Hello Blogseekers! Settle down, Mickey love, it’s time to delve into season 2 of my German project. As a quick recap we finished 4th in the league after a blistering start aided by Nicolas Anelka, followed by a lumpy middle and then some stability with the arrival of Oliver Bierhoff.

A a top 4 finisher, we enter the weird little League Cup thing at the start of the season and are immediately shot down by the Bayern behemoth.

I’ve had my eye on Jurgen ever since he decided to leave Spurs but he opts for Dortmund instead. His VW Beetle won’t be adorning our car park unfortunately.

Instead of Jurgen, I sign up Kevin’s German lovechild, who will be guided to take over from Marc Emmers at some point I hope.

I also sign this Czech. I’m sure he was the lead singer of ABC…..?

Not stopping there, I also add some depth to my strike force. I shall nickname him Roy.

Heiko is old but adds depth at the back

As will the slang term for sandwich

That’s a lot of new signings to integrate into the squad. Unfortunately it doesn’t turn into a bright start to the season. I am slightly jealous of BMGB snapping up Gravesen.

Reggie is off, he managed 2 goals in 3 games for me last season, but was shut out by the form of Bierhoff and Anelka, so back to Holland he goes.

Now we’ve started! the win and clean sheet somewhat clouded by a couple of injuries

Anelka’s layoff opens the door for young Felgenhauer to make a name for himself. Jürgen who? Melinda Messinger with a fine pair there.

Historically (we for 14 months) we haven’t fared well in cup competitions, but here Felgie continues to seize his chance with both feet.

Cottbus Janckers! This game is over insode 22 minutes, even if our goalie Kraft chucks one in his own net.

So, 4th place did sneak us into Europe and we’ll be making the short hop over to Vienna for our 2nd round Uefa Cup clash

I decide to sign the big tall fella from the Czech Republic to give us another option up top

We get revenge on our League Cup exit with a last gasp win when Bayern come to town

Unfortunately we can’t capitalise on a big scalp by losing getting caught with our trousers down against Bochum. And with our Dickhaut.

The Polster is off. Not happy with battling Jan Koller for 5th choice striker role, he’s off to Cottbus. All the best Toni.

As this frees up a Pole position, I swoop for this versatile winger.

Dortmund will be another team to overcome before we can be a force in Germany, but on this showing, it’s going to take a while.

Still, there’s always Europe, and this result should make things starightforward for the home leg.

Domestic Cup action now and the draw continues to be kind to us, giving Anelka a chance to get some goals under his belt. Citko with his first two for a switched up line up.

What should have been an away win results in punishment for our prolificacy in-front of goal

One of the early stars of my last blog outing comes back to haunt me and this Hamburger tastes very sour indeed.

It’s not quite as straightforward as I hoped in the return leg with Rapid Vienna, but we come good and do enough to get through

With the stature of my team, you have to sign while the iron is hot and so Kenny Perez looks like a good signing. Bit worried I may have gone over board on the striking talent though…

Ah, I’m sure it’ll all be fine. I can’t remember if that’s Roberto, Dino or Cousin Eddy scoring for Stuttgart.

Things get hot under the Koller against Wolves but it’s another win and a welcome cleansheet.

It’s another hop over the boarder to face off against FC Twente and it’s a late, late show to come away with a draw. I’m hoping those away goals will be helpful, but we’ll see.

We’ll wrap things up there this week. A quick look at the table after 12 games sees us above Dortmund and Bayern but we’re only in sixth, so lots of work to be done.

Please join me next week to see how our league, cup and european exploits pan out, and I promise I’ll ease up on signing strikers. Maybe. Alles Klar.