Bonjour! Welcome along to a seventh season of the Basque Boys’ French invasion, which has to date been fruitless, but having reached a domestic cup final, and the UEFA Cup quarter-finals, is there evidence to suggest that we’re not too far away, and that season seven might be a lucky one?

After five seasons, Jose Galdames is released after his contract expires…

I clear some dead wood to make room for newbies, so Edu Alonso, Gracia, and Arregui are shown the door…

Meet Galdames’ replacement, who cost £250k from Osasuna. A deal which benefits two Basque clubs…

This, I was not expecting to see. Him and Aurelio would have made a solid partnership..

Pascual’s regen is swiftly snapped up…

As is another Pascual regen, José Javier Pascual to be exact…

Next is former Mallorca man, Xabier Eskurza…

And lastly, Gomez Ortiz Pablo…

This year’s quest for the elusive League Cup begins at Guingamp…

Another scour of the interested foreign based list uncovers this former Bilbao Boy, who costs £600k from Zaragoza…

Go forth and develop, Basque babies…

Well, you don’t see this every day…

Here’s how the Basquey bunch is looking. I’ll be looking to offload a few more yet, but this will do for now…

And here’s how we line up.

First up are newly-promoted Chateauroux. Badiola enjoys his more advanced role, assisting two of our three goals…

Goikoetxea’s regen heads home on loan…

I’m pretty sure this is Zubizarreta’s regen. He’s mine for £400k from the little green Compostela bin…

Bordeaux next, and yes, you did read that scoreline correctly. We’re not helped by the red card, but our ten men dig in for the last half an hour for a deserved victory…

Another day, another loan-out…

The balls drop for the UEFA Cup draw, and it’s Sparta, who have an almost entirely grey squad, so I’ll take that…

I’ll have to watch Txutxi. We got away with his red against Bordeaux, but PSG aren’t so kind…

Braga borrow Pedrito…

Well this is just f*cking great. Bloody international matches…

Lyon snatch a point in the dying minutes. Thankfully Badiola’s injury isn’t serious…

Europe, and I was expecting to score a few more against Sparta, but I’m just being greedy. The two away goals are helpful…

Sotero had his chance, but never really took it, so I’m not gutted to see him go…

Our luck against the big boys is definitely starting to change…

Or maybe not…

It’s a slow start in the second leg with Sparta, but we finally score with our ninth shot on target, and a Calle double seals the deal…

More Dutch opposition awaits…

Here’s confirmation that we’re doing alright. My first one in the top flight. Whoop!

Cup time, and thankfully we’re thoroughly out of sight against Guingamp by the time Aurelio is dismissed…

Metz are c*nts, pass it on…

Lens are next in the League Cup…

Guingamp again, this time in the league, and it’s another win, albeit not as emphatic as in the cup…

Back to Europe, and with the Dutch league not loaded, Vitesse aren’t as strong as they might have been. An early red card helps, and it’s two more away goals to take home…

I want revenge over Gueugnon. They frustrate us, but their keeper gets sent off after they’ve made three subs, so it’s a stroll in the end, although Revilla misses a penalty against an empty net…

I Caen handle losing, but not when it’s a Basque Boy who scores the decisive goal…

Thankfully Vitesse don’t have enough about them to take advantage of our latest red card, and we’re through to take on Schalke…

Mateo (Bakero) becomes my first player to receive a full national call-up. Well done lad!

It’s a dream start against Lens in the cup, but sadly it’s all downhill from there…

Santi is coming to town! He’s not cheap at £800k, but our reputation must be increasing if we can now attract this level of talent…

One man benefitting from Diaz’s injury is Arenaza, and he nets a hat trick as we smash Lille. Bizarrely, our keeper was booked for handball, which surely isn’t possible?!!!

Another hat trick follows, this time by Calle, as we brush Strasbourg aside…

With the German league also not loaded, I was hoping Schalke would have greys aplenty, but sadly not, and we slump to defeat in Gelsenkirchen, although Kaiku gives us hope…

Another own goal gets us off to a terrible start at Montpellier, but we turn things around to make it three league wins on the spin…

The streak looks set to be broken by Bastia until Calle nets a late winner…

Schalke look to have ended our European campaign for another year, but we battle back, and had Revilla scored his penalty, it could have been oh so different…

Alkorta has become a victim of a congested midfield, so I reluctantly let him go…

Guerrero heads to Portugal for the rest of the season…

Jesus! Two in one season!

Diaz is back, and gets straight to work with a brace in an eight-goal thriller at Nancy, which also sees Santi get his first goal for us…

The main cup draw deals us Montpellier…

Galdames played a lot last season, so The Board wouldn’t let me list him for loan initially, but they eventually relent…

Nantes hand us our first defeat in six games, which is made worse by the fact they have ten men for most of the second half…

But De Paula restores order at Auxerre, and ensures that we end the first half of the season, and this week’s episode with a win…

We’re third, six points off top spot, and playing some good stuff. Our next six games include Bordeaux, PSG, Monaco, and Marseille, which is horrible, but if we’re still there or thereabouts after that, we can consider ourselves in a title race…

Thanks for joining me as always. As long as we can get through those games with the big boys, and avoid another second half capitulation, then there’s no reason why we can’t give it a real good go. Catch you next week. Au Revoir!