Going Dutch with Sparta Rotterdam

[Hampus Silverholt]

September 2029 started off with wins in the Eredivisie and Champions League, but we then struggled to a 2-2 draw away to Utrecht

That was directly before the real test against Bareclona in the Champions League…

After going 1-0 up at Camp Nou, everything that could go wrong after that point in the match went wrong.

The stupid thing is that we weren’t even that bad when we went down to 10 men and a 5-1 result flattered Barca.

But my new policy of signing young, foreign players such as Ricardo Martinez back fired on this occasion as the Uruguayan midfielder’s sending off gave us no chance of getting back into the match.

The result was made worse by Injuries to 2 key players Van der Steen and Emegha at exactly the wrong time as we faced Ajax 4 days later in the Eredivisie.

But we really turned it on in the game against Ajax and had Ernest Poku to thank for a first half hat trick

Poku has been such a hit and miss player for us. He goes missing in so many games yet pops up with world class performances… which makes him an extremely frustrating player!

But, once again, another injury hit us as Bram van den Berg fractured his leg just before our crucial match against AC Milan in the Champions League

Yet an inspired performance saw us beat Milan 3-1 at the San Siro. Uruguayan teenagers Diaz and Crossa were on fire!

So that leaves us comfortably in 2nd place at the halfway mark in the Champions League group stage and I expect us and Barcelona to go through to the knockout rounds.

And despite the injuries, we are top of the Eredivisie by 1 point and remain the only team that is unbeaten.

Our run of games becomes easier over the next few weeks, so hopefully we can rotate the squad more to avoid getting further injuries to key players.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Top of the league and unbeaten - things were going great for us so far in the Eredivisie, so it was only a matter of time before things went wrong.

That time came at home to PSV Eindhoven, where we put in a truly woeful performance. We’ve honestly not played that bad in years!

I mentioned Ernst Poku and his inconsistency in the last post - but scoring a hattrick against Ajax then dropping a 6.1 against PSV pretty much sums him up.

Thankfully we gained a solid win over AC Milan in the Champions League, which meant that we qualified for the knockout rounds with 2 games remaining.

But we continued to struggle to get results in the league. First, we had to rely on a last-minute winner against NAC and then we only just got a draw against lowly PEC Zwolle

We’re also continuing to pick up niggly little injuries to key players - this time it was Crossa and Leidelmeijer who have been our best 2 players this season!

And we always seem to concede at least 1 goal per game at the moment - a 4-2 win over Vitesse being the prime example. They scored with both of their shots on target!

In that game 17 year old academy graduate Mourad Soufiani scored a hattrick. He’s got an extended run in the team because of injuries and If he continues developing he could become a very special player for us.

But despite inconsistent performances, bad luck with injuries and out of form players… we are 2 points clear at the top of the Eredivisie.

We’re going through the motions a bit this season - a nice quiet next few months with no injuries or bad performances would be nice...​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

With qualification already confirmed, we faced Barcelona in the fina Champions Leaguel group game to decide who finished top.

They smashed our depleted side but once again our performance did not warrant the result - we honestly weren't that bad!

The result ensured that we finished 2nd in the group, meaning our opponents in the last 16 were going to be scary...

And they turned out to be just that - we’ll face current Premier League champions Liverpool in the Champions League First Knockout Round

I can't say that I’m optimistic about our chances at all.

We’ve had some excruciating results this year and a 0-0 at home to Groningen where we missed a penalty and they had literally 0 shots topped the lot.

Then we faced local rivals Feyenoord at home.

This is turning into a painful season. We are recording some awful results yet none of them feel deserved.

We’re now looking over our shoulders in the Eredivisie rather than at Ajax, who are still only 3 points ahead of us.

Our poor form is worrying and there are a couple of scapegoats I need to pick out.

The first is Sparta Rotterdam legend Emanuel Emegha.

The record goalscorer for Sparta has gone 10 games without scoring and is now only considered as a 2.5 star player. It’s seriously unbelievable that a player who once scored 51 goals in 51 games in a season for us has now gone 10 without a goal!

The second is Ernest Poku

Don’t let those career stats deceive you, he has been incredibly inconsistent (and poor) for us this season. He’s the highest earner at the club by miles yet has achieved a rating over 7 once in his last ten games

Bayern Munich are interested in him and if they come in with a decent fee I’ll be more than happy to sell him.

Our best player Rody van der Steen is also wanted by PSG and it’s going to be very hard to keep him at the club without annoying him - plus the money PSG have may be too good to turn down.

We could be in for a very, very busy January transfer window!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I said in the last post that if decent money was offered for Ernest Poku then I would let him go… so £42.5m will do nicely!

​

He popped up with some magic at times, but a 6.62 rating in the 6 Champions League games this season sums Poku up - we need players who are going to turn up against the big teams.

I also said in the last post that PSG may make an offer I couldn’t refuse for Rody van der Steen… and that’s exactly what they did

He was our best player, who we signed for £80m, but wanted to leave and I could not refuse that money.

And so van der Steen becomes the second player we have sold for £140m in the save

We recouped over £180m for 2 players in January. Now that I’ve tweaked the rules of the save, this time I’m not going to waste the money on average Dutch players!

The only player we bought in was Márcio Ginatto - a £14m replacement for Poku who fits in with our new policy of signing anybody under the age of 20.

So we have £166m in the bank and I plan to spend it all wisely at the end of the season

The reason for not replacing van der Steen directly is because of the development of Brian Garcia, who I initially signed to be in the B team but has developed nicely over the last year.

And I also have faith in central midfielders Miranda and Ricardo Martinez - especially Martinez who is turning into a beast of a player.

It might be madness to sell 2 of our best players halfway through the season.

But I can’t see us beating Liverpool in the Champions League or beating Ajax to the Eredivisie, so I am hoping that the decision eventually has long term benefits! ​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

After selling 2 key players in January, it was always going to be interesting to see how we reacted…
Turns out that we reacted quite well and February was an almost perfect month for us!

Mo Sankoh scoring a hattrick against NAC to then later get injured pretty much sums him up...

He never lets us down but is injured far too often, which means he is now just a rotation option for us after 6 seasons of being first choice.

That aside - it has been a very good month or so for us and we even got to the semi-finals of the cup for the first time in about 5 years. Despite winning the Eredivisie 4 times, we’ve only won the cup once so it would be nice to add to that!

The huge test for us came when we faced Ajax and Liverpool in the space of 4 days.

We needed to avoid defeat to Ajax to realistically stand any chance of winning the Eredivisie for the 3rd year in a row

We put in a solid performance to get a credible point in Amsterdam, but we should not have drawn the game after taking the lead in the 87th minute.

So I was not very confident heading into the first leg of the Champions League knockout round against current Premier League holders Liverpool.

But we absolutely battered them 4-0 - it was a performance that came out of absolutely nowhere!

That emphatic win seems to have turned our season around and put some belief in the squad. Despite the many blips this season, we are level on points with Ajax with 8 games remaining as they’re making a habit of losing key matches.

Surely we’ll qualify for the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the second season in a row?​

 

[zacram]

Massive result against Liverpool, fingers crossed this can be your best CL season to date!

Not that it seemed to impact your performance (beating Liverpool 4-0), but you may want to look at your training schedule, especially when you have 2 big games back to back. I've started doing it a lot more on this FM, adding rest days or match preparation stuff instead of general/overall training as it is much less fatiguing on the players when you have a short turn around. Possibly something to look at, but as I say it didn't seem to impact your performance one bit!

 

[DecFM]

After selling 2 key players in January, it was always going to be interesting to see how we reacted…
Turns out that we reacted quite well and February was an almost perfect month for us!

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Mo Sankoh scoring a hattrick against NAC to then later get injured pretty much sums him up...

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He never lets us down but is injured far too often, which means he is now just a rotation option for us after 6 seasons of being first choice.

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That aside - it has been a very good month or so for us and we even got to the semi-finals of the cup for the first time in about 5 years. Despite winning the Eredivisie 4 times, we’ve only won the cup once so it would be nice to add to that!

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The huge test for us came when we faced Ajax and Liverpool in the space of 4 days.

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We needed to avoid defeat to Ajax to realistically stand any chance of winning the Eredivisie for the 3rd year in a row

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We put in a solid performance to get a credible point in Amsterdam, but we should not have drawn the game after taking the lead in the 87th minute.

So I was not very confident heading into the first leg of the Champions League knockout round against current Premier League holders Liverpool.

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But we absolutely battered them 4-0 - it was a performance that came out of absolutely nowhere!

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That emphatic win seems to have turned our season around and put some belief in the squad. Despite the many blips this season, we are level on points with Ajax with 8 games remaining as they’re making a habit of losing key matches.

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Surely we’ll qualify for the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the second season in a row?​

What’s Liverpool’s squad like now?

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Massive result against Liverpool, fingers crossed this can be your best CL season to date!

Not that it seemed to impact your performance (beating Liverpool 4-0), but you may want to look at your training schedule, especially when you have 2 big games back to back. I've started doing it a lot more on this FM, adding rest days or match preparation stuff instead of general/overall training as it is much less fatiguing on the players when you have a short turn around. Possibly something to look at, but as I say it didn't seem to impact your performance one bit!

I've honestly never even looked at training before, just left it to the assistant manager so might be something to look at in the future - especially given the Liverpool result in the second leg...

What’s Liverpool’s squad like now?

Their squad is ridiculous - here’s the non-regen players (not too many of them now that we’re nearly 10 years into the save)

Their best player is this guy but they have world-class players in every position.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

A 5-0 thumping of Willem II means that we’re into the final of the Dutch Cup for the first time in 6 years!

We’ve only won the competition once in the save and we’ll play Ajax (who else?) in the final.

They’ll be favourites but are again making a terrible effort of beating us to the Eredivisie title. An incredible set of results saw them lose 4-1 against mid-table Vitesse!

That put us 3 points clear with 6 games remaining, the only thing scaring me is Ajax’s superior goal difference.

Ahead of the second leg of the Champions League Knockout Round clash against Liverpool, our fans were apparently ‘confident’ of us progressing - which you would expect when we were already 4-0 up from the first leg.

So it was fair to say the confidence had gone when we were 3 down in 25 minutes!!

As has been typical this season, our opponents scored with literally every shot on target they had. I was absolutely fuming.

Sure enough, Liverpool went 4 up in the second half and I was prepared to throw my laptop out of the window if a fifth came.

We actually managed to take things to extra time - but I still could not believe we had completely blown a 4-0 lead from the first leg!

Yet an away goal would change everything and all we needed was one goal in extra time to completely change things.

And that came from recent signing Ginatto, whose wonder goal looked to have spared our blushes… until Liverpool scored about 2 mins after!

For some reason, we just cannot defend!

But with Liverpool going all out attack there were opportunities for us on the break.

2 away goals for us! Surely now we were going through with Liverpool needing 2 more themselves?

Of course not.

The match was honestly ridiculous - at 6-2 down we were going through on away goals but all Liverpool needed was one more.

Our defending was so shocking that I expected us to concede again, but we didn’t!

What a ridiculous match. We lost 6-2 but somehow we are into the Champions League quarter finals.

It means we have a very interesting quarter-final clash against Italian giants Juventus.

We're going to need to defend much better against them!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

What a game against Liverpool and its well deserved after being 4 up after the first Leg

Unbelievable match, I'm just glad we went through cause I honestly couldn't believe us conceding from every shot!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Ajax’s ability to bottle the Eredivisie title season after season is amazing. They have genuine world-class talents all over the pitch but their implosion means that we’re on course to win the league for the 5th time in 6 seasons

What truly sealed it was another loss to Groningen, made sweeter by the fact the goal was scored by on loan Sparta player Anwar van Kesteren

It’s inevitable that we’ll win the Eredivisie from here, although we did draw 0-0 away against NAC to halt the celebrations.

But we’ve just 3 games remaining, we’re 8 points ahead of second place. Ajax have been so poor that they’ve now dropped to 3rd!

So with things wrapped up in Holland, our focus was on the Champions League.

Our opponents were on course to win Serie A, but had not got to the semi finals of the competition in 6 years.

After a ridiculous game last time out against Liverpool, it was typical that there were very few highlights in the first leg against Juventus. A mistake from normally reliable keeper Maarten Paes cost us, which was particularly annoying as we weren’t that bad!

What was costlier was an injury to key player Damian Crossa, who would not recover in time for the second leg eight days afterwards

After a decent performance in Italy, I was interested to see what we could do in the quarter-final second leg but it just wasn’t to be…

Juve were too good for us and although we’re a team capable of getting to the Champions League quarter-finals, we do not have enough depth like the huge teams in Europe do.

It was gutting to go out but our attention now turns to Ajax in the final of the cup.

We’ve only won the competition once but with the form that Ajax are in, we are probably favourites going into the game​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I may have got slightly carried away with the Euros., which is why the posts have slowed down in the last few weeks...

After our meek exit from the Champions League quarter-final against Juventus, we very much needed to get one over Ajax and win the KNVB Cup.

And that’s exactly what we did! It’s only the second time we’ve won the competition despite how successful we’ve been in the last few years.

January signing Ginatto scored the winning goal and although he’s been inconsistent, he is surely going to be a huge player for us in the next few years.

Ajax have been surprisingly poor this season and we’ve not really had a title challenge. We needed just one point from three games to secure the Eredivisie, so the inevitable moment came in our next game.

Emaunel Emegha, a true legend and undoubtedly the player of the save, decided to score 4 goals in the match which almost made up for a mediocre season from him.

He ended the season with 15 league goals, which is his lowest ever league haul.

But it was another season where he won the league as we ended up finishing 8 points clear of Ajax in the end.

A 5th Eredivisie title, a Dutch Cup win and a Champions League quarter-final for the 2nd season in a row - I suppose it hasn’t been that bad of a season.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s taken 10 seasons but for the first time we’ve won the double of the Eredivisie and the Dutch cup. We also got to the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the second successive season.

Juventus, who beat us in the quarter final, went on to get smashed by Man City in the final.

That’s a Man City side that still contains Dominique Maysonnave, who we sold to them for £140m 4 years ago.

We’ve now won 5 of the last 6 Eredivisie titles and are really becoming the dominant Dutch side despite the strength of Ajax.

Since Holland is amongst the best leagues in Europe, we have 4 teams that go straight to the Champions League group stage. It also means that 7th-10th take part in a playoff for the European Conference League spot, which Vitesse won this year. Their victory shows that you can finish 9th in a league of 18 teams and still qualify for Europe!

It was quite a weird season for us in terms of goalscoring. We normally have one or two players who score nearly every game yet no player got more than 20 goals this season.

That stat shows how it’s been a transitional year as we’re starting to develop non-Dutch players, but it’s been the existing Dutch players who have been a bit mediocre this campaign.

Firstly, Roland Leidelmeijer was signed for £55m from PSV two seasons ago and even though he scored 18 goals, only averaged 6.99 which is poor for a team that wins most of their games.

Another underperformer was Tyrell Malacia who is still our first choice left-back and is more than capable in the Eredivisie, but not the kind of player who should be starting in the Champions League quarter-final.

Sepp van den Berg completed his 9th season at the club and has made 298 appearances in total for us. He’s been a great servant but we need to upgrade on him if we’re going to seriously challenge in Europe.

So when he said he wanted to leave for a fresh challenge, I was not going to get in his way.

Not that we need the money - we have £174m in the bank and extremely good facilities all round!

We have the resources to turn this club into a European elite, it is just a question of how long will it take.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Over the summer, centre back Micky van de Ven played a part as Holland lost to France on penalties in the World Cup semi-final. Former Sparta player Ernst Poku also scored Holland’s goal in the match and France eventually went on to win the competition

In terms of summer transfers, a lot has happened. We’ve had a bit of a clear out with 5 first team players leaving and have replaced all of them with top quality teenagers who are only going to get better.

First up was Mo Sankoh, who has joined PSG for £31m

I wasn’t going to accept the bid until he picked up yet another injury. He’s been brilliant for us but is just far too injury prone.

Another sad departure was Abdou Harroui, captain and Sparta legend, who has gone to end his career in America.

He was our star player in the first few seasons and has been at the club his entire career, winning the Eredivisie 4 times.

Tyrell Malacia has joined Valencia for £10m - the board weren’t happy with the deal but he’s 30 years old and always performed poorly in the Champions League, so I was happy to get the money with just 1 year left on his contract anyway.

Valencia also signed our goalkeeper Maarten Paes for £15m. Just like with Malacia it was let him go for free at the end of the season or cash in now, so £15m seemed a good price.

And finally, as mentioned in the last update, Sepp van den Berg has joined Celta Vigo for £12.5m as our vice captain wanted a new challenge

So, that brings us to the transfers in. As per the tweaked rules of the save, I’ve started signing any player under the age of 20 to spice things up.

Transfers In

First into the club was Giuliano Concina for £15m from AC Milan - he’s one for the future but could still play a big part in the first team this season

The signing I’m most excited about is Luis Eduardo Padilla from Mexico. He cost us £19m but could turn into a really special player.

We’ve signed a replacement goalkeeper in Walmir for £15m from Flamengo in Brazil. We agreed the transfer before he turned 20 and I’m hoping he can turn into the world class keeper we have needed.

To fill the gap at left back after Malacia’s departure, we have signed Serbian left back Perica Miovic for £6m.

Vasile Grăjdan cost us just £5.5m and again was a transfer we agreed last year before he turned 20. I cannot believe no other club came in for him earlier - some of his stats are amazing!

And finally, we’ve actually signed an experienced player as well. Rick van Drongelen joins us from Hertha Berlin for £9.5m

He actually started his career at Sparta and is one of the best Dutch centre backs around despite being 31 years old.

So after a hectic summer, we’ve definitely improved our squad and are predicted to finish 2nd with 5 players in the media dream XI.

I’m desperate to win the Champions League in this save. We’ve got to the quarter finals twice so it will be interesting to see if our young side can do better than that this campaign.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’re now over 10 years into the save and one really interesting thing is that 51 Sparta trained players are currently playing in the top 5 divisions in Europe. I’m not sure what the criteria is - and it helps that Holland is classed as one of the elite divisions in Europe - but it's still a really cool stat.

Our Champions League group this season paired us with Liverpool - who we knocked out of the competition last season after smashing them 4-0 last at home only to then lose 6-2 at Anfield.

We’ve played our first 3 group games and played brilliantly against Salzburg, yet only scored one goal

Despite losing to Liverpool at Anfield we look like we’ll go through to the knockouts quite comfortably for the 4th season in a row.

Things are going even better in the Eredivisie, which is why this first update of the season is coming after 12 league matches… we’re already 10 points clear!

The result of the season so far was away against Ajax, where Roland Leidelmeijer won the game single-handedly.

Despite his performance in that game, our top 2 players this season have been Damian Crossa and Bram van den Berg

Crossa is one of the highest scorers in the league despite being injured for the past month.

And Van den Berg is top scorer in the Eredivisie playing as a shadow striker... yet he still can't get a callup for Holland!

We’re already looking comfortable this season - the real test will come in the next few months when we enter the Champions League knockout phase.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

A brilliant 3-1 win over Liverpool ensured that we finished top of our Champions League group courtesy of our head-to-head record

It meant that in theory we’d have an easier draw in the knockouts but our opponents will be AC Milan - a tough test but we beat them twice in the group stage last season

The January transfer window has been and gone and we have been involved in just 2 deals. The first saw Philippe Middlkoop join Nuremberg for £25m.

£25m seemed very good money for a player that was a rotation option for us.

As a replacement we have signed the excellently named Titi for £14m from Brazil as he fits with our policy of signing under 20s. He’s a striker but I plan to train him as a number 10.

Our form so far this season has been almost perfect and we’re on our longest ever unbeaten run.

We’ve now played 24 Eredivisie matches and have won 22 of them! Normally there’s a title fight between us and Ajax but we’re walking away with it this season.

Our success has been built on a solid defence and our goalkeeper Walmir has kept 19 clean sheets in 24 league matches!

But the real test now comes against AC Milan in the Champions League 1st Knockout Round, who are top of Serie A.

We’ve proved we’re the best in Holland, the challenge now is to get to the latter stages of the Champions League.​

 

[ty100599]

A brilliant 3-1 win over Liverpool ensured that we finished top of our Champions League group courtesy of our head-to-head record

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It meant that in theory we’d have an easier draw in the knockouts but our opponents will be AC Milan - a tough test but we beat them twice in the group stage last season

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The January transfer window has been and gone and we have been involved in just 2 deals. The first saw Philippe Middlkoop join Nuremberg for £25m.

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£25m seemed very good money for a player that was a rotation option for us.

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As a replacement we have signed the excellently named Titi for £14m from Brazil as he fits with our policy of signing under 20s. He’s a striker but I plan to train him as a number 10.

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Our form so far this season has been almost perfect and we’re on our longest ever unbeaten run.

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We’ve now played 24 Eredivisie matches and have won 22 of them! Normally there’s a title fight between us and Ajax but we’re walking away with it this season.

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Our success has been built on a solid defence and our goalkeeper Walmir has kept 19 clean sheets in 24 league matches!

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But the real test now comes against AC Milan in the Champions League 1st Knockout Round, who are top of Serie A.

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We’ve proved we’re the best in Holland, the challenge now is to get to the latter stages of the Champions League.​

When will the next update be in terms of continuing this journey

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

When will the next update be in terms of continuing this journey

Today! I'm slowly but surely getting there with the updates - I'm a few months ahead in the save so they'll be a couple more posts over the weekend

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’ve lost one game all season and have never looked like conceding... so of course that would all change in our most important game of the season so far.

A 2-1 loss when we were the better team coupled with an injury to our star striker was very tough to take

And it was made worse by a defeat to Ajax in the cup semi final, meaning there will be no domestic double this season.

Despite the utter dominance we’ve had all season, we’re struggling slightly at the moment and lots of players are out of form.

That form could not be more apparent when we played Venlo at home. A rotated side was put out, but it’s unheard of for Sparta to go 3 goals down... yet we still managed to win the game thanks to Emanuel Emegha!

So to say our form was patchy was an understatement going into the second leg against AC Milan.

But we put in a brilliant performance under pressure, overturning the first leg deficit to progress to the Champions League quarter finals.

We’ve not got past the quarter-final stage yet and all the remaining teams in the competition were daunting. Our opponents in the quarter-final will be Real Madrid.

They’re the team that beat us at the same stage 2 seasons ago when we had an entire Dutch XI

In the Eredivisie, we’re also on for an unbeaten season, although that probably won’t happen with all the squad rotation that will happen in the next few weeks

This is the third time we’ve got to the Champions League quarter-final in a row. We’re underdogs but really need to beat Madrid in order to convince me that we’re making progress in this save!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

After keeping clean sheets for fun all season, I’m struggling to comprehend how we are now conceding from virtually every shot we face. Case and point AZ away.

I seriously don’t get how we can concede 7 goals in 26 games. Then 7 goals in our next 2 matches! It’s an infuriating way to lose your first league game of the season!

The international break provided a well needed halt to the season… until our goalkeeper Walmir got injured whilst making his debut for Brazil - you couldn't make it up!

It meant that back-up Ricky Rutten would be starting in both legs of the Champions League quarter final against Real Madrid. He’s had 4 seasons as our cup goalkeeper and was now getting thrust into the limelight on the biggest stage of them all.

We faced Ajax in the league before the first leg and a rotated side was desperately unlucky to lose against them. But it meant we went into the match against Real Madrid in patchy form with injuries to a number of key players.

Given all those factors, limiting Real Madrid to 5 shots was incredible, we just could not get a result yet again!

We did manage to get some positive news before the second leg though. Various results meant that we won our 6th Eredivisie title, which was probably our easiest yet despite the recent poor form.

But all that mattered was the second leg of the quarter final at the Bernabeu. For a brief moment, we were going through to the semi finals.

But Madrid scoring the winner to send them through in the last minute of added time pretty much sums up our luck (and sums up the save)

That’s 3 seasons in a row we have exited the Champions League at the quarter-final stage.

Despite going from 100% Dutch players to signing anybody under the age of 20, we just cannot seem to beat the elite clubs in Europe.​