Season 33 Week 14 processing...

Great result with 10 men for Chelsea, Big Kurt Zouma not letting any man or cat stand in his way, Bate March on and defeat for a Braga side that are miles of top sides but probably best of the rest

Argentina

Independente 42 +57 Champions
Argentinos 34 +22
Boca 30 +14
Velez 28 +8

An eight point lead for the Champions seems like a tough gap to close especially seeing as the chasing pack keep beating each other.

Belgium

Genk 42 +58 Champions
Anderlecht 36 +23
Mechelen 34 +26
Liege 30 +12
Bruges 30 +11

Fourteen league wins on the bounce for the Champions who continue to dominate this league.

Brazil

Santos 39 +38 Champions
Botafogo 34 +37
Fluminense 34 +28
Vasco 28 +11

Flu won the big game this week in a nine goal thriller but that result allowed the Champions to extend their lead at the top...

Eire

Cherry 37 +24 Champions
Derry 34 +17
Bohemians 27 +10
Shelbourne 26 +13

Much closer here with just one victory keeping the Champions on top...

Premiership

Plymouth 33 +21
Charlton 32 +15
Watford 27 +13
Man City 27 +10 Champions

Plymouth march on with a couple of very good three nil wins this week to stay top, but with a real test coming next week, when they play away at Chelsea, we could see some movement if Charlton can go to Arsenal and do something similar to what they did this week by beating the Champions Man City. Watford up into third, is that significant ?...

Championship - The race for the Premiership hots up

Spurs 31 +16
Wednesday 24 +6
Leicester 24 +2
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Leeds 22 +5
Liverpool 21 +3
Bristol City 20 -6

A hard fought one goal victory at Southampton did Leicester's promotion hopes a power of good as Spurs and Wednesday both recorded significant victories at a crucial time in the season. Leeds dropped off the pace slightly with a labored draw against struggling Birmingham after a tough week in Europe, all to play for still...

France

Nantes 37 +37 Champions
Etienne 35 +27
Lille 30 +22
Monaco 29 +15
Paris 29 +11

It is all about Nantes this week as the Champions blew Etienne out of the water to return to the top of the table in what was a very tough week for last week's leaders. Etienne boss Alain said "The side have taken a massive hit this week with these two defeats that show we are not yet good enough to compete with the likes of Nantes and Genk, but we will get there"...

Bundesliga

Wolfsburg 33 +19
Leverkusen 32 +25
Schalke 32 +20 Champions
Hannover 27 +15

Top four all won once again to maintain the status quo and keep up the pressure on Wolfsburg at the top, when to use Inspire and when not to use Inspire may just give someone the edge at the crucial time, its exciting for sure...

Holland ( They will always be Holland to me )

Twente 39 +40 Champions
PSV 34 +32
Ajax 33 +34
Rotterdam 32 +11
Feyenoord 31 +12

Twente sunk to their first defeat of the season mainly due to a superb hatrick by PSV's Edin Dzeko which moves the chasing pack slightly closer to the Champions, a much better result for PSV who lost the corresponding home fixture four nil earlier in the season. Twente remain strong favorites to retain their title though...

Serie A

ACMilan 34 +22 Champions
Napoli 31 +21
Juventus 24 +9
Parma 24 +2
Cagliari 23 +7
Lazio 22 +7
InterMilan 21 -2

Lots of goal less draws in Italy this week that only benefitted the Champions and current leaders AC Milan as they moved further away from the chasing pack. The Napoli boss says "You need a bigger squad these days to play against the top sides without burning out and that's where we are going now"...

Portugal

Porto 42 +39
Benfica 34 +33 Champions
Boavista 34 +15
Lisbon 26 +10
Braga 25 +18

Is this the end of the title race for Benfica following their defeat at Porto, a game that was billed as must win by the media before kickoff. Benfica's undoubted array of young talent failed to get the job done today and although it was a closer game than the corresponding game earlier in the season it was still a disastrous result for the Champions, who probably need a miracle now...

Scotland

Rangers 32 +15
Motherwell 32 +12
Inverness 28 +11
Celtic 24 +9
Aberdeen 24 +4 Champions

Only Inverness managed to grab all three points this week amongst the leaders as they try to recapture the glory days from a decade ago when they dominated everything in Scottish football...

Spain

Barcelona 42 +54
Real 36 +44
Atletico 33 +33 Champions
Valencia 30 +7

This is a busy league now with eight managed teams and two  managed feeder clubs contesting for points so anything can still happen but it is still looking very rosy for Barcelona...

Uruguay

Danubio 42 +62 
Nacional 39 +49 Champions
Penarol 34 +27
Defensor 31 +33

Danubio just set a new world record when they won their fourteenth league game on the bounce by scoring at least four goals in each game, quite incredible even considering the generally poor opposition they have faced so far...

MLS

Chicago 38 +31 Champions
NewYork 30 +5
Washington 27 +17
Kansas 23 +4

Two narrow victories this week sees New York City's star continue to rise but the boss isn't happy with the goals return and had this to say "The defence and midfield are looking good but we need somebody who knows where the net is and are actively trying to sign somebody to fulfill that role",when pressed he added "I cant say who but the fans should be excited"...

Transfers now...

Just a quick reminder. The ENDLOAN dealing is a transfer request and wont be processed until this point in the proceedings, so anybody, and there were quite a lot this week, who issued ENDLOANs and then LOANS for the same player, will be disappointed I'm afraid.

Before you can loan a player out he has to have a squad number.

On with the transfers...

Pleased with my results this week! Be interesting to see the Man City write-up.
Only just caught up, perhaps I'll have to be 'out' every week...

Some deals didnt go through this week due to inconsistencies on the order sheets.

The top deal this week is sees Man United sign Manuel Akanji from Basel for £65millions.

The other deals will be listed on the TP special action report.

Coaching now...

Content with the week as a whole. 
Barca are making steady progress and have clearly stepped up from last season. Still have to play Real and Atletico one more time in the League but crucially both games are at home. And into the CL semi final after 2 seasons of quarter final exits to Inter then Real. And the 2 seasons before that exiting the Europa League at the quarter final stage to Real (again) and Nantes. 
Hannover have salvaged some pride after a poor start to the season which left them in the relegation zone after 7 games and Rennes have made it to a European semi final for the first time although are still very much a feeder team.

The next convenient deadline for me will be the 8th January mainly cos I wont be around much over christmas and the new year, that's a four week downtime for the game which seems like a long time. But I could squeeze in another turn from 1st January instead if you would prefer that ? let me know here and now before I send turns out, thanks.

I’d be keen for Jan 1st if this works and isn’t too inconvenient Paul - certainly want to make sure it fits your Xmas plans though!?

Ben@Plymouth wrote:

I’d be keen for Jan 1st if this works and isn’t too inconvenient Paul - certainly want to make sure it fits your Xmas plans though!?

It is certainly doable yes.

I’d be keen for that then, unless others think differently?

Clearly I’d love 1st Jan but happy to work to a timeframe that suits you best Paul.