Hola! and welcome to the penultimate visit to Bilbao, where the Basque Boys are doing remarkably well to still be competing on four fronts despite a shaky defence and a ridiculous amount of recent injuries. How busy will the treatment room be this week?
The transfer window is back open, and the first thing I do is recall Javi Rey (Ribera) from his loan at Hercules to try and avoid a repeat of our recent defensive injury crisis.
This week’s action begins with a Copa Del Rey quarter-final against the donkeys, who are immediately down to ten men, which opens the floodgates, and it’s all over before half time. Larrainzar’s injury is not good news…
Although his lay-off is relatively small in the grand scheme of things…
The Riazor is a happier hunting ground this season, and memories of that 4-0 drubbing three seasons ago are banished with a 3-1 win, with goals from all three of our terrific trio.
To the European charity shield first leg, where ourselves and Blackburn both have a goal disallowed in the first twenty five minutes, and after a combined total of eighteen shots, neither side are able to find a breakthrough.
Back to the league, and the Basque derby. It’s a feisty affair as always, and the occasion gets to García Calvo. Bengt Andersson puts in another c*ntish performance, but we beat him twice. A good win, but it’s marred by another injury.
This will definitely affect our defence…
The cup bug makes a return in the second leg against the Donkeys, giving them twenty nine shots at goal compared to our six. Thankfully we already had a good first leg lead, and score three this time to send us into the semis.
Our old foes Atletico await, our matches with them are always entertaining…
What are the odds of back-to-back 3-3 draws? Pretty low if you’re defence is falling apart. Etxebe spares our blushes against lowly Valladolid, but of course there’s an injury, and Rios is now also out for a couple of weeks…
The second leg with Blackburn is dour from start to finish. Guerrero is suspended, and it’s all too evident. Perez’s sending off isn’t ideal, but we get exactly what we deserve, and it’s two out of three finals lost – no complaints.
We quickly put the loss behind us to hammer Mallorca, who have an ageing Vitor Baia in goal. Scoring a brace is always impressive, but doing it from the penalty spot is just showing off…
I might not be winning any finals, but I’m still doing something right…
A couple of weeks seems to be the going rate these days…
There’s a midweek catch-up game with Merida to get out of the way. We make hard work of it, but another penalty from Guerrero, followed by Laslandes’ first goal in four games sends us up to second in the table.
I rarely hold hope of getting anything from the Nou Camp, but we look set for a famous win as Guerrero scores his fourth pen in three games, but then our keeper conveniently scores a last-minute own goal to gift Barca a point – hmm…
It’s a solid home win against Tenerife, and the only Victor in their team is the one on the score sheet. Laslandes’ injury is of course annoying, but is our first in five games, which is actually pretty good going for us…
And there I was, thinking this game was played with your feet…
Arenaza’s goal is enough against Oviedo, but with Laslandes already out, the last thing I need is for Etxebe to get injured as well, but sure enough, he limps off and I have to play Idiakez up front for the last half an hour…
It looks like that won’t be his only stint up front, but I’m sure he’ll be glad of the game time…
It’s an entertaining if not frustrating Desmond with Atletico, but Idiakez does his job as a makeshift striker. We lose Guerrero, but thankfully he’s only out for a week.
We’ve quietly been putting a nice little run together, and are currently unbeaten in twelve league games, which earns me a third manager of the month award in a row…
It’s March, which means the champions league is back, and so is Laslandes! Idiakez is back on the wing, and grabs his second goal in two games, before Laslandes scores on his return, and Gravesen pulls one back for the Gers. A win and two away goals – that’ll do nicely.
Last up this week are Sevilla. They always give us a good game, and today is no exception. It’s a close match all the way through, and looks to be ending in a stalemate, but Sequeiros pops up in the last minute to end our unbeaten run.
I’ve no idea how we’re still second, but I’m not complaining. We’re eight points adrift from El Gel and his men, but they do still have to play us, Barca, Atletico, and Sevilla, so hopefully they’ll drop some points.
We clearly have no problems scoring goals, but can’t keep a clean sheet for love nor money, presumably because our three first-choice centre backs have an average age of 32.3, and are always injured.
So we’re almost there, just one episode remains, and we could still win the league, cup and champions league, so be sure not to miss next week’s finale to see if the Basque Boys go out with a bang or a whimper. Adios!
Hi again! First of all, congratulations for all the achievements on your adventure with this special club. In my case, after a great Season 3 in which i won the Champions League, started Season 4 with high expectations, although things didn’t go so well as i expected.
Well, the Champions League group stage draw couldn’t be worse after being drawn in the same group as Barcelona and Juventus, two of the superpowers in the game, which meant a below-par performance in this competitions and a 3rd place finish with 7 points.
In La Liga, the start was marked by some bad results and by November i started to focus on other competitions. In December, won the Club World Cup against Central Espanõl and the turn of the year started with another trophy, a convincing 5-0 win on aggregate against AC Milan in the Super Cup. Things started to look better, the 2nd round in La Liga was much better, but managed to finish only 5th even though it could be 3rd if it weren’t for the poor start to the season.
Finally, the Copa del Rey, managed to reach the final for the 2nd consecutive season, this time against Barcelona but in a close game, Barcelona snatched a 1-0 win, won the Copa and a well-deserved double. To sum up, in 4 seasons i never managed to win la Copa, this competition seems to be a hoodoo difficult to break.
Now, i will start Season 5, maybe the last one with this club before taking on a new challenge, it’s about time to win all the competitions in the same season and finish this journey on a high!
https://imgur.com/a/Ry3xgA4
Hi, apologies for the late reply. Congratulations to you also! The cups are always hard to win, and there’s a theory among the CM community that there is a “cup bug” that makes teams play unbelievably well. Good luck in your final season, and I’m happy to have inspired you, and hope you have enjoyed reading basque boys!
Hi, first of all thanks for your feedback. The stories published here on this site inspired me to play CM9798 again and to be honest, yours was the one which i liked the most. In fact, while playing CM in the past i’ve managed many different clubs but not for many seasons (usually after season 3 or 4 i quit). After stopped playing the game for some years, when i resumed a few months ago, i decided only to face difficult tasks.
It was the first time i managed Athletic Bilbao and to try and succeed in a club that can only recruit Basque players, i thought it would be a very exciting challenge for me, what i can say is that after 4 seasons and what i achieved despite losing some Supercopa and Copa del Rey finals, it was an unforgettable journey (i say it was because after the first two games of Season 5 and almost at the same time, Spain and Germany national team managers were sacked, despite being invited to Germany job i refused, Spain appointed Marcelo Lippi and Germany Nevio Scala from Dortmund as their managers), then i realised it was time to move on, when Dortmund came calling i decided to accept the invitation and manage a club that in 4 seasons hasn’t won neither the Bundesliga nor the Champions League and has only 2 German Cups in their trophy cabinet.
This time the task is “simple”, i can only sign German players (even though the best players are in in their late playing years), end Bayern’s reign and by the end of Season 6 win the Champions League. I never bought regens, it would be easier to get Klinsmann, Kohler or Matthaus regens for instance, so i know it will be a lot harder, but i’m here to try and make that dream a reality…
PS: I didn’t know about that theory concerning the supposed “cup bug”, but i remember in the past to experience it, having a better team than the opponent but being comprehensively beaten in a cup final, maybe there’s something true in what you say.
How are things going in Dortmund?
Hi again. Thanks for your reply. Well, the change to Dortmund didn’t have the desired and immediate effect. As i said in the previous post, i proposed only to sign German players but the ones i wanted and have on my shortlist, no one came. The Champions League group stage had already started in a group with Inter, Barcelona and Brondby, but could only manage to finish 3rd with 6 points. The squad is composed by some overage players like Reuter and Moller, some good english players such as Lampard, Scholes and Shearer but it is a short squad and had too many key injuries. Nevertheless, things looked optimistic in the league and still fought until the last matchday against Bayern and Schalke. In fact, it was matchday 33 that decided my fate, in a home match against Bochum with 25 attempts, the team couldn’t manage to score and it ended 0-0, if i had managed to win that game, i would have won the title, but it is what it is, you can’t win every time…
Let’s hope that things will improve in the next season, with good reinforcements, in order to win all the titles.
Hi, sometimes a good summer can turn your fortunes around. I’ll be honest, it’s my favourite part of the game, looking to see what gems you can pick up on free transfers and of course, regen hunting! Hopefully you manage to bring a few good players in over the summer, and have more success next season. Thank you for the update, and I look forward to hearing how next season goes!