It’s a new week but as the summer holidays draw to a close, so does the 03/04 season for AFC United. Can Matt rescue a mediocre season?

Welcome back to our regular Monday morning journey through the ‘what if’ careers of ex-United players. We’re heading into the business end of Season 7 and our title defense is weaker than the weak lemon drink of a keen hobbyist.

Mid-table mediocrity is so uninspiring…

Watford are 3 points ahead of us in the table, and that’s where they stay. Dyer indeed (I think I used that pun last week?)

Europe may be our only salvation this season, and we take a decent advantage away from Parc des Princes, but we lose Blomqvist for the second leg. Nevland is back on pens and seemingly learnt his lesson.

Jesper doesn’t let a red card get to him, and makes the difference at home to Spurs.

Another draw, this time away to Sheffield United and you’ll spot I’ve decided to dispense with Van Der Saar. I can’t sign Winston Bogarde to hang around the goal like some people I could mention, so I’m being controversial and playing Peter Schmeichel’s regen there. I hope it works. Laurent Blanc is playing in the defensive midfield role and doing ok – my other option was the injury prone Sharpie.

Blomqvist is suspended for the rematch with PSG, but his deputy, Father Phil, steps in and sends us on our way to the semi-finals. Nose bleed time for us!

It’ll be Ajax in the semi finals. The other tie matches Frauds against Belgium’s finest, if you follow me….

Back in the league, Brown has been quiet lately, but rescues a point in a bizarre minute that also sees Richie Wellens get his marching orders. Always a tasty match up with Liverpool.

So, as we’re getting to transfer deadline day, and despite the Champions League prize money – we are almost broke (must be all these famous goalkeepers I never play….)

So, Wes Brown goes out the door. Hall and Duncan just too consistent to shift.

GT is off to Spurs for a tidy sum.

£4.3m for a 28 year old whose barely played for 4 seasons is canny business.

Fab is off to Forest. He’s never really got going for me. Laurent will miss him, but no time for sentiment when you’re staring poverty in the face.

All those sales does give us some spare money to bolster the front line.

Bowen is the regen of Mark Hughes. If I can loan these guys out and increase their value, it may be a good money making venture – we’ll see. 2 goals in 21 games isn’t exactly inspiring though.

Wes Brown’s new side get the better of us at Elland Road. This season can’t end soon enough for me. Maybe shipping out familiar faces has harmed our moral?

Gary Neville lifts another trophy at Villa.

Meanwhile, we’re back in European action and the diabolical Elber gets a potentially fateful away goal for Ajax after Veron and Brown puts us two to the good. Delicately poised.

Fergie drops out of the FA Cup, leaving Liverpool to face a resurgent Newcastle.

Cooke makes our chances count away to Blackburn. Every point lifts us higher and means more cash at the end of the season.

This is the story of our league season, tight wins followed by crushing defeats. We had 81 minutes against 10 men to get something from this debacle which was all but over inside 30 minutes.

No time for losers though, as we make it safely through our Amsterdam tie and it’s a historic debut in the champions league final awaiting us in May.

Barcelona dominant Bayern in the other semi-final

That semi final win was David Brown’s 300th game for the club and the numbers make pretty good reading – a strike rate of 0.76 is amazing for a guy with completely random stats….

There’s nothing left to play for in the league, just pride – we don’t care

Barthez shows his Marseille form here and Forest’s grip on their Premier League status is waning. What this will mean for manager, and ex AFC United player, Bryan Robson is anyone’s guess really.

Clean sheets, three points. Why couldn’t this have been the way all season?

Only Giggs and Butt remain from the original Man Utd team while I’m still playing half a squad that were with me in Division 3, amazing stuff.

Time for the first European final of the season and Inter prevail on penalties against Cagliari in the Uefa Cup. Some legends in that team.

We’re into the final round of league games and the best we can hope for is 5th – at a push, 9th if things go wrong. Liverpool, Villa and Everton all have it to play for with the title up for grabs – Villa the meat pate in a Merseyside sandwich.

Well, Arsenal and Roy Keane put an dampner on that idea for us

Everton draw, Liverpool lose and Villa win to take the title after running us close last season. G Nev will be loving it. As for, we settle for 8th – a truly miserable domestic season on the whole – has our bubble finally burst?

At he bottom, Bryan Robson and Fabian Barthez depart with Forest, joined by Sheffield United and Graeme Tomlinson’s Spurs – looks like the £4.3m the paid me for him didn’t really help matters!

Villa add the Cup Winners Cup to league and league cup glory and they will be the guys to beat next season – Raul – what an astute capture.

In the FA Cup, Newcastle reach, but find Liverpool out of their grasp. Patrick Kluivert actually not that bad in this save…

We’re getting ready for the biggest game of our 7 season lives so far, but one injury upsets me more than any. Sharpe faced Barcelona in the CWC Final in ’91 so would have been great to give him a run out here, but it is not to be

Here we go then, a chance to become immortals or a chance to make this season truly suck!

Barcelona are semi-recogniseable from the team that start the game, but Alfonso relegated to the bench gives me hope.

We take charge at the end of the first half and it’s that man Nevland who scores twice within 2 minutes, taking advantage of rebounds in the box on both counts – we’re half to heaven.

The second half isn’t much to shout about, but when Nevland caps his hat trick inside the last 15 minutes I feel a sense that we might be home and dry and

The stats show it was fairly even but the only numbers that count are the 3 goals us and the zero for Barcelona!

My dependable captain lifts the Champions League trophy at the Stade De France and our small, but growing, legion of fans celebrate widely. Kremer was great in goal, Andrew Duncan was faultless, but treble hero Nevland gets the MOTM plaudits. I even had time to give run outs to Curtis, Wilson and Owen. Amazing to think the bones of that squad have been with me through the divisions.

A shock indeed – why leave Alfonso on the bench?

European glory has quite the eye of Glenn Hoddle and 7 of my squad are off to the Euro’s – Mark Wilson must have done something amazing in that 1 minute cameo in France…..

Confirmation of our trophy haul over 7 seasons. We’ve won a lot (apart from the League Cup) – am I done though? Not yet, I want to reclaim the league title, I want to see if these guys have the mettle to recover from this seasons domestic woes.

Bozzy is the first out the door at the end of the season -1 games is not really enough for the Work permit guys.

Fab was given a free transfer by Forest, so he’s back to fill the Bosnich void.

In the Euro’s, England make it through the group stage and Alex Notman steers them through to the Semi’s after Own fluffs his penalty chances.

In the semi-final against Denmark I have 3 on the pitch and two on the bench, but Micahel recovers from his penalty gaff against France to send England into the now familiar surroundings of a European Championship Final

In scenes that look heartbreakingly familiar, England sucumb to Italy, this time in extra time. Born Offside Inzaghi scores the golden goal and there is no recovery.

With that drama over, a quick review of the AFC United squad before the end of season updates tick over. Carroll, Switzer, Duncan, Hall, Cooke, Twiss, Notman, Brown, Nevland and Robins have been with us since almost the start, they’ve won a lot of trophies and acclaim

The decision to put Kremer in goal was one I wrestled with quite a bit, but I don’t think we would have prevailed in Europe without him. I didn’t even risk Taibi!

Goal wise, not great, but without the goals from midfield, it might have been even worse.

Awards time and Kremer’s antics have been recognised. George Graham had a storning season with Villa and Raul.

Time for the dreaded retirement news.

Although delighted to see Barthez again, Laurent decides to go out on a high with a Champions League medal.

Dion decides he’d prefer a career in the media, so climbs the stairs to the bedroom to put away his boots.

Mark Robins was an able back up in the lower divisions and came back after a brief spell at Spurs. Probably not a regen I’ll be hunting.

Dwight never really got going, but his retirement saved me a cool £2.1m in wages as his work permit expired – back of the net!

Henrik was a disappointment – we’ll leave it there.

I bring the European Cup to AFC United and the board stump up £1.1m?! Jokers.

So there we have it, the end of Season 7 and champions of Europe – but also-rans at home. In truth this has been a hard season to play through – it felt at times that the momentum that got us here had quickly disappeared. So I think I need another season at least to put things right – how we do that is another question entirely…see you next week