Asian Adventure

Another one of the teams I'd thought would be able to beat us, proved to not be much of an issue, as we thrashed them 3-0. Andres Roa scored another, as did Walter Gonzalez to put us 2-0 up in 10 minutes. But Al-Astaa turned a cross into his own net to make it 3-0.

The first leg of the final went as I'd expected; if you put a team which would almost qualify as an under-15s club on the biggest stage in Asian football, it's not going to end well. And it didn't. We lost one nil at home to Urawa Reds, a game I thought we had to win if we stood any chance of lifting the cup.

The second leg went the same way as the first, except they dominated the game. They won 2-0 and won the Champions League, but I'm just happy we made it this far considering the disadvantage we were at.

The first bit of transfer business this year, and it's Al-Soma going to Al-Khaleej for £1m. In real life, he is an incredible player, but he was a third choice striker, and didn't score when he played, so unfortunately the Syrian had to leave.

And it happened. Our first loss of the season to our main rivals for the league, Al-Hilal. they took the league through Corentin Jean, on loan from Monaco, and then Lucas Hernandez gave away a penalty and they doubled their lead. Lucas made up for his error with his first goal for the club, but it wasn't enough to save us from defeat. They now overtake us in this two horse race for the title

20 games in, and it's still going very well. We have won the third, fourth and fifth rounds of the cup. Despite a month gap between the first and second leg of the third round, we did manage to win 4-1 on aggregate. Andres Roa got a hat trick in the first and one of the most promising youngsters at the club, Al-Shamari scored again. We then beat Al-Shabab 7-3 on aggregate and then we beat Al-Orobah 10-1 on aggregate. The other important game was against Al-Fateh. They are in the top 4, and are coming out of nowhere, and I didn't expect them to be a challenge in terms of the league. But we did beat them 3-1. Fetfatzidis and Gonzalez were the scorers.

We've retaken the lead in the league, but only by two points. Al-Hilal only managed a draw against Al-Fateh, so we now have the chance to capitalise on their slip up. Al-Quadisiyah are another team that are having a good season. They've signed Clayton on loan and he is tearing it up at the moment, so I expect them to make a real push.

The first signing, but it's not too interesting. Just a backup keeper..

Started the season as a starter, but with Jansson coming in, he was no longer needed and hasn't played a game in the league since.

He has been complaining for a while, and I was completely for selling him, but no team was willing to play his £59k wages. In the end I had to compromise and pay £15k of his wages. We did manage to get £700k for him, but he has gone to another club in Saudi Arabia unfortunately.

And this is the replacement. The Peruvian target man comes in from Chilean side O'Higgins for £700k. Will be a rotation player like Osvaldo was, and we're still looking for another striker, preferably from Saudi Arabia,

The next signing is a pre-contract. Lorenzo Reyes will come in next year, and will probably replace Luiz Carlos as he is 33 now, and also as Al-Jassim is now 33 and declining rapidly

What I expect to be the last signing of the window, as Naif Hazzazi comes in for £350k from Al-Nassr. I was scouting this guy and as soon as Osvaldo went the other way, Hazzazi was listed for transfer, so I decided it was worth the punt and I risked the £350k. However on the social media page, the Al-Nassr seemed over the moon that he'd gone, saying that he is unable to score, so hopefully I can be the one to change that.

The Champions League has been drawn, and again it looks difficult, but then again, I don't know if I'm just telling myself that based off of who I've heard of, and both times, I'd heard of all the teams in our group. Anyway, Al-Ahli from the UAE are in our group and they have Kelechi Iheanacho up front who, as you'd expect is tearing apart the UAE leagues. Al-Gharrafa has a scary front three with Chikhouai and a Brazilian named Willian included in it. Hopefully we should be able to beat Sepahan quite easily

Another loss, only our third or fourth this season. They had 9 shots compared to our 28 and somehow scored twice.. I think we should still qualify, but either way I'm not too fussed

31 games gone in the season, and our form has remained as it has been throughout the season. For once, in one of my saves, we have been consistent, and not consistently bad. We won four in a row, to begin this period, against four teams we should have beaten, with Yasir Al-Shahrani standing out with two goals in four games from right back. We then had two games against Al-Taawoun, in cup and league, but we only managed one win and a draw, unfortunately, against them. Ivan Bulos got his first goal for the club, with a free kick against Al-Ta'ee. We also kicked off our Champions league campaign with an impressive 3-1 win over Al-Ahli (UAE), but did lose the next game to Al-Gharaffa, as you've seen. The next game of note is the second leg against Al-Taawoun, where we lost on penalties, only scoring twice in five penalties, almost guarantying I'll be staying next year. And the final game was a 1-1 draw with Al-Raed.

With this bag of results, we sit top, five points clear with a game in hand. Al-Hilal keep drawing, with 8 this season compared with our 4, however we do play them at the end of the season, so I want to get an advantage before then, so our season doesn't depend on that one game.

Salem Al Dawsari is injured for almost two months; it's not a big blow, but he hasn't featured much and unfortunately I imagine he will want to leave soon, as he just can't get in the team ahead of Fetfatzidis

We also played another Champions League game against Al-Gharrafa and it was like deja vu. We dominated the game, but we were unable to score, and I think that will probably put an end to our Champions League run

Despite our good form, we have a player who has hit a low patch in terms of confidence. Walter Gonzalez was banging in the goals before the transfer window, and now hasn't scored in around 2 months, or eight hours of football.

Lucas Hernandez has got another injury, but when this new article popped up it reminded me ...

... to extend his loan. We do have to pay quite a lot more for him, but he's worth it. In a similar scenario to Areola, I hope we can sign him permanently as he is 22 going on 23, and isn't good enough for the first team at Atletico.

And our Champions League woes continue. We lose 4-1 to Al Ahli (UAE) and that put us bottom. In another case of deja vu, we destroy them, but can't score. You can see from who scored for them, they have a lot of quality attacking players, but even then, we should have scored more than one from 23 shots.

After the game, we got another defensive injury, this time to the left back Mohamed Abdel Shafy, and this is particularly significant as he has just come back from another injury, and at 32, this could really harm his delayed decline.

We finally win in the Champions League, but it's too little too late. We're out.

And here we are... The most important game of our season against Al-Hilal. As long as we dont lose, we win the league. However, if you read the bottom of the article, you'll see we are without many key players.

So in the last week, Almamy Toure, Motaz Hawsawi and Walter Gonzalez all got injuries that'll keep them out of the game against Al-Hilal. Almamy Toure, our top assister and Walter Gonzalez, our top goal scorer will be the most significant misses for us, but Hawsawi was our backup left back, and with Shafy injured too, we'll only have Al Shahrani to play full back naturally, so I'll have to play a backup centre back who can also play left back called Al-Amri at left back, and also either Ivan Bulos, who has only scored one or two since coming in, or Naif Hazzazi who, despite scoring pretty recently, has done little else other than that. Should be an interesting game, but I hope to get at least a draw so I don't have the opportunity to bottle a six point lead. It also makes it worse that the only loss we've had in the league this season was to them, so they are capable of beating us, unlike the other teams.

Well, not quite the close run encounter I'd expected as we thrashed them 6-1, for only their second defeat of the season, but you wouldn't have expected that based on this performance. Anyway, my concerns about the full back positions following the injuries were misplaced as backup right back Al Shahrani scored against his former club in 14 minutes. Ivan Bulos doubled our lead with his second of the season five minutes later and then Luiz Carlos continued his goalscoring form with another goal to make it 3-0. They did get one back but Fetfatzidis scored his 20th of the season to make it 4-1, and our right back Al Shahrani scored his second of the game to made the scoreline begin to look embarrassing and then finally, substitute Awaf Al Abed scored against his former club to complete the rout and seal the title.

These are the results that meant we were able to win the league. We beat Najran 2-0 and Hazzazi scored his first goal of the season. We did draw 1-1 with Al-Shabab but this started Luiz Carlos' goal scoring run in the league. He scored a hat trick against Al-Orobah, Al Abed also scored. He then scored against Al-Fateh who were third at the time and then another in the 6-1 demolition of Al-Hilal. We finished the game off with a bang, with a 5-0 win over relegated Al-Mujazzal, with Roa scoring a brace, and Al Shahrani getting another goal from right back. Monaco want to give Almamy Toure a go in their first team so he won't be coming back next season, so this goal made me think that I should start him next season instead of replacing him, because whenever he does play, he's incredible.

We did win the league with 99 points, 12 points ahead of Al-Hilal as they did lose to Najran on the last game of the season. Al-Hilal did win the cup this season, so it is my main aim to win the league next year, and take it from them. Al Raed did fall off the pace a little bit, which could have been down to the sale of Bruno Zuculini in January.

Somehow, I managed to play everyone in the squad this season, but the full backs were particularly impressive. Almamy Toure finished with the mos assists with 16, and Abdel Shafy managed to get 10. Al Shahrani managed to score 6 and assist 5 in 17 games, and Hawsawi, the least impressive of the four, only managed 3 assists. Taisir Al-Jassim may be one who will be phased out of the team, but not sold as he has been here his whole career, because he is 33 and the worst of the central midfielders we've got. Failing that, I am okay selling Al Dawsari and using Al Abed as a backup attacking midfielder and Reyes can take the spot that Al Abed would have played. The striker position is a position I'm not sure about. Walter Gonzalez was incredible all season, but scored one in the last three months, Ivan Bulos wasn't great in the games he's played and Naif Hazzazi isn't really good enough. This might be the year that youth players like Al-Reshoodi and Abdullah Jaafar will get a chance to prove themselves

Here are the clubs awards: Almamy Toure won player of the year, and I'd have been happy with any of those top three winning it. Fetfatzidis wasn't in the top three and he'd be another that I'd consider, but we had so many good performers it'd be hard to pick just three. Chieck Tiote scored goal of the season, in one of the few that he did score this season. Al Shahrani got signing of the season, and, in terms of value for money, probably, but Walter Gonzalez was a new signing and he was influential at the start of the season, and Andres Roa was also a new signing, and he cost less that Al Shahrani did, so I'd disagree with this one. Young player of the season was Almamy Toure, obviously as he won player of the season.

Andres Roa did win the leagues player of the year, with 9 goals and 10 assists in 27 games from centre midfield. Irven Avila scored 10 and assisted 13 for Najran from right wing, and he may be someone I'll look to pick up. Giannis Fetfatzidis finished third with 15 goals and 9 assists from attacking midfield

The final thing I did was renew Areola's loan. PSG only want £4m for him so that might be something I look at, but I didn't have enough at the time. As I mentioned, Almamy Toure won't be returning this year.