Hola and happy Sunday to you. I hope you’ve been enjoying this save so far, I find it hard to believe we are now at the end of season two. There are 21 games to get through in this episode, so we best get straight to it. I’ll work on the pacing, this is a bit lopsided. Anyway, we’re well placed to get back into Europe via our league position, but I can’t see it being too likely we’ll break the Clasico dominance.

Things get off to a wonderful start, smashing Merida to bits. Molnar is filling Kaiku’s shoes nicely.

I think we’re finally competent enough that I can relax in some games. Midtable and below sides visit El Molinon and I’m very confident we’ll get the job done. Like this:

What I don’t expect is going to the Bernabeu and WINNING. I would have taken a draw but this is a new level unlocked. Get in.

Maybe we can challenge the top two? A hammering of old foes Espanyol backs up that theory.

Even a draw with Betis is a decent result, given the players they have. Young Martin climbs off the bench for a late saviour act.

This though is a reminder that we’re not there yet. Sociedad are no great shakes but they’re better than us on the day and we hold on for a point in the end.

This is also disappointing. Kaiku drags us level after an awful first half but we don’t push on and get punished.

Logrones are battling relegation and are soon a goal and a man down. At 3-0, I withdraw a few key players and they make a game of it. We’re delighted for the final whistle in the end.

Back to business with this win over Salamanca. Kaiku has to re-take his second penalty and blazes it over. Three is too many, it seems.

An exciting start against Albacete turns into one of those routine home wins.

Valencia away is a tough assignment based on last season, this year though they are struggling for consistency. We lose Lucic to an early red card and would have wilted after going a goal down in the rough days but now we are exceptional. We go 2-1 up but the referee evens things up and we end up beating 9 men, 4-1. Good lads.

That’s the International break so let’s take a look at how the table is shaping up ahead of the 10 game sprint to the finish line. What you would say is that if we hadn’t gone insane for a few weeks we’d be right on Real Madrid’s tail.

As it is, making up 7 points on them will prove tricky.

Very tricky now.

Get a life, Cobblers.

No it’s true. His eyes are on other things clearly whilst the recalled Bernie Slaven scores twice.

Back in the big league and Oviedo are no match for our front two.

Atleti have Juninho, Vieri and now Jardel. I’m happy with a point.

I’m even happier with this point. Barcelona are obviously one of the prize scalps so to stop them scoring is a testament to our sometimes leaky defence.

Sevilla are a promoted side but have Fernando Morientes. They take a point from us after a ding-dong first half.

Bilbao are 3-0 down after 13 minutes. Sometimes, we’re very good.

Sometimes though we are still bad. I’ve always found Tenerife a tough place to go, personally and in fictional management.

4th placed Deportivo are defeated which basically secures third place.

…but then this horror show to a basically relegated Vallecano ends any hope of gate crashing the top 2.

Merida are beaten inside 10 minutes. Odd of Disney to name one of their main characters after this lot.

A quick scout around the game makes me fear for humanity. Blackburn won the Premier League, which I suppose isn’t that remarkable given they won it 4 years earlier but they were about to be relegated in real life so I dunno, up yours Brian Kidd? Leciester won the FA Cup. Parma won Serie A. Perhaps most importantly, Barcelona have won the Champions League. Will that mean third place becomes a Champions League spot?

We end the season with a poor loss at Santander, the lads were obviously thinking about the Champions League possibility.

Third it is then, solid progress from 7th.

And the B lads survived easily.

Here’s who performed, which is basically everybody except the wing backs, to the surprise of nobody.

48 goals between the front 2. Bakayoko wants to move to a bigger club but has 2 years left on his contract. Kaiku is wanted by Valencia and Deportivo but has 5 years on his contract so he can take his £4k a week and like it.

Business will have to be swift. The B Team are in debt and it’s entirely my fault, bloating their wage bill with loads of players and only a 4,000 seater stadium to balance the books. Jimmy Crawford is sold for £600k, that might help. I’m hoping a lot of the older lads retire, I have fresh players to relegate to the B Team to allow me to add some players to the main event.

I’ll let you decide where Barnesy will be plying his trade next season

Oh, hello.

A quick look at the squads before the update:

You’ll notice Micker is in the B Squad. That’s a new thing, so I can shortlist him and he won’t retire. However, his future is there really but the turd of a manager won’t play him. Some would argue rightly so but he played Pat Nevin and Bernie Slaven. If I have to take all the others away from him, I will. He released Jeff Brazier and Nicky Byrne without asking, so I have limited patience for his antics.

It’s not a tournament year so the old 9th June refresh leaves us loads of time to buy some actual players.

Sadly, I can’t wire this to the B Team

Some unremarkable awards. As usual the player of the year is a goalkeeper for a terrible team.

Right, anybody sacking this off?

Nobody from the A Team. The B Team however…is decimated.

Who is that retiring then? Viv Anderson. Bakero. Kammy. Morris. Nevin. Mill. Williams. Prize money plus some board input and they’re out of debt.

We’ll leave it there for this week. We have £15m to spend. Are we in the Champions League? I don’t know. I hope so, obviously but if we’re not then the UEFA Cup will have to do. Let’s see if we can convince anybody decent to join the project. Toodles for now.