Bonjour! and welcome. Our start to season four has been the stuff of which dreams are made, but we’re without our injured keeper for a week or two more, so let’s hope it doesn’t fast turn into a nightmare. European football surely has to be our aim from here. Let’s go…

Before we get started, I’m greeted with the news that this year’s Coupe de France campaign will end at home to PSG…

To the action, and we start the second half of the season with the same result as we did the first, a 3-2 win over Lyon. There’s some nervy late defending, but we get the Job done…

Sotero isn’t quite ready to be starting at right back every week, so I send him out on loan…

Approaches are starting to come in for Calle, but I’m afraid I’ll be needing a lot more than that to even contemplate selling him…

It’s a feisty one at Nantes, where they lose one man after half time, and are lucky not to lose another when they give us a penalty with 20 minutes to go. Reliable Revilla keeps his cool…

Leighton finally returns from injury, but is only fit enough for the bench, so watches on as we get revenge on Cannes for that defeat earlier in the season…

Cup break, and we almost see off PSG in normal time, but in the end have to settle for victory on penalties. We’re almost perfect until Mr. Artex misses, but thankfully Kubicki (not the Wolves one) balloons it to hand us the win.

The buttheads are up next…

Billabona has racked up a whopping 33 disciplinary points already, and we’re only just over halfway through the season! Animal…

Meanwhile back in the league, PSG well and truly get revenge for that cup defeat. We’re so bad that I make all three subs at half time, not that it makes a blind bit of difference…

Pascual is another one starting to garner some interest, but with no one any good wanting to join us, selling him would be pretty pointless…

Despite our recent good form, we’re still no match for Marseille, and apparently Matteo Guardalben is now a world class keeper…

It’s looking like more dropped points at Caen, until Kaiku decides to take matters into his own hands, grabbing a late brace to win it…

Cup again, and with injuries and suspensions, I rotate as much as I possibly can, and after gaining a man advantage, it’s easy enough…

Out of seven teams, it had to be them, didn’t it..

After suffering back to back hammerings from bigger sides, Lille help us make it back to back wins and clean sheets to get back on track…

Nancy have caused us problems on previous occasions, but fortunately not today…

The cup game with Bordeaux is all over in half an hour, and that’s that for another year…

Guingamp frustrate us once again, even with ten men, and it’s another stalemate…

Urzaiz spares our blushes at 15th-placed St. Etienne, as we blow the chance to go second…

Monaco have improved slightly, and are now 12th. We lose our keeper and star striker to injury, but somehow we still manage to pull a win out of the bag to do the double over them..

The diagnosis is a month for Leighton and Kaiku, during which we have to play Auxerre, Strasbourg, and Bordeaux, which is fantastic…

Our first game without them both goes about as badly as it can, and the goal difference takes an absolute hammering away at Auxerre…

We look to have thrown it away against Strasbourg after being 2-0 up, but then they’re keeper’s sent off late on, and ice cold Revilla despatches the pen before Urzaiz scores a late winner to complete an unlikely comeback…

Kaiku returns against Bordeaux, but it makes little difference as we’re once again torn a new one by Johan Cruyff’s champions-elect…

Montpellier frustrate us as we drop two more points, and PSG win again to go three points behind us with a game in-hand and a far superior goal difference. Squeaky bum time…

Lens humiliate us in front of our own fans in our final home game of the season, and as expected, PSG win to leapfrog us into third…

Our final game is away at Metz, where we look set to get the single point we need to cement fourth spot until the most dramatic of endings unfolds, as Rambo draws last blood and gives away a penalty, which Arregui misses, only for Urzaiz to score the winner seconds later. Wow!

It’s not often Bilbao actually adhere to their club policy in this game, so I feel this is definitely worth a mention, even though they’re after one of my star players…

So here’s the final table. Strasbourg and Auxerre both lost, so our result at Metz didn’t matter in the end, and to finish fourth sees us continue to make progress year on year. This will get us into the UEFA Cup, and hopefully mean we can actually attract some players…

But not with this sort of prize money, so once again I’ll be praying for that cash injection…

It’s the end of an era for Lethal Luke and Double D, as both their contracts expire. They were awesome back in the early days, but age and the signings of Kaiku and Calle limited their game time in the end. Farewell, boys…

Also leaving is Gurria, who joins Castellon for £100k. Rennes came in for him a couple of times throughout the season, but he kept rejecting them, obviously holding out for a move back home…

We’ll end with the stats. Pascual was the top performer, and Calle ended up top scorer, with just one more goal than his strike partner Kaiku, who was the king of assists…

So that’s a wrap for season four. It’s another season of progress, and we finally have some European football to look forward to! Will the lure of the UEFA Cup catch the attention of any of the top Basque Boys? and will we finally get that badly-needed cash injection from the board? Find out next week. Au Revoir!