Season 25 Week 20 processing...

Morning all and welcome to week 20 of the season, it is going to be a very good week for some of you as we have the Champions Cup Final on offer this week as well as the final of the Copa Libertadores in South America, so good luck to the four managers involved.

Good luck to everybody in the league this week and as you continue to strengthen your teams for the coming season.

Weekly reset being processed at the moment.

edit #1 Although I should really say, good luck to the other three managers involved, as I just remembered my own Santos will be playing Flamengo in the Copa.
edit #2 You can tell it's early in the morning cos I really should say the other two managers because Matt is involved in both finals.

Blackburn v Man City
Not a great week for Blackburn to be looking for their first home win of the season. A recent run of poor results and the fact that Roque Santa Cruz couldn’t keep them up on his own has led Rovers to the brink of relegation, 6 points from safety and only 1 point above basement team Liverpool. And on the other hand we have the rampant Man City with a midfield boasting more old men than a Rolling Stones concert, a solid backline and the prolific Dzeko, Carroll, Robinho and Charlie Austin up top they are an irresistible force. Lampard and Gerrard controlling the midfield are a match for anything the Premier League has to offer. The only fear this week is that City must focus on the Champions League final. At the same time they couldn’t have hoped for an easier game for their final away trip of the season.
 
Chelsea v Man Utd
The Special One faces LVG at the Bridge and it could prove interesting. Neither team is in form with both losing 5-0 last time out. Chelsea are safe in mid table, which is where United were not so long ago. LVG’s TOT tactic has seen them spiral downwards towards the dreaded relegation zone. A draw would probably suit everyone so watch out for a close one with minimal entertainment.
 
Liverpool v Birmingham
After a disastrous start which basically saw them relegated by the half way point in the season Liverpool have gone a long way towards regaining some pride as well as their lost mojo over the last few weeks.  Negredo has been the catalyst and is now ably supported by the livewire Salomon Kalou. The front pair have given the subtle skills of Aquilani in midfield a focal point to aim for. Too late for this season but they’ll look to bounce straight back after a year in the Championship. After looking like title challengers for much of the season Rich’s Birmingham tailed off a few weeks ago. While they sit in 5^th they remain only a point behind Watford and Charlton and could still secure 3^rd place.  Rich will be using this period to build up for another title challenge next season and with the power of Fellaini and van Persie on board a few new faces could easily transform this into a title winning side.
 
Everton v Plymouth
Ben’s Pilgrims travel to Merseyside to visit an Everton team desperate for 3 points. A home win here could lift the Toffees to safety with United, Spurs and Fulham sitting just above the dotted line. At the same time this is Plymouth’s big chance to gain top spot and a chance of winning the title. Ben is scouring the market for additional resources for next season to boost the firepower in his front line. No announcements have been made yet but news is expected in the coming weeks.
This game will be tense and although it should be a formality for the away team they’ll not be counting any chickens until the 3 points are in the bag.
 
Charlton v Spurs
A very straightforward home win on the cards here. Tom’s Addicks are a slick passing side with bags of flair up front and a solid back line. A creditable away draw at Plymouth last time out shows how close this team are to being title contenders.  Let’s see what quality they bring in during the close season.
 
Watford v Fulham
The game of the week is a London derby at Vicarage Road. The Hornets are buzzing again after last weeks big win at home against Everton. In their true galactico fashion the goals came from Pogba, Alexis, Nasri and Diego Costa. Jamie will be hoping to make more of his attacking line up next seson as this year they have fallen 10-15 goals short in the goals for column. Fulham are hovering 2 points above the drop zone and although they will be outsiders for this one Phil will be doing everything he can to cause an upset and in Suarez, Modric and Lallana he might just have the players to help him out.

Man City v Barcelona
The big one. This game could be all about the midfield battle. City rely on the power and experience of Lampard, Milner and Gerrard while Barca have the guile and skill of Cazorla and Mata which is backed up by the immense talent that is Yaya Toure.  For the first time this season City may have met their match in the middle. Up front we have a complete difference in styles the outrageously coiffured (and talented) Neymar backed up by Pedro, Morata and co facing off against City’s immensely powerful Dzeko, Carroll and Austin.
 

This is the first step for each of these teams in their treble bids with next weeks FA Cup and Spanish Cup finals to come. Contrasting styles but both great teams who are striving for their respective trebles. Clearly a match up of Europe’s best 2 teams this season. Completely open as either of these teams could win it on the day.  A final to look forward to.

Thank you Rob for another excellent preview.

Okay there are a lot of very large orders to process this week as managers try to NEW in all the new faces to the Premiership and a whole host of youngsters and new faces from the Copa America, so I'm going to say the league games kickoff will be delayed until Thursday morning as I have a fair bit of work to do in adding new players.

Sorry couldn't do the Libertadores. Not enough info.

Thanks Rob, brilliant.  Getting a bit of a reputation of a wheeler dealer, just trying to get my squads ready for next season, then it should all calm down a bit.....

Don't know whats funnier about this, Harry himself or Rob Palmers reaction.  Makes me laugh everytime.

Anyway, best of luck to all the managers in finals this week.

That clips' brilliant I hadn't seen that before, I do luv Harry, "f..k off" and he walks off, gotta admire him for that, made me smile too.

I'll finish entering the orders in the morning and then run the Champions Cup and Copa Libertadores finals, before I start on the reserve, youth and schoolboy games. Then Thursday for the vidiprinter league games.

Champions Cup result

Man City 4 Barcelona 0

so congrats to Geoff as he exacts some revenge for last season's defeat in the same game against the same opponents and I'm sure Matt's fine side will be right in contention again next season, with most pundits expecting the prolific Lewandowski to replace the ageing Villa in their lineup next season.

Copa Libertadores

Santos 3 Flamengo 1

I pulled a bit of a "Harry" move for this game by delaying Kaka's debut until he could play in this game and it worked a treat, he scored twice and won me the game.

Europa League Final

Celtic 0 Juventus 2

In the end an under strength Celtic couldn't breakdown the Italians defence with enough regularity to make their chances count, so a good win for Paul Jones's side, who are only a couple of top class players away from becoming a real threat.

Just running the reserves and youths now...

Not a great week for Matt! Hopefully better luck in the league games. 

Congrats Geoff and Paul, well deserved.

A couple of big transfers look like coming to fruition this week as Raheem Sterling leaves Charlton and is currently flying to Milan where the Inter boss is waiting to welcome him, and in exchange it seems that Firmino and Thiago Alcantara are moving to Nantes, but it's all very complicated of course and wont be ratified until later.

One deal not going through this week is the ongoing saga on Aaron Ramsey to Man City, it seems the clubs are still aways apart of agreeing a deal here with Arsenal holding out for a cool £100millions. City may have to sell a few of their star squad to come up with that kind of cash though.

Okay, ready for a 1000 kickoff Thursday morning, good luck to everybody.

I am literally sitting in the coffee shop at Milan Malpensa airport waiting on Raheem. Glad I didn't order a drink for him as he's late.

Seriously talented young lad, gonna be a top player I think. As long as he doesn't end up on City's bench for most of the time, needs playing time.

Shame Liverpool have to sell but if he wants to leave then fair enough let him go. Think he has been really badly advised though, needs to ditch his agent, Aidy Ward. Apparently not showed up for training today, he is in danger of creating a name for himself.

But, as I said before, very very talented footballer.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

A couple of big transfers look like coming to fruition this week as Raheem Sterling leaves Charlton and is currently flying to Milan where the Inter boss is waiting to welcome him, and in exchange it seems that Firmino and Thiago Alcantara are moving to Nantes, but it's all very complicated of course and wont be ratified until later.

One deal not going through this week is the ongoing saga on Aaron Ramsey to Man City, it seems the clubs are still aways apart of agreeing a deal here with Arsenal holding out for a cool £100millions. City may have to sell a few of their star squad to come up with that kind of cash though.

It is rumoured that the Lyon board have had an urgent meeting following this news. More as we have it...

Ben getting has cheque book out.

okay and we're off...good luck to everybody who still needs it...

Liverpool 0 Birmingham 1 Van Persie on 2 minutes.
Hyde 0 Wycombe 1 Atsu.
Vitesse 0 Ajax 1 Mkhitaryan.
Parma 1 Cagliari 0 Cassano.

Flamengo 1 Sao Paulo 0 Rafinha on 3 minutes.
Watford 1 Fulham 0 Pogba.
Tenerife 0 Barcelona 1 Llorente.

Cherry 1 Bohemians 0 Johnson on 5 minutes.
Partick 0 Hearts 1 Crisetig.

Nantes 1 Cannes 0 Silva on 8 minutes.