retired_blondielovespink

East Stirling for the Champion's League!

KUTGW

retired_holden

Superb!!
Top effort Davy, KUTGW [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="big grin[/IMG]

retired_nanciep

Thnaks for all the good wishes. East Stilring is going to put in a respectable showing in the Champions League, but without a stunning upset of group leading Milan by Sparta Prague and a decisive victory by East Stirling at home against Barcelona we will probably finish third in our group (Which is exactly what it looks like both Rangers and Celtic will manage)
It's sort of upsetting to now be in a position with 5 million pounds in the bank (Thank you Champions League!) and having players now demanding a much higher salary than the board will allow. I've had to use pretty huge, by my standards, signing bonuses to keep my best players who are rapidly approaching the end of their contracts.
Davy

retired_blondielovespink

DD,

That's part of the fun of playing smaller 1st Division sides, IMHO. Making that bank balance work can be almost as challenging as anything on the pitch.

KUTGW!

retired_nanciep

It's going to be a Celtic, Celtic, Celtic etc year. After facing Celtic in the League Cup final I'm now in a position where Celtic and East Stirling are topping the League table (Celtic ahead on goal differential, but not by much). I am also scheduled to face them twice in the UEFA cup Semi-finals and it looks very likely I will be facing them in the Scottish Cup final. The last is not yet determined but if East Stirling wins against weak opposition and Celtic wins against moderate opposition there we will be again.
So it's going to be a Celtic spring for East Stirling. It looks like 6 meetings in the final 10 games (including Uefa and League and Scottish Cups) A lot will depend on whether we play Celtic and Rangers at home or away in the final Champions Group.
Davy

retired_nanciep

East Stirling celebrated a total collapse by Celtic. We ended up winning 4 of the six games and drawing 1 and in the process making it to the Uefa Cup finals (where we were soundly defeated by Bayern), winning both Scottish cups and topping the League table. I have never seen a top team like Celtic collapse so significantly, and for no apparent reason. In one match they had two players sent off for very obvious violent fouls in the first 20 minutes. This, of course affected the rest of the Champion's group play for them. But in addition, one of their top strikers had a run of 3 matches with a top rating of 6 when he had averaged well over 7.5 earlier in the season.
The East Stirling board say they will finally be improving the training grounds, while my main problem is greedy players. Few new signings coming in for the coming year, but all of them, on paper, are as good or better than my current players, so next season should also be a successful one.
Davy