Good day to you and welcome back to part 3 of this short challenge. Can you turn Blackburn Rovers into Premier League challengers in the first season? Well, yes. Whether they will be challengers or the real deal remains to be seen, but here we are with 15 games remaining and a 4 goal lead. 15 cup finals await.
Well hello there! Welcome back to my latest short story challenge, inventively named “Win the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers” which is exactly what we’re trying to do. Nobody can get near Man Utd in season 1, usually, and if anybody does it certainly isn’t Blackburn Rovers. Here we are though, top of the pile after 8 games. 30 to go…
You can catch up with part 1 here.
Also, CM9798 turned 27 on Thursday. You can take our anniversary quiz here if you so desire.
Good day to you. Firstly, how good are Nick and Matt’s blogs at the moment? Top reads, check them out if you haven’t already.
I was devastated by Doncaster’s 5th round defeat at Old Trafford. A fun challenge though and I got more into it than most saves in recent memory. So, let’s have another short term challenge.
In 1995, Blackburn Rovers won the Premier League. If you are lucky enough to be too young to recall that, they basically bought Alan Shearer, Chris Sutton, Stuart Ripley, Tim Sherwood and Tim Flowers in the years preceding their glory, put Kenny Dalglish in charge and let the good times roll. Those players were some of the best young players in the country, at a time where not that many players were imported.
It was a short lived success. Dalglish left following their last day title win and moved “upstairs” and assistant Ray Harford took over. The 95/96 season wasn’t the best – the Champions League campaign fell at the group stage and several key players missed time through injury. Harford resigned after a poor start to 96/97, Dalglish also left his role and this resulted in Roy Hodgson being appointed. Alan Shearer had departed in the summer of 96 but no real replacement had been identified, with Sutton still around to lead the line.
In game, Blackburn start with £20m in the bank but a very average reputation and the need to find a striker to try and come close to filling Big Al’s boots. I’ve given myself two seasons to win the Premier League. Get me Mick Quinn’s number.
Continue readingHello and welcome back to one of the more ambitious challenges we’ve undertaken on this blog, which I might add will be 10 years old in January. Crikey. As the title gives away, the aim of the game is to win the FA Cup with Doncaster. Yes, Doncaster are in the Third Division and absolutely hopeless but a challenge is a challenge. I fully expect this to be the final part of the series, as the original challenge said win the FA Cup and then the Cup Winners Cup in season 2. Good one. In the immediate future, we have to topple Division 2 Walsall. You can catch up with part 1 here.
Well hello there. I’ve been looking at some short term saves to bring you and thanks to VB on the comments section, I’ve got one that captured my attention.
Doncaster are abysmal, make no mistake. They would finish the 1997/98 season bottom of Division 3 with just 30 goals scored in 46 games and 113 shipped. As you would expect, the fine people of CM9798 research towers have captured their misery pretty well. There’s a lot of 0 entries in the database but as you can see, the game has given me 7 wide midfielders to work with…and I tend not to use wingers.
Obviously, I will replace most of these goons with the usual free transfers. I’m going to have to Eddie Guerrero this one and list these players for loan so nobody takes them. We haven’t got long, so I best get into the market. Bring me the Micker.
Continue readingHola! I hope you are ready for one last update from Betis, where I set out to investigate if this Real Betis squad is capable of winning La Liga. After a less than stellar start things really started motoring in the last update. Top of the table and still in two cups, what’s not to enjoy?
We pick up with 12 games to go and a 4 point lead.
Greetings and welcome to the middle of three episodes of our latest short story. I’m investigating if Real Betis are good enough to win La Liga or if Oli, Alfonso, Jarni and co are just easy pickings for the big clubs. So far we’re doing ok – in the hunt for the top spot and safely through to the Cup Winners Cup quarters.
Hello! Or maybe that should be hola! I’ve pitched up in Seville to manage Real Betis in the latest short story series. Why Betis? Well, just look at this squad!
Alfonso and Oli, Finidi and Fernando, Jarni and…Prats. It’s got the makings of a title winning side. But can they do it? Can this lot upset the traditional big clubs and win La Liga? Let’s find out.
Guten tag! Welcome to the final part of the Kaiserslautern story, where I’m in with an outside chance of replicating one of the more unlikely stories of the 1990s. 12 games separate us for achieving our target, though it is essentially out of our hands as Bayern (and I suppose Bielefeld) have games in hand to overhaul us. You can see part 2 here.
We have the perfect opportunity to keep the momentum up as we host bottom of the table Duisburg. We get off to the perfect start thanks to Kuka trooper before missing about 20 chances. The Czech star eventually wraps up the points and we keep rolling on.
It’s a tough fixture away at 3rd place Bielefeld. We struggle to lay a glove on them and when Fink gets sent off with the score already 1-0, it’s downhill from there. A heavy loss. Goodbye top spot.
Bayern win their game in hand during the week to pile on the misery, but they are the next visitors to the Ballroom Fritz. We’re up for it from the start and hound our more illustrious opponents to take a half time lead. Then it gets really fun. Larry Rob makes it 2 before Marschall takes over, netting a pen and rounding Kahn for 4-0. Rizzitelli pulls one back but Marschall completes his hat-trick in injury time. What a day. What a club.
Not now, Pavel. Ffs.
Borussia “don’t make me type it out” MGB host us but they’ve had a rough season. We’re 2-0 up inside 10 minutes before being pegged back to 2-2. Fortunately we are strong finishers and Larry adds two plus another for Kuka trooper and it’s a handsome win.
We keep the pressure up with a thrashing of Cologne. When we’re good, my word we are good.
Every now and again though we throw in a minging 0-0. This is one such occasion.
Then, such is the way of this game, we thrash Leverkusen 6-0. Another hat-trick for Olaf. If only Bayern didn’t have those games in hand.
Dortmund are reigning European Champions and they’re coming up on the rails in 3rd. It’s make or break really, we can’t afford to lose to a rival. It’s a tense affair, 0-0 at the break. Then, Kuka gives us the lead. What a hero. Dundee slots a pen to level it up but Kohler scores an OG to put us back in front. We can only hold out for 5 minutes before that damn Sean Dundee levels it up, before Kohler pops up (pun intended) to score the winner and sink us. Booo.
It’s followed up by the most one sided 0-0 you’ll ever see. I think the dream is dead.
Two 0-0’s in 3 days. What a treat.
Do not resuscitate.
We do at least finish with a win thanks to a late Sforza goal. It secures us 3rd place.
Bayern win the title on the last day – Dortmund ran them oh so close. I am quite pleased with 3rd, after a dodgy start I didn’t really expect to have been top at any time but nevermind. We outscored the whole league, which is like winning.
Marschall is a hero and I sort of regret not playing Kuka earlier in the season.
The front two were exceptional, though there were many strong performers as you can see. Only the wingbacks averaged under 7, which is no surprise. Those ratings are always a struggle.
That brings us to the end of this short story series, I’m going back down to just the Academy from November and for remainder of the year as I fear I have become a nuisance. See you then!
Remember to vote for your favourites as we search for our CM9798 Greatest Team
Guten tag! That’s German for how do. In part 1, we discussed how it was a small miracle that Kaiserslautern won the 97/98 Bundesliga and then came up with a plan as to how I was going to replicate that success. The answer was seemingly Olaf Marschall.
After 9 games, we pick the season up with my new charges in 6th, hanging on to the coat tails of the top sides.
First off I’ve decided I need a centre back to strengthen out defensive resolve and at £1m I have identified Stephane Henchoz.
What I didn’t take into account, because I am a bonhead, is that Henchoz counts as a non-EU player because…Switzerland. This was a mistake, I admit that.
Alex Notman is finally back from his torn hamstring and he’s in for Ratinho, who is our for a few weeks. We still can’t defend but the ever reliable Marschall, with help from our young loanee, gets us over the line despite conceding twice in a minute.
Bochum. 3-0. Howard Finkel gets his first goal for the club and we’re loving life.
You don’t need him, ffs.
Cheers Alex. That leaves a whole in our team which young Reich will have to fill as we face Bayern in cup. The Pokal sounds less prestigous to be honest, but despite making it to half time at 1-1 once we are down to 10 men it’s a battering. Wave after wave and they just don’t stop. Henchoz is useless.
Thankfully Ratinho is back for the trip to Leverkusen, who are 6th but have 3 games in hand. If they win them all, they would be top. But we put a stop to that with a good display away from home. We lead twice but a point will do.
Dortmund are of course the Champions of Europe so you’ll understand my surprise that we score three times in 12 minutes to brush them aside. Momentum is growing.
A visit to the capital gives us the surprising scenario where Marschall doesn’t score. He always scores. Larry Bob does though as the opening 10 minutes bring all the drama, despite Bryan Roy’s best efforts.
Stuttgart are another decent side, we seem to be in a rough set of fixtures at the moment. Marschall managed to get injured in training during the International break so he misses this one, which brings Kuka in.
Larry Bob has pulled his hamstring and will face 2 months out, which poses a problem as I really want to play Pavel Kuka now but will need to drop one of the other non-EU chaps. Ratinho is a set piece maestro which is bad news for Sforza and Kadlec, who may face rotation over the weeks to come.
Marschall only misses one game and he will have to get to know Kuka for the time being. We come from 2-0 down to draw with 1860 Munich as our patchy form continues.
2nd place Werder Bremen away probably will mean more problems for us. We’re already down to 7th but Kuka has given us a new dimension and his double helps us towards a massive shock result. Well maybe not massive but I didn’t expect to win let alone score 4 goals.
We get four again just a few days later as another away trip ends in a demolition. This time Kuka gets a hat-trick as Rostock feel the Kuka burn. We’ll work on better word play.
The final game before the winter break is Karlsruhe. Finally a game we are expected to win. Kuka, obviously, scores twice as we lead 3-0 at half time. It ends 4-1 with Marschall’s 23rd of the season, he’s now passed his real life total and it’s not even Christmas. Kuka has 9 in 5.
Yes, if you are wondering, I should have picked Kuka from the start. Germany love a winter break, it lasts for two whole months where literally nothing happens. Here’s the table to help pass the time.
It’s going rather well. I doubt we’ll have enough to overtake Bayern but you just never know.
It’s been 83 years. Or 2 months. But we’re back in action. The transfer deadline has been and gone, most of my players are wanted and were bid for.
Our first game back is Hamburg away. It turns out to be the perfect setting for Marschall to get goal 24 of a brilliant season.
You don’t play for 2 months then all of a sudden you play twice in 2 days. Who decided that?
We finish with a trip to Wolfsburg. They’re 17th and not very good and it looks set to be another 0-0 until my left back goes through one on one and scores and Sforza adds some Swiss gloss to the occasion.
Bayern mess up at home to Leverkusen so we’re top of the pile. A lovely way to end the update I feel.
They have 2 games in hand so I’m not too excited but they have to visit us yet, we’re still fighting for this title and Ich würde es lieben, wenn wir sie schlagen, liebe es!
For some reason the Bundesliga is big on Wednesday-Friday for matches despite that break so we’re going to be heavily tested in the last few months of the season as my squad depth isn’t great. Nevertheless, 12 games to go and we’re in with a shout. I’ll take it. Join me next week for the conclusion, auf wiedersehen pets.