Season 26 Week 10 processing...

Welcome to week 10...

Reset is underway, might be a few delays this week as my wife has a hospital visit due so I'll be giving that priority and the games maybe delayed until thursday, but we'll just have to see how it goes. Thanks for understanding.

Lots of orders to enter as well with three new managers this week including Andy at Leicester, who paid in advance for his first few turns, so thanks for that Andy, he's a mate of Dave Brothers at Tottenham. The other two I'll add to the forum when they have paid some money.

No worries Paul, hope all is ok.

Good to see more new managers!

Yeah always good to welcome new managers to the game who are genuinely interested in playing, already spoken to Andy on the phone and he seems like a great addition to the game.

Hope all is well Paul.

Good win at the weekend Paul?  That Iheanacho seems like a real talent?

Tom@Charlton wrote:

Good win at the weekend Paul?  That Iheanacho seems like a real talent?

No he's useless, a big flash in the pan   ooh should be a good game at Wembley best of luck to your lads I just hope it's a good game with plenty of goals.

Your thoughts on Pep? Worst kept secret, but exciting times for City fans?

I'm finishing the data entry today and running the pre-league games, so I expect the league games to kickoff thursday morning, confirmation to follow later today.

Thanks Paul. Hope all is OK.

Tom@Charlton wrote:

Your thoughts on Pep? Worst kept secret, but exciting times for City fans?

We've just sold another blossoming young english talent and he never even played in the first team so for me the more changes at the club the better really. But maybe I'm showing my age abit and remembering the excitement and anticipation of seeing young english players coming through from the academy and doing well in the first team. I remember cold midweek winter nights standing on the terraces at Maine Road watching the youth team play and talking to the guys around you about who we thought was good enough and then congratulating ourselves on a saturday when your choice scored the winner or played well.

Man City are no longer the club I grew up loving, they've just stolen my club's name and are totally different now. Joe Hart is the only remaining connection to 'my' team and once he's gone I'll probably be gone too.

Rob@Inter wrote:

Thanks Paul. Hope all is OK.

Thanks for the best wishes guys, we now have to wait three weeks for the results.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Tom@Charlton wrote:

Your thoughts on Pep? Worst kept secret, but exciting times for City fans?

We've just sold another blossoming young english talent and he never even played in the first team so for me the more changes at the club the better really. But maybe I'm showing my age abit and remembering the excitement and anticipation of seeing young english players coming through from the academy and doing well in the first team. I remember cold midweek winter nights standing on the terraces at Maine Road watching the youth team play and talking to the guys around you about who we thought was good enough and then congratulating ourselves on a saturday when your choice scored the winner or played well.

Man City are no longer the club I grew up loving, they've just stolen my club's name and are totally different now. Joe Hart is the only remaining connection to 'my' team and once he's gone I'll probably be gone too.

Paul ...... it's that time ..... become a Forest fan.  Ollie Burke, Tyler Walker, Ben Osborn .... all looking very promising and getting games in the first team.  It's real football again.

League games will kickoff at 1000 hours Thursday morning...

Rested a couple of top players from the euro game this week, so that they are fresh for the league clash with Bayern - nerves are jangling already!

Before we run the league games I will run off the midweek games which ran overnight.

Champions Cup results

Man City 2 Bayern 0
Napoli 6 Valencia 0

Arsenal 0 Inter 2
Watford 0 Schalke 1

Birmingham 2 Real Madrid 0
Charlton 2 AC Milan 0

Plymouth 2 Barcelona 0
Fulham 3 Ajax 1

Europa Cup

Roma 8 Soton 0
Gladbach 1 Rangers 1

Genk 0 Blackburn 2
Dortmund 2 Cagliari 2

Nantes 1 Paris 0
Juventus 3 Fiorentina 0

Ancona 1 Celtic 0
Berlin 2 Etienne 2

Copa Libertadores

Santos 0 Vasco 0
Independente 1 Lorenzo 2

River Plate 3 Nacional 0
Sao Paulo 1 Gremio 1

Boca 3 Bolivar 0
Palmeiras 3 Catolica 1

Flamengo 7 Emelec 0
Penarol 1 Millonarios 1

Thanks Paul, excellent couple of results there for my teams!  Delighted.

By my reckoning that leaves only the top two in group 3 to be worked out, the other groups already have their qualifiers?  Top spot of course remains very important so still plenty to play for.

So with just one game remaining that means that Man City and Napoli are both through from group one and either could finish top, Inter and Schalke are both through and both on ten points, Charlton are through from group three and lead Birmingham by three points and a large chunk of goal difference and favs to finish top, but Birmingham will be sweating on Real who are just 2 points behind them in third, so all still to play for here. Whilst group four sees Fulham and Plymouth both go through and currently both on twelve points but Fulham edge top spot on goal difference. So no Barcelona in the quarter-finals this year which is a shocker but it does show how much stronger the english sides are becoming with the continual influx of foreign star players to these shores in real life.

Can't believe I'd ever witness a quarter final lineup without Barca, Real and Bayern.  Real have a lot to do to stop that happening.

Come on the European teams. Napoli, Schalke and Inter could be left flying the flag with no Spanish teams!!!

In the Europa Cup its Roma through for sure but everything else is still up for grabs from group one, group two sees Blackburn through, group three has Juventus and Nantes both through in that order, and group four has Etienne and Berlin both on eight points with Ancona just a point behind, so lots to play for here, has this euro tussle distracted Etienne from their title attempt ? I would say so looking at the team sheets.

The balancing act between league and Europe is one of the most difficult things to manage. Champions League still the holy grail.

The players are out for their final warmup as we approach kickoff, good luck to everybody...