Bonjour! Part 3 felt like a really important time for Mulhouse. This was a wonderful run of form that saw us move up to 7th, just six points from 3rd and an unlikely promotion. With 12 games to go, it’s possible rather than probable. Then again, we are the league’s top scorers. Let’s capture the dream.
Andrew is here with the final instalment of the European Super League. Can he guide PSG up the table? You can also download the files for the Super League here. All you need to do is copy the three .db1 files into your CM9798 folder but remember to backup the current files from your CM9798 folder if you ever want to use them again. My thanks to Andrew for all his efforts in creating this for the blog!
Hello and welcome back to the UEFA Super League adventure! We left you last time having made a strong push at closing the gap to Man Utd following a formational tweak that saw us deliver four 5 goal results, only having fallen foul of Juventus and then returned a poor showing at Club Brugge to fall off the pace of the leaders again. With 11 games to go and a 6 point gap to the leaders, it isn’t unachievable.
Let’s take a look at the run in that we have over the next few months:
6 of the 11 remaining fixtures against top 10 opposition, 3 against other clubs in the top 5…that is going to be just the run in the TV companies had in mind! Despite being the biggest spenders in the league, we are running a tight ship and outside of the core players the ratings are woeful…
Patrice is going absolutely loko at the lack of game time, but I just can’t allow him to move on with the squad so small. Gava is still 8 months away from recovering from a knacked pelvis, he’s spending the whole time listening to Dire Straights I would imagine.
Rai-less for the derby with Monaco, his boy Leroy returns to the side. Silly silly Willy! Sagnol gets himself sent off for a deliberate handball, Henry gives us a scare, but we do the job and win the money bags derby.
That said, the space cowboy has had one too many bookings and will miss a game of the run in after hitting 22 disciplinary points. Hopefully it’s not Man Utd on the 4th April! The gap remains 6 points.
After dominating the opening period in Portugal, Revault has an absolute madness and gets himself sent off. 4-1 down we come back to 4-3 and after 20+ shots, should have had a point. Now Revault and his boy Leroy will miss the Utd game (who extend their lead to 9 points with 9 games to go…
A 89th minute equaliser as Leverkusen pepper our back-up stopper at the death see’s us drop more points. Utd are cruising 11 points ahead of us and they are our next opponents. Denzil’s two goals might seem good, but it’s a poor return from his 10 shots on goal…
Despite pushing Utd all the way with key players missing, money is no match for 4-4-2.
We are playing for our top 5 lives now, as we appear to have well and truly lost our spark. MIND THE GAP.
We belt Bayern 4-1 in Germany, Denzil gets a hattrick. We’re back on fire, but it’s a case of too little too late. With 6 to go Barca and Juve are chasing a determined Utd down but it might just be too much to make up. That resolute Utd defence continues to be their best area even in Super League land.
We have our say in the title race (over to you…ve…) and then crash and burn with the lethargy of a bunch of millionaires who have nothing to play for against PSV.
It really doesn’t matter as we sweep aside a Celtic team with Van Nistlerooy and Larsson up top. The race at the top hots up without us.
No biology jokes this time. A fairly lacklustre win as we hold off a late onslaught to squeeze home 2-1. Elsewhere Juve top on goal difference, Utd with a game in hand, Barca clinging onto an outside hope.
Man Utd take their break from the league in their stride as their rigid belief in 4-4-2 wins them the UEFA Cup. Meanwhile in the UEFA Super League, its all change as Barcelona go top (for now).
A pointless victory against Sporting sees us all but wrap up 4th place. Meanwhile the title race is thrown into Utd’s hands as Barca play their last game and Juve give it up to second bottom Brugge.
Barcelona need penalties to beat plucky Middlesbrough in the Cup Winners Cup
And the only thing now standing between Man Utd and UEFA Super League glory is Gordan Durie and the Blockheads at Old Trafford on the last day of the season. A nail biting finish down to the final day, Barca could win the league without kicking a ball.
We close the season with a draw at the money bags Newcastle Utd. However, in an absolute shock, Gordon and the Blockheads defeat Man Utd 1-0 at Old Trafford and Barcelona lift the inaugural UEFA Super League title without a kick! They also destroy Juventus 5-0 in the UEFA Super League League Cup. A treble for Barca.
In typically for PSG, we’ve ended up well off the pace, having had an end of season collapse as some players imploded, and Maurice the space cowboy lost his pistol like accuracy and it got all too much for the pampered expensive squad.
Okay, so, lets take a look at the final UEFA Super League tables;
Club Brugge’s shock victory over Juventus keeps them in the top tier at the expense of Feyenoord, a brutal, brutal end to their stay in the top. Just as brutal as the twist at the other end. Meanwhile in UEFA Super League Two;
A largely straight-forward affair for Ajax with Ronaldo out for a lot of the season, Inter couldn’t keep the pace. It’s goodbye to Vitesse and Aberdeen. Over in the Premier League Chelsea pull away from the pack and take the title, Spurs the perennial runners-up.
La Liga you say? Let’s see;
And in the secondary European competition, Chelsea romp home.
Whilst we await the result of the World Cup, the financial safety of TV revenue has passed our exuberant spending by…
A single goal from Omar Assad wins the World Cup for Argentina in an all South American affair. Denzil and Alfa Romario in tears.
All that’s left now is the end of season awards. Denzil takes a well deserved bow:
What an adventure…despite our own season coming to an unspectacular anti-climax in the back end of the season, what a rollercoaster it turned out to be for the fight for the title in what is quite possibly the most brutal league assembled. As the TV money rolled in, we overspent and underdelivered, only to be bailed out by our wealthy owners at the close of the season with a financial injection to erase our debts.
I did not want to enjoy this season as much as I have, but would I like to see it in real life? Absolutely not. That said, who knows what the future holds…I hope you have enjoyed following our journey.
UEFA Super League, over and out.
You can follow Andrew on Twitter @KingOfTheRooks
Bonjour! Welcome back to France. I took over the worst club in France Ligue 2 and expected to be a hero by now. Instead, we languish in mid table unable to defend. The squad is also bloated, full of my questionable signings and players who can’t be shifted.
Today we’ll head through the third quarter of the season to see if we can move up the table rather than down
The notion of a Super League killing football is very real but you have to say, it makes things quite interesting in the entirely fictional world of CM9798. King Of the Rooks is back to continue the madness whilst managing PSG. Catch up with part 1 here.
Hello and welcome back to the UEFA Super League 1997 where we are trying to see if a well assembled PSG side can have better luck than their future money bags selves in a league that never happened. We left part one having made some reasonably smart signings (so I thought):
As far the transfer round up goes, Monaco signed Jamie Redknapp, Juventus signed Jordi Cruyff, Celtic signed Ruud van Nistelrooy, PSV signed Robert Pires and Newcastle signed…
For us, Muoio was an absolute gamble, that hasn’t paid off. We closed out October in 6th place, ten points behind the leaders Man Utd, no seems to be able to find a better answer than 4-4-2 it would seem.
We open our winter account by piling on the misery for table proper’s Celtic. The only annoyance is losing Ode and Dhorasoo to injuries inside 10 minutes.
England fail to qualify klaxon!!! No doubt Eileen saw it coming. Meanwhile Chelsea pay £9m for Richie Humphreys. The transfer market is going bonkers. Our boy Leroy Jetson helps us to another 5-goal haul but Man Utd maintain the 10 point gap…it is getting tasty.
Petry dishes out enough saves in the Feyenoord goal but under the microscope it was a poor performance from the Dutch as we as we secure another 5-goal haul on the bounce thanks to Denzil and the space cowboy.
We can’t capitalise on a rare slip up from Man Utd as they lose 3-1 to PSV. We can only manage to draw with Sporting despite 15 shots. The gap is down to 9 points. Outside of Man Utd it’s as tight as Mike Ashley on transfer deadline day:
At this stage, its probably worth sharing the modification we’ve made to the ultimate formation after the few defeats, we experienced:
The toon arrive in town and future Newcastle boy Domi breaks hearts whilst only a defiant Shaka Flip-Flop prevents another 5 goal haul.
Meanwhile as Big Ron says goodbye, total football arrives in South Yorkshire and the Premier League:
A Jamie Redknapp inspired Monaco knock us out of the UEFA Super League-League Cup after extra-time as the space cowboy gets his marching orders. This doesn’t bode well for our chances of chasing down Man Utd’s 7 point lead.
Back to the glory of the Sky Sports UEFA Super League and 11 minutes in a pretty Roche challenge sets us up for a difficult afternoon, but the Kaisers kuk their penalty up and we fight on.
The gap to Utd is down to 5 points.
We turn up at the Santiago Bernabeu without the inspirational space cowboy, Domi suspended and Roche suspended. Leroy goes off early but my oh my, that was the performance of the season…
The gap to Man United is down to just 3 points.
Next up we have a crunch game vs. 3rd placed Juventus who have matched us point for point, goal for goal so far and probably have the strongest squad in the league. After making the right start to the game, it all falls apart as Juve just take hold of the game. We’ll lose Revault now too which is terrible news.
Man Utd cling onto top spot, we scrape a last minute winner as Romario comes off the bench to assist Denzil.
Pffffhhhahahahahahahahaha
Gordon Durie and the Blockheads push us but money buys us a little bit of love despite being without our main man in the sticks.
We close out February with a poor performance, only managing a draw with 2nd bottom Club Brugge. An Awfuly showing with Rai getting injured. We are woefully out of form when considering the opposition for the last two games.
We’ve made some good ground over the mid-season, and despite Cruyff’s statement that he’s “never seen a bag of money score a goal” our summer signings sure have helped a good bit. Here’s how the Sky Bet UEFA Super League stands with the run-in coming up:
Celtic have been rooted to the foot of the table all season, the bottom two are surely down. We’re 6 points behind Utd but it’s not an unassailable lead by any stretch. And now Super League Two:
Ajax currently pipping Ronaldo’s Inter and its not clear yet who will be relegated to the abyss of Super League Non-League.
Meanwhile over in the Premier League it remains as tight as Steve Bruce in a new suit…
Total football bringing Sheff Wed right back into it with a game in hand. Wide open. The new boys at Kidderminster continue to boss Division 3, thanks in no little part to signing Tomlinson.
And to wrap things up, over in Spain, Betis are in control.
That’s all for now, but please do join us next time to see how the grande finale of the UEFA Super League turns out and whether we can change the fortunes of a poor old cash rich PSG, whether Derby County can win the Premier League, and whether Salguieros can become the most unlikely Champions League winners!
You can follow Andrew on Twitter @KingOfTheRooks
Bonjour! Welcome back to France where I’m trying to transform the fortunes of Mulhouse. As you’d expect, I’ve brought in a lot of players with mixed results so far. After 6 games, we sit 8th, a respectable start but there’s a lot of work still to be done. Let’s get back to it.
Making a welcome return as a guest blogger is KingoftheRooks! He’s spent his summer making a custom database for your reading pleasure – so here’s the European Super League. Over to Andrew to explain more…
Hello and welcome!
What is this fresh hell you ask? Well…you will no doubt be familiar with the on-going debate regards the creation of a European Super League to try and further delight to pockets of the TV operators and further leverage the debts of clubs, much of which has been played back by Der Spiegel. Back in 1997, the Champions League had finally returned to a format that allowed runners-up of key leagues to enter the competition.
To see what might have happened had Sky set their sights on European footballs elite competition rather than the Premier League, I set about creating a European Super League. How you ask? Using the UEFA club rankings over 95/96 & 96/97, and finishing position in home league, I have determined two tiers in which teams sit (sorry AC Milan, you’re non-league now).
Alas, meet the competitors of the newly formed UEFA Super League:
…and division 2:
Welcome back! A new season means a new save and a new save means a new idea. The Academy is a tough act to follow. That was probably my favourite of all the saves we’ve done. The CM Cup was a nice break and a keenly fought contest. Now though we need a new idea. Where have I not been? Where could I go?
We’ve got a great array of guest writers who have covered the continent pretty quickly. There are only 9 leagues after all. I’ve therefore decided to pitch up in France – my only previous experience was a few seasons as Auxerre manager back on the first ever blog save. It crashed after 13 seasons, by which time I was Deportivo manager. I enjoyed my time in France though, and other than a very brief blog from Frank Hirst as Saint Etienne manager, that’s all we’ve ever done in France. But who to manage?
The state of play in France is that Monaco are really rather good. They’ve just won the league by 12 points from PSG. Both squads are insanely talented, but Monaco’s stadium is a touch on the small side so they can struggle with finances if they drop out of the Champions League places. Both of those teams will be rather easy to play as, I’m after something a little longer term.
Nice were relegated but will play in the Cup Winners Cup thanks to winning the, er, cup, so that’s an idea. However, I want to go as low as possible. Propping up the Ligue 2 table in 1997/98 were FC Mulhouse Sud – Alsace. That sounds a bit like Milhouse and I can have some fun with that. Arsene Wenger played for them in 70s so that probably bodes well.
In 1997 they have a thoroughly uninspiring squad. Future Celtic centre back Bobo Balde is here, however he’s an inexplicably creative winger.
Other than Bobo the bear there’s very little to get excited about. Jean-Paul Gautier in the centre of the park will keep things fresh. Ait Alia is already wanted by a bigger club which is useful as he also wants to move to a bigger club. We have a generous £1m in the bank which will need to stretch.
To give you some indication of our standing in world football, Tomlinson has turned us down. He doesn’t even turn Doncaster down. No, instead we’re going to have to cast the net a bit wider than normal.
Olivero arrives on a free from Uruguay. I feel like I’ve had him before, or somebody has had him, but he looks good.
Graham Kavanagh, the silver fox, has never had 20 for pace in my view but here he is.
Andrew Duncan, an obvious favourite. I predict I’ll have him about 2 months before somebody comes and takes him.
Louis Saha arrives on loan from Metz. We’re going to be a quick team if nothing else.
I signed this man because I needed a left sided option but also because he sounds like a 1930s footballer.
There’s a deal on the table for one more player but he hasn’t arrived in time for the big kick off, and by that I mean a home game against Niort. They are managed by a man called Albert Rust which really writes itself.
Here’s the team for day one. I know very few of the players so many have been picked on comic potential.
Larry David will be trying to curb the opposition’s enthusiasm. Let’s FOOTBALL.
The early signs are that this will be a lot of fun Olivero and Saha are a particularly potent duo who both score but there’s an early concern about the quality of our goalkeeper who is beaten by a free kick. Van Kets were something I was warned as a kid not to accept. Anyway, Larry David made it 3-1 and the Stade de I’lll, whatever the heck that means, go in happy at half time.
Andrew Duncan gets sent off but it finishes 3-1. Woo and yay.
A week later and we’re off to Lorient, coached by Christian Gourcuff – Father of Yoann. See, you always learn things here. I suspect this will be a much tougher game.
The next few days brings mixed news.
This man signs. This is good.
This is bad.
Duncan is banned for the visit of Nancy, who can of course boast Tony Cascarino up front. It’s a filthy game which big TC settles with a rasper from 30 yards. This is going to be every bit as hard as I feared.
I need to fill the Saha void and I’ve decided to take a punt of one of my Academy lads. You might remember Chris Pearson – he was lethal in Division 3 and 2, then he was less good and moved to Clyde where he was terrible. Can he hack it in French Ligue 2?
He can debut at Nimes away and once again, the opposition lose their heads but they are so much more clinical than us. Our goalkeeping situation is becoming urgent.
For crying out loud. For those wondering, Pearson had 9 of those shots.
It’s time to find a new goalkeeper and I don’t care what it costs. Well I do, I have just over £1m to spend.
Another week passes and my search has been unsuccessful. A home game with Red Star (not Belgrade) promises to be an entertaining affair. Graham Kavanagh scores his first goal for the club before going off injured. It’s 2-2 and with GK off injured, Pennyfather climbs off the bench to score the winner. He doffs his top hat to the crowd and we leave with the points.
Three months out for Kavanagh may mean we see more of old Pennyfather. We’ve also pocketed £900k for David Rincon, so that’s nice.
Martigues away is one for the ages. The hosts plunder 25 shots on goal but despite conceding three, our keeper has a good game and comes away with man of the matches. That’s a bit harsh on old JV, who nets a hat-trick including a late winner in yet another filthy game. We score four goals from five shots on target, so it’s a smash and grab in many ways. Having said that, Pearson managed 5 shots and hit the target once. He is not good enough.
That late flurry sends us up to 8th after just six games. There’s rather a long way to go yet and we need to sort out our goals against column. For now though, we’ll settle for being in the top half. It’s a 22 team league so there’s ages to go yet.
It’s good to be back. I’ll see you next week with more.
