Happy New Year & welcome to a new blog series. Apologies if you are expecting more of the same. I did start a new blog with another stupid backstory but I lost interest in it.

The backstories came long before I started using Twitter. It was always me, my brother Darren and mate, Rennie, who would set each other challenges.  We would always come up with fictional reasons why we were doing a challenge. Things like saving Bury from terrible events which all started with their club folding, after a visit from Doc from Back to the Future who said we had to win the Champions League or many people would die! My last blog on Partick Thistle, was based upon an in-challenge a few years ago about melting English trophies into a sword to take back to Scotland. 

So after joining Twitter and asking Dave if I could do a blog on his site, it was always going to be in that style. BUT….. I think I’ve milked the joke as far I can now. Haven’t really got any new good ideas and the truth is I’m a bit bored of it.

For my next couple of blogs I’m going to focus on the game itself.

The backstory of this blog is pretty simple. We had a Secret Santa between the bloggers with the idea of getting someone a mystery shirt and challenging them to write a blog based on that team.

The bloggers are a great bunch of (middle-aged) men. Plymouth’s finest, Zak Brockman, got me a Team GB shirt from the 2012 Olympics for my present. Thanks again, Zak.

Was thinking about what to do with it. Options considered:

• Brits abroad? … been done.

• Winning the Prem with only British players? … Bit boring.

So settled on this 1-season challenge. Incorporating Dave’s CM Challenge League-style points system.

I’m challenging my ‘Irish Twin’ brother, Darren, in this blog. Darren is also a blogger in his own right. He done a blog for CM Fans a couple years ago called ‘How to win the World Cup with Wales’ which was very in-depth and interesting. You can read that here: https://champmanfans.wordpress.com/2022/12/18/how-to-win-the-world-cupwith-wales-part-1/

I did challenge Rennie as well, but his laptop is broken and can’t play Manager at the moment. Tragic. Perhaps we should set up a Go Fund Me page for this terrible hardship.

So this is the Team GB challenge.

Rules:

• Add ‘Team GB’ into the Italian league. With good reputation, 60,000 London Stadium.
• Add into the Champions League.

Pick a squad:

• In an 18 man squad Team GB were only allowed 3 players aged 24+. In a 32 man squad that equals 5.3 proportionally.
• All players need to be 23 or under on 16.7.1997. Except for Stuart Pearce (who was the manager of Team GB) plus 5 others. 
• Minimum 3 squad members from each nation in the 32. 
• All nations have to be represented at all times on the pitch, meaning you have to have a Northern Irish player on the bench in case of injury or a red card during the game, for example. 

Play 1 season only.

Points available:

• Serie A – Winners – 500, 2nd – 300, 3rd – 200, 4th – 100. Point for every goal. Point for every point.
• Coppa Italia – Winners – 400, Runners up 250, Semi Final 150, Quarter Finals – 100.
• Champions League – Winners 500, Runners up – 300. Semi Finals – 200. QF – 100.
• Top Scorer – Goals x 10
• Top Asisster – Assists x 10 
• Top Dirty Player – Disciplinary Points x 10.
• Manager of the Month Awards x 10.

Here’s my squad:

Usual suspects and a few wildcards. For the Senior player selection, going for experience down the spine.

• Goram to start in nets.
• Hendry will be my captain
• Lennon will hold the midfield. 
• Speed for added beef
• Sheringham will play up top or in the hole. 

Over to Darren….

Hi all, Darren here and this is my Team GB squad. To be honest Dean’s squad looked ace and I really could have just copied that, but I thought I may as well try something different. So my five over 25 year old players plus Stuart Pearce are:

Ian Wright – Usually superb in his first season, he will be up top to bang em in.

Paul Gascoigne – Hit or miss on this game, but he is a legend and I’m hoping he does well in Italy, plus just adds a touch of nostalgia.

Steve McManaman – Just because I don’t think I have ever had him before, will be back-up though.

Gary Speed – Superb addition, could easily be a starter and covers off a Welsh starter if needed, maybe not ahead of Giggs though.

Andy Goram – Easy choice, he’s an excellent Scottish keeper.

As the challenge requires there to be 3 players from each nation, and one from each at least on the pitch at all times, here’s a few of my selection decisions:

England – No point in going through this, they have plenty of options under 24 and will make up the largest contingent of my Team GB squad.

Scotland – Obviously Goram. Then selected a defender called Steven Pressley – I played a Scottish challenge game recently and he was very good. Kevin James – should be an ok back-up defender if required. Stephen Glass – great left winger for the squad. Simon Donnelly – decent young Scottish fwd who knows where the net is. Lilley, decent young striker from Leeds. Finally, Nigel Quashie – I wanted Miller as a CM from Rangers, but Dean had him so went a different way, he is Scottish on my game (as he played for Scotland in real life), he shouldn’t be needed hopefully.

Northern Ireland – The least amount of talent. Keith Gillespie – I plan to use him as the only NI starter in my team. McMahon – usually solid, his position changes between D/S C, MC or AMC. Mulryne, Hughes and Fitzgerald are good youngsters and could grace the bench. Carroll purely last resort GK.

Wales – As Dean kindly mentioned, I once won the World Cup with Wales and did a blog about it, so I am well versed in the Welsh players abilities. Page, Speed, Hartson and Giggs – I could have picked these players even if there wasn’t a requirement to have 3 minimum, they are all well capable of being in the starting 11 so always having a Welshman playing will not be a problem. The other I selected was Jarmen, no real reason other than he’s a young Welsh player and to be different.

Cheers bro. 

The blog will take place over the next 4 weeks. Half season each at a time with an ‘as it stands’ table at the end of each episode. In the last part we will declare a winner. And a forfeit for the loser.

My son, Keiran, also wants to join in using the squad I picked. He isn’t going to blog his adventure. I’ll just add his scores onto the table. Good to pass it on to the next generation so he can waste his life like we did. 

Join us next week where I play the first half of my season.

Honorable mentions

Follow: 

Dave: @cm9798

Zak: @cornishzak 

Me: @emosnite 

Keiran: @ronemson10

Rennie: @thetynter

You can’t follow Darren as he says, and I quote; ‘’Social Media is a load of bollocks’’.