Season 7 - Groundhog Day

Expectations are high evidently. I hope for a Champions League berth and silverware.

After a fairly poor start (stupid Roma away as game 1 doesn't help) Foggia float around the regular 4th-6th place slots for the first half of the season. No-one really sets the world alight, but it's fairly solid. The UEFA Cup progresses nicely with a succession of relatively easy ties.

Come January, a predictable Quarter final exit in the Italian Cup has occurred, but I'm 5th and looking forward to a 2nd half of the season with new signing Bruno, picked up for a mere 2.4 million on a minimum fee release clause. He looks good.

However, elsewhere in the squad there are problems. Long standing one club man Oguchi Onyewu is being tempted by mighty Inter, and is letting the press know about it. New signing Andrea Barzagli doesn't like this and starts being a bit of a twat. 2 reserve team players - Chedric Seedorf and Plato (a nickname of my creation) go AWOL. Long story short, squad disharmony is rife, at it's worse, about half the squad is unhappy. Also, Kaka is still shit.

This for me, is the downfall of the season. Inconsistent league form takes over, although somehow, 5th place is retained. Atalanta's absurd unbeaten run collapses with 5 defeats on the bounce, and 8 games without a win, but they still keep me out of the Champions League.

The UEFA Cup is all too easy. I cruise to the final with style where I meet Athletico Madrid. Once again, the entire team doesn't turn up. There's 18 minutes to go and I'm 3-1 down. I go all out on the attack, chucking Maxi Lopez and Cherno Samba on. It works! And at full-time I'm back at 3-3, Bruno delivering a last minute equalizer. Unfortunately Fernando Torres has other ideas and completes a superb hat-trick to take the game on golden goals. Another final defeat.

Mourad Meghni wins Fans Player with a great season from center mid. My top scorer is Sokolov with a paltry 11 goals. One of 7 players in double figures, but no-one was outstanding.

So I'm left exactly where I was last year but with a more pissed off squad. Surprisingly, the board isn't unhappy. Perhaps they weren't being completely unrealistic after all. Still won't expand the stadium though...