Hallo und wilkommen! RB Leipzig came the closest yet to winning a trophy last season, but still came away empty handed. Will 2003/04 be lucky season seven? Here’s Nick…
First up, transfers. Rose never fulfilled his potential, and joins Schalke for a tidy profit.
Dirk’s also on his way after just ten appearances in two seasons.
Now for the arrivals, and the regen machine churns out Oliver Bierhoff…
Stefan Reuter…
Steffen Effenberg…
Big Vik Onopko…
And some Spanish lad, not sure who though…
With the final defeat against Dortmund still fresh in my memory, the cup is a sore subject at the minute, but we draw Fortuna Köln…
And our Liga Cup opponents are Leverkusen…
Juninho’s the new highest earner, and his £62k p/w sets our salary cap at £8,246.
Here’s the wage bill. As I mentioned before, the Thaiphoon signed his contract when the cap was slightly higher.
This was bound to happen eventually, and I can’t see their demands dropping, so sadly this will likely be Wedau, Lieftink, and Gudnason’s last season with me, I won’t lose them for free.
Anyway let’s get on with the action. It’s a losing start to the season as Leverkusen come and comprehensively knock us out of the Liga Cup.
N’Doram’s regen lowers his wage demands to £6k, and signs for £16k. I also tried for Mijatovic’s regen, but he still wanted £10k a week, and joined Hamburg.
Speaking of regens, six of them get loaned out, and this is the squad for the season. It’s safe to say a few of my players are in demand!
The league action begins at Zwickau, where after an early disallowed goal, we get off to a winning start, and get revenge for them holding us to two draws last season.
Karlsruhe are first to visit this season, and both sides cancel each other out in a drab stalemate. Perhaps we should be grateful for the point, with less chances than them, and our keeper named man of the match.
The offers for Lieftink and Gudnason are getting silly. They both want out, but they can give me one more season. Besides, we already have over £20m but no one wants to join us.
Leverkusen beat us again, as we spend most of the match under relentless pressure. We’re lucky to only lose 2-1, and have our keeper, Binz to thank for keeping out 23 of their 25 shots at goal. At least Clausen tried.
We make light work of Fortuna Köln in the cup. Vilhjalmsson (Gudjohnsen) starts in midfield and gets a 10/10, assists three goals and scores one, why have I never played him there?! Frankfurt are our next opponents.
We ride our luck at times during a midweek visit from Nürnberg, but get the job done in the end, with Clausen getting his fourth goal in five games, and Iceman getting his third.
We get one of the worst possible draws in the UEFA Cup…
It’s a dream start against 1860, as Clausen puts us ahead after 2 mins, but we’re pegged back on 20 minutes, and it all goes wrong after half time when Gravesen fails to control his temper and is sent off, ultimately costing us the match.
It’s always nice to beat Hamburg, who have been tough opponents in this blog. Leonidas puts us ahead before Libbra balances things out, but we’re not done, and the iceman regains us the lead before Penksa makes sure.
Manuel Neira, one our former players returns to haunt us against Dynamo Dresden, but it’s only a blip, and we win comfortably in the end, and rightly so after 30 shots at goal!
Time to begin this year’s European adventure. Seven of Ajax’s original squad have stuck around, but there are a few greys, and a load of players I’ve never heard of…
In the match, it’s a cagey start from both teams, but we end the first half strongly and take a commanding lead. Ajax pull one back but we hold on, and those two away goals will do nicely for the second leg.
In the cup, Frankfurt resist for almost half an hour, but then it’s all over in the space of ten minutes, with the front two doing what comes naturally. Hertha Berlin await next.
A further four players have gone out on loan, but now one comes in, and I present to you the beautiful regen of Gabriel Batistuta. We might never get to sign him permanently, but we’ll enjoy him while we have him.
Good lord…
It’s very rare we’ll score four without either of the front two getting any, but today is the day of Penksa, who hits a hat trick and helps himself to the match ball and man of the match award against BMG.
Clausen and Gudnason are clearly both angry at not getting on the score sheet last match, and they put us 3-0 up in 8 minutes against Stuttgart, and amazingly it stays that way for the remainder of the match.
Ajax are all over us from the off in the second leg, but we lead at half time against the run of play. I’m nervous when it goes 2-2, but rather than fold, we attack relentlessly and score two more to go through to face Valladolid.
These are rare nowadays…
Joonas Kolkka is somehow ridiculously good in this save, and puts Schalke ahead but Clausen levels. We should be ahead, but Jens Lehmann is being a c*nt. But the second half is a happier one, and we give them a long-overdue hiding.
So another reasonable start to a season, and it’s interesting to see Bielefeld leading rather than Bayern for a change. A long way to go yet though, so I’m neither excited nor worried yet.
And just like that, we’re ten games into the league season, and off to winning starts in the Pokal and UEFA Cup, so all is going well. Join me next week to see if it continues. Tschüss!