Hallo! and welcome to Leipzig, where for the first time, Nick and his men go into a new season as Bundesliga champions! Will the Champions League draw be kind to them in their eighth and final season?…

At the awards, it’s just me who has to walk up to the stage, and I make no apologies when I say I’ve bloody earned this one…

Our final cup campaign begins against Unterhaching.

As champions, we go straight into the Liga Cup semi finals, where it seems we’re suffering from burnout and my players are still on their holidays. Oh well, it’s only the charity shield.

It’s David Beckham’s turn to carry the baton of highest earner, and his £60,100 a week sets our last salary cap at £7,993 per week.

There’s only one spare space in the squad at the minute, and I fill it with Andreas Möller II…

But then I spot baby Bergkamp, so Klinsmann’s regen is moved on to Werder Bremen…

And the non-Flying Dutchman’s reincarnation is ours for a cool (pun intended) £325k…

On to the action then, and we put an early disallowed goal behind us to lead 2-0 against BMG. There’s time for a missed penalty and late goal just to make it slightly uncomfortable, but our title defence is off to a winning start.

We follow that opening day win up with a loss at Leverkusen, with an own goal from our keeper the difference between the two sides in a dismal away performance. Definitely not top Binz…

We’re back on track against Werder Bremen but have to battle back from a goal down, with big Dunc adding to Penksa’s equaliser against our old keeper, Holzer.

Cup time. Unterhaching have slipped down to non league and are now all greys, prompting me to make eleven changes. Suker Jr hits a hat trick as we win 6-3 despite Vik Onopko’s regen being a daft c*nt and getting sent off early on.

We’ll face Wolfsburg next.

I reward Cvitanovic for his hat trick with a start at Cologne, as the ice man is yet to score this season. Our other ice man puts us ahead before Clausen does what comes naturally, and Big Dunc makes it two in three to seal it.

With not much right-sided cover for Penksa, I have my eye on Brian Laudrup’s regen, so Olly Bierhoff II makes way for £375k.

My bid for Brian the second is already in, but it’s not quick enough for the Champions league deadline, and the draw is made. It’s Ararat, Celtic, and Man Utd, which could be worse.

Meanwhile, the first half at Schalke is a battle but we go in for our oranges 1-0 up. We’ve a goal disallowed after half time and that man Kolkka makes us pay, but we respond as Clausen rifles a late one in to steal the points.

Laudrup Mk II finally arrives for £50k. Better late than never I suppose, and if we make it to the European quarter finals he’ll be available.

Big Dunc certainly seems to have found his shooting boots, and he gets his third of the season to join Clausen on the score sheet in a routine win against Cottbus, while also helping us keep our first clean sheet of the season.

1860 are after revenge, but we’re unfortunate to trail at half time after having more chances in the first half. I’m optimistic for the second half, but they score again immediately, and it seems to knock us dead and we never recover.

Just as he was starting to do good things at both ends of the pitch, Big Dunc gets crocked in training…

So, to what this final season is mainly about…Fergie is still at United, as are the class of ‘92 minus Nicky Butt. Schwabl (Kohler) starts for Duncan, as we put up a valiant fight but it’s not enough, and our goal is too little too late.

Cup time again, and it’s another game against non league opposition and another game for the second string, plus the misfiring Ice Man who gets his first goals of the season after Suker Jr’s brace to send us through.

Duisburg await…

This time we do stutter against Stuttgart, and there’s not much more to say other than their keeper has the game of his life and we can’t put away any of our eighteen efforts at goal.

Losing Big Dunc was bad, but now Leonidas is out for six weeks and with Ezquerro injured as well, I might have to play Suker II on the left.

We go behind in Dresden but are level at half time, which is no more than we deserve after twelve efforts on goal. It’s a good win in the end after a few key players decide to have an off day, but it’s nice to see the Ice Man back.

After losing to United, we need a response against Celtic and although the Bhoys strike first, my boys strike back to lead 2-1 at half time. Two more for Clausen and one for the Ice Man get us off and running in group B.

Rounding off this week are Bielefeld. It looks like it’s going to be one of those days at half time, and it gets worse when Vilhjalmsson sees red, but we finally go ahead straight after, and Cvitanovic gets his second to wrap things up.

So those ten games leave us fourth, level on points with Dortmund and Hamburg. We’ve not been as free-scoring as usual yet, but it’s a good start on all fronts nevertheless.

So with our final season off to a good start, we’ll leave it here for this week. Join me next week as we continue our foray into uncharted champions league territory. Tschüss!