After celebrating a rare Champions League win against Benfica with a large bottle of whisky, it's back to reality. Inverness are dis...
After celebrating a rare Champions League win against Benfica with a large bottle of whisky, it's back to reality. Inverness are dismissed 3-1 on our inexorable march to the league title. This gets me another Manager of the Month award.
2nd place surprise package Hamilton visit Celtic Park next. We bang in another 3 goals. Yawn.
Next up is our crunch Champions League game against Manchester United. This is a bit more exciting!!!
As the group stands, we will get Europa League, but I want the biggie. If we can beat United at Old Trafford, we get a big payoff in the form of a knockout round.
Things don't go our way and we're 2-0 down by half time. I give the lads my usual half time hairdryer treatment, screaming about all the signings I need to make to give us a better chance in Europe. Admittedly, not the most motivating of speeches.... but somehow it works. James Forrest, whos's been in pretty good form recently, pulls one back and sets up a thrilling finale. Kris Commons smashes a volley past David De Gea to make the last 10 minutes compelling viewing.
I don't think I have breathed since Commons scored. The game finishes 2-2, and we qualify for the Europa League as United's goal difference is better than ours.
BUT WAIT......
What on earth is going on??? Manchester United had a better goal difference, yet we finished second somehow. After hiring a private eye to do some research into UEFA corruption, I come up with a rule about results between teams taking priority over goal difference. Whatever happened, I'll take it!! There is a champagne party in the dressing room, and the players are allowed one small glass each before bed.
We take the 6:45 train to St.Johnstone for the weekend game, Rui Pedro and James Forrest taking 15 minutes to score 3 goals between them. Rui Pedro completes his hat trick in the second half and we win 4-0.
Just to clarify our league position, we're pretty comfortable.
December ends with another Manager of the Month for me. Grimaldo and Ajer get 1st and 2nd in the Young Player of the Month, and Rui Pedro is Player of the Month. Things are looking good.
But I need to improve my team further to challenge for Europe, so I search for contract expiration targets.
Lucas Romero, Andrija Zivkovic, Edgar Ie and Tonny Trindade de Vilhena are all offered contracts starting next season, while Leigh Griffiths has impressed enough to get a move to Leicester.
Stuart Armstrong is also snapped up by a English side, Stoke coughing up £3,000,000 for his services.
Craig Gordon is diagnosed with knee tendonitis due to not having to move in most matches. This forces my hand, and I spend £4,000,000 on Polish goalkeeping prospect Bartomiej Dragowski.
Andrija Zivkovic chooses Real Madrid over Celtic, which is annoying as I'm in the middle of an injury crisis. 7 first team players are out, 5 of them for a long time.... I manage to bring in Norwegian free agent Fredrik Oldrup Jensen as midfield cover.
Hopefully we'll weather the injury storm and win the league! I can't see us beating Barcelona in the Champions League though....
