An all-English final turned into a scrappy affair and wasn't decided until injury time when former Everton strikers John Davies snatched a late winner
Usually when we slightly under perform it is when the three strikers stop firing and this was the case again this season with only two players on the scoring chart.
Another final! Our 19th consecutive final. We've only lost 3 to date.
We were in danger early on after losing 1-0 to Atletico in the first leg. A 3-0 win at SAF Park saw us through. Inter were whooped 5-2 at SAF Park and poor Barcelona were beaten 3-1 and 3-0 over the two legs. A bit of payback as either Barca or PSG are constantly sniffing around my best players forcing me to give out new contracts early than I would like.
The scoreline doesn't reflect the dominance we had over Madrid and we really should have put this game to bed a long long time before Madrid set up a nervy final few minutes with their second goal in injury.
Our hero today Thiago Margues is one of those players being courted by Barcelona. He is entering the final year of his contract and he may well be sold this summer. This was a nice parting gift.
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We bettered last season's 92 point total which was our lowest in a decade. Despite finishing with 2 points extra the chasing pack never got going and we cruised to the league by 16 points in the end.
Elsewhere, there was nothing to see really as we won EVERYTHING!
Aykt Yilmaz tops the charts again. The animal has now scored 35, 33, 33 and 27 league goals in his last four seasons. I like to see my three strikers all in contention for the golden boot but only Bolaise starts. The other two positions are shared among the others to keep everyone happy. I may look to trim the front line over the summer and get back to 3 or 4 regular starters.
A much better season for Sam also who finishes with 15 league goals in 33 games and joined the 200 club. He missed 5 games through injury and suspension. He will turn 27 over the summer and is on 377 league games. To beat Giggs' 672 he needs the full 38 game season for another 7+ seasons. To have a chance of beating the record he needs to play until he is about 35. It is going to be very tight.
However progress has been slow this season due to fierce competition, my preference of Sam Ferguson starting every league game to try to beat Giggs' record and a few injuries have meant Westwood has struggled for games.
As we approach £1b in the bank the club 'invests' about £300m. As I get no benefit from this 'investment' I have personally decided to instead invest the money in my home league and see if I can improve its standard and the quality of Irish players in the game.
To do this I will be snapping up any decent Irish youth player. As the league is just added we will have to wait until next December for the first batch of youth graduates but I will invest in Sligo Rovers for the time being to get things started.
Obviously no where near the required quality but £5m in the Sligo bank to improve the squad and training facilities (hopefully)
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We lost 2 of our first 3 games (away to Liverpool and away to City) as I tried a more attacking approach trying to get mores goals for the strikers. It is fair to say that wasn't working so back to basics and we've won 16 league games on the trot but still trail City.
Key to his upturn in form was me training him to copy the now retired Peter Ledsham player traits. He bagged 370 league goals during his career so if it works for him it should work for others.
We are the team to beat as we hammer former club Aberdeen 4-0 and 3-0, Spurs 4-1 and 7-0 and poor Juventus 2-0 and 8-1(!) in the semis to set up an all-Manchester final
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We may be used to winning the Champions League now but beating your local rivals in the final is extra special. Although only winning by a single goal we were much the better side and should have won by more. Nonetheless, UCL title number 21 for Utd and UCL title 21 for me personally (17 with Utd, 4 with Aberdeen)