Greetings and welcome to the end of Season 8. It’s a save that has taken me from Aberdeen to Waregem, which isn’t exactly a wayward journey but we’ve seen a lot of things. Waregem are defending league champions and enjoying a Champions League foray. However, competing on both fronts has taken it’s toll on a fairly average squad. Can we find a way to retain our league title? Which European giant awaits us in the last 4 if we get there?

We do get there, obviously. A 3-1 lead was never troubled by Metz.

Please be Rangers Please be Rangers Please be Rangers

Ah, nuts.

That is future Dave’s problem. Right now it’s all about trying to make up ground in the league title race. Mechelen and Aalst both take a beating

That’s more like it. It’s easy when the opposition treat you like dirt.

To the Nou Camp then and really all I want is an away goal and a narrow loss.

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE. That’s 5 times our entire capacity. 2-1 would have been lovely, but there was something in the air and Fernando scored, meaning our star isn’t that bright. Not my words, the words of Abba.

Speaking of Swedes, Zetterberg sticks it up Germinal Ekeren. MENDOZAAAAA was also involved.

Roby Rondags has broken into the Belgian Under 21 squad and he’s becoming a key player, which is probably just as well considering Zetterberg and Emmers have a combined age of well over 70.

That is a problem though, as the Belgian FA do…FA to help me in the Champions League. A pesky Easter Monday game two days before the second leg with Barcelona means I have little choice but to rotate the squad, including the two older gentlemen, and the result is PAIN.

So then, it’s come down to this. Our league hopes are fading but if we can find a way to beat Barcelona 2-0 or better, we’ll go through to the final and have the time of our lives.

Damn. I nearly Mendoza’d the house down when he scored twice in a minute and if he’d scored a third I’d probably have folded the blog. There’s nowhere to go from there. We still beat Barcelona, just not over 2 legs. The boys done good. Man Utd will play Barcelona in the final.

Now, you’ve heard of a team shooting themselves in the foot but we’ve really taken it to heart and just flat out scored two own goals. ‘Sakes…

There’s 4 games to go and we need to make up a 3 point deficit. It’s not really in our hands and our run in is grim

We could at least retain the Belgian cup.

Nope. Karagiannis is a little weasel too, he left under the big club release clause when he was 18.

It’s all on the league then, and we just about edge past Gent. Nervy.

But the big game comes away at Club Brugge. One of the big 3, before we and now Antwerp got involved, winning there is still a huge challenge. They’re in the hunt for a Champions League spot at least, but they don’t have Roby Rondags.

A belting free kick, that makes it a bank holiday to remember. Is it even a bank holiday in Belgium?

It’s not enough though, Antwerp still have it in their hands.

It’s Anderlecht next as our gauntlet continues. Future Wigan man Denny Landzaat gets himself sent off which makes our task easier, before Dirkx follows and M&M do the rest.

Antwerp keep on winning though, a 1-0 away win for them means all they have to do is beat lowly RWDM at home to win the league.

What does RWDM stand for anyway? Yes yes I know I can Google it but I don’t want to.

We have to go to Harelbeke which has been a problem for us at the best of times. No margin for error here, but Monaghan has been inspired since Mendoza arrived and he nets twice. We’ve done our bit.

Despite the efforts of future Stoke man Carl Hoefkens, RWDM hold out for a famous draw. THANK YOU

Wow. Really, Winning Doesn’t Matter.

Call them what you want, they’ll never buy a beer in Waregem again. Except Carl Hoefkens. He can pay for his own ale.

Incredible scenes in England as Joe Royle’s Aston Villa win the league by a country mile. Man Utd’s 14 draws look pretty costly. They pip Newcastle to a Champions League spot by 2 goals.

Aberdeen improved and even brought back the good old days of scroing all the goals – 90 to be exact – but it’s only enough for 2nd. Beardsley will no doubt live on forever.

For those wondering, here’s the Champions League final.

Awards time…

Woo.

Fitting that Sir Alex wins manager of the year. Get well soon.

That’s it from me and indeed this save for the time being. I have to turn my attention to the CM9798 World Cup which gets underway on Monday 21st May. There are two previews coming over the next two Sunday’s and then you will have daily blog posts bringing you the action from ‘Paris’. I’m really excited to bring you this tournament so please do your old pal Dave a favour and share it when you can. Au revoir

(What is the CM9798 World Cup? Here’s an explanation)

Hello and welcome back to what is becoming a bit of a struggle. This is how Leicester City must have felt after winning the Premier League. We’re struggling to match what is look more and more like a one off achievement. Still, we’ve got a chance of progressing through the Champions League groups and all is not lost on a domestic front. Let’s see what happens.

Let the misery continue

I’m really struggling to pin down the problem here. How were we so good last season? The two Scottish lads barely missed and now they barely touch the ball and when they do it is ballooned high into the stands. Maybe it’s me.

Put us in Europe though and all of a sudden we’re the greatest team in the world again. The quarter finals beckon.

Patouillard is performing brilliantly but he wants to leave. The big French clubs are circling. Maybe at the end of the season he can leave. He’s a vital cog in this terrible machine right now. More importantly, he holds an EU passport.

Hang on a second, are these the rumblings of a recovery?

Always nice to topple one of the big three a bonus to give Bergkamp a kick. That one is for Dabizas.

The Aberdeen sale continues. I suppose it shows the strength of the SPL that he’s moved to Rangers rather than anywhere else.

Off to Anderlecht now. Don’t you hate it when you come from 2-0 down and before you’ve even put your shirt back on you’re 3-2 down?

Idiots. That sets us up for the Champions League finale in Israel where we only need a point.

Three points! Just. It’s a last 8 berth though but who will we get?

Drum roll…

Well. That is the absolute best case scenario. It’ll be a bit ropey after that but that is very much future Dave’s problem.

Time for another sub standard performance.

We are actually utter tripe to watch and manage. We create very little these days in the league games. Maybe the cup will improve my mood?

I swear Tomasz Radzinski scores against me every time we play them. Musrri snatches the win in injury time. We’re just scraping by, but the winter break is near.

Another unconvincing win follows. How were we ever Champions?

As I prepare for a month off, it’s December and time to go shopping. We need goals. This Colombian seems a bit mad but he’s quick and can shoot. He’ll get booked a lot but his scoring record is better than a goal a game this season, and he can’t be any worse than Buchanan who has lost the plot after getting his Scotland caps.

I’ve also got this lad on a free. He’s ok. I have little else to say about him.

The new lad gets a double to see off non-league Oostende

The good thing is it gives me a chance to do this every time he scores:

I just might. It’ll be Gent next in a few weeks

La Louviere are up in 5th so to win here shows we might have a better second half of the season

We’re 5th, which isn’t bad. Only 5 points off the top spot too, so rule nothing out at this stage

What is for certain though is that now is the time to make a move. The new lad scoring again here will help

Off we go to Standard Liege, top of the table Standard Liege and my word, we are still fighting for this title. Monaghan has found his mojo again

Surprise contenders Antwerp visit the Roogy Boogy and the M&M partnership are at it now.

We’re even winning penalty shoot outs, despite our best efforts.

It’s the big 3 and us in the semis. At least we’re at home this time, last season was a joke.

However, the other club in Brugge clip our wings. In front of hardly anybody.

Champions League quarter final time and it’s fair to say I didn’t expect to gace Metz. Then again I didn’t expect to be behind after 5 minutes either, but then…

I promise I won’t do that anymore. He scores twice and misses a penalty for a hat-trick. I guarantee any write up would call him enigmatic. Still, a good chance we’ll progress from here.

That will have to wait for next time. We finish at home to lowly RWDM. I do wonder what that stands for – as do the whole team, which might explain why we fall behind inside half an hour. The lads get it together though. We’re on a roll.

It’s always exciting in Belgium, about 5 teams could realistically win this. Antwerp would be a surprise winner but then again so were we.

Anderlecht have hired a new manager too and their form has upturned somewhat. Our mad Colombian seems to have reinvigorated us though.

Speaking of reinvigorated, Beardsley might be bringing the title back to Aberdeen!

He’ll mess it up.

Aston Villa! Why do they have so many games in hand? They are managed by Joe Royle and they’re going to win, so come to terms with it.

Do join me next time for the final installment of this silly old season, we’re chance to get smashed by one of the big lads in the Champions League so you don’t want to miss that. See you then.

The dust has settled in Belgium after Waregem’s unlikely league and cup double. Champions League football will be coming to the Roogy Boogy but are we ready for it? Well, no, obviously not. We have a 15,000 capacity stadium and barely a pot to piss in. That pot becomes even smaller when the board spent the entire budget on 5000 seats. Oh my.

So whilst the Roogy get a slight expansion, we’ll have to pick carefully how we strengthen the squad. For starters, Champions League football means we’ll have to adhere to the 3 non-EU rule for those games, so it’s probably a good idea to buy some EU nationals.

Duncan Ferguson is my first signing. He’s no spring chicken but he’s a difference maker. A battering ram if you will, and my third Scottish striker. Christian Kempkens arrives to battle Fessem for the goalkeeper jersey, he’s got 2 caps for Germany so he can’t be too shabby. Creve is a defender/midfielder who will cover Emmers’ 38 year old legs, whilst Daniel Mutchell is an England Under 21 who, critically, has an EU passport, something Monka and Kumar can’t claim. That’ll be vital. Quinton Fortune doesn’t but he’s free, whilst Ceulemans plays in the always hilarious defender/forward right position, because there’s been so many of them down the years.

With the squad beefed out it’s time for the Belgian Charity Shield, where we are given a reminder that we are really not all that good.

Nevertheless, the league season gets underway with a tepid 1-0 win away at Genk

Good old Emmers. Never retire.

Goals are already looking a problem. The shots we have are wayward. Were the two Scottish lads just having a purple patch last season? Chilean Musrri scores here but it’s a poor result

The problems continue away at Lommel. This is unprecedented with this formation. Is it the AI working out the tactic? It certainly didn’t in 5 seasons at Aberdeen.

No. It’s the children who are wrong.

There’s only one thing for it…Big Dunc starts against Standard Liege.

Big Dunc!!! Welcome to Belgium. Crisis over?

It’s a very kind Champions League draw, being very honest. There’s no obvious favourite and we’ll just have to hope we can scrape 3 or 4 wins to get through, I can see a lot of teams beating each other.

Meanwhile Aberdeen continue to degrade themselves

Armed with Big Dunc, we’re off to Antwerp.

Poor. Dunc has a goal ruled out. He’s a difference maker, with him around, we might be ok

You-fucking-what? Obviously I refuse the approach but he goes anyway. Well that was a short lived love.

Great

Don’t rub it in. Also, Scottish International? Hmm.

More misery follows at home. Is it the new seats? We’re only half full anyway.

For our first Champions League game we’ve got a striking crisis. Monaghan is yet to score this season and the other two are injured. I guess Hoekstra can do a job up front and we’ll figure out the 3 non-EU thing.

Great time to get your first goals of the season. Phew.

That might prove to be a season changer, as we then waltz into RWDM and win 4-1. Monaghan has the taste again.

Another win, this time against Mechelen, makes it a September to remember.

I’d rather smear jam on my eyelids and be attacked by angry wasps

Thanks though.

Champions League fun continues and this time Buchanan gets a rare goal to nab us a vital point in Prague.

Lovely stuff. We should really win in Aalst too but given how poorly we lost there last season, I’m not too upset with a point.

Germinal Ekeren remain a mystery. Who are they? What do they want? They lose 1-0.

Really glad we spent all our budget on those 5,000 extra seats.

Champions League time again and our old failings are visible again. A bad result no matter which way you look at it, I choose to look at as 15 shots to 1. 4 on target is awful. Bring back Dunc.

Naturally our next move is to follow that up with a 0-0 draw away at Lierse. They are surprise leaders at this stage so it’s not a bad result but our famous ability to find goals from somewhere is being severely tested.

Fortunately Beveren are terrible. Our two scorers have a combined age of over 70.

Off to Greece for the latest installment of amateurs do the Champions League and somehow Buchanan pulls himself together to score twice. Art attack.

What a grim group. A grim group that we top and are unbeaten in. Sparta Prague at home and Maccabi Haifa away will finish the group.

We’ll finish with a league game, where incredibly both strikers score.

That leaves us 5th, with Antwerp the surprise leaders. They were managed by Roy Hodgson but he took the Sunderland job after I turned it down. Incidentally the job was available because Peter Reid went to Liverpool. Strange game, sometimes.

Surprise leaders all round as Aston Villa lead the way. Man Utd have never finished outside of the top 2 since the launch of the Premier League, having won the last 6.

Great times always then from Belgium, setting us up nicely for the middle sprint and the lovely month off I get for Christmas. It’s bubbling up well. See you next week for round 2.

Greetings and welcome to the final update of season 7. I’ve made a house a home here in Waregem, Belgium, as we look to break the dominance of the big 3 here and hopefully pinch a Champions League spot. We’re still in the UEFA Cup but face a big task to overturn an Aberdeen lead, but we’ve still got the Belgian Cup to go at too. It’s all happening. We pick up in the first weekend in March and a tricky away trip.

It feels like they are scoring every time they break forwards but eventually Emmers heads in an equaliser. Is it points dropped? I really can’t tell anymore.

No such troubles against Lommel, who are brushed aside ahead of out Aberdeen rematch.

As usual the problem is that we have far too many non-EU players, plus injuries. Also Zetterberg is banned, the wily old Swede gets booked every game pretty much. It’s not the best squad I’ve ever put out but we’ll have a go. With the Scottish front two we’ll always have a chance.

Peter’s come to hold what they have. Why would you do that?

Aberdeen score first which means we need 3 for extra time and 4 to win. Monaghan nets twice before the break before Emmers hauls us level just after half time. Just as I’m gearing up for a big finish, Nalis plunders one in from 30 yards. The dream is over.

It’s a shame but we’ve punched well above our weight to get this far. As it turns out, Aberdeen go on to win the UEFA Cup. Great days for the under pressure Beardsley.

Back to our bread and butter and Dermot’s at the double again.

That’s followed up with a nervy win at Tongeren. We struggled to get a foothold in the game and were lucky Koshery blasted his pen over.

To put this in context, with 7 games to go we are embroiled in a 5 way scrap at the top. We love a goal, everybody else loves to keep them out. Something’s got to give.

A couple of Easter wins are not pretty but very welcome. Are the nerves getting to us?

It’s actually quite a relief to come to our Belgian Cup semi-final. Having beaten Lierse and Standard in the previous rounds it seems only fair we face the trip to Club Brugge next. We’ve been drawn away in every round, somehow. Anyway, it’s a classic.

Three times we lead, three times we are pegged back. It goes to penalties and hold our nerve, even if Zetterberg didn’t. What a result. It’s Anderlecht away in the final, because that seems fair.

Take that, Gent.

Remarkably that puts us top of the table as Anderlecht and Standard fail.

All we have to do is win our remaining 4 games and the league is ours.

I ask you to do one thing…

As luck would have it, nobody can take advantage. Except Brugge, they’re coming like a freight train, vengeful for our cup win no doubt.

Lierse are basically out of the running now but if they come to our back yard and win I’ll be pretty mad. Fortunately the proclaimers get the job done

Two games to go then and strictly speaking it’s still a 4 horse race. Remember, our last game is against Standard. That’s going to be fun.

Off we go to Harelbeke, so often the graveyard of our hopes (well at least twice that I can recall) and Monka puts us in front early on. They equalise but have a man sent off. We have a whole half to basically secure Champions League football.

Damn. Standard actually beat Anderlecht 3-2 which preserves our top spot but means we can go into the final day unsure of even Champions League qualification.

Because we face Anderlecht in the cup final on Saturday they’ve moved the fixtures to midweek. I’m nervous.

The game is on a knife edge. It’s 0-0 forever with few chances. 10 minutes from the end Buchanan hits the post and Hoekstra turns in the rebound. WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

Anderlecht fall to a draw and Club Brugge win 3-0 to snatch second by a couple of goals. Bit of a shocker there

To the cup final then and honestly, I don’t care what happens. We’ve won the league when I didn’t expect to and if we win the cup, well that’ll be nice too. I tell the players to go out and have a great time.

I mean that is a great time. We’re magnificent. Playing like champions, Dermot plunders yet another hat-trick and we win the cup in Anderlecht’s back garden. We’ve won at Standard, Brugge and Anderlecht to complete a hat-trick of our own and the most deserved cup win ever.

Elsewhere, Rangers are the Scottish Champions. Aberdeen win the UEFA Cup but they are so far behind the Old Firm now it’s a real shame.

A single tear rolls down my cheek.

The Man Utd dominance continues, the North East try to peg them back but fail. Man Utd also win the Champions League.

Euro 2004 is held in Italy and England remarkably take home the trophy.

Scenes.

Awards time now and I’m the greatest man in Belgium.

I don’t think I’ve ever won the Fair Play Award, so that’s nice. Buchanan top scorer is also nice.

John Curtis wins player of the year. I made you, John.

We’ve got good times ahead, but we’ll have no money to spend. The board act on our success and spend all of our money on 5000 new seats. That’s lovely it really is, but now we have literally nothing in the transfer kitty.

Season 8 promises to be very interesting indeed! See you next week.

Don’t forget you can vote for us in the FBAs in the category of Best Gaming Football Content Creator – cast your vote here

Hello to you from Waregem, Belgium. I sit here in my fictional office feeling moderately content. I’ve taken Waregem from 7th to 4th in one season but that’s not enough. Our next stop needs to be the Champions League. We’re in the UEFA Cup too, which presents it’s own challenge, mainly because I forgot about the non-EU rule coming in to play and I had to have three keepers on the bench in one game. Nevertheless, our league form is good. How good? ICE COLD! Wait, wrong song. Let’s Belgium.

You may recall we hold a 2-0 lead over Croatia Zagreb, with the 13 or so outfield players I can actually name. Well, we drew 0-0 in Croatia. Wasn’t that fun?

Our reward is a last 16 clash with Servette. That actually sounds decent, unless Servette clean up.

There are many teams better than us still in this competition, but it’s probably the kindest draw we could get.

Off we go to Gent, back to the day job. It’s a solid win, the headline reads Perfect Gent and I silently make more Neil Buchanan jokes.

You’ll also recall I signed Dermot Monaghan (real name is not actually Dermot) but whatever his name is, here he is netting his third hat trick in the 5 weeks I’ve owned him. Wow.

Old man Emmers can barely stand these days but he’s a vital cog. He’s now allowed to play against Servette and LOOK WHAT HAPPENS

Good game for defences. Gao is a lunatic, a mad four minute spell brings 3 goals and a red card. Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Two away goals will help, though Monaghan can’t play so it really is all on Neil Buchanan.

I can’t hold the excitement in so I’ll bring you the second leg now. Who’s Dammann???

What great days. We’re a force at the Roogyboogy but I think we’re the team everyone wants in the Quarters.

Who do we get? Oh of course.

See you soon, Peter.

Before that though we’ve got Lierse away, who are 4th. It’s the type of game we usually lose but we’re just a different proposition these days. We can’t defend for toffee but we are from the land of chocolate, so keep your toffee and we’ll just keep scoring sweet Belgian chocolate goals.

Even when my pair of Scots don’t score, I still have the reliable Chilean to call upon. We make really hard work of this but Musrri arrives from the bench to make it a happy start to December.

We get a month off soon, but before we can dream of a month of Only Fools and Horses re-runs we have to travel to Poederlee, a non-league side in the Belgian Cup. I assume this is like the English FA Cup where the underdogs put up a stern fight but ultimately lose. Turns out the quality of Belgium’s non-league clubs is pretty much non-existant.

That’s a fourth hat-trick for Dermot. Buchanan remains a force. We did score a 10th but it was disallowed, annoyingly.

It’s Standard Liege in our last game before the break. They’re top, we’re second. It’s an incredible rise for us. Dermot gives us the lead and I’m already wondering what I’ll do with my keys to the city. However, we fade badly in the second half and Standard’s quality that has seen them win 5 out of 6 Belgian titles in this save shines through. Work to be done. Old man Emmers departs early too.

We’ve got a month to recover. I use the break to bring in some Belgian nationals who can actually play in the UEFA Cup. A left back called Casper Gabriel, combining my favourite ghost and member of Genesis, is the biggest outlay at £300k. A right fullback called Godart, aged 20, is in for free. It’s all about depth. Here’s the table as we relax.

It’s top 2 for the Champions League and that’s really the aim here. Are we ready to win the title? That defeat to Standard would suggest not. It’s Lierse away in the cup, which is a bit of a step up from the team of plumbers we beat in the last round. We’re just so damn professional. Emmers nets a second half winner and we’re in round 3.

It’s Standard away! That seems harsh. It’s another month until that fixture though, so we’ll plod on through the winter.

La Louviere can’t contain Dermot for even a minute. What a front two these boys are

Mechelen were in a real tussle with us last season for fourth but they’ve fallen away this season. They give us a real game here, Monaghan’s early goal being cancelled out by Paschal sticking one past the excellent Fessem, but Gao and Musrri pull us over the line. Somebody always steps up.

Club Brugge are having a bad season by their standards but our trip there is an opportunity to cement our place in the top 3. What transpires is actually the total opposite. A woeful day.

Gao makes Roy Keane seem like a calm person. Such is the way the fixtures have fallen, Anderlecht are up next as we run the gauntlet of big teams.

Get in!

A huge win in the grand scheme of the season, the best Scottish duo since the Proclaimers once again coming up with the goods. Now, to Liege for a big cup game.

Have it! Peter Hoekstra shows why Stoke signed him by popping up with a late winner. It’s Brugge away in the semis. Give me strength.

Antwerp are in town in our last fixture before Aberdeen. Friday night fun with the usual two seeing us home. Let’s get on the plane.

So then, to Pittodrie. A place I have enjoyed some of my greatest moments in management. My seat in the dugout is now inhabited by Peter Beardsley. The squad I built is still filled with my former players, though it’s a bit like a neglected dog. Peter obviously not a fan of depth.

Lauchlan has a broken leg, which is a huge sgame for the lad. Nevland has just joined Milan after being frozen out by Pedro. Aberdeen are back in their place as best of the rest in Scotland.

9 of the 11 were signed by me. Domingo from Little Oakley I know nothing about but I’m sure he’s great. Make no mistake though, it’s still an extremely strong team even if they are managed by an idiot.

My team is about as strong as I can be, though Gao and Kumar are both suspended. We’ll give it a go.

We’re barely in it. Two quickfire goals condemn us to an early deficit and once Domingo makes it 3-0, we’re basically out. Buchanan’s late intervention might at least make it interesting back at the Roogy, but I’ll be surprised if we keep a clean sheet.

We’ll do it all again in two weeks back in Belgium, we need a famous European night of which I conjured up so many in my time at Aberdeen.

We’re second, 4 points clear of Anderlecht but 5 behind Standard. I’m fine with second. We can use the Champions League money to build. We’ve got a big result in us but Standard won’t lose many more. The last game of the season is at home to them though, so you never know…plus we’ve already played Anderlecht and Club Brugge twice.

I’ve barely mentioned the Premier League so here’s the table. I don’t want to talk about it.

Sorry for the mega update, I just got excited. See you next week!

I have Scotland in the CM9798 World Cup. Send help. That all kicks off soon but if you’re at a loose end, I was on Deep Lying Podcast this week discussing the upcoming tournament and CM9798 in general. Give it a listen!

Episode 130 – Getting Retro with CM9798 by Deep Lying Podcast

Hello! It’s season 7, can you believe it? It’s about to be my second season in Belgium and Waregem will be playing in Europe, so there’s a lot to get through. First though let’s see what sort of kitty the board have afforded me for this season as we look to build on our 4th place

So kind. So much money to spend. I’m not worried though, nobody wants to join us anyway so it’ll be back to looking at up and coming talent to try and improve us.

Chelsea want me to come to England.

NO! It’s always nice to be offered a job without applying, but I’m a bit busy lads.

The problem I have is that we have a load of big-club release clauses. I can’t list the players for loan as per my own hints and tips page as the board veto it, so you just have to make the most of what you can.

Darko Anic is a talented player from Croatia so hopefully that will offset Van Bremen’s exit.

This also happens:

You will be forgiven for asking “who?” but basically I signed him a few weeks ago because he has a funny name. Turns out, he’s a wanted man and he leaves without playing a game. At a loss. I hate that clause.

I’ve spent fairly shrewdly. Peter Hoekstra is as good as you’re going to get on a free transfer, whilst Rondags and Brock and highly rated youngsters. Letchkov was with us last season on loan and £21k is nothing for a Bulgarian Under 21. Gao is one of the players with amazing stats but worth barely anything, like Tucker who I had at Aberdeen. He’s a left back though. Monka is from Democratic Republic of Congo and plays as a D/MRC, so good competition for the 37 year old Petrescu. Datkovic will offer centre half depth, which only leaves Marchandise…

A few players have been moved on to help balance the books, they weren’t regulars anyway.

The squad is now more or less shaped by me. Here’s how we lineup for the opening day of the season.

We make hard work of it but we get the job done in the end.

We go 1-0 up away at Mechelen and I’m already dreaming of our unbeaten championship season. 43 minutes later it’s in tatters.

A 1-1 home draw with champions Club Brugge is a decent result, it shows we can mix it with the big lads.

Hell, we can do more than mix it with the big lads. The biggest lads have been pushed over

Buchanan continues to show the art of attack.

I don’t think I’ve been this proud. My goalkeeper, who I took to Aberdeen and then to Waregem, is in the Dutch squad! A wonderful day.

Back to league action though and Nass, good old Lesmond Nass, scores a quickfire hat-trick in Antwerp. My hero.

Don’t let it go to your head Lesmond. LESMOND MAN

It’s only a matter of time before he is torn away as he has the dreaded clause. Meanwhile Germinal Ekeren are brushed aside.

It’s time for our European campaign. I’m so excited. However, I have forgotten one very important thing ahead of our clash with FC Copenhagen

You see, the Belgian league has no “non-EU” ruling. The UEFA Cup does it. All of a sudden, I can barely name a team.

A 1-1 draw is deemed a good result by the board. I tend to agree. We’ll see if we can name a team in Denmark.

Oh, we’ll be alright.

Alright, steady on. We’re not Renford Rejects you know

Sadly that is Nass’ last involvement. He’s off to Club Brugge for a mighty £825k. They are in the Champions League but he’s not allowed to play as he’s played in Europe for me. You silly Lesmond.

With money burning a hole in our pockets, I know a 37 year old who can help

I also need a new centre forward, preferrably one who is of EU shores. A Scot! He’ll do.

He was on a free but his stats are ideal. He makes his debut against bottom club Tongeren

Not a bad start. My all Scottish strike force is loving life. The new lad can’t play in Europe until March (if we’re still in it then) so we have to face Croatia Zagreb without him. Neil Buchanan sorts it out.

We’ll find out how we got on in the second leg next week.

We finish with two more league matches. Monaghan scores again in what turns out to be an embarassing 1-1 draw against 9 men.

However, he nets another hat-trick in a 5-1 win over Turnhout. Yes, that is Gilles De Bilde. Can he fix it? No he can’t.

Sensational. With that, we’re where we finished last season. 4th.

What’s important though is that we are in touch with the top teams and still in Europe. A good season so far, but it could be even better. Come back next week to see if it is!

Yoohooo. Welcome back to Belgium, where I’m about to conclude my first season as manager of SV Waregem. This side finished 7th last season, so if we’re going to become a force, our first job is to see off the other also-rans before trying to devise a strategy to chase down the top 3. We’re out of the cup so it’s all on the league. A trip to title hopefuls Club Brugge will be a good indicator of how we are progressing

Consider us progressed. We stole it, if truth be told, but one of my many nomadic signings scores and that’s all I ask.

A filthy game with Antwerp ends with the 3 points in our pocket

Musrri is starting to find his feet, however we are down to 6th as Harelbeke give us a lesson.

They’re proving to be a bit of a bogey team for us, with Lemos scoring twice again. Some things just aren’t fair.

Still, it could be worse. It’s Standard next and they’ve won 5 titles out of 5 so far this save. Another of my free signings puts them to the sword.

There’s potential in this team. Not title potential but we’re clearly capable of a big result. A shock result, if you will.

We’re off to Dessel. We don’t care for Dessel.

This next match I think is the first time I have ever had to use all my subs in the first 10 minutes. Two “proper” injuries and my goalkeeper was struggling with what turned out to be concussion. I was right to sub him. We lost.

It’s a real scrap for that 4th spot, which carries UEFA Cup football. Two Scots score in Belgium for probably the first time ever but it’s our Scot who gets the winner.

The other Brugge briefly threaten to ruin our good work but that man Musrri gets two more. I like that somebody different always seem to step up

Paschal is a hero, still averaging nearly 8 with just a few games to go. Musrri nets again as Beveren are beaten.

That puts us on the verge of securing 4th, all we need to do is draw on the final day, but my strike force score twice in the opening 7 minutes to end any fears of throwing it away.

Remarkably, Club Brugge win the league! They also lose the UEFA Cup final to AZ, but a rather successful season for them.

Standard lose in the Champions League semis to Man Utd, who in turn lose the final to Barcelona

But the real story is Celtic, who win the Cup Winners Cup…

…and the SPL. Also the Scottish Cup. Beardsley’s Aberdeen outscore everybody but they win nothing and don’t even get in the Champions League.

They’re also in debt, so they sell John Curtis to get themselves out of the red

Man Utd don’t really need him. They’ve won the league yet again and by a huge distance, conceding just 11 goals in the process.

Still, they don’t have Onya Paschal, PFA Player of the Year.

Clement Nalis is given the Football Writers’ award. I imagine he thanked me in his speech. I made him who he is!

I’ve always said Paul Gerrard should win player of the year. Underrated.

It’s not a tournament year so it’s the quick end of season turnaround, but I’m met with the news that £2m is available to buy new players. It doesn’t sound much, but to us it’s enormous. Convincing people to sign is quite another matter.

Not an awful lot to report outside of that in this episode, now that I’ve got the club in a position to compete in multiple competitions we should see better times ahead. Getting these boys up to title winning standard would be my greatest achievement. Join me next time to see if it is any closer to a reality

Welcome back to my new life in Belgium. I learned this week that SV Waregem would go on to merge with Zulte VV in 2001 and become Zulte Waregem. Who knew? I’ve rather lazily been living in the future and referring to us in my internal monologue as Zulte. A history lesson aside, we’ve got a team to build.

With our new squad taking shape, we have a rather profitable November. Three wins and I’m feeling pretty happy with my transfer business.

December is less good. The thing is, the Belgian league takes a month off before Christmas and I reckon my lads are distracted by it. I’ve already got my bags packed for a month at home which probably doesn’t help our performance at Beveren

I tell them to focus and that Christmas will feel better with a trio of wins. Sometimes you’ve got to just be honest.

So as we prepare for a month off, here’s how the table looks. It’s going quite well, all I want to achieve this season is a place in Europe next season. The top 3 are comfortably the best teams in the league, but 4th is achievable.

That gives me a month to try and perform some more squad surgery. What I’d like to do to fill this void of in game action is to let you meet some of the team. You know, give it a personal touch.

Firstly, this guy is averaging 8.00 (EIGHT) from 17 games. He is my everything, which is odd considering he’s slow and can’t tackle. But boy, is he ever in the right position. A very reliable centre half.

He had a big club release clause too but he’s signed a new contract without one. Joke is on him. His partner in crime is also very good and equally well positioned. He’s being courted by some decent clubs in France, but I don’t want to sell him for £700k as that won’t help anybody.

I showed you Mussri, Dammann and Lesmond in the previous update but I’ve had to use the free transfer market to try and give us some depth. Neil Buchanan will do well, you don’t get many strikers with great heading, pace, shooting and…set pieces. I have high hopes for him.

Finally, Jose Carlos De Jesus seemed like a good idea at the time but he’s injured already and he’s knackered after 20 minutes. Also, a Brazilian that can’t dribble? What was I thinking?

So it’s a lovely squad, though injuries and suspensions are mounting up which is incredible considering we’ve had a month off. We celebrate with an exit from the cup at the earliest opportunity.

A debut goal for Buchanan gave us the briefest of brief hopes, though Pat’s early red card was pretty ludicrous. TWO DAYS later, we score 4. If I shut my eyes and squint, we were a bit like Aberdeen.

Speaking of Aberdeen, they managed a draw in the Nou Camp. It’s remarkable because despite all the talent available to Beardsley he started young Robbie Keane up front then brought himself on after 15 minutes.

The 2nd leg went well.

They’re also out of the Champions League…

…and third in the SPL. Honestly, it’s taken him 5 months to undo 5 years of hard work.

Anyway, back to Belgium and we’re still not as good as Anderlecht. Poor Musrri.

We can even afford to miss a penalty against Aalst and still win. Lesmond with a double and Zetterberg, who is far too good for this team, atones for his penalty miss.

That brings us to a Valentine’s Day clash with Mechelen, who we’re scrapping with for 4th. We start like a train, Buchanan showing us the art of attack early on though it’s a nervous last half hour. A big win.

That establishes us as the best of the rest with 12 delicious games to go. The goals against column is obviously an issue but it has been better since Fessem signed, though the fact we have 0 draws shows how we play the game. What’s Belgian for “shit or bust”?

It’s Club Brugge away next so if we can somehow win that we’ll start to dream of being able to hang on to the top 3 but it’ll probably be a heavy defeat. I’m a realist and a poor motivator. I’m quite looking forward to seeing if I can break the top 3 though, it’s a different sort of challenge.

Join me next week for the season finale, I’m off to think of some more Art Attack puns. Toodles!

Hello! Welcome to Season 6. I had a great time at Aberdeen, but from the shrill peep of the full time whistle in the Champions League final at the end of season 5, I knew my time was up. The Scottish League has been good fun, but after taking Aberdeen to the title in season 1 we have barely suffered a defeat domestically. With a side good enough to win the Champions League, it is perhaps no surprise that the likes of Motherwell and Dundee couldn’t lay a finger on us – no disrespect. With every trophy in the cabinet, in some cases retained, I had little motivation to carry on. But I like this save, it is nicely poised, so now it’s time for a fresh challenge for the 2002/03 season. But where will I pitch up?

I’ve wanted to go to Belgium for a while – why else would I load the Belgian league? But with none of the top jobs available, 7th placed SV Waregem (now Zulte) is perhaps the perfect club for me. Even if I am ranked as the top manager in the game, I think this might be my spiritual home.

Firstly, the play in a ridiculously named stadium. It even has Regen in the title. I think I’ll call it the roogy boogy. I love that a 15,000 capacity stadium  has only 7,000 seats. Old school. Anyway, as you can see they were promoted in 97/98 and have finished 8th, 7th, 5th and 7th. It’s good, but there’s room to improve. I like that. Here’s the squad:

The most famous in there is probably Par Zetterberg, a Swede who is an obvious key man. Outside of that though there’s not much to shout about, although a striker called Dammann will lead to lots of opportunities for me to ask just who the man is, whilst this man is called Lesmond.

I’m going to want to put my own stamp on the squad so this will be a slow burner, so I’ll be happy with a top half finish as long as we find a team that works by the end of the season. I want to use the same formation I did at Aberdeen, which will mean signing some players. People like Dan Petrescu and Mark Schwarzer.

Kumar is one of the “super” players I found when I signed David Tucker for Aberdeen – he has 19s and 20s for everything except technique. You can’t have everything.

I lost this guy to Club Brugge – he had a big club release and I am £325k richer at the loss of our Macedonian midfielder.

That is definitely not the strangest signing of the summer though

Before I get into the life and times of SV Waregem, I need to tell you what is happening at Aberdeen because it’s ridiculous. I like to think the Aberdeen board asked me who I would pick to replace me (please note this reflects purely on the previous exploits of Beardsley on this blog and not on the recent real life allegations against him)

Chortle. I’ve got a lot of time for Pedro’s approach to transfers, as he immediately weakens his rivals

Then blows £13m on Robbie Fowler

It’s a time of change in Scotland though, as Rangers smell blood and see this as the chance to dominate again.

Rangers appoint Kenny Dalglish, it’s not like he spent a lot of his early career at Celtic or anything.

Newcastle appoint Walter Smith just to complete job swap. It’s a great time for the Scottish management scene, as Gordon Strachan is appointed at Liverpool, and of course Fergie is still dominating the Premier League. It’s a three way tie at the top of the SPL.

Poor East Fife. Anyway, enough of that. That’s the past. The future, or at the very least the present, is SV Waregem, and it’s time for our first game away at La Louviere

Lovely stuff.

A typically quiet affair for one of my teams but very encouraging. Maybe everything will work out. Our first game at the Roogy Boogy is against Oostende

Who’s Da Man!? Good old Rene. We’re the greatest team ever, as long as we continue to face below par opposition

Sadly Anderlecht are not sub par. They are very good.

A reality check if ever there was one. We do need more options and the opportunity to loan a man called Casanova is not one to be sniffed at. Can I borrow a feeling?

Can you lend me a jar of love Yordan Letchkov?

The visit of Aalst is a chance to get us back on track.

Lesmond is a bit of a boy. I like him.

What I don’t like is our goalkeeping situation. I firmly believe it’s the most important position on this game, the way the match engine works. Schwarzer isn’t really very good. A 2-0 loss to Club Brugge – who have Esteban Cambiasso – is another reminder that we are maybe the best of the worst but nowhere near the top clubs.

Further defeats to Antwerp and unfancied Harelbeke suggest my honeymoon period is over.

I’m desperate for a win so when Lesmond puts in a late winner at Lierse I do a lap of the house. It was never like this at Aberdeen.

I’ve seen enough, it’s time to reinforce. We have a small amount to spend and I revisit Aberdeen to get one of the youth goalkeepers I found. He looks incredible apart from the fact that he is as weak as a kitten.

Musrri has unreal stats and if he can deliver on them, he could be a hero here. There’s no non-EU rules in Belgium, so there are no shortage of options for us if we can find other bargains. We’ve also managed to shift two players for £450k, which means we’re up on fees. I notice we had Dennis Bergkamp in February. I don’t know how they pulled that off but fair play.

Musrri gets off to the best possible start. Him and Lesmond could be great together.

We get nothing off Standard Liege, who are repeated champions, but it’s nice to see my centre half getting man of the match. Everyone else was rubbish.

Always finish on a high

That leaves us 8th, with a win/loss record BBC 5 live would be proud of. It’s the usual problems – scoring goals is not an issue, stopping them very much is. Hopefully my new goalkeeper can help that.

That’s all I have to say but this is sad news from Aberdeen:

That leaves Beardsley with just Nevland, Owen, Fowler, Martin, Tomlinson, Negri, Nalis, Dadason and of course himself to pick from up front. How will he manage?

More to the point, how can we build on this start? Is Musrri the new Salas or is it just a flash in the pan? We’ll find out next time. Sorry for the long update, it’s all happening. See you next week.

Hello and welcome to the final update of season 5, with Aberdeen already having secured three trophies there are still three more up for grabs. The league is more or less in the bag but we’ve got the Scottish FA Cup to retain and a deficit to overturn if we’re to keep our Champions League crown. There’s also World Cup 2002 to look forward to at the end of the update. Let’s start with our Scottish Cup quarter final with Hibs.

I swear Mukhamadiev has more goals against me than anybody else. No matter though, the lads thrive in these situations and we’re into the semis

Ah man. It’s the Old Firm gauntlet again.

That’ll be good fun. First though we have to play them in the league as our ridiculous schedule strikes again.

Dida is getting into the habit of being sent off, it’s unnecessary. Alexandersson steals us a point.

4 days later it’s the Inter Milan clash. Simonsen is in net, Ronaldo is poised, but my strike duo get the job done and Simmo keeps out Ronaldo. Semi final time

Who don’t you want?

Oh look it’s Fergie. AGAIN. As long as he doesn’t sing the USA National Anthem

Such is the schedule of this league, we’re off to Celtic Park after that. 12 minutes, three goals. My half time hugs always do the trick.

Man Utd though will be a completely different test. They have genuinely talented players for one, though Andy Marshall is their sub keeper. So there’s that.

Two great teams who have dominated their domestic leagues throughout this save go at it hammer and tongs. Man Utd score three. We only get one. It’s a bad result, obviously, but our profligacy in front of goal is uncharacteristic.

Food for thought. We get over that by beating Dundee Utd, with the most accurately named penalty taker of all time stepping up for the Tangerines, we celebrate a league title with a three goal win.

Title number 5.

Excellent. And now for a Scottish Cup semi final. Rangers obviously welcome with open arms to Celtic Park

How dare you do that to my versatile Swede? A replay is the last thing we need but that’s what we get, so we try again two days later. TWO DAYS! Give me strength.

Ah, Phil. Your hatred of Rangers knows no bounds.

With the league won I can focus all our efforts on the Man Utd game. Fergie has one thing in mind…

Beckham as a sweeper? We’ll see. How are we going to get through that?!

Clement Nalis is a hero. A French International hero. We’re in the final!

PSV. They beat us so convincingly earlier in the season. That’s going to be a problem.

Look who got sent off AGAIN. Our games with Hibs this season have yielded so many goals.

That wrapped up our league season, a successful time was had by all (at Aberdeen).

The Scottish Cup final sees us lock horns with Celtic yet again. Try as they may, they can never get the better of us. Keith Gillespie, who is under appreciated by me for how good he has been vs how much he cost, gets the winner.

His 14th of the season brings us our third Scottish FA Cup in a row and trophy number 5 of the season. Good Keith.

All that is left of the domestic season is the Champions League final. PSV seem to have our number, I’m not sure why they are so good but they nearly knocked us out in the group stage and they will fancy their chances in Italy for the final. They take a lead into half time by Phil Mulryne is having none of it, equalising for the second time with a rasping free kick. Nalis nudges us in front and young Lauchlan gives us some daylight…for 7 minutes. Leandro pulls one back but we hang on. CHAMPIONS.

What a struggle, but that’s all 6 trophies in the bag and my time to leave, but not before signing Rio Ferdinand.

Before I toddle off for another week though, the World Cup is happening. I’m not going to go into loads of detail but Ireland and Scotland are in the same group, along with Argentina and Mexico. Crikey.

Ireland and Scotland both beat Argentina but they draw and then both lose to Mexico, who in turn lose to Argentina. What a stupid group. Ireland advance.

See! It’s not just England.

Ireland are having a great time, knocking out Germany before bowing out in the Quarters to France.

What a weird lineup. We’re rooting for Nalis and Alexanderrson but they face each other

Nalis wins. So do Colombia, meaning we have France vs Colombia in the final.

Nalis is a World Cup winner! Hurrah.

Awards time. My lads do really well. Nalis and Owen snaffling an award each plus my manager gong

Lloyd Roscoe is a great name

So that’s it, season 5 is in the bag, and the only question now is…where next?

See you next week…