Welcome to the first issue of the new T100 magazine where we will be reviewing all of season 10 winners and losers and have an interview with David Marsden, manager of Hamburg and the current owner of the set up. The magazine will be weekly starting next season with a review of a game from each division, a quick round up of some youth cup business and every other week will feature manager interviews and maybe a bit of fun regarding the ‘T100 Gossip column’

Division 1

Well what can you say, Scott Mckenzie and his Barcelona team absolutely ran away with this season’s title finishing a highly impressive 22 points clear at the top. That’s 6 Division 1 titles for Scott now and he keeps setting the standard for us all to try and get close to. Only 3 times has division 1 been won with a 10+ point gap and Scott did it on all 3 occasions. Lionel Messi as per real life was the driving force behind the success at the nou camp with an astonishing 28 goals, 24 assists and 30 man of the match awards. It was a McKenzie 1-2 as James finished 2nd with his Chelsea team, Liverpool and Juventus rounding off the top 4 places. At the other end of the table it was a rude introduction to the old trafford hot seat for Nathan Prince as his mid season move to Manchester United failed to stop the drop into Division 2, no wins in the final 12 league games for Nathan with the last 10 all defeats, work to do for the former Monaco chief. Napoli, Inter Milan and Standard Liege all follow Man United in to division 2 with work to be done. Of the 4 clubs relegated 3 have a new manager starting the season for the first time at their respective clubs, Nathan has had time to feel his squad out but it will be a quick transaction for Sir Steven Gerrard(Inter) and Jamie Alldridge (Napoli)

Division 2

Bouncebackability was the key word in terms of Division 2 as 3 of the 4 relegated from division 1 the previous season were promoted at the 1st attempt. Dortmund ran away with the league title with a 10 point gap to 2nd place Paris St-Germain. Dortmund’s faith in James Foster was restored after relegation the previous season and for PSG it was 1st season success for Malcom. completing the promotion places were Hellas Verona who completed their 3rd promotion in 4 seasons, an unbelievable job being done by Andre,truly an inspiration for all of us to follow. The Play off winners were Schalke who won the final against their german counterparts Leverkusen, 2-1 with goals from Buffarini and Muniain after Diego costa had given Leverkusen a 3rd minute lead. However Schalke have lost Doc as their manager close season so celebrations were cut short with that shock news. Dropping from the 2nd tier were Villarreal, Newcastle, Southampton and Monchengladbach. Again 3 of the clubs will need to hit the ground running with new managers next season. Player honours in Division 2 are headed to Luis Suarez with an amazing 8.82 average rating, 18 goals, 17 assists and 22 MOTM awards for the champions Dortmund.

Division 3

It was a tight finish in the 3rd tier with just 3 points separating the top 4 clubs, it was however justice that all 4 clubs won promotion as they were consistently the best sides over the season. All other clubs lost at least a 1/3 of their games in the league so can have no complaints at the outcome. It was fitting as well that Rahul left the set up as champion of Hertha Berlin, real life commitments left him short of time for the game but he ends as a champion,again, I’m hoping we see him back in t100 some day. Finishing off the top 3 were Shakhtar Doneskt and Basel, great campaigns from Broon and Bojan. Montpellier finished just a point off the top 3 but saw off the play offs with a narrow 1-0 win over Lazio in the final, the winning goal from Gomis sealing promotion. At the other end Sunderland finished bottom(heard that somewhere before aye) with Lyon and Celtic just ahead. Lokomotiv Moscow were the other team to fall after Fenerbache’s last day win away to Sampdoria ensuring they edged ahead of the Russians on GD. Fine margins and all that. Caligiuli was Division 3 player of the season with 18 goals, 36 assists(unbelievable jeff) and 13 MOTM awards finishing with an impressive 8.05 average rating for Shakhtar.

Division 4

GD settled the title race as Cologne and Stoke finished tied on 69 points. Cologne securing the title by way of having a better GD of 4. Fantastic season for both Neil and Ruts. Dnipro finished the season in 3rd after a fantastic run at the business end of the season pipped River Plate for the final automatic spot. 5 successive wins for Dnipro coupled with River only winning 1 of the last 4 meant Dnipro stole final spot on the last day after River drew 2-2 away to Spartak whilst Dnipro romped to a 3-0 away win at Lille. River Plate were to suffer more heartache at the hands of Spartak in the play offs as despite being the better side they succumbed 2-1 to the Russians in the final. Dropping out of the trapdoor into the bottom division were Sporting and Fiorentina who both suffered the shame of a double drop after falling into division 4 the previous season they have continued straight to division 5 without making much of an inpact on the league. Saint-Ettiene also dropped but the real surprise was the previous years 4th place team, who missed out on promotion by 1 point, Bremen finished 4th bottom this time. I’m sure Wayne will be determined to bounce straight back. player of the season will be Bakambu with an impressive 7.67 average rating after 17 goals and 11 MOTM awards for Cologne.

Division 5

FC Twente were Division 5 champions after a fine campaign by Paul Thompson’s men. Paul only joined Twente a few month back but settled into the job and got stuck right in. His title winning campaign was enough to see him poached by Valencia after the resignation of Greg Bilbao and the master wheeler dealer Walter Gogh has the task of carrying on Paul’s fantastic work. The other promotion spots went to Marseille and Udinese after fine seasons for managers Mike T and Ignazio Barraco. The play offs saw David Inglis and Jess Jobe go head to head as 4th place Rubin met 6th place Dinamo Zagreb in the final. A fast start by Rubin however blew Zagreb away as 2 goals in the first 18 minutes by Meite and Amadou set Rubin on the way to a fine 3-0 win, with the final goal being scored from the spot by Charles with 10 minutes left on the clock. Bordeaux again propped up the t100 league by finishing bottom, but if there is any comfort for the french side is that the team who finished above them in season 9 was this season champions Twente, and Season 8’s bottom side was River Plate, and they won the league in season 9. It can change very quickly with just a few key signings. Marseilles Ryad Boudeboux takes the individual honours for Division 5 with an average rating of 7.76 with 19 goals, 13 assists and 12 MOTM awards.

The Cups

The T100 cup was won by Juventus despite the best efforts of Division 4 runners up Stoke City, Onyekuru give the 4th tier side a half time lead after he cut inside and beat Buffon at the near post. DP give his Juve side a kick up the back side and they were a different outfit second half. Paulo Dybala drew the Italian side level after fine approach play by Raheem Sterling, the Argentinian hit a quick snap shot which Zoet got a hand to it but couldn’t prevent it crawling over the line. Marquinhos was the unlikely match winner with just 4 minutes left on the clock, taking a ball from Sane he strode forward unchallenged before letting fly from a full 35 yards out, Zoet again got a hand to it but the sheer force of the shot beat him as it nestled into the far corner of the net.

The T100 shield was won by Doug Earle’s Atletico Madrid, the match wasn’t for the purists though as Atletico and Porto struggled to stamp any sort of quality on to the pitch and the sound of the final whistle was of a relief after 90 minutes of two sides cancelling each other out. At least with a penalty shoot out we would see some goals yeah? well not for the Porto fans as they inexplicably missed all 3 penalties, Madrid comfortably saw their penalties hit the back of the net and It was over in 6 penalties. 3 missed 3 scored and a 3-0 penalty shoot out victory for Atletico.

In The Hot seat With…

First up in the manager interview series is the Hamburg manager and T100 boss man David Marsden. Here we get the lowdown on the stresses if running the best set up on SM and his plans for the new season.

As GW owner what is the challenge like of keeping the set up running smoothly?  No idea, the GW has been running smoothly since Frank started it and I hope just to continue in his footsteps. Obviously any GW with 100 managers will have some sort of issues, new rules brought a few teething problems around last season and there will always be a few managers looking to take the piss at times but thankfully the majority have been supportive and I now have a group of managers to turn to when problems arise. At the end of the day we all want the same thing, a fun,well run GW where all managers contribute. Youth cup and the World club cup take some planning and forward thinking and organising. Spreadsheets are my friend in these situations.

What are your ambitions for Hamburg this season? Survival and then who knows after that. Last season we started really well and were 6 points clear of eventual champions Dortmund after 12 games, but the wheels fell off and a 2 month winless run against managed sides ensured. A bit of tinkering with the team didn’t work out as expected either as Chiriches was moved on, he was my rock at cb and his replacement Iborra just didn’t settle and the defence suffered as a result. This season I have more of a younger squad which will grow hopefully in the next season or 2, transfers will be here and there as I prefer to hang about for the right moment for deals and I hope the stability will help Hamburg over the next few seasons as my younger players progress.

Who is your star player (SM) ? Lucas Vazquez, 33 goals 33 assists in 74 games is serious going. I’m hoping he continues in this vein of form this season. The target is 15 goals 15 assists for Lucas this season.

Worst transfer you’ve done on the game? Well what can I say, we’ve all done some deals where the benefit of hindsight would of been helpful but I have to say swapping Seamus Coleman for Victor Moses with my mate Mick at Ajax is up there. Moses was linked with Man United IRL and I knew mick was after Ireland’s captain, deal was done and then Moses was dropped to Chelseas reserves before heading to Turkey. Best transfer on the game? Back to my star player Vazquez for that honour, his stats have been up with the best since he arrived and I hope he will continue this in the new season.

Real life club and hopes for this season for them? Manchester United, with Ole at the wheel I’m hoping for a return to some United values, more younger players and a return of some entertaining football. I’m not bothered on where we finish(??) I just want to be entertained for the first time since Fergie left. I hope young Tuanzebe pushes on this season as well.

Time spent on SM a day? Like most far too long but I love it.

That’s all for Issue 1, next issue will be after the first round of games with a report from 1 game per league, some update on T100 in general and an interview with the biggest journeyman manager in T100 history…Me haha.