Here we are, the final month of a glorious season for my Blyth Spartans. We already had the Premier League title and the Carling Cup in the bag but since we liked the sweet taste of success we thought that it wouldn’t hurt to go for the FA Cup and the Champions League too :)
We started off with an entertaining home game against Liverpool, my boys had fun out there and Nicao produced another wonderful display.
It was just a rehearsal for the Real Madrid game though… We won the first leg convincingly at Croft Park, 4-1, and their best midfielder, Lassana Diarra, was suspended for the second leg. We had a huge chance to get through to the final so I decided to protect my centre back, Tiberiu Radulescu, as he was only one yellow card away from suspension.
The game started perfectly for us, Tomas Necid produced a penalty kick and Damien Grange converted it, he never missed from the penalty spot in the two seasons he played for the Spartans. Juan Manuel Mata was sent off a few minutes later, he made a horrendous tackle. We scored again in the 18th minute and it was all clear, we couldn’t lose it anymore. That’s why I decided not to pull back, there was great entertainment at Santiago Bernabeu. I admired Real Madrid‘s determination to fight on even though the game was lost for them, that’s how a big team should behave. We were through to the final, you can’t imagine the joy I felt…
We were going to meet Olympique Lyonnais in the final at Nuevo Mestalla in Valencia. They had a very good team, with Benzema and Pjanic as their stars but also with a great keeper, Hugo Lloris. They knocked out great teams on their way to the final, I expected a very tough game.
Until then we had the last three league games to play. I rotated my squad carefully in those three games in order to have all my important players healthy for the final two games, the FA Cup final and the Champions League final. We played pretty well even though we lost at Aston Villa, my young backup players were showing signs of getting used to the pressure of first team football.
Here’s how the final Premier League table looked like, with considerable daylight back to the other title contenders :) Twenty points above Arsenal, who would have thought about such a thing…
Now let’s get back to the more serious business, the FA Cup final was around the corner, we were going to meet Tottenham at Wembley Stadium. We always had difficult games against them and I didn’t expect this one to be different. We played very well though, I ordered my players to mark their two strikers tightly, Acquafresca and Sukuta-Pasu, they possess great pace and skills. We scored a beautiful early goal, Suarez made a great interception, Chapple played a nice direct pass and Nicao finished it off with a perfect strike. In the second half I decided to send in Daniel Aquino, he slowly recovered from his terrible injury, and he produced a breathtaking display! Pay attention at his second goal, absolutely magnificent!
We won it! Another trophy in the bag, just what we needed before the Champions League final battle! Tottenham had a happy ending to their season though, they won the Europa League after they defeated AC Milan on penalties!
And now, the biggest game of them all, the Champions League final! Lyon were missing an important player, Karim Benzema was injured. They still had great players in the starting eleven though, a great goalkeeper and a very strong midfield. On the other had I had all my important players in good health, so I was quite optimistic before the game.
The first half was fairly even, Lyon missed a couple of chances but I have the feeling that we could have taken the lead before the break. Anyway, it was an entertaining first half with some great attacking plays. Have a look!
At half time I decided to send in Mickey Wordsworth to replace Axel Witsel and I got lucky again, Wordsworth played a perfect pass for Nicao and the Brazilian passed into the net! We controlled the second half and never allowed Lyon to create too much danger…
The Blyth Spartans won the Champions League! How does that sound? :)
I’m also going to reveal a funny aspect… When Nicao banged that one in I found myself shouting «goal, goal, get in!» :) My girlfriend wasn’t aware of the fact that I was playing the Champions League final, so she rushed into the room looking pretty scared :)
With these great results I was announced that I made it into the England Hall of Fame!
I was already a legend for the club, I guess they love me :)
With all the prize money the club was in a pretty healthy financial position, 65 million euro in the bank at the end of the season!
So, what’s next? Well, I might need a day or two to chill out :) Then I’ll try to think about a strategy for the next season, some of the players might want to leave the club to seek new challenges, so I guess I’ll let some of them go and look for better replacements. I can’t think about transfers right now though, I’m too friggin happy!
Ahmed Shah
19 сентября, 2009 at 05:44
WHAT A GUY !!! TAKE A BOW JOHNNY! YOU TRULY ARE THE BEST FM09 MANAGER !!! CONGRATULATIONS MATE! Looking forward to next season… ;-)
Goran
19 сентября, 2009 at 09:56
I agree with Ahmed , you truly are the best FM manager!!
Congratulations!!
I’m at end of January in my Port Vale game and I’m 2nd , 5 points behind 1st Bury.
Can’t wait next season ;)
JohnnyKarp
19 сентября, 2009 at 11:54
Thanks Ahmed, thanks Goran! And Ahmed, before the next season I owe you the awards post, I’ll try to get it done today.
eddie eddie
19 сентября, 2009 at 12:00
Wow brilliant for you well done!!
JohnnyKarp
19 сентября, 2009 at 12:32
Thanks Eddie.
Dave
22 сентября, 2009 at 09:18
Johnny old boy another job well done. A remarkable season. So next year the board should be generous with the transfer and wage budget….hopefully.
With the small teams you have taken mate have you ever had a new stadium built as thats gotta be a drawback being with the big boys but still with a small stadium and do they invest heavily in training and youth?
So next season is the WCC and then thats it. Instead of going for a new game have you ever thought about just resigning and going for a job in the lower divisions to start again? That way you will always be able to keep an eye on how your previous clubs are doing, see if some dimwit comes in and takes your team back down the leagues again or they manage to fil your shoes and continue bringing in trophies.
JohnnyKarp
22 сентября, 2009 at 09:46
Thanks for the comment Dave. I just started the new season and the board was not very generous, maybe because they are spending a lot on the new stadium. I had a new stadium built in my Chester game too but I don’t remember if I actually got to play in it. They agreed to improve the youth and training facilities but I’m still waiting for that to happen. As I said, I’ll probably play with the Spartans until FM 10 will be released, we’ll see.
Konstantin
23 сентября, 2009 at 01:48
I’ve been folowing your story(the blyth spartans one) for quite some time and I must say you should probably consider taking a manager job in the real life(not kidding). I have never seen someone so good and I have read a lot of FM stories. You inspired me to start my own game with the Spartans and I’m currently in League 2 with two consecutive first places, however, the game became boring, so I guess I’m going to wait for FM10 now. I want to ask you if you are going to continue with another story on FM10 and probably coach the Spartans again to such greatness. And also, i guess you have probably mentioned it somewhere but I’m too lazy to search for it right now, can you tell me what type of instructions do you use for your strikers and central midfielders. My team really scores a lot of goals(we let a lot of goals also but nvm :D) but most of them come after a corner or after one of my defenders or the goalie clears the ball and somehow finds my striker(who by the way has 106 goals in 100 matches :)) and he scores. I pretty much don’t use my midfielders on attacks which is something that i want to change because i use a 4-3-3(wingers) tactic so therefor i think it’s important for them to go forward and maybe score a goal or two. Ok I’m gonna stop now ’cause that’s one long post. Again great job and next season win everything … again :).
JohnnyKarp
23 сентября, 2009 at 10:01
Thanks for following the story Konstantin, I’m very happy that you chose the Spartans. You can check out the tactic that I’m using, I posted a link here, you can find it in the comments section somewhere. I don’t know if I’ll manage the Spartans in FM10, we’ll see.
mortonio
23 сентября, 2009 at 15:45
wow
he knows how to cheat
big woop
JohnnyKarp
11 октября, 2009 at 23:23
@mortonio
The usual smart ass, congratulations for the brilliant comment.