Asian Adventure

One loss... Not what I expected! We began the season with a 2-1 win over South Melbourne. Ironically, Jack Hingert, who later joined South Melbourne, scored. We also progressed through the first three rounds of the cups, with comprehensive victories throughout. We then faced a tough opponent in WSW, but we dismantled them, with a legend at the club, Matt McKay scoring a brace. Then we played the one club I outlined as a potential threat to our title chances, if there even is one(?), Melbourne City. We took the lead 2-0 with a brace by Jamie Maclaren, but Bruno Fornaroli scored a brace of his own to level it up, but a good result nonetheless. The next three games were against newly promoted sides, and I obviously expected victories in all of them. The first two went as planned, but the third, we played Oakleigh Cannons. Despite another brace by Maclaren, we didn't do enough on the day, and they deserved the win. On the back of this, we came up against two tougher opponents. The first was the Central Coast Mariners, which we edged thanks to and early goal by Becchio, and the second against Adelaide United, we also won, 2-0 this time, with Becchio scoring and Bamba grabbed his first for the club. However we ended the month with a whimper as we only managed two draws from two easy games, unfortunately.

So with these results, we sit in 3rd. That loss against Oakleigh Cannons still in the back of my mind, as if we had of won that, we'd be top. But still, we're ahead of expectations, and we aren't doing as bad as Melbourne City!

Our second loss, and it comes against top of the league Melbourne Victory. It is also significant, as now we have dropped down to 4th, but it seems to happen all too often this year, we'll dominate everything but the scoreline.

We also have a problem at right back, as Jade North got injured in that game. Now Bamba and North are out, we rely on a makeshift right back in Bowles to fill in there for the next few weeks

Another injury, to a key player, who is also another defender. Luckily Bamba has come back now, so Bowles can play centre back, but it's still not ideal

This brought to my attention, that our form hasn't been great at the moment, but even so, the fans have no reason to complain, we are doing as well as we should be...

...Or so I thought. We slump to another loss, in a game we dominated. They got a player sent off late on too, but Jamie Maclaren and Luciano Becchio are both not scoring.

And it doesn't get any easier. Our two main strikers are on a mini goal drought, and our third choice is on a permanent goal drought, so much so I am considering recalling Brandon Borriello back from his loan.

Thats more like it! We best second placed Perth Glory 4-1. Becchio scored, but most pleasing of all, 18 year old striker, Nicholas D'Agostino scored, which gives me a decision to make in January; whether to sell Katebian and have D'Agostino as third choice, or recall Boriello and sell Katebian, or just simply keep Katebian and hope he scores soon...

With the transfer window just around the corner, our star striker Jamie Maclaren has requested to leave. He has a £1.5m release clause, and there is interest from teams in Japan and China. Luckily, he has hit a wall in terms of goalscoring form, and we are no longer as reliant on his goals, with Becchio stepping up. There is going to have to be a big arrival to replace him

However Becchio is going to be out for around a month, so that a problem. Hopefully D'Agostino can step up in his place

So, we got a £1.2m offer for Maclaren from Tokyo FC. I haven't brought in a replacement as of yet, but thats only because we don't have much money. But as soon as he leaves, I'll be looking at replacements.

Also, this is a mistake on my part. I gave Broich a new contract, but I didn't check how long I extended it by. Turns out I extended it by a month, so he would still leave at the end of the year. But Bochum have come in, and he'll be on his way back to Germany after 8 years at the club. I did the same with Matt McKay, and hopefully nobody comes in and takes him for free.

He's gone. We managed to get £1.2m which is good, but now we are missing both strikers for our next game.

Our backup player, Daniel Bowles is also on his way out of the club, to China. He never really played, so I'm not too bothered.

I didn't expect this, but Broich shows his loyalty to the club, by rejecting a move back to Germany. Saves me a bit of money!

But Jade North, another rotational right back/centre back, has left. He's 34 so it's not a major issue, but it's still another position I've got to replace.

Here is Maclaren's replacement. Harry Novillo comes in for a club record fee, £160k, from Turkish side Manisaspor. He played for Melbourne City before them, and scored 12 in 34 for them, so he should be an adequate replacement. Should he be fit enough, he will make his debut, and return to Australian football, against his former club, Melbourne City

What a game! We beat favourites for the league 5-2. We go 2-0 up early, with goals from Arana and McKay (who scored on his 34th birthday), but Fornaroli scored, and there was a sense of deja-vu, as last time we played them, we went 2-0 up and Bruno Fornaroli scored a brace for them to level it up, and when, 2 minutes later, there is another highlight, I was fearing the worst. But Novillo almost scored on his debut, but it went down as an OG by Thomas Sorensen. We went into half time 3-1 up, bearing in mind our other main striker Becchio is out injured at this point, and D'Agostino is starting one of the biggest games of our season. But it didn't have any effect on him, as he netted in the 65th minute to make it 4-1. And then it happened; Harry Novillo scored, in poetic fashion, on his debut, on his return to Australian football against the club that shipped him off to Turkey. They did get one back after that, and Bamba did get an unnecessary red card, but none of that matters. This result puts us second

My first pre contract signing of the window, and this probably spells the end for Joey Katebian, as it's another striker. When I was searching for a poacher backup, this guy was in the top three that were realistic, and he only wanted £1.4k p/week, so he'll join up with the squad at the end of the year.

And we're top again! Harry Novillo, again, proving his worth, grabbing two goals, and as the headline says, they put us top! It was a hard fought battle, but one we deserved to win, against a struggling Western City Wanderers.

With and incredible two games at the club, Novillo won player of the week. Hopefully this'll continue

James Meyer has left the club and gone to South Melbourne for £10k. He never played and I'm still confused as to why I signed him...

Our form has picked up since a minor blip, and we are back in contention for the league, or at least champions league football next year. We begin this series of matches, with a 1-1 draw with Wellington Pheonix. They were top of the league when we played them, so it isn't a bad result. Jawadi scored his first for the club also. However we did then lose, against Melbourne Victory, who I'd consider our biggest rivals for the league. Miguel Arana scored for us, but it didn't matter. We progressed to the next round, and beat a poor Adelaide City side, but then lost, for the first time in my career, twice in a row. Both of these games were winnable, particularly the first one, which we failed to score, for the first time in a long time. But it was the game against Newcastle Jets that was the turning point; something clicked and the team decided they wanted to start playing again. It started with a 4-1 demolition of Perth Glory, who, at the beginning of the season, were looking like title challengers, we then won 4 in 6, drawing the other 2. Then the next two games were the biggest results of our season, which I've already shown.

We are sitting in 2nd, with a game in hand. If we win that, we are two points behind Melbourne. Sydney and Perth have really fallen of the pace, and FFA COE are bottom of the league. If they get relegated, their players are all young, Australian and talented, so I will look to pick up a few

I've made another pre contract signing. The dutchman, Dion Malone will come in next season, and he can play right and centre back, as well as centre midfield. He is primarily the Jade North replacement

Also another piece of crucial news for the club is that Matt McKay has signed a contract extension at the club for another 2 years. Thomas Broich, who almost left earlier in the window, has told the club he doesn't want to sign a new deal, and has had another offer, but this time it is from a Chinese club.

We've just had the Asian Champions League group stage draw. If you know the Asian teams, you'll know this is a very hard group. Urawa Reds, bottom seed team, is arguably the best team in Japan, Jeonbuk Motors are one of the best teams in Korea and Ha Noi T&T are one of the top Vietnamese teams, but we should beat them comfortably. We'll do well to get out of this group, unfortunately.

The inevitable happened in the end. Broich will be leaving the club at the end of the year. Unfortunately, the club can't afford to shell out £11.5k a week on a 36 year old

And out of the blue this happens on deadline day. A regen attacking midfielder has gone to PSG. He had been on the loan list for the entirety of the season, and had no offers, and then randomly PSG came in with an initial £550k offer with incentives. I managed to push them up to £1m without incentives and a 40% of next sale clause, so I'm not too disappointed although he did look quite good

The final signing of the year, is Japanese legend, Yasuhito Endo. 150+ appearances for Japan, and nearly 500 games for Gamba Osaka, he should be an adequate replacement for Thomas Broich. He is 37, however, he is really good at the moment, and I'll look for a replacement then.

Unfortunately, Luciano Becchio is injured again with a hernia, and will be out for around 7 weeks.

And the first game without him was against top of the table Melbourne Victory. We managed to get a 3-0 victory, which will put us well on our way to being back in title contention. Joey Katebian scored his first league goal in 14 games, and Brett Holman scored a double, and his form has really picked up recently. Hopefully we can push this run of good form onto the end of the season.

There we go! We have actually taken top spot back. Although we have been close to there all season, I never actually believed we'd be this close at the end of the season. Anyway, we beat Sydney United 2-0, Holman scoring a double again. Adelaide United have a game on hand on us, and if they win, they'll take top spot. The end of the season should be fun!

Joey Katebian went off with an injury in the first half and then late on in the second half, Nicholas D'Agostino, meaning we only have one fit striker for the next 5-7 weeks at the best possible time...

Back to reality. I don't think we can win the league at this point, as it is no longer in our hands.

But in the next game, we beat them in the cup, to get the the final. A comprehensive victory over the two legs, at 7-2, Novillo being the standout player in this game.