Hello! Welcome back to season 2 of Sporting Gijon, which started as trying to get a tune out of the worst performing team in La Liga history but is now a European adventure. Let’s see how long that adventure lasts and if we can try and trouble the top 7 or so in the table again.

We come into the second leg of this Copa del Rey clash locked at 3-3 and even 4-4 by half time, but Ba Ba Ba Barbara Anne plus Kaiku and Tcheryshev make it an absolute thumping. Through to face Deportivo, which is tough seeing as they won the UEFA Cup.

Valencia are going along well under Ranieri and Ortega fires them into a two goal lead at our wonderful home. Kaiku has Nick’s words of praise ringing in his ears and helps himself to a hat-trick, along with a goal from Ibrahim Ba and the frown is well and truly turned upside down.

The narrowest of first leg leads is secured against Lazio. Bakayoko’s early goal gives us something to hold onto in Rome, albeit without the skipper.

We’re not going to be in the Copa del Rey much longer after this first leg loss. I’ll address the obvious first – yes, that is Steve Watson. Imagine his ginger skin in the Spanish sun? No wonder he went off injured. Anyway, I think the scheduling has done us here. Saturday – Tuesday – Friday is bordering on cruel even in 1998.

Back to league matters and Ba and Ka see off lowly Albacete.

Oh, hello. Real signs of life now in this team with this win over Atleti. The front players are firing, I spoke previously about needing that spark and it appears Ba has unlocked the potential of many.

Defeat in Rome but that all important away goal means it’s a successful defeat. A huge win for us really, in the grand scheme of things.

Auxerre is a tough draw, they have a lot of good players.

Any hope of turning over the deficit in the second leg is extinguished after 6 minutes, as 2-0 becomes 4-0. It ends 6-2 on aggregate and we’re off for a long walk off a short Pier.

Oviedo are really not good in the table but they make us pay for missing chance after chance by coming back to sneak a point. Annoying, but it’s better than losing I suppose.

Sevilla take a severe (get it?) beating. Even young Robbie Keane scores, on for the stricken Kaiku. The win comes at a large cost.

Damn. He’s been unbelievable this season. 18 goals in 21 games as he closes in on the 25 he got last season. Unfortunately he’ll have to pick that back up in spring.

The away leg in France is a tight affair. If we can get through this round we’ll be better in the latter stages as Ba and Mickey are cup tied for these early phases and we can only play 3 non-EU players, so it leaves us very short of options. It ends up with Tomlinson playing only he’s out for a month now.

The Gijon train shows no signs of being derailed with this gutsy win in Bilbao. Bakayoko is quietly hitting top form.

No matter how much we have improved, it’ll take a lot to stop Barcelona in the Nou Camp. Not today. Ricardo Silva is drafted in as a third centre half to try and stem the flow of attacks but we’re already 1-0 down when he tears a hamstring. The standard formation gets ripped to shreds, Andrew Duncan is promoted from the B Team to offer backup.

Molnar gets the nod in Kaiku’s absence and he takes his opportunity with a brace in a win over Tenerife. I cast him aside a bit after his early red card. Send a message, the only ill discipline should be mine.

Ah bloody hell. The lads battle so hard against Auxerre. We’re out on away goals, the paucity of options finally catching up with us.

Not to be deterred, we bite straight back with a win over Deportivo. Where was this in the cup game?! Lediakhov missed last season with that leg break but he’s been exceptional since being moved back to play in central midfield. 10 assists and a fairly rare goal here.

Worthy of the graphic?

We’ll finish before the winter break with a 2-0 win over Rayo Vallecano. They are not very good.

Well would you look at that? Best of the rest.

A long way to go of course with 21 league games to play (and no further cup action) so we’re well placed to get another crack at the UEFA Cup. This is how the squad looks – I managed to get loan moves for two of the young lads who weren’t used by the B Team.

Look at his average rating – he’s been brilliant.

The B Team are well placed to avoid relegation, which is all I ask.

For some reason they rely heavily on Pat Nevin. He’s delivered, to an extent.

The selection policy of their manager should be studied. As should his bank account. Some very odd choices have been made, although admittedly I haven’t given him a lot to work with at times.

That’s it for another week then. I feel like we’re very close to turning this ship around completely to being a constantly good side. Next step is to beef up the B Team and dominate the world. One thing at a time…