Jolly old St Mickerlas, lean your ear this way, don’t you tell a single soul, what I’m going to say…
Ahhh how did we get here? This should (SHOULD) be our last visit to the Retirement Academy, a once proud institution with a philosophy of playing 5 young lads and 5 old lads. One of the old lads bought the club, and now it’s him plus 10. The “him” in question is Mick The Micker Quinn and he is rampant for trophies. Amongst other things. You can catch up with last week’s efforts here.
Good morning! With Barnsley all set to be our long term save for 2022, we’re just visiting a familiar place for two weeks…
We left the Retirement Academy a few weeks ago having conquered the world. Every trophy was banked and Ajax were finally overthrown. It took 12 seasons but we did it, all by keeping to the rules bestowed on the club by Ike Mashley: 5 young and 5 old on the pitch at all times (outfield, he’s not a total savage) and no paying for youngsters. It wasn’t easy but we did it, and the Micker was there through the whole thing.
Whilst most players spent their money on houses and flash cars, the Micker scurried his money away for a rainy day. As the win bonuses and prize money kept coming, Micker’s bank account kept growing and now, he’s had an idea. Ike’s achieved his dream and got bored, the Micker’s put his winnings on a horse and the time has come – The Micker has bought out the Retirement Academy.
His first act is to get rid of the rules. The Micker realises that if his career is going to be prolonged, he needs the best around him and probably not a 38 year old Finidi George. The challenge is afoot – there’s £30m in the bank, go and improve the squad with some superstars!
Hello! It’s that wonderful time again where we enter the final part of a season. In blogs gone by, we’d call it squeaky bum time and it would start in March. Here in Holland, the time for arse clenching begins in January because the calendar is not well weighted. Is that relevant? No. However, the Retirement Academy have a lot of clenching to do with every trophy still up for grabs. All or nothing? Some? We write our own narrative here. Let’s remind ourselves of the table:
Good morning! The always difficult but sometimes exciting middle section of the season is here and there’s more at stake than normal. Not only are we involved in somewhat of a three horse race at the top of the table but we’ll also be heading off to Japan to try and be crowned the best club in the world. That’s what it means and I won’t hear otherwise. Let’s get at it.
Welcome back! We are the European Champions! Quite how that happened, I’m not sure, but it did and now we go into season 12 hoping to win the World Club Cup and ideally get the better of Ajax domestically. Here’s the squad as it stands:
Hello! Welcome to the end of Season 33. We trail Ajax by 12 points and we really need to channel Manchester United 1996 and hope Kevin Keegan is in the dugout in Amsterdam. It is unlikely, I admit. But you just never know.
Here we are again, back at the Retirement Academy trying to recover from a bad start. It’s different this time, we are the defending champions and have a chance of making the last 8 of the Champions League. Life is good. But it could be better.
WEEE ARRE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRRIIIEEENDDDD. It’s been a celebratory time here at the Retirement Academy after landing our first PTT Telecompetitie title – you can see why they call it the Eredivisie these days. Let’s just remind ourselves of our best days:
Could this be the day? We’ve been chipping away for 29 episodes, could the big 3-0 bring our first league title? We’ve certainly got the big lads worried as we enter the run-in, which as usual is just under half of the league season. Can we hold off the megapowers?
Good morning! Or afternoon. Evening? Wherever you are reading this, there should be a wave of positivity about you if you’ve been reading the Retirement Academy over the past 28 episodes. Granted, probably not 27 of them but the new motto that THIS IS OUR YEAR has not yet come back to bite us. We’re 5th after 6 games, it’s a reason for us to celebrate.
