeichel is close to the sack…

But it is understandable…

Phil Neville is in a two-horse race with Nicky Butt for the title inflicting each-others only defeats, he’s also made the Coca-Cola Cup Final and is now in the 4^th round of the UEFA Cup. What a machine.

Gary Neville usurps Sheringham and co. from the England attack as they secure their place in France ’98. Beckham gifts Schmeichel his first point of the season.

Phil wins a real trophy beating Ronny on penalties.

Meanwhile, Wales tactical innovation of “give it to Giggsy” just isn’t working out.

The first casualties of the season arrive.

And the Roy’s collective 10^th red card takes its toll.

Celtic and Rangers are dumped out the FA Cup giving the Utd boys free reign to have a pop at the trophy.

Butt deals Phil a serious blow and the gap is reduced.

The casualties are mounting as Beckham is firstly backed, then cracked and finally sacked.

We’re two thirds of the way in.

Sheringham’s defensive frailties brutally exposed. The table has barely changed. What time is it you ask…

Nicky Butt sneaks to the top of the table thanks to Phil’s outstanding game in hand.

Phil couldn’t care less as he was off having the game of his life, all but securing a UEFA Cup semi-final berth. Jean Pierre was Papin his pants.

The FA Cup semi-final throws up a brethren derby…

And Bordeaux’s chances are crushed like the grapes of a fine wine.

With 8 games to go, Schmeichel is relegated…

…given contractual obligations, a number of them are released on a free already leaving 14 Schmeichel’s to see out the season.

Gary gets one over on Phil in the FA Cup and it will be Gary vs. Roy in the final.

With Nicky Butt breathing down his neck, it could end in a complete collapse for old Phil. Auxerre was also a step too far.

It comes down to the final game in the league. And Phil has to go to in-form Sheringham Utd.

And Keane pips Gary to the FA Cup, saving Phil’s blushes.

The final table sees Sheringham move up one place and avoid the relegation playoff.

And now for the vital statistics.

Phil the ‘keeper with 17 man of the matches as ever.

Roy Keane has a serious anger problem, in case we didn’t know…

351 disciplinary points…wow. In some sick and twisted joke, the Scottish FA award Keane the fair play award…

Oh, and England, Ireland, Norway and Denmark didn’t make it beyond the World Cup 2^nd round. And with that we bring an end to the seventh CM9798 Summer Special. Proof that Phil Neville is the lynch pin of 1997/98 Man Utd. Proof that players with a defensive leaning will perform better than players with an attacking leaning in a Battle Royale. I really hope you have enjoyed this experiment; it has been a wild ride (poor Schmeichel). Please stay with us into next weeks series finale where I will leave you with a gift.

You can follow Andrew on twitter: @KingOfTheRooks