The first season in Top 100 has came to a close and what a first year it’s been, top effort from Frank and everyone involved in the setup!

At the start of the season Everton replaced fans favourite Roberto Martinez with a young, exciting new manager Michael Bowes. His plan was to carry on the philosophy Roberto started and play on the floor, passing, attractive football. He wanted to excite the fans that pay to watch his team play.

With a new manager coming in there was obviously going to be a few changes to the playing staff but no one expected the amount of change that was about to happen. The only first team members who survived the changes were highly rated Ross Barkley, Tom Cleverley, Bryan Oviedo & Muhamed Besic. Michael Bowes went about replacing everyone with his own set of players, building a team around the man who he rated extremely highly, the player who he thinks has the mental strength to hold the clubs hopes on his shoulders even at the age of 22, that man would be Ross Barkley. A massive 75 players were transferred in to Everton with 61 leaving.

With a top half finish the objective for Bowes and his back room staff, the manager might had been surprised to see his team finish 7th and grabbing the last play off spot. “With all the ins and outs we’ve made this year, a play off spot was definitely a rewarding thing for the club and the players, it shows were going in the right direction and where we want to end up in the next couple of seasons” Bowes explained. Sadly the club didn’t make it past Portuguese side Porto who beat Everton 3-0 and eventually winning the play offs to made it into Division One. " They were the better side on the day, but we have a young squad who now have the experience of feeling what a play off feels like, playing a match with so much at stake and I’m sure this will spur them on for the new season to try and go one further" Bowes added.

End of the season means awards. Teams getting promoted and players winning trophies for there performances during the season. Everton’s Ross Barkley being nominated for the Young player of the season echoed the thoughts for manager Michael Bowes on how important he is to the club. 12 goals, 14 assists in his 32 matches was an excellent return from someone who’s so young. Ross went on to win the award and gave full credit to the manager, he added he’s enjoying his football under Michael Bowes and is looking forward to the bright future the club has.



Ross Barkley with the young player of the year award


Top goal scorers

1. 12 goals - Ross Barkley
2. 10 goals - Eduardo Salvio
3. 10 goals - Loic Remy

Top assists

1. 14 assists - Ross Barkley
2. 8 assists - Loic Remy
3. 5 assists - Eduardo Salvio

S.L. Benfica 4 Ever S.L. Benfica - End of the Season Benfica board is quite happy whit this few weeks together whit Nuno Bento. The Portuguese Manager was able to keep Benfica in Divison II whit only two defeat in is hands. Taking Benfica form 18º to a safe 14º position. In order to keep the 50 cap squad some young players will leave Lisbon. The President Luis Filipe Vieira also announce that he will make everything to bring back some ex-Benfica Academy players to Lisbon. Interviewed by Benfica TV he said "We will enter in transfer talks whit Monaco and Valencia and we hope to be able to bring back to Benfica loved players as João Cancelo, Andre Gomes and Bernardo Silva! Will be difficult but we are ready to release some of our best players to get them!" Lets see lets see!  The wanted ones are!

Only Two days ago Mister Malcolm’s Fiorentina were awarded ITALIAN TEAM OF THE YEAR at a lavish ceremony in Rome much to the disgust of Top Italian journalist Gino Kinnearo…

Kinnearo refused to acknowledge the Fiorentina players as they were "undeserving"

“In all my many many years of journalism I have never seen such bull crap! To give DP second place as well when he failed to get Juventus top 4 is a joke, he shouldn’t have been top 10.”

La Gazzetta dello Sport

25 DEC 2015

Florence named

Italian team of

year

By MISTER MALCOLM
In a leading hotel in Rome, the
brave and the beautiful of Italian
football met to hand out the award
for Italian football team of the year.



There were plenty of glum faces as
this has not been a golden year for
Italian football with one ray of sun-
shine. So in third place came Ju-
ventus DP91 led the strong team to
within 13pts of the title. He was
awarded a used Lancia Beta for his
e orts.
In second spot came Udinese who
still have the playoffs to fight for. A
solid squad with a great late season
burst still lead them open to promo-
tion. They were awarded freedom of
the city of Udine for the remainder of
2015.
In top spot came Florence or
Firenze. Despite many nay sayers
and doubters all of whom were ob-
viously proved wrong, the greatest
manager in SM history ever, led them
to promotion in just one season. All
this despite the handicap of not being
able to bring back their best player
from loan all season. The whole team
were given the keys to the Berlosconi
mansion and Mister Malcolm the ti-
tle of SoccerManager Best Manager
in perpetuation. Merry Christmas

Good afternoon and welcome to my last Thursday blog of the season. First of all, on this Christmas Eve, I would like to wish everyone and their families a Merry Christmas and I hope you have a really nice time tomorrow and all just chill out, relax and leave all the stress and running about to everyone else. After all, you have deserved it after the stress of Season 1 in the Top 100. These women think that we just sit on our arse ‘playing a wee game on his computer/laptop/tablet/phone’ (delete where appropriate) without realising the thought and the stress of trying to get to the top of the division against some very tough opponents and some shit ones (you know who I am talking about). Anyway, just make sure you enjoy your day and your Christmas dinner, whatever it may be.

Our Christmas will begin a bit later than it used to do since the kids are grown up now, well kind of grown up going by their behaviour at times. When they were young it was always a 6 or 7am rise with the wife being the most excited of them all. I have to hand it to the wife at Christmas. She is more interested in buying things for everyone else than getting things. The kids always had a bin bag full of stuff and to be honest, so did I. I felt like a kid most years and I probably get more stuff now than I did when I was growing up. This year she has bought me a new laptop and quite a few other things that I can’t really think of the now but it will be the regular stuff for a guy like a nice after shave, socks, a jumper, new jeans and lots more. I think I am getting a few Dallas Cowboys things and I definitely seen a book about their history. She also said, just this morning, that there is a surprise present. Oh the excitement!! She leaves me behind on all this present stuff with what I get for her. To be honest, I don’t really have a lot of time to buy stuff and rely on the girls to help me out. I know she loves Estee Lauder, so I have her this Estee Lauder kit thing that has lots of make up and other things in it. At £250 it better be good. I also have her a dressing gown, Lady Millions which is her favourite perfume and a Sandra Bullock DVD set, whom she likes a lot. It will be a good day and I must admit she is outstanding when it comes to Christmas dinner. I do admire her cheek though as we give her help with the dinner, just the small things that need done, and she takes ALL the credit. Not like a woman at all eh? Anyway, as I was saying, we used to get up very early with the kids only having about 5 hours sleep due to Elise being unable to sleep and doing her Dancing Monkey act in front of the mirror in her room, which was really just her dancing like an idiot. We have all done it I suppose although we would be full of the drink. Tomorrow will be much more relaxed and we will probably get up about 9, open presents and then the girls will go back to bed for an hour or two, depending what they have been doing tonight. In fact, just remembered, Janene is working at the stables and we wont see her until early afternoon. I always make the Christmas breakfast for whoever wants it as I must say, I am a damn good cooker of sausages, bacon, egg, potato scone and whatever else has been got from the butchers. After that it is chill out time, maybe a wine or a beer, depending on my mood and also be at the call of the wife when she needs help with the dinner. The girls will set the table with the crackers etc, of which they do a nice job. Night time will be relaxing for me and not too late a night as I am working boxing day with a 7.20am start. So that will be our Christmas Day. Not as hectic as it used to be but still as enjoyable.
Last week I was too busy to do a Thursday blog and it was a shame as I had an event that I wanted to share. In a nutshell, Janene won her first affiliated show jumping competition which was held at SNEC in Edinburgh. This was her third competition and to win one already was a great achievement for her. She has won the odd competition before but they were all unaffiliated, meaning they weren’t official and weren’t recorded. This was her first win as, I suppose, a professional and she won a grand total of £25. Yep, £25. It’s not much but it is the winning that was the big deal and not the prize money. Me being me, couldn’t resist the wind-up of course and after she had received her prize, I told her to remember and keep some for the taxman. I told her that you have to pay tax on all winnings and to keep a record of it. She believes anything I say and asked how much it would be. About £7 roughly I told her. She said ok and how does she go about it. I told her it was quite complex but I knew how to do it and if she gave me the £7, I would make sure it was all done. The wee soul handed me a tenner and said to sort it out. I just looked at her and said I was only kidding and the winnings were all hers. She wasn’t that amused but more so because she had fell for it. I have a video of her winning clear round on my phone but I have no idea how to put it onto the blog :( so heres a couple of photos of Janene on Piretta IV

It’s been all about Janene these last days and you will remember that I told you about her ‘‘boyfriend’’. Well, it is still going but I get the feeling that she isn’t that bothered about him. She was a bit unwell last night and jumped inbetween me and the wife in our bed last night as she does when not feeling great. I asked how they were getting on and she said ok I suppose. Not that keen sounding if you ask me. She said she liked him but didn’t think it was going to work out. That’s a bit of a shame as, although I am not that good with so called boyfriends, I still want her to be happy. I had bit the bullet earlier in the day when we were texting and I asked her outright whether they had had sex yet. Now, I think I have said before that Janene is 18 but inside I still think about 15 would describe her better. She replied that they hadn’t had sex and that was what I expected as I don’t think she is anywhere near ready. To make light of it, I replied ‘Ok that’s fine. He can live ………. for  now’. Of course, I knew she would mention this to her big sister and that Elise would have something to say since she knows everything. Yep, I was right as she said to me that I shouldn’t be asking Janene that. I was ready for her big, outspoken mouth though and told her to mind her own business and it was nothing to do with her what me and Janene talked about. We had been talking and it didn’t involve her so keep your nose out. Surprisingly, she didn’t have an answer for it and hopefully she knows that other members of the family can talk about anything they want without having to have opinion heard.
Well, that’s been the main events of the last days with the only other thing happening is that the puppies are leaving today. They are just over 8 weeks old and they go to their new homes. Awwww most people say but Thank Fuck is my words. They were very naughty puppies this time and ran riot about the house. They were so fast and trying to catch them was an ordeal in itself. If they weren’t chewing someone’s slipper, they were in stealing the big dog’s food which gives them the runs and they are not supposed to be eating the adult food. Anyway, off they go today with their Kennel Club papers, their five week free insurance and a puppy bag that we make up ourselves. 4 x £650 for us as they had already paid £100 deposit each. Oh happy days!!!

As far as we are led to believe, Soccer Manager will change to the new interface at the beginning of 2016. This will be D-Day for many players of the game who will have to decide whether to quit the game altogether, give the new interface a chance or decide that they are happy with it and the game goes on. Personally I am still in the balance. The only thing I know for certain is that I will not give them another penny of the wife’s hard earned money and instead of buying £20 of SM coins, the £20 will go on the first favourite at Chepstow. I have something like 19 days of gold membership left so there was no point in spending time on the gold teams I had left and therefor they are now history. I have 5 custom worlds that I am in including this one and I will give them a chance although I have, now and then, used the new interface to try get used to it but am still of the opinion that it is too much effort just to pick a team. That should be a simple thing but it just isn’t. It doesn’t look good for the future and I must say that my enthusiasm is definitely not as it was. I used to look forward to getting up in the morning and checking what messages each team had and if players had gone up in ratings or I had beaten someone to the signing of Yaya Banana. I am not excited anymore. In my opinion they have ruined an excellent product and it could be the breaking of them. Either that or the game will be full of 12-14 year olds. Anyway, it’s now a waiting game to see if I can get to like it and then decide what to do.

Tonight is a big night in the Top 100 as we enter the final game of the season with lots of clubs playing for promotion or a play off place, or indeed, to stave off relegation. In Division 5, I am glad to say that we, Club Brugge, are sitting in a favourable position. Sunday’s excellent 4-1 win in Holland against FC Twente Enschade seen us move into fourth position in the table and our last game tonight should confirm a play off spot for us. I do have to congratulate Bela Guttman (AZ Alkmaar), Son of Pluto (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk) and Rob Ryan (Montpellier HSC) on already sealing automatic promotion to Division 4 this season although I think Son of Pluto obviously had some sort of advantage with his dad being a God.
Club Brugge, as I said, are lying 4th with a 3 point and a 7 goal advantage over Santos FC in 7th place so only a complete disaster tonight would prevent our season being extended. I must say how proud I am of the boys who played in the 4-1 win at FC Twente. The fact that they had to do it without our two main strikers said lots for their character. Pabon and Athanasiadis both missed out with Pabon almost certainly ruled out of the play offs as well after he tore his groin while trying to do Agadoo with a banana placed between his legs. I wont go into the full details but lets just say that Agadoo should only be done with the full supervision of an adult. Those who tried to throw pineapple rings onto the banana should realise that the banana was long gone by that time and the rather excited Pabon soon regretted his party trick. Athanasiadis got himself sent off in the game against Partizan and tonight is his second match of a three match suspension, meaning he could return for the play off Final if we can get there.
Tonight we entertain Celtic, managed by Jens Mourinho-Jairzinho. Is this Jens Litamen in disguise. I fully expect him to win tonight if he is going to include Mourinho in his name. Hmmm hold on …. on the other hand…..
Anyway I know it will be a tough game and our main decision is whether to go out and attack to win the game or play conservative knowing that a point secures our play off spot. That will be a game time decision.
Our opponents in the play offs, as they stand, would be FC Augsburg managed by Dale Piero. I have known Dale for two years now, or so it said on Facebook, and we have had plenty of games against each other and I have to admit, I couldn’t tell you who has the better record as we have both won a few with a few draws. Would definitely be an interesting match up but Dale has some work to do if that game is to be realised. It is very close for the play off spots and if Dale wins tonight and I lose, he would overtake me in the table and would be the one with home advantage in the play off should we meet. But that’s a big if because my guys are not going to lose to Celtic.
Anyway I have rattled on enough for this week and it’s now down to the nitty gritty of the season end games. I would like to wish everyone luck tonight if their game is of importance and I am sure we would all like to thank Frank Hirst for a great set up as the first season comes to a close.

That’s it from me. Merry Christmas everyone and I should be back next Thursday with news of our play off situation and also how our Christmas Day went and if Janene’s boyfriend has lived for another week.

Ciao

This isn’t just a typical derby for Inter fans, nor their manager. The Good Doctor has gone 3 games undefeated and has lifted his side form the drop zone and has declared, with one game to go this season, that he has no intention of falling back into it.


“We are out now, but our goal difference doesn’t make us safe so we can’t depend on 1 point. We need to play to win and that is what I intend on doing tomorrow night!"

The Good Doctor faces a very tough challenge ahead of him as in a cruel twist of fate, his survival hopes fall on his teams performance against fierce rivals AC Milan. TGD admits that this shouldn’t have been the case:

“Realistically, the team have unperformed this season and had they played to expectation, this game shouldn’t be anythign more than a local derby game, the fact that survival also hangs in the balance is due to lackluster performances on the pitch this season but I am confident we will be in the top flight again next season and will be performing at a much higher level”.

Dortmund boss Lee Reynolds spoke to the media briefly ahead of a crucial final league game away to Bayern Munich which will ultimate seal Dortmund’s fate.
Boss Reynolds Dortmund side are only out of the relegation zone on goal difference and only a win will guarantee Division one football next season. “We know what we have to do, the players are focused and are looking sharp. Bayern are a tough proposition on their own ground but we must not freeze and go there with confidence”
Reynolds was quizzed on player movement next season and said that there will be change regardless of what division Dortmund will be in. “We are looking to change a number of players ahead of the new season regardless of what division we are in. The squad was not the best, a number of deals were very poor in my eyes and affected the balance of the squad. Raheem Stirling and Neven Subotic are the only 1st team players unavailable for any deals, loan players will be made available once they return”

With 2 days left to go till the final game of the Season, the Top100 players were out in force to celebrate the Top100 Player Awards…


Div 5 YPOTY

The night began with Division 5 Young Player of the Season with 3rd place being picked up by Youri TIELEMANS of Anderlecht with 9%, who even though he only played in 6 games this season, he shone with 3 TOTW apps and will be hoping for more game time next season. 2nd place with 12% was Issiaga SYLLA (Standard Liege) and the runaway winner was Lenny NANGIS of Independiente with 76% after 12 goals in his 29 games this season.


Div 5 POTY

In 3rd place of the Division 5 Player of the Year was Giovani DOS SANTOS of Sao Paulo with 9%, 2nd place was Dirk KUYT of AZ who only joined from Division 4’s Feyenoord mid season, but managed 12 goals in his 16 games and 8 TOTW apps. The winner of the Division 5 POTY was Marko MARIN of Dnipro, who probably edged out Kuyt due to playing the full season in Div 5.


Div 4 YPOTY

3rd place of Division 4 YPOTY was Héctor BELLERÍN of Besiktas (on loan from Arsenal), who has helped the Turks to promotion. 2nd place was young goalkeeper Yvon MVOGO of Chievo with 12% of the vote amassing 9 clean sheets and 6 TOTW apps and the runaway leader was Domenico BERARDI of Sassuolo who was directly involved in 21 of Sassuolo’s goals this season and was a big key in their ptomotion.


Div 4 POTY

The voting for Division 4 brought out 3 runners up to the award, Bafétimbi GOMIS (West Brom), John RUDDY (Levante) & Luís PIZZI (Hamburg) all with 18% of the vote. Gomis will still be hoping for promotion and to add to his 17 goals in 22 games, Ruddy, will be hoping to cement survival for Levante after a terrfific season between the sticks and Pizzi will be hoping Hamburg can win the final game to take home the Division 4 title. The winner of the award was Francesco MAGNANELLI of Sassuolo who managed 21 goals & 13 assists this season from the centre of midfield.


Div 3 YPOTY

Jetro WILLEMS finished 3rd in Div 3 YPOTY with 19% and has been 1 of their shining young stars, but still needs 1 more big performance to keep them up in Division 3. 2nd, with 25% was Aleksandar MITROVIĆ of Newcastle who helped Newcastle to promotion to Division 2. The winner of Div 3 YPOTY was Jean-Paul BOËTIUS of Basel who was involved in 11 goals in his 13 games this season.


Div 3 POTY

3rd place in Div 3 POTY was Papiss CISSÉ of Newcastle who managed 9 MOM’s in Newcastle’s promotion season. 2nd place went ot League Winners, Sunderland’s Andrea PIRLO (28%) who’s ageing midfield partnership with Gerrard showed that experience was needed to win this league. And the award for Div 3 went to Fernando LLORENTE of Ajax with 42%, who are still not safe, but his direct involvement in 30 goals this season shows just how valuable he has been to Ajax this season.


Div 2 YPOTY

Jonathan SILVA of Sporting Lisbon came in 3rd place in Div 2 YPOTY with 6% and will be hoping he can push Sporting over the line in the playoffs. 2nd place was Hakan ÇALHANOĞLU (38%) of promoted Leverkusen, but 1 more big push is required and the hope that Fenerbahce may slip up. The winner though, was Ross BARKLEY of Everton, still needing playoff victory for promotion, but his involvement in 25 goals is the reason for this accolade to go onto his CV.


Div 2 POTY

Division 2 POTY was the tighest of all the awards with a tie for 2nd place (with 21%) between Hernández XAVI of relegated Sampdoria and Stefan KIESSLING of Leverkusen at the other end of the table. The winner, just edging out these 2 with 24% of the vote, was Téofilo GUTIÉRREZ of Sporting CP who will need to be on fire in the playoffs to help Sporting CP with promotion.


Div 1 YPOTY

3rd place in the Division 1 YPOTY with 5% of the vote was Emre CAN of Liverpool, whoo need a win and results to go their way not to get relegated. 2nd place was Raheem STERLING (10%)of Dortmund, who also require a win to keep their Division 1 status. The runaway and deserved winner was Memphis DEPAY of League Winners with a whopping 80%, Manchester United, who was directly involved in 31 goals in 31 apps this season.


Div 1 POTY

And now for the main award…in 3rd place was Zlatan IBRAHIMOVIC of PSG with 7%, who in spite of his 19 league goals still require a victory for Div 1 survival. In 2nd place was Júnior NEYMAR of Real Madrid with 29% of the vote with 21 goals for the Galacticos. And the Winner of the Division 1 Player of the Year, with 61% of the vote was Lionel MESSI of Barcelona who managed a whopping 11 TOTW apps in only 30 games, but Barca still require a victory in the final game to finish in the top 4.

Top Three

The automatic promtion spots have all been confirmed, although as yet any of the three sides already promoted could still win the league. As things stand, the automatic positions look like this.

Pos		Team	P	GD	Pts
1		Hamburger SV (P)	37	11	67
2		Beşiktaş JK (P)	37	15	66
3		Sassuolo (P)	37	24	65

Division 2 , the last gasp.

Porto to end on 65 pts

Fiorentina realistically still need to win as a loss and a Porto draw will drop them to the play offs. A draw is only good enough if Porto fail to win,. Napoli are realistically fighting it out with Schalke for that last play off spot. So expect a tough battle. Still Firenze should be celebrating in the Uffizi and the Duomo come the next game

Prediction Fiorentina also end up on 69 pts.and second spot.

Division 2 the view from Firenze

With 2 games left any one of 7 clubs have a chance of automatic promotion.


Fenerbache are already promoted, this leaves

Leverkeusen
Porto
Fiorentina and
Sporting all with a chance of second spot, in addition Napoli, Schalke and Everton have an outside chance of 3rd place if the fixtures are friendly.


Leverkeusen look firm favourites for 2nd
They surely will beat Spartak Moscow who's season is already over and then play lowly Benfica.
There is no reason to believe they won't max out on 72 points.

Porto play Sporting today, with Sporting on apalling form a home win looks on the cards,
They then visit 7th place Schalke who will need to compete until the last game, this could well be a loss so I predict ,
Porto to end on 67 pts

Fiorentina , was Fenerbache, both sides on decent form, suggest a draw is on  the cards.
Then a tough but must win game against Napoli, a must win in the North vs South all Italian clash.

Prediction Fiorentina also end up on 67pts.

Sporting look set to lose out, if they lose against Porto another tough game in Germany is on the cards with a point at best on offer.

I predict they end up with 62 pts
As for the chasing pack
Napoli should beat Galatasary to finish on 61pts , Schalke could well beat Wolfsburg and Porto to end up on 64pts and Everton have 2 relatively easy games with at least 4 pts on offer , leaving them with 62.
Final table
Fenerbache 74pt
Leverkeusen 72pt
Porto 67pt
Fiorentina 67
Schalke 64
Sporting 62
Everton 62
Napoli 61
Time will tell, but in order to qualify automatically , I really need to beat Fenerbache toniight. Sporting could be the shock if they reverse their recent run of form but in reality that will only let in other sides. Schalke must be the most likely of the 58pt crew to have an outside chance.

Good luck to all.

Good Evening and welcome to the live coverage of The Top 100 Youth Under 21 Cup Quarter-Final draw.

The games should be scheduled to be played on Saturday 19th December 2015. A reminder that it is the job of the home team to organise the matches.

After Saturday’s thrilling action we have 8 teams remaining but there as ever with SM is a slight controversy in the draw with Flamengo having beaten Juventus convincingly but they ‘cheated’ by bring on ‘over-age’ players and as a result will be disqualified shamelessly… meaning Juventus will pass to the Quarter-final in their place.

Read more:

TEAMS: (and odds)

ACF Fiorentina 10/1
Paris Saint Germain 3/1
Juventus 15/1
Man Utd 5/2
AS Monaco 2/5
Athletico Madrid
Tottenham Hotspur 8/1
Fenerbarche 5/1

Good afternoon guys and it’s Thursday which means time for blog revelations haha. This blog could become the new WikiLeaks on the Kinnear family. I can already see me being taken away in cuffs or having to flee to Russia to go into hiding but I will not stop blogging no matter where I am. Anyway enough with the fantasy world and let’s get to the real one.
It seems like I am in the bad books this week and have been accused of being rude and ignorant after Janene, the youngest daughter, thought it was a good idea to have a boyfriend. At 18 years old she is free to do as she please but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. When she told us, I didn’t say anything, not a single word. Of course there was a bit more going on inside my head as I played out the scene where she says she is only joking. Anyway, the rude and ignorant part came when, for some strange reason, she brought the boyfriend home. Of course, Alison said it was a good idea to bring him into the house so she could meet him. I, on the other hand, couldn’t think of anything positive about this and decided to have an early night and have some time on the laptop. That’s exactly what happened and all was going to plan when the dreaded call came thundering upstairs and straight to my superman hearing ears. I actually do have very acute hearing. I can hear plenty things that no one else in the family can and things like me asking the kids to turn their TV down is usually met with they can hardly hear it and if they turn it down then they would be as well turning it off. So,back to the visit of the boyfriend. The call came up ‘Gordon, are you not coming down to meet Janene’s boyfriend?’ My obvious answer should be ‘No I am busy’ but the words coming out of my mouth were along the lines off  ‘Erm, yeah ok I will be down soon’.

This is not a great idea as I know I won’t handle it very well. If any boy thinks he is going to kiss my daughter and I am going to congratulate him then his head is in lala land. A few minutes past and the shout of ‘Gorrrdonnn!!’ comes up again so I decide it’s time to go down. Down into the living room I go and the wife, eldest daughter Elise and Janene are there, and of course The Chancer. Now here comes the alleged rude bit. Janene says ‘Dad, this is Ross’ and I say ‘Hello Russ’. Maybe my hearing isn’t as good as I thought, or was that a deliberate error. Only In know :)'. So he actually has the nerve to speak to me and says ‘No, it’s Ross’. Wait a sec, he is actually correcting me in my own house!! So there it was ‘No, it’s Ross’ and my instant reaction is ‘Whatever’. That was the rude bit according to my wife, the two girls, the six dogs and the four pups. Even the characters on the TV seemed to stop and look at me. At that, it was time for a hasty retreat upstairs. Alison followed soon after while Elise was going to her bed. Janene took Russ, Ross or whatever into her bedroom. Erm what!!!! Alison says it’s fine, they are only watching some TV. I said ok. Sitting using the laptop makes time fly by and before I knew it, the time was twenty to one in the morning. I went to the loo and I could hear that he was still here. Time for my text messaging skills to be put into action. I send a text to Janene saying ‘Are you taking the piss? I think it’s time Ross was going home’ Again I was slaughtered for saying that and that she was 18 and grown up now. I beg to differ. I know she is 18 but inside she is more 15/16. A few minutes later and he was away home. I know I might have seen a bit harsh and I am sure that you think I was OTT but I don’t trust teenage boys. I get plenty on my bus and I know they can be twats. Maybe Ross will be different and it will work out ok but he also knows now that he has work to do to win me over.

It’s not been a great week. My relationship with my young girlfriend came to an end. The thing that led to this is probably pretty stupid but I will explain. As I have said before, she increased her working hours for the obvious reason of needing more money. That was fine, in fact I thought it was great, but it did mean that the only chance I would get to see her properly would be a Thursday. So on Monday we were messaging and after a while I asked her about this Thursday. Her reply didn’t thrill me. She said she was going to the gym on a Thursday as she was trying to lose weight and that was the only day where she had free time because the kid was at nursery. So when do I see you? She said she wasn’t sure but we would work something out. I told her Thursday was always our day and she said ‘I know but do you not want me to look better for you’. No, I don’t care how you look, I would rather see you. This escalated and it turned into a full blown argument which at the end we decided we should at least take a break. I said well, if you would rather go to the gym than see me then I didn’t think she was as dedicated to me as I was to her and therefor it’s not worth carrying on. So that was it. Now, we have broke up before and then get back after a few weeks but this time I am not going to do that. It’s time to concentrate on the wife and stop being a cunt.

That will do for the real life events although there are a couple of other things that would have made the page but I will keep them for another day.

A week ago I decided to quit Soccer Manager due to the changes that were made. I explained on this blog my reasons for doing so. I didn’t realise, however, that thanks to a Mr Beddows that the blog would end up on twitter and facebook. Normal views of this blog have been around 35-40 but last week’s explanation for quitting had 130 as at today. SM decided to bring back the old interface for a while at least until, I believe, they sort out the new interface and the bugs that it had. Now, I don’t know if, in fact I doubt, my blog had any influence on their decision but I do believe they have read it. I tend to think that the backlash from so many players took them by surprise and they brought back the old interface to try and stem the flow of people quitting the game.
So where are we now? The old interface is back, but it is not the same. While I am pleased to be able to carry on with the old one, on the laptop it looks like it is zoomed to 120% and is too big. That is a very minor thing though and there are other more concerning stuff.


I feel the transfer market is dumbed down. I don’t like the fact that an 88 rated player, for example, has a set price. The only way his value will change is if his rating goes up or down. I don’t think this is fair to the small clubs who will not get any advantage of buying a good player when it comes to selling him on. A player they buy for 2.4m is still only going to be worth 2.4m even though he could now be the best player in the team.
The new match engine they say has been introduced doesn’t seem a lot different to me. Playing against an unmanaged team is still much the same with a good percentage of the games seeing the unmanaged side having their keeper as man of the match, with an outstanding display, as you lose 1-0 despite having 99 shots at goal to their 2. The red card, as mentioned last week, still doesn’t seem to have affect on the game with most of the time it being an advantage to go down to 10 men. I have not noticed what the differences are yet so I will sit on the fence concerning it at the moment.
Looking at what people are saying about the new interface, it seems to be geared towards smartphones and Ipads. Are laptops being phased out? Are tablets taking over as the thing to have now? For this reason I am going to give the new interface a try on the Ipad. For all I know this could be the difference maker and I might get to like it. As of today, I have 33 days of gold membership and I have decided that I will not be renewing unless I change my view of the new game drastically. I will not be quitting altogether though as I will almost certainly keep on 3, maybe 4, custom worlds including Top 100. The Ashclowbel will be another and the Brookfield Premier League is one I enjoy a lot.

Life in Brugge is good. The club are sitting in an automatic promotion spot with just one defeat in the last 7 outings. The players are totally focused on the job in hand with still up to 15 clubs having a decent chance of getting a play off place at least.
On the downside, we had a bit of a bust up at training on Monday when Domingues Claudemir took exception to a tackle from Sven Kums. Kums has only been with us for 3 weeks and I feel he has been trying to hard to impress. Anyway, a bit of a scuffle developed and although it was handbags at 20 paces, I did need to intervene and have a word. I brought them both into the office where I explained that we all need to be on the same page if we are wanting to win promotion without going into the lottery of the play offs. I avoided fining either of them but did tell Sven he needs to calm down a bit and just let his play do all the talking. In the end I have decided to keep Kums on the bench for tonights game at home to Dinamo Kiev to let him know that, while we can let this one go, I will not put up with indiscipline. Hopefully this will lead to Kums showing us why he should always be in the starting XI every game.
Talking of tonights game, we entertain Dinamo Kiev who are managed by Grant Cameron. While I have not spoken to Grant personally as far as I can remember, I know that he is a very tough opponent and that my guys will have to be on top form to get anything from the game. Dinamo are currently just inside the play off spots but have struggled recently with just one win in their last six games. Form points to a win for us tonight but if players such as Yarmolenko, Veloso and Dragovic hit some form then it could be a tough night for us. I am sure it will be a great game for the fans and they will be supporting us the whole 90mins. We won 1-0 in Kiev earlier this season but there were spells in that match that is was all hands on deck as we defended for our lives. On another day we could easily have lost 3 or 4-1 so we know how dangerous this team is.

Our youths made a great start to the inaugural Youth Cup when they took on and beat Borussia Dortmund Youths 2-1. The young boys in our defence have to take the majority of the credit for this win as they tackled and dived in on the more talented Dortmund players as if it was the Cup Final itself. We won the game in the first half hour with Latvian striker Sabala giving us a 12th minute lead and 20yo midfielder Reuten adding the second on 25min. Reuten is a young prodigy of ours and was born in Genk. He is improving every time he plays and we have high hopes for him. After his goal, Dortmund were stung into action and they controlled the game from then on. It was then that our defence stood up and they managed to restrict Dortmund to an 80th min goal from some unknown boy from England. Raheem Stirling or Sterling, something like that. Not been rude or dismissive but I doubt that boy will get any further than the Dortmund youth set up.
Next for the youngsters is a trip across the border into France to play Paris Saint Germain. This will be another big test for them and if they come away with a replay then it will be a great achievement. I might travel with them and take in the delights of Paris.
To finish up I once again have to congratulate Stephen Beddows on his televised draw for the 2nd Round of the Youth Cup. I seen he took my advice about the cameraman and the work was much more professional. As a bonus we also had a change in front of the camera where Stephen’s daughter made the draw. Again, it was much more professional than the geek making the draw the last time.

Well, that will do from me today and I hope you all enjoyed reading the Thursday blog.
A s always, thanks for taking the time out of your lives to read this and I will be back next Thursday with the latest news on all that has happened in real life and in fantasy land.

Ciao