Season four, most likely the penultimate season in this adventure/challenge.  We started with Gateshead in Division three and a team full of greys.  We have made it to the Premier League after back to back to back promotions.  Worrying about big club release clauses are a thing of the past but we still have our PSR rules to worry about.

I find the regens of Trevor Steven and Gary McAllister on free transfers.  I’ve had my eye on a guy called Tarantino from Italy who can play behind the front two for a while and he finally joins for £775k.  I also find the regen of Thomas Ravelli (I think) and get him in for £110k.  Currently my most expensive purchase is 5000 plastic seats so I change that by bringing in another ex-Man Utd youngster E. Nev, for £2.9 million.

I counterbalance all this by selling M.M.Ipintza for £4.6 million who has decided he “wants to move to a bigger club” and attracted attention after his solid end to last season.

Some of this transfer business wasn’t concluded until after our first few games of the season, hence Ipintza’s presence of the score sheet in out first Premier League match, away at Spurs and our first home match against Crystal Palace.

Following two straight promotions, scoring over 100 goals in each season, gaining 100+ points and winning the Auto Windscreen Shield twice we embark on life in Division one aiming to go three for three and maybe another couple of 100s in the bag.

The rules are simple, we can only spend 75% of the money we make, and we can’t cheat the game using the loan trick to circumvent the big club release clause.  Our aim, to see how far we can get after five seasons starting in Division three with no players.

Some sad news breaks in the close seasons as we say goodbye to three good, if not slightly ill-disciplined eggs.

We begin season two/end season one of our five season challenge by making a couple of key signings.  Croatian legend Slaven Bilic joins on a free, I think because Everton were relegated and Azerbaijani international Demis Ohandjanian signs from Macclesfield, the club I replaced in Division three.  I make another couple of signings, Andy Tennant for £190k, I think he is Maurice Malpas’s regen and aging Belarussian AMC Sergei Gerasimets for free.  I try to sign the Icelandic regen but he’s not interested.

As has become tradition, well, for the second year running, the blog squad bought each other random football shirts for Secret Santa.  I was lucky enough to receive this beauty from King of the Rook (Andrew Chapman), a Gateshead keepers jersey. 

Along with the gift, I now needed to create a blog.  Gateshead are non-league on CM9798, so I moved them into Division 3 to replace Macclesfield (I think) and begin my five-season adventure.  The rules and challenge are simple enough:

Challenge:

• How far can you get in five seasons, starting with a team full of grey players?

Rules:

• PSR, I can only spend 75% of the money I make through player sales and prize money.  I’ve made a handy little spreadsheet to ensure compliance.
• No using the loan trick to mitigate the big club release clause.

Welcome to the final episode of this series, the Turf Roar boys are still fighting on three fronts, we lead the Premier League by seven points and are still in both the FA Cup and Champions League.

Our first match of the episode sees us travel to London to face Crystal Palace.  They have his royal highness Edwin Turkington in goal.  Despite peppering Turkington’s goal for 90 minutes he is in fine form, refusing to concede.  Then in the 69th minute, Aboubacar Camara scores.  A positive start to the final instalment.

During the first third of my final season with the Clarets we had made a positive start on all fronts.  We were top of the league with 28 points from a possible 36 and joint top of Champions League Group E, with seven points from a possible nine.

The first match of episode two is a Clarets Clash, in the League Cup 3rd round.  I’ve decided to try and compete on all fronts this year, so we field a full-strength side.  Micky Landreau gets himself sent off, and we capitalise, moving comfortably through to round four.  It seems a long time ago since the darker days of season three and four, when it felt like we had a player sent off nearly every game.

After the disappointment of finishing second to Wiki rivals Leeds we are back for one final season (unless it all goes wrong) to see if we can win the league and maybe some other stuff.

I make two signings over the summer, Martin finally agrees to a bit of Bene and Brazilian Glaucio has been tearing up the Dutch league with Feyenoord.

Welcome back to the Moor, as we enter the final third of season five the Clarets are still fighting to win their first Premier League and to retain the FA Cup.

The first match of the episode is the FA Cup 5th round tie, away to Wimbledon.  Despite some fine saves from Neil Sullivan we manage to make it to the Quarter Finals thanks to Terry and Dangerous numero deux.

It’s a third of the way through season five and the Clarets are currently second in the Premier League and looking to make it through to the quarter finals of the Champions League.

Our first match is at home to West Brom, despite dominating the first half we go into the break all square.  The Baggies scoring from their only shot of the match.  Dangerous 1.0’s match time has been limited due to Dangerous 2.0, Terry and Pistol Petko, however he makes the most of his opportunity, scoring two second half goals.

Welcome back, it’s the beginning of season five in this moderately epic adventure with Burnley FC.  Somehow, last year, we managed to win not only the FA Cup but also the Champions League, not bad for a team who a) hadn’t made it past the fourth round of a cup competition before and b) could at best be described as consistently inconsistent.  Thanks to a solid final third of the season, and the fact that all the teams were so close on points we managed to move from thirteen up to third place in the final thirteen matches of the season.

Some big changes needed to be made over the summer, we have committed ourselves to the old faithful, 2-3-1-2-2.  M/FL Damien Duff was so good at wing back (avg 7.00!) I’ve re-signed Bjorn Daelemans for £2.2 million a year after selling him to Antwerp, he’s going to play right wing back.