Welcome to the first update of the 1998/99 season. In season 1, my Darlington side were a model of consistency and took one of the three automatic promotion spots to gain a place in Division 2. Meanwhile at the moneybags end of the scale, Man Utd won the Premier League with 100 points but were beaten late on in everything else. Fergie will not be happy. Let’s proceed.

Firstly at the Darlo end of the scale, I did the obvious thing to celebrate promotion – raid Partick Thistle for all their highly rated youths. This has worked out averagely well. Alex Notman came in from Man Utd on loan and I picked up some promising freebies. I also took a twitter recommendation for Felix Aboagye

The problem is I’ve actually got too many good players, and I’m not really sure what my best 11 is, which I don’t like. Something else I don’t like is Division 2. Sure, it’s 24 teams like Division 3 but obviously the teams are better and only 3 go up instead of 4. So it’s tougher all round. Devine is still my main source of threat but we’re not as fluid, so we’re 8th at this stage

With the games in hand we should be good value for a playoff place but I need a standout player.

Speaking of which, one of my last standout players is having quite the career

So after less than a season and a half…

Such loyalty.

Anyway, in the big world, Man Utd are trying to re-create real life

That’s quite formidable. Meanwhile, Sir Kevin of Keegan is back in England

I fancy them to win Division 1 you know.

Charity Shield kicks off the season

Shearer with the armband will please Keane no end. Anyway, they obviously aren’t keen on Ben Thornley being part of the team so they’ve brought in this kid who ripped Division 3 apart with Cambridge, got his big move to…Fulham, and now…

Good grief. Here’s some better transfers:

Musical chairs in Spain, whilst it’s interesting Man Utd looked at Ravanelli too. Needless.

Couple of sackings

Reid is sacked after Sunderland fail to get promoted (for pretty much the first time ever I think) and actually finish 11th. John Toshack gets the gig.

It’s Chelsa though who top the pile, after finishing last season strongly they’ve continued that form.

Tomlinson has got his work cut out if he’s to save Newcastle though

Somehow, Dalglish is still in a job. Watch this space.

Join us next time as we move into 99 and all the excitement that comes with it.

The first season has come to a close and there was the usual mix of sublime and the ridiculous. So without wasting further time, let’s see how the 97/98 season finished (WARNING: Includes England World Cup failure)

In the last update I bemoaned the big club release clause that was slowly costing me my best players. Well, the buggers are at it again and Dundee Utd have taken the division’s top scorer off my hands

There’s nothing I can do, but look what I’m losing

Lethal. I only have 4 days to act, but I think I made the right decision

It’s a huge fee in this division but I know what Devine can do, and it doesn’t take him long to settle in

With Chester top of the table, this is a mighty result and it’s not long before the party can start

Woohoo! Some less inspiring results mean we have to settle for third, but with the most scored and least conceded, we’re every bit worth it.

Peterborough go on to win the playoff final against Cambridge on pens, which I’m fairly sure is a local rivalry anyway. Scenes.

Anyway, in the real world…

League Cup

The unbeatables are beaten! They might not have lost a league game all year but they’ve blown it here. Ah well, there’s always the FA Cup

FA Cup

Wat!? The unbeatables have lost again. Spurs go on to win the final comfortably

Moussa Saib, now there’s a player.

Champions League

The semi finals were set, Manchester United versus the people’s champions…and El Clasico

Well now I don’t know what to believe. Parma go on to win the final thanks to Tino

Still, at least Man Utd have that whole unbeaten thing to fall back on

Premier League

They’ve lost! A shaky month for the Red Devils but they will win the title with a month to spare. In fact, they got 100 points!

Conceding only 14 goals all season is just ridiculous. Chelsea cap off a great season by taking the second Champions League spot

Meanwhile, it’s relegation for Barnsley, Derby & Palace

Derby are livid with the whole thing and Jim Smith is fired

Chelsea also made it to the Cup Winners Cup final, but were denied in Extra Time

World Cup

For those of you who followed the first saved game, you’ll know how much I hate writing up the World Cup. But we’ll focus on England. Here’s Glenn’s men:

So at least we’ll find out what would have happened if Dominic Matteo hadn’t declared for Scotland.

It’s a rough start for England

At least he brought on Phil Neville. Anyway, China are less of a problem

So it’s England vs Ireland, winners qualifies. Surely…

Oh Glenn, why didn’t you bring on Phil Neville?

The groups end up like this:

And the last 16 draw:

Some big games in there, like Germany/Italy and France/Argentina. The Argentines see off the hosts

But the Irish keep home interest alive

What a Quarter Final lineup…

Brazil fall by the way side

Remarkably, so do Italy

Your community XI left back Paolo Maldini with the own goal. The Semi finals are set

Argentina edge out Spain

But the Irish dream is bulldozed

The Irish are probably so sickened they have to settle for fourth

So it comes down to Argentina vs Holland. Argentina have ran the gauntlet, beating the hosts, the holders and…Spain to reach this stage. The Dutch have just turned up

Deserved champions I think. I couldn’t have handled Ed de Goey being a World Cup Winner.

So all that is left to do is wrap up some transfers

I have no idea why Arsenal have signed Paul McGregor. Awards time!

Mainwaring still top scorer despite leaving a month early. Good day to be a Neville, whilst all three football league managers of the year have England caps. Huzzah. For completeness, Juve won Serie A and Barca won La Liga.

So that’s it, season 1 is done. Join us next time as I build a squad ready for Division 2 and no doubt Aberdeen will take Sean Devine off me or something. Until then..

The defence is complete, now let’s move focus to the midfield.

Just the five nominees for the right midfield role – as usual there’s some wonderful literary pieces below helping you to make your decision.

Luis Figo

There was a time where pig’s heads had yet to be thrown and Just for Men wasn’t invented where Luis Figo was just a really good footballer. Part of the mighty Barcelona midfield, Figo was consistenly brilliant and would average over 7.40 for the season without any fuss. Of course he then turned his back on Barcelona to become a Galactico, although in this game that sort of transfer happens every other week.

Diego Fuser

Fuser starts the game at Lazio and has a handful of Italy caps. Although maybe not the first player to come to mind, he was attainable, and that was a big thing for Martyn Oakley

Much overlooked option on the right hand side, Fuser was  a regular source of goals and assists whenever you could get him… Which was often.

So with that in mind, does Fuser get your vote?

Sabri Lamouchi

Lamouchi is one of those players who always used to move in the opening days of a new game, usually to one of the Champions League clubs. If you moved quickly you could get him to your Premier League side, just as Eoin did:

A flying winger who helped me win a Champions League with Aston Villa, such a feat demands inclusion

If you’re wondering where you’ve heard his name lately, he managed Ivory Coast during the 2014 World Cup…badly. But don’t let that put you off.

Jerome Leroy

Leroy is my mojo man as somebody once sang but even before that, he was a key part of PSG’s midfield in 1997/98. PSG had just been runners up in the Cup Winners Cup when the game starts, and young Leroy was deemed one of the stars. As a result he is usually hot property in the game and goes on to get many France caps, which sadly he managed none of in real life.

Antoine Sibierski

Don’t be fooled by the balding target man who turned up at Man City, Newcastle & Wigan in the 2000’s, back in 1997 Sibierski was deemed hot property and on the cusp of a France call up.

Being an AM/F RC meant he could play in a number of positions in various formations, a real gem who could be picked up for around £7m from Auxerre. Indeed in the Darlington save, he’s been snapped up by Man Utd. A total hero, who would run through walls for you.

Those four words are the bane of my life as we head towards the end of the first season. Darlington are putting up a brave fight against the odds to secure automatic promotion to Division 2, whilst Manchester United are having a season to remember.

The big club release clause is basically a clause players insist on putting in their contract when signing for your tiny club, which means that if a larger club wants them, you have no choice but to sell them. Graeme Tomlinson did this to me in update 1, and now everybody is at it.

First to go is centre half Andrew Duncan

It’s irritating but £700k is actually decent money for a Division 3 club. My usual move is to look on the free transfer list at who my scout recommends, so some kid called Jonathon Atkinson is in

…and out. Motherwell can’t need all these Division 3 Centre halves surely? What a mighty irritance. He played two games for me!

A more positive side of being in the lower leagues is if you win an FA Cup match you feel like a King. Imagine how good you’d feel if 36 year old Mick Quinn knocked out Division 2 Luton for you

The reward? Well it’s only Mick’s former club Newcastle United coming to Feethams!

Well that’s a tie to capture the public’s imagination. Unfortunately, Alan Shearer shows no mercy

It is however one of Shearer’s last acts as a Newcastle player

Good job Newcastle recalled Paul Brayson off me really. Out of spite, they’ve also recalled Aaron Hughes. Robbie Keane has arrived on loan, but he’s 16 and terrible – but he does a cracking forward roll.

All of that leaves Darlo fighting in and around the top 3, somehow. Not long to go!

8 games to go then, and I’m not settling for anything other than being promoted.

Away from the crazy world of Division 3, some impotant manager changes

George Graham swapping Leeds for Sheff Wed is a bit odd. Readers of the previous blog will be delighted to see Brian Little back in charge at Villa. This game never fails to surprise me, there’s always something weird.

Further to that, look what the FA Cup semi Final has thrown up

Coventry vs Tottenham! I know…but also a Manchester derby. Amazing. Meanwhile Man Utd are still going strong…everywhere

Not only domestically, but also in Europe

Parma, with the people’s champion squad, will be a tough battle

Real Madrid have splashed the cash on Alfonso

But Barca went for del Piero to get over it

Whilst these legends of the game were also on the move

Huge names, huge moves. Your community XI Keeper made the move to Parma, too

And finally, Glenn Hoddle survived the World Cup playoffs

The draw thows up a famous battle…and two economic superpowers. POLITICAL BANTZ

Anyway, as ever we’ll finish with the Premier League table. Honestly, I have never seen anything like this

One draw, 27 wins. 0 losses. Only 9 conceded. That is insane. Arsenal & Chelsea a distant battle for second. Meanwhile, at the bottom…

Nobody cut adrift yet, I suppose West Ham are the most surprising of the strugglers.

So join us next time for the finale to the 97/98 season, where hopefully I’ll clinch promotion and nobody steals any of my remaining players…

After some contemplation, I decided to start again. There was a good response on twitter with new game suggestions and that was enough for me to re-install and go again. But where?

That’s right, we’re going right down to Division 3 and Darlington FC. Why Darlo? Well, strictly speaking they don’t exist anymore (See Darlington 1883) and they’re fairly local to me. They’re a middle of the road Division 3 club, not like a Hull or Cambridge who always run away with it, so it should be a challenge. Here’s the squad we start with:

Not too much to shout about in there, but I’ll soon see to that with the usual freebies who are must haves in the lower leagues. Tomlinson, Mainwaring, Betterton, Duncan – 4 names who regular lower league players will know, but they also feature on the game’s Wiki page. Sadly Marc Emmers was busy, but This Morning’s Jeff Brazier joins in.

Of course you can always play the loan market, sadly you take your life into your own hands with this as they can be recalled any time. It’s a cause for celebration when blog favourite Steve Haslam arrives

He’s around for 2 glorious months before Sheff Wed want him back. Boo! This guy though arrives for real money

Heidenstrom got all sorts of nominations for the Community XI so I’m surprised to be able to prise him away from our divisional rivals. He will captain my side.

The season starts with the familiar scene

It’s a sign of things to come for Man Utd…

Things start pretty well for Darlo, we’re in and around the top 7. This is a highlight:

Whilst Everton are an early contender for entertainers

Why is this happening to Everton? Well…

Howard Kendall took the Wales job after Bobby Gould’s inevitable sacking, which is a bit more normal than the last game.

Another issue with Division 3 is that the better your players they more likely they are to be poached.

I’ll take my chance with the tribunal

If this was Deal or No Deal, I’d be high fiving Noel right now

Obvious solution is to loan Paul Brayson from Newcastle.

FFS. I’ll just sign Mick Quinn on a free. Nobody will want him.

All of that leaves my squad looking like this:

I sold midfielder Michael Oliver (not the ref) to Wolves for £900k, so the bank balance is good espeically since Tomlinson went too. It’s on a knife edge though, your better players can be taken at any time. Look what we’re missing from GT though 🙁

In the real, rich world, there’s hundreds of transfers. here are the highlights:

Bringing the Italian league in seems to have made Juventus hungry for success. Barce mean business in the SuperCopa

All of that leaves the tables looking like this:

Not too bad, we’ve got a platform to build. But fundamentally I have Mick Quinn up front, so it’s not all brilliant.

Meanwhile, look at Man Utd

Utterly dominant. Everton up in 2nd in a surprise!

The bottom 6 or 7 are all fairly close, some very heavy goals against in there.

So that’s it for update 1, join us next time where hopefully Darlo keep themselves together and nobody poaches my best players. Don’t hold your breath.

We’re looking for two centrebacks for our all-time greats team – there’s a bit of blurb about each of the nominees below the vote. Vote as many times as you want, but only the top two will be selected.

Marlon Broomes

If you were to ask somebody to name their favourite all time 11, Marlon Broomes wouldn’t get close (unless you asked Marlon Broomes). However in the world of CM 97/98 Broomes was one of those blessed with the -1 potential ability. Most importantly, he allowed you the opportunity to play Broomes as a sweeper. Anyway, he played for Blackburn and nearly always went on to play for England. You could say, that Broomes cleans up.

Fabio Cannavaro

This is less of a surprise. This man went on to win the Ballon d’or in real life and as he starts the game as a 23 year old, the sky is often the limit with this chap. He already has 4 Italy caps when the game starts, and he’s part of Parma’s mighty squad. He’s often attainable, but as he doesn’t play for the big 3, he’s usually available a couple of seasons in. Everybody loves Fabio.

Martin Djetou

I bloody love Martin Djetou. A D/MC, he was equally at home in the middle of the defence or midfield. I once had a game that I kept going for years, and he was still playing at 42. What a guy. He starts at Monaco, and is usually released once Monaco fail at Champions League qualification and go bust. If that’s not enough, he opened a beauty palour when he retired, so that’s something.

Valur Fannar Gislason

One of the lesser known nominees, this young Iceland International starts the game at Arsenal as a below average Premier League defender, but he becomes much more than. Martyn Oakley puts it best:

Always available for loan, or a 250k purchase if you were feeling flush, Valur was the first port of call every time I started a lower league campaign. Reliable, cheap, loyal and very very good from the off, he was also worth adding to the squad of any big club you took over too

Mark Iuliano

A stalwart of Juventus & Italy’s defence, Iuliano is vowel greedy but very stingy when it comes to conceding goals. Adequare cover for left back, Iuliano is one of the most consistent defenders in the game and is usually passed around between the top clubs. A real class act.

Teddy Lucic

People were falling over themselves to nominate ‘The Bear’ Teddy Lucic. Let’s be honest, he was rubbish at Leeds but the good people at Sports Interactive obviously had a thing for him as he was a good buy on CM 01/02 as well I seem to recall. Indeed Eoin says:

Just typing his name makes me feel safe and assured, a rock at the back, always seemed to get 8 out of 10, even when we lost by a lot. The sign of a true class act

Strong words indeed. As he was young and unknown, he could be picked up for £250k. Let the good times roll.

Ever Moas

So much has been written about Ever Moas. And by that I mean even his wiki page is lacking. Even Paul Redfern, who nominated him, was dead against signing him. Read into that what you will. I’ve never owned him, but I’m sure he’s mint.

Victor Onopko

Loads of people loved Victor too. He was a model of consistency and always available, the only negative was him being non-EU. His best review came from Kevin, who said:

“Usually available by October in first season for 4.5m, Russian centre back consistently averages 7.5+, best centre back on the game for me”

A mighty review, but are you going loco for Victor Onopko?

Robert Page

If you’ve followed the first blog game all the way through, you’ll know I’m a huge fan of Rob Page. I took him everywhere I went, and he captained my teams too. Will clock up 100 caps for Wales barring injuries, and easily attainable from Watford in the early days. From Wimbledon to Leeds via Auxerre, Page was my right hand man – but does he get your vote?

Chris Perry

Chris. Perry.

He’s quite useful but never amounts to all that much. Chris Perry would vote for Chris Perry.

Marcio Santos

Brazilian International centre half part of Ajax’s all star squad. Part of his allure is that he seemed unable to agree a new contract with Ajax after a season or 2 and was available for nothing. One of those where his average ratings far outweigh his skill set.

Christian Worns

Wornsy (as everybody called him, no doubt) was everybody’s first pick for a centre back, mainly because he was always available when the game started and he was amazing. This was the guy you wanted to shore up your defence if you could afford the £6m or so. Martyn Oakley had some big words for Worns too:

“The best buyable centre back on the game bar none. Always available relatively cheap and on reasonable wages,  like Landreau would form part of your backline for years to come.”

There you have it. The best bar none. Well liked, well nominated. But who does your vote go to?

This was definitely the hardest position to fill – a lot more household names in this vote. Once again, there’s 5 for you to pick from, and a little bit of reasoning below for each nominee

Niclas Alexandersson

For the man who can play everywhere, you could make an argument for him in any position. However, nobody likes buying full backs and you had to have this guy in your squad, so he often got shoe horned in there at left full back. Indeed, in the blog game Spurs are playing versatile Nic at left back even though he’s pushing 40. But they are managed by Joe Kinnear…

Roberto Carlos – 2nd, 38%

Well this hero starts at Real Madrid so you know he’s good. Hot on the heels of that free kick in Le Tournoi, Roberto Carlos is a set piece maestro which means he’s as useful in attack as he is in defence. The galactico left back.

Paolo Maldini – 1st, 43%

Again, one of the world’s all time greatest defenders needs very little justification. A model of consistency who can also play centre back, starts out at Milan and if he leaves it’s only for Real Madrid or Barca, or occasionally Man Utd if they’ve got sick of Phil Neville.

Alessandro Nesta

An Italian hero, who starts the game as a young star at Lazio. Martyn Oakley is a big fan:

The hardest position to fill. Frank De Boer was nigh on impossible to pry away from Ajax and would have been my first choice every time. Slightly out of position, but Nesta was much easier to get hold of at the time, usually in part exchange, but would work perfectly at left back or as the left side of a back three.

Ok, so maybe not as big a fan of Nesta as he is of Frank de Boer, but de Boer was married to Ajax so forget it Frank, you’re out.

Barjuan Sergi – 3rd, 11%

Sergi starts the game as Barcelona’s left back and is probably the most solid out and out left back on the game. Unfortunately as he’s at Barca he is basically impossible to sign, so it’s a pleasure only Barca will know of. This game was released before Keith Gillespie tore him apart though, I doubt he ever recovered from that. Kev W has more:

Barcelona Spanish left back, hard to sign for obvious reasons being at barca, if your lucky could get on a free after 2 or 3 seasons, best left back on the game