So the final 7 games wouldn’t shape our season as we had already achieved safety and anything more at this point should be a bonus, having said that now that we have put ourselves in the race for Europe with some outstanding performances of late I think I’d be a little disappointed if we couldn’t overhaul Norwich in 6
th, who we are 3 points behind, though they do have a game in hand.
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Arsenal were first up at the Pirelli and going into the game Arsenal were on form and had just spanked 4
th place Chelsea, I didn’t expect much. But then as they had been doing all season the lads stepped up and beat Arsenal in a game were we had more shots and possession and deserved the 3 points. Next up was a trip to the Bridge to face a Chelsea side in freefall. They had been pushing Man U for the title but no wins in 11 games had seen them fall to 4
th and be fighting just to keep a Champions League place for next season not to mention Conte getting his P45. We were confident we could get a result and for the first half hour absolutely battered Chelsea hitting the woodwork twice and looking for all the world like this could be a romp. Then on the half hour mark Hazard scores with Chelseas first attack and shot. He then precedes to score again 2 minutes later before Lukaku makes it 3 before half time with, you guessed it their 3
rd shot. The game kinda fizzles out with Chelsea then managing only 1 more shot on target for the rest of the game. Can’t believe Burton got FM’d by Chelsea! Bournemouth at home was a similar story of more shots, shots on target and possession but another defeat. Back to back league defeats for the first time this season couldn’t have come at a worse time and it looks like the only way we’ll be in Europe is on our holidays. We set off for the Emptihad worried that we could now be in freefall and the inevitable drop off in results was kicking in, though at least we were safe, however a draw with City at least got us a point and was a fair result given it was such an game. Two 2-1 wins in games that we dominated meant that we were back on the horse, however we slipped back to old ways against Southampton in a game we should have won but only managed to draw. So 3 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats was if I’m honest more than I had hoped for but was it enough for Europe.
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Unfortunately not! Those two defeats to Chelsea and Bournemouth have cost us dear and we can put away the passports for another season. But 7
th place and despite the disappointment of not making Europe I’m happy with the season and now move on and prepare for another assault next year, but before we do a quick round up of the season.
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I’ve just noticed it says in the season review that we have qualified for Europe. I’ll have to load the game up and check, though I’m sure we missed out as the FA cup final was between Southampton and Sunderland neither of whom had already qualified. Ok so I can’t see it anywhere else so I don’t know if we have or not, I guess we will have to wait until the fixtures are released.
The club had its usual awards night confirming the best overall 11, team of the year along with a few player awards.
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Can’t really argue with any of them though don’t remember the goal. Team of the year was my prefered starting 11 if everyone was fit.
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Only Fillip gets added to the Overall best 11 and makes the bench, though I expect a few changes to this in the next couple of seasons.
Not to be left out I felt I deserved a gong for my efforts, and picked up this little number.
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I’ll put it in the downstairs loo with my Championship one!
With the awards dinner over myself, my assistant and chief scout sat down with the board to discuss budgets for next season. I had said that we would need to invest to ensure that we keep moving forward and that the players that we would need to go to the next level weren’t the sort that you could pick up for a few hundred thousand and that we would need 3 or 4 players and that they were more likely to cost £10m than £1m. The Chairman was keen to ensure that all already big squad didn’t become even bigger with a load of players not playing but still being contracted to the club, and I agreed that there were a few players who would have to be sold and that we could probably generate somewhere in the region of £10m from selling our fringe players if we could get the fees that they were worth. Having stated that I would be looking to sell and not just buy the Chairman agreed we would need to invest to try and progress and said he would be in touch with initial budgets. I was expecting similar to last year and to supplement that with player sales.
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I nearly fell over when this arrived in my inbox later in the day. All I can think is that he was still hungover from the awards dinner the previous evening. Not that I’m complaining!
