Hello and welcome to our final trip to Cologne. I’d like to say it’s been fun, but that would be bullshit. It’s been hard, it’s been frustrating and it’s had little reward. Maybe it’s time to stop being so restrictive with my transfer policy. We’ll see.

Anyway, here we are with 11 league games left to play and some cup business to sort out…

Straight into the cup winners cup action and Marseille very much have the upper hand here….

In the league, Dortmund are marching relentlessly to their 5th straight Bundesliga title. With opposition like us, who can stop them?

The Pokal Cup is a different matter though, even if it does take 2 hours to get the better of them. Felgenhauer? More like Felgen-Hero!

But of course.

Nevermind, we’ll deal with that soon. In the meantime, restitution in Europe occurs. Stenzel apparently means ‘one who will achieve glory’.

A trip to Bilbao and a date with the Basque Boys awaits. Hopefully reading Nick’s blogs will help in terms of scouting….

Back to league action and we’re just trying to finish as high and as strongly as possible now and avoid any silly injuries. Rostock are the next to feel Felgers Fury.

Kaiserslautern have their own hero in an aging Romario but my attacking trio have a little too much for Mr Senator and friends.

Athletic Bilabo don’t really resemble the Basque Boys but familiar names abound. Four away goals = good. Four goals conceded = bad.

In the league, Bayern are trying to catch Dortmund but Felgers has other ideas…

We draw with Bayern and lose to Dusseldorf. If consistency is the key, we desperately need a 24hr emergency locksmith.

I just don’t know what happened here to be honest….

Oh yes wait, I played my second string as it was 2 days after the league game and 3 days before the biggest night so far in Cologne’s blog history….

The screenshot is for Nick Rowe, the result is for the fans – we’re in the final!

At this point, the league is just a distraction now….

I thought Bayern would bury us in the Pokal semi final but Pflipsen came up with the late delivery of goods and we took them all the way to penalties only for young centreback Zedi to be the fall guy….

Back to league action and we finally have some Felgers inspired consistency….

The final league game before the Cup Winners Cup Final against Sporting Lisbon lets us through unscathed. This time my second string get a result.

This is what I’m facing in the final. To be honest, nothing too scary, but a very attacking tactical set up…

It matters not when my prolific front two combine to give us our second piece of silverware!

Our final league game and final game of this blog – we can either finish 7th or 8th. Meanwhile Bayern finally oust Dortmund from the top spot.

We do the business, when the pressure is off obviously and it’s the familiar names doing the heavy lifting.

Confirmation, if confirmation was needed or wanted….

League wise, our worst season competitively. That second place finish was definitely us punching. How do you go from scoring 88 league goals to 55/52?

Stats for the season. Felgenhauer came good in the second half of the season, while I never really got to blood Klinsmann’s regen (Passlack) in time

Elsewhere, Schmeichel’s regen was a good choice in sticks. I think my inability to attract decent defenders became my undoing.

Bayern’s neighbours deny them the double

Germany crash out in the World Cup semi’s

And then give 3rd place to England

Spain do it 8 years early

At the end of it all, one Pokal Cup win and one Cup Winners Cup trophy for all that toil. I did kind of enjoy it. Limiting who you can sign and from where suits me I think, but Germany is a very poor country stats wise and I never really got near Dortmund and Bayern.

So, that’s me and Cologne all wrapped up. Thanks for following. I’ll be back after a break with my next Secret Santa Blogsquad save, see you all soon!