Bonjour! and welcome back for the second half of season seven. You join us just six points off the top of the table, and well-placed for a second half of the season title charge. There’s also the main cup still to play for as well, so let’s see if this will finally be the season when the French Basque Boys will go and win their first trophy…

Back to the start we go then, which means that up first this week are Chateauroux, who run us close, but a Diaz brace, and De Paula’s second goal in two games puts them to bed…

You know what I was saying earlier about the main cup still being to play for? Well let’s just pretend that never happened…

Now comes that run of games against the big boys that we have to try and get through relatively unscathed if we are to challenge for the title. Things don’t exactly get off to the best of starts at home to Bordeaux…

PSG always seem to score either three or four goals against us, and this time it’s the latter, which is even more annoying after we take an early lead. I wish they’d just f*ck off…

Lyon provide us with a chance to get back on track in the middle of the four games against the big guns, which we duly take…

And this is much better, with ten men for most of the second half as well! Even a penalty from Derby legend Pierre Ducrocq can’t stop us…

We don’t tend to get much out of Marseille, but I think we’ve finally cracked it when we score in the 75th minute, only for it to be disallowed. I’d have been happy with six points out of a possible twelve, but four it is sadly…

After a juddery start at Metz, Diaz bags a hatty to settle things down before a heated end to the match sees Aurelio and some bloke who’s name I’m not even going to try and pronounce have a good old scrap and both get sent off…

Anthony Betterton has somehow made his way to Guingamp (which is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone sign him), but even at his best, we still beat him twice, and Marseille draw with Nancy, so we’re a point off second…

And then we typically go and undo all our good work by dropping points at Gueugnon… Again. I like football, but not Gueugnon, Gueugnon can f*ck off…

Despite that latest setback, all is good in the world again at home to Caen, although we don’t exactly make easy work of it…

We’re already without Aurelio for two more games, and now this. If ever there was a bad time to be without two of your regular three centre backs, this is definitely it…

With Aurelio and Vicente Herrero missing, I’m forced to play Lacruz at centre back against Lille, so it comes as no surprise that we lose, and to make matters worse, Bordeaux go and win to leapfrog us into third…

With injuries and suspensions mounting, I barely manage to scrape 16 players together for the visit of Strasbourg, but thankfully they’re dog shite these days, and Diaz hits another hat trick as we brush them aside to temporarily reclaim third spot…

Nothing less than a win will do against Montpellier after they knocked us out the cup. We get super-keepered, but thankfully one of our 13 shots on target finally finds the net with 20 minutes left on the clock…

Bastia’s keeper is at it as well, and the loss sends us back to fourth place, which is now mathematically the lowest we can finish, although that definitely won’t be the aim…

After another shuffle around, Badiola enjoys himself in the AM role once again at home to Nancy, and his late winner helps keep the pressure on Marseille and Bordeaux…

Porto winning the Champions League in 2004… Whatever next?! Whoever their manager is must certainly be a special one…

Nantes peg us back twice in a Desmond, and then Bordeaux go and win their game in hand a few days later, meaning it’s another fourth place finish for us. F**********CK!!!

Lacruz and Calle are injured, and we’ve lost Mateo, Badiola, and Diaz to under 21 duty, but even with half the team changed, we find life surprisingly easy against Auxerre, and sign off from season seven with a stylish win…

So, it’s a fifth straight fourth place finish, which is by no means bad, and at least shows that we’re consistent, but we just can’t seem to improve on it, and I’m left wondering whether this is as good as it’s going to get for this team, and if the players just simply might not be good enough to win this league…

Here’s the latest stat attack. Leighton was quite far down the list this season, but I think that’s largely down to his age, as he’s 32 now and in the decline. Take nothing away from Nandi and Vicente Herrero though, who both had a great season in front of him.

King of assists this season was De Paula, and top scorer was Diaz with just 17, but the goals did seem to be a lot more shared around in general this season, which I guess is a good thing because it shows we’re not too reliant on one player to score them all…

So there ends another trophy-less season. Yet again I feel so deflated, because I thought this might finally be the season where we actually manage it, but for some reason, we just can’t seem to master the second half of the season.

However, the optimist in me says that I didn’t win the league with Wolves until 2005/06, so I’ll be back next week to go again for season eight. Thanks for sticking with me on this, and I hope I can start to repay your loyal reading by winning some silverware soon. Au Revoir!