retired_amyslack

January 2005

The transfer window may have re-opened but with little money available I had no real options to strengthen the squad and my only activity was to release a couple of Under-18 players who didn’t look like making the grade. New Years Day saw us travel to near-neighbours Bolton and put in probably our worst display of the season so far to suffer a 3-0 defeat. Just two days later we entertained 4th place Everton looking to get back to winning ways. Having changed half the team to bring in fresh legs I was disappointed to go into the break a goal down but two goals from Robbie Fowler and a Man of the Match display by fellow scouser McManaman turned the game around and we won 2-1.

It was FA Cup action next and a trip to League One side Chesterfield and a breakaway goal for the home side, combined with an inspired goalkeeper, threatened the ultimate embarrassment of being on the wrong end of a giant-killing act. But substitute Joey Barton scored twice in the last ten minutes to take us through and spare our blushes.

We then found out that we would be losing Sun Jihai in the summer when he rejected our offer of an extended contract and agreed terms with Mallorca instead. Sean Wright-Phillips was suspended for the trip to Aston Villa, a team surprisingly struggling at the wrong end of the table. Once again we made life difficult for ourselves by conceding the opening goal but Fowler scored a fine equaliser before the break, firing home a curving shot from the edge of the area. We were caught cold shortly after the restart to go behind again and were unlucky on several occasions not to create another equaliser. The final nail in the coffin came in stoppage time as, chasing the game, we were caught on the break and conceded again to lose 3-1.

We faced a trip to London in the 4th Round of the FA Cup with Fulham our opponents and we were hoping to avenge our defeat in the League Cup Quarter Finals. Claudio Reyna was absent as he was in the USA squad for the Gold Cup so Joey Barton was drafted into midfield. Two goals from Trevor Sinclair in the first half put us well on the way but the home side proved to be our bogey team once more. They pulled a goal back on 57, equalised with 20 minutes remaining with a Sun Jahai own goal and got the winner in stoppage time when Andy Cole scored with a shot that deflected in off Danny Mills. Another frustrating Cup exit meant that all we had left to play for was a top-six league finish and an elusive European place.

The month ended with another match against London opposition with a visit from league leaders Arsenal. Now the last thing you want to do against the Gunners is to give them a goal start but that’s exactly what we did, Thierry Henry putting them ahead midway through the first half. However we responded superbly and equalised on the half hour when Richard Dunne powered home a Sinclair corner. Wright-Phillips put us in front early in the second half and we went on to dominate the remainder of the game. Sun Jahai scored our 3rd with quarter of an hour remaining and Barton put the icing on the cake with a 4th in stoppage time. The 4-1 win was magnificent reward for possibly our best display of the season and it was particularly satisfying after our recent FA Cup exit.

The end of the month heralded two pieces of news – keeper Nicky Weaver was back in full training after a 13-month layoff and Steve McManaman would be leaving in the summer after accepting a contract offer from Southampton. Macca has done well for us this season but his general lack of fitness makes him a luxury player as far as I am concerned and I would not have been offering him a renewal anyway. His departure would have the added benefit of lopping £35K off our wage bill, perhaps giving some latitude to bring in a new face or two in the summer.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pos | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | Arsenal | 26 | 17 | 3 | 6 | 67 | 25 | +42 | 54 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | Chelsea | 26 | 15 | 7 | 4 | 54 | 30 | +24 | 52 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | Newcastle | 25 | 12 | 8 | 5 | 35 | 22 | +13 | 44 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | MAN CITY | 26 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 42 | 32 | +10 | 43 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | Everton | 26 | 13 | 3 | 10 | 38 | 33 | +5 | 42 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | Charlton | 26 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 46 | 30 | +16 | 41 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | Southampton | 26 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 34 | 35 | -1 | 39 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | Man Utd | 26 | 9 | 11 | 6 | 33 | 29 | +4 | 38 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

retired_amyslack

February 2005

We faced London opposition once more in our first game of the month and travelled to Stamford Bridge with Ben Thatcher and Paul Bosvelt both suspended although Reyna was now back from the Gold Cup after the USA were surprisingly eliminated in the Quarter Finals. Having just got one over on the league leaders I was hopeful of a decent result against their nearest challengers but when we went two goals down inside ten minutes I was not so optimistic. We pulled ourselves together after our nightmare start but made little impression on a stubborn Chelsea defence and our 2-0 defeat was a bitter pill to swallow after our performance against Arsenal.

Another road trip was required at the weekend and we travelled to relegation-threatened Middlesbrough on the Sunday having slipped down to 7th place. I am at a loss to explain our tendency to start as though we are asleep and once again we were caught cold and conceded an early goal. There was less than 60 seconds on the clock when George Boateng fired his team in front and they held on to their narrow advantage until the final whistle.

Our final game of a short month featured London opponents again with Charlton making the trip north. I had high hopes of avoiding an early concession when Wright-Phillips came close to scoring in the first minute, his shot coming back off the crossbar. But with ten minutes showing on the stadium clock it happened again, Shaun Bartlett easily outjumping a static defence to head home a corner. We looked positively pedestrian as we laboured away to get back into the game but our efforts were in vain. I even took off an out of sorts Wright-Phillips in the second half but that did little to improve our play. The dismal 1-0 defeat makes it three losses out of three this month and we are steadily undermining our bright start to the season and are in danger of falling into mid-table obscurity. Certainly my hopes of finishing above our city rivals are fading fast and we have to get back into a winning run soon or we can kiss Europe goodbye.

Right at the end of the month poor Nicky Weaver suffered another setback when he strained his knee ligaments in training and would miss another month of action.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pos | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | Arsenal | 29 | 19 | 4 | 6 | 71 | 27 | +44 | 61 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | Chelsea | 29 | 16 | 8 | 5 | 58 | 34 | +24 | 56 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | Charlton | 29 | 13 | 9 | 7 | 49 | 30 | +19 | 48 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | Everton | 29 | 15 | 3 | 11 | 43 | 35 | +8 | 48 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | Man Utd | 29 | 12 | 11 | 6 | 40 | 31 | +9 | 47 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | Newcastle | 28 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 40 | 29 | +11 | 46 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | MAN CITY | 29 | 12 | 7 | 10 | 42 | 36 | +6 | 43 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

retired_amyslack

March 2005

With just two league matches on our schedule March would also prove to be foreshortened as far as competitive football was concerned. We started with a trip to Blackburn and the almost inevitable early goal came after three minutes, Paul Gallagher doing the damage. Thankfully Fowler found an equaliser after quarter of an hour but then hobbled off injured shortly afterwards with Sinclair following him off before the break. The scores were tied at half time but the home side took the lead again within ten minutes of the restart but Reyna squared the game on the hour. Wright-Phillips had been having some disciplinary problems throughout the season and kept picking up bookings and the youngster didn’t help our cause when he was booked for the second time in the game with ten minutes remaining. A midfield re-shuffle saw us hold on to take a point and end the run of defeats.

Before our next game we sold on one of our young defenders as James Lee-Matthews agreed a £250K move to Colchester. Macca came in for the suspended Wright-Phillips for the visit of Southampton and made an immediate impact, giving us the lead after quarter of an hour. Minutes before half time he turned provider, whipping in a cross for fellow scouser Fowler to double our advantage with a diving header. We reached the break with our 2-0 lead intact, aided in no small part by the visitor’s inability to get a shot on target. They continued in the same vein after the break, spurning some reasonable chances, and we sealed the win with a goal from Sinclair late on.

I was relieved to get a win under our belts and hoped that we could find a decent run of from to close out the season. The Under-18’s capped a great season by securing their league title with three rounds of matches still to play and Crystal Palace were confirmed as the first team to be relegated form the Premiership after a dreadful season.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pos | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | Arsenal | 31 | 21 | 4 | 6 | 73 | 27 | +46 | 67 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | Chelsea | 31 | 18 | 8 | 5 | 62 | 35 | +27 | 62 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | Newcastle | 30 | 14 | 10 | 6 | 45 | 30 | +15 | 52 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | Man Utd | 31 | 13 | 12 | 6 | 43 | 32 | +11 | 51 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | Charlton | 31 | 13 | 11 | 7 | 51 | 32 | +19 | 50 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | Everton | 31 | 15 | 4 | 12 | 44 | 38 | +6 | 49 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | Tottenham | 31 | 12 | 12 | 7 | 48 | 33 | +15 | 48 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | MAN CITY | 31 | 13 | 8 | 10 | 47 | 38 | +9 | 47 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

retired_judmatt

Nice stuff BobBev, I'm enjoying this. Good luck with the run in.

retired_amyslack

Cheers Ell

April 2005

Geert De Vlieger started back in full training at the start of this month and with Weaver also over his most recent injury we had a full complement of keepers for the first time this season. I put the 33-year-old Belgian on the bench for the trip to Portsmouth as we looked to try to finish the season on a high with good results in our last half dozen or so games. Just for a change we got through the first half without conceding a goal but we had a man sent off instead. Trevor Sinclair was booked twice in the first 40 minutes and I was forced to switch to a three-man midfield for the remainder of the game. Despite being short of numbers we were still creating chances and the home side had cause to thank keeper Shaka Hislop for keeping the game scoreless. But then in the 66th minute Danny Mills got his second yellow card forcing me to take off Barton, bring Amoruso into central defence and move Mikkel Bischoff to right back. We held out until three minutes from time when Yakubu scored with a powerful shot from some 25 yards out. We still had some fight left though and two minutes later Fowler squared the game with a great finish from the edge of the area. Just as I was giving thanks for an unlikely point the home side the home side scored again in stoppage time but thankfully the referee had spotted an infringement and it was disallowed.

During the next few days we agreed one-year extensions for both Paul Bosvelt and Shaun Goater. The Goat hadn’t seen too much action but I felt that his experience would be useful for one more season. Even though Bosvelt had turned 35 he was in good physical condition and had performed very well for us and was deserving of another 12 months.

With our next match scheduled to take place on a Sunday there was some shock news the day before that rocked the whole of Manchester. Following a 2-1 defeat at Everton, Man United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was sacked by the United Board. There was immediate speculation in the press regarding a replacement with Steve Bruce touted by many as the favourite to take over. The following day Middlesbrough parted company with Steve McLaren with some commentators suggesting that he was in line for the Old Trafford job.

Meantime we faced a Liverpool side sitting in mid table with manager Rafa Benitez facing increasing unrest from his team’s supporters. With Mills and Sinclair both suspended, Sibierski came in to midfield and David Sommeil started at right back. We had the better of the opening 30 minutes without penetrating the visiting defence. Then we lost Wright-Phillips after a dreadful challenge from Xabi Alonso that saw the Spaniard red-carded with Macca coming on as a replacement for our injured player. Richard Dunne came off with a knock just after the restart and at the same time I brought on The Goat for a struggling Fowler. When Ben Thatcher was injured on the hour I was out of subs so I had to move Barton to left back and play with ten men. By the end of the game Sommeil and Macca were virtual spectators as they both struggled with knocks and we just ran out of steam. In spite of our problems we created enough decent chances to get the win but Jerzy Dudek made some fine saves to hold us to a frustrating goalless draw.

The news on Wright-Phillips was bad as he was diagnosed with a torn calf muscle and would be out for at least three months following surgery. This was not what we needed at a point in the season where we desperately needed to get a run of wins going if we were to secure our European dream. A few days later there was a further surprise from Old Trafford as former Mexico and Real Madrid legend Hugo Sanchez was unveiled as the new manager.

Mills and Sinclair were both back in the side for the trip to Birmingham, Antoine playing on the left and Trevor moving to the right to cover for Wright-Phillips. Claudio Reyna gave us the lead inside ten minutes but we were pegged back half an hour later when Walter Pandiani equalised, both goals benefiting from deflections. Only a goal line clearance by Richard Dunne kept the match even as we struggled to offer much attacking threat. With Barton starting to hobble I introduced Sun Jihai after an hour but our play didn’t improve much. The winning goal came with 15 minutes remaining and it went to the home side, much to my disappointment.

Young Stephen Jordan replaced the injured Thatcher for the visit of Spurs in a game that we had to win if we had any hope of a top-six finish. Our opponents sat one place and three points above us and a defeat would just about end our season. But the magic of the first half of the season has well and truly vanished and a second-half goal from Frederic Kanoute condemned us to a poor 1-0 defeat.

Danny Mills was both injured and suspended for the trip to Fulham so David Sommeil started at right back. Hoping to pep up the attack I dropped Fowler and started The Goat with Jon Macken sitting on the bench. With confidence low and our earlier attacking flair conspicuous by its absence we needed to grind out a result or two to lift our spirits. After a goalless first 45 minutes The Goat fired us ahead in the 66th minute. But our bogey team struck back with a soft penalty five minutes later to grab a 1-1 draw. Typical of our recent luck was the fact that home keeper Edwin van der Sar was voted Man of the Match for a series of stunning saves to deny us a win we desperately needed.

With just two rounds of matches remaining all hope of European football next season had gone and we were playing for pride. Arsenal and Chelsea were neck and neck in the title race and we had no hope of overtaking rivals United to gain local bragging rights.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pos | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | Arsenal | 36 | 23 | 5 | 8 | 80 | 29 | +51 | 74 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | Chelsea | 36 | 22 | 8 | 6 | 72 | 40 | +32 | 74 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | Newcastle | 36 | 18 | 11 | 7 | 57 | 36 | +21 | 65 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | Man Utd | 36 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 51 | 39 | +12 | 60 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | Everton | 36 | 17 | 5 | 14 | 50 | 45 | +5 | 56 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | Tottenham | 36 | 14 | 13 | 9 | 53 | 42 | +11 | 55 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | Charlton | 36 | 13 | 14 | 9 | 55 | 40 | +15 | 53 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | Blackburn | 36 | 14 | 10 | 12 | 45 | 42 | +3 | 52 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | MAN CITY | 36 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 50 | 43 | +7 | 50 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

retired_amyslack

May 2005

Liverpool finally ran out of patience with Rafa Benitez and the Spaniard was given his marching orders as his team still sat marooned in mid-table. Our penultimate match was the biggest of the season – a televised Monday evening visit by hated rivals Manchester United. According to my watch we had played just 36 seconds when the first goal was scored and the second followed 20 minutes later, both of them coming from Sibierski. Yes, you read that correctly – after 20 minutes of play we were 2-0 up and looking good. Unfortunately it didn’t last and just before the break the visitors pulled a goal back with a shot that deflected off Mills. The amount of times that that had happed this season I was beginning to think that Danny was incapable of actually blocking a shot! We survived a scare or two in the second half but just as I was preparing to take him off and bring Macken on, The Goat made the game safe with our 3rd goal. Needless to say the fans and the Board were delighted with the victory. I was just plain relieved to have won a game, our first success in six games.

The season finished with a visit to relegated Crystal Palace and, still on a high from our last match, we racked up an excellent 6-0 win - quite a contrast from our form in the previous month or two. Both Sun Jihai and Steve McManaman made appearances form the bench to mark their final game for the club before their summer departures.

Despite finishing with two wins our final league position of 8th was a disappointment given our splendid form in the first half of the campaign but the Chairman was still delighted with our season and the £7.75M in prize money improved our bank balance quite dramatically. After having topped the table for most of the season, Arsenal stumbled in the home straight and Chelsea took the title. A 13th place finish by Liverpool was disaster for the Merseysiders but the Geordies were delighted by their team’s top-three position.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pos | Inf | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Chelsea | 38 | 23 | 9 | 6 | 75 | 41 | +34 | 78 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Arsenal | 38 | 23 | 7 | 8 | 82 | 31 | +51 | 76 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Newcastle | 38 | 18 | 13 | 7 | 58 | 37 | +21 | 67 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Man Utd | 38 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 55 | 43 | +12 | 63 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Everton | 38 | 18 | 5 | 15 | 53 | 48 | +5 | 59 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Tottenham | 38 | 14 | 15 | 9 | 55 | 44 | +11 | 57 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Charlton | 38 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 59 | 43 | +16 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | MAN CITY | 38 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 59 | 44 | +15 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Blackburn | 38 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 47 | 46 | +1 | 53 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Portsmouth | 38 | 15 | 7 | 16 | 46 | 47 | -1 | 52 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Bolton | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 42 | 43 | -1 | 52 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Birmingham | 38 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 45 | 41 | +4 | 51 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Liverpool | 38 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 36 | 37 | -1 | 49 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | West Brom | 38 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 45 | 51 | -6 | 47 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Fulham | 38 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 45 | 56 | -11 | 45 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Southampton | 38 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 45 | 58 | -13 | 45 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Aston Villa | 38 | 11 | 11 | 16 | 45 | 54 | -9 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | Middlesbrough | 38 | 9 | 9 | 20 | 42 | 71 | -29 | 36 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | R | Norwich | 38 | 4 | 16 | 18 | 31 | 54 | -23 | 28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | R | Crystal Palace | 38 | 6 | 1 | 31 | 23 | 99 | -76 | 19 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>
On the playing front Ben Thatcher and Shaun Wright-Phillips both made it to the Premiership Select, with young Shaun finishing runner-up to Thierry Henry in both the Player’s Player of the Year and the English Footballer of the Year. Claudio Reyna finished as our top scorer with a dozen goals and the departing Macca racked up 10 assists. I was pleased by the contribution of Sinclair, Bischoff, Bosvelt and Barton but we had an obvious problem on the goalscoring front that I needed to rectify.

Domestically, Newcastle lifted the League Cup and Everton triumphed in the FA Cup whilst in Europe, Fenerbache took the UEFA Cup and FC Bayern the Champions League. Chelsea, Arsenal, Newcastle and Man United all qualified for the Champions League, Everton, Charlton and Tottenham would play in the UEFA Cup and the Inter-Toto would feature ourselves and Blackburn.

retired_amyslack

Season 2

June/July 2005

To be honest our summer was fairly uneventful as, despite a profitable season I was given a transfer budget of just £900K so my options in the transfer market were limited. I was interested in developments at Anfield as Danish legend Michael Laudrup was revealed as the new man in charge of Liverpool – after his success with Brondby in Denmark how would he fare in the Premiership. Our Inter-Toto adventure would begin in the 3rd round and in light of the early start to the season I eschewed any additional friendlies, preferring instead to concentrate on competitive action.

On the playing front there was little change with just two new players arriving prior to our European opener. Veteran centre back Nourredine Naybet came in from Spurs for a nominal £60K fee, the 35-year-old offering some solid experience at the back. The other addition was a more exciting prospect as 24-year-old Spanish striker Guiza joined from Mallorca on a free transfer. I was hoping that he would offer us more bite up front as that was clearly an area that we had struggled in last season.

Steve McManaman and Sun Jihai left on their pre-arranged transfers, Nicky Weaver, Lorenzo Amoruso and Lee Croft were all allowed to leave when their contracts expired and around a dozen youngsters were released from the youth setup.

Action began in mid-July with a two-legged encounter against Finnish side TPS but neither of our new signings had arrived in time for European registration so they were left sitting on the sidelines. We took the lead 90 seconds into the away leg and went on to create, and miss, a boatload of chances for the next 30 minutes. A penalty against the run of play allowed the home side to level but Shaun Goater regained the lead before half time, having already had a goal disallowed earlier. We continued to dominate play in the second half and The Goat got his second of the game to give us a decent lead to take into the return.

Before the next leg we picked up another free agent in the shape of 21-year-old Czech midfielder Tomas Sivok who had been released by Sparta Prague. An interesting quirk in the UEFA regulations allowed him to be selected for the home leg and he showed well in our 1-0 win. In the Semi Final we faced a much tougher prospect when we were drawn against Spanish side Betis. The home leg started badly as we conceded inside five minutes but thankfully Claudio Reyna found an equaliser before the break and the tie ended all square at one apiece.

Shaun Wright-Phillips was welcomed back into full training at the end of the month and I was hopeful that he had made a full recovery from his surgery.

retired_jgirl87

Bob, that's a good first season with Manchester City. :thup:

I'll be interested to see if you can improve their fortunes even more and finish higher up the table in your second season.

retired_amyslack

Cheers Spav, glad you're reading along

August 2005

At the start of the month I received the welcome news that the Board had made available an extra £2.5M in transfer funds so I was quick to dust off my shortlist and see if we could strengthen the squad. With the bookies rating us at 40/1 shots for the title alongside Everton and Liverpool they seemed to be expecting at least a top-eight finish and I was certainly hoping to build on our success of last season.

For our return leg in Betis I restored Joey Barton to midfield now that he had recovered from an injury picked up in training a few weeks earlier. I also moved Mikkel Bischof to the bench and brought Sylvain Distin back into central defence. Once again we conceded early on but this time we were unable to find a way back into the game. When the home side scored a second goal with just under ten minutes remaining we looked dead and buried but a goal from substitute Sivok gave us hope. However Betis were able to hold out to win 2-1 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate and our brief European foray was over.

I decided to use the bulk of my transfer funds to try to bring Italian midfielder Andrea Gasbarroni in from Juventus and my offer triggered bids from several other clubs for the 24-year-old. At the same time I despatched an offer to Colombian international Freddy Grisales to come to Manchester at the end of his current contract. Personal terms were quickly agreed but the move was subject to a work permit and it would take several weeks for a decision to be finalised. On the same day unsettled keeper Geert De Vlieger handed in a transfer request, which I immediately agreed to, moving the Belgian to the reserves and promoting the talented Kasper Schmeichel on to the bench. To my delight I was able to convince Gasbarroni that his future lay in Manchester and the £2.7M deal was concluded.

Our season opener in the Premiership came at local rivals Bolton and I was pleased to be able to select Shaun Wright-Phillips who was fully fit. New striker Guiza made his debut and Gasbarroni was selected amongst the substitutes. Eight minutes into his first appearance the Spaniard fired us ahead and five minutes later he scored his second. Twenty minutes into the game Wright-Phillips put us 3-0 up and that was how the score stood at half time. The home side pulled a goal back shortly after the restart but five minutes from time Guiza completed his hat trick to seal a thoroughly impressive introduction to his new career.

Our first home league game featured a visit by West Brom and goals from Reyna and Sinclair gave us a comfortable 2-0 win and a very satisfying start to the campaign. More good news followed as the work permit application for Freddy Grislaes was successful, clearing the way for him to join us at the start of February next year.

The only change I made for the midweek trip to Charlton was to put Naybet on the bench now that he had recovered from an earlier training injury. We lost Trevor Sinclair to injury after 20 minutes and ten minutes later fell behind to a Francis Jeffers goal. We created a few chances to square the game but the home side always seemed to have the edge and scored again through substitute Shaun Bartlett 15 minutes from time to seal the win. The 2-0 defeat ended our brief winning start to the season and with Sinclair suffering a calf strain he would be out for a fortnight

Antoine Sibierski was given a start on the left wing for the televised game at home to Everton at the end of the month. Less than five minutes had been played when Guiza scored his debut home goal and two minutes later we doubled our lead when defender Alan Stubbs deflected a shot from Barton into his own net. When we went 3-0 up in the 40th minute through Reyna the game looked secure but the visitors pulled a goal back in stoppage time to reduce the deficit. During the break I told the lads that we needed to hold firm for the opening period of the second half and not give the visitors the encouragement of another goal. They did exactly that and went on to score twice more in the closing quarter of an hour, Guiza claiming them both for his second hat trick in two games. We ended the month in a reasonable 4th place with Arsenal heading the table having won all four of their league games.

retired_jgirl87

Guiza - would that be pronounced 'geezer'? Think of all the fun you could have with newspaper headlines if it was that way.