The retirement of Alex Taylor

With the deals for De Bock and Zokora agreed Alex and Roel moved onto their next player to move on, Wellington Silva. Alex wanted him gone as soon as he could as he felt Wellington Silva had a feeling that he was superior to the team and having asked to leave Alex wanted to get rid of him.

Alex and Roel offered him out for his release clause of €3.1 million in the hopes of finding a buyer who hadn’t heard of any of his recent performances. The next day Alex was shocked when Roel called to say he had received a bid for Wellington Silva. Alex wondered who it was as he walked to Roel’s office, he guessed a Brazilian team would pay a small fee for him.

Alex was wrong. Hull City had made a bid of €2 million for him, Alex would take that money for him but, knew you never accepted a first bid so he and Roel spent some time negotiating with opposite numbers in Hull before they finally came up with a deal for Wellington that both sides agreed to.



€2.4 million was less than the release clause but, Alex was happy to be able to bank that much money for the want away player who had been poor and not missed when he left, if he did.

Alex was told negotiations were going poorly and having met Wellington’s agent he could believe it. To do his part he told Wellington that he had no future at Brugge and that if he didn’t leave in January Alex would stick him in the under 21’s and have him fined for every tiny thing that he did wrong.



The threat seemed to do the trick as Hull said they were happier during talks to receive lower wages and they had finally agreed a deal. All the relevant parties signed and sent a number of documents and come the 1st of January Wellington Silva would be a Hull City player. Alex for one couldn’t wait for the day to come, he was sick of him going “Well at Arsenal we did…”

Alex wanted to point out Wellington had done jack sh*t at Arsenal but, felt that it wouldn’t be smart to do while he still might need to play him for a few games due to injuries and fatigue.

With Brugge having some money in the bank even with some put aside for a left back Alex was considering a big move for a player in January to help inspire his side in the second half of the season and was of to see if his head scout could get him anyone that would meet his criteria and more importantly budget.

Good to have some money in the bank for the coming window! Shame Wellington didn't work out, I like that player

BeanyUnited Yeah nice bit of cash coming in and money off the wage bill. Like Wellington but, with Gedoz and Izquierdo in the form they are in he couldn't be first choice that he wanted to be

It was only a two hour flight to Warsaw for the Europa League game against Legia. As the game drew nearer the atmosphere built. Legia needed a result to have any hope of leaving the group and there fans were doing all they could to cheer them on.



Legia played a formation Alex hadn’t encountered all that often in a 3-5-2. Tomas Rosicky, who Alex had spent ages debating on if he should sign or not, was the only player he knew before the scouts reports on them came in. Alex had gone for his usual formation and team hoping they could keep on getting results.

After 14 minutes from a goal kick Brugge won the ball back and moved forwards. Luciano ran the ball 30 yards up the pitch before he was tackled and the ball ran to Simons. He passed to Santamaria who played the ball wide to Cools who was in space, he passed to Gedoz just inside the box. He hit a cross in to Luciano at the back post, he got a touch on the ball from close range but, there were three defenders between him and the goal and it bounced between them before it was cleared.

After 28 minutes Gedoz stood over a corner for Brugge, he whipped in a cross to the near post and Vanaken rose highest at the near post and flicked the ball on. Mechele rose highest at the back post and his header beat the keeper and hit off of the bar and bounced away.

Two minutes later Brugge again won the ball back from a long goal kick. Vanaken won the ball and tried to play it wide and it was intercepted by Hlousek who smashed the ball clear and played in Cabrera who reacted quickly to run onto the ball. Cabrera hit the shot low to the near post and Butelle despite having guessed the wrong way was able to change his momentum and push the ball away for a corner.

The game went into halftime level and Alex told his side they could win and decided to make no changes as the team were dominating and they could get ahead and win the game and be in a good place for the group.

Gedoz stood over a corner after 48 minutes. He hit a cross in to the near post and Denswil rose up and glanced the ball onwards. Mechele reacted quickly to swivel and volley the ball in leaving the keeper and man on the line with no chance. Alex punched the air with joy as his side got ahead.

After 54 minutes De Bock threw the ball into Luciano. He ran 20 yards forwards and played the ball inside to Santamaria who played it further wide to Cools who had a postcode worth of space. He played the ball to Gedoz inside the box who turned his man and passed the ball onto Vanaken. He passed to Luciano in space in the box. He took a touch to get the ball out of his feet and then hit a powerful effort goalwards. The ball beat the keeper and hit off the bar and was cleared.

After 68 minutes Brugge won the ball back as Legia tried to play the ball out from the back. Santamaria won the ball and played it up to sub Vossen. He played the ball back to Simons who laid it off for Vanaken to hit out wide to Cools. He took a touch and fizzed a low cross in, it ran all the way to Izquierdo at the back post and from a tight angle he could only hit the side netting. Alex wanted his side to get the second goal and kill the game off soon and it was looking likely.

After 75 minutes Gedoz stood over the ball and hit in a corner and Boer came out easily to claim it. He plucked the ball from the air and as he landed he dropped the ball and trying to pick the ball up only pushed it further away from himself. Santamaria reacted quickest to poke the ball into the empty goal and get Brugge two goals ahead.

Alex was pleased as his side got an easy enough win and looked very good. Alex was pleased with the three points that put his side in a commanding position.



With Roma also winning both sides had a four point lead over Red Star and Alex was happy to note that if they could beat Legia then they would be able to get into the next round with two games to spare which would be ideal.

A decent win against Legia there mate, good showing throughout the Europa League so far

Jack Yeah good win if we struggled attacking a bit. Going well in the EL hope we can get out of the group and and then who knows what will happen

With the game finishing quite late in the night the Brugge team got back to Brussels airport early on the next morning. Alex sent his team home and planned to have training start later in the day than usual. He got back to Beernam early on and went straight to sleep.

Alex had hoped to get a nice long lie before getting up late and heading to take training but, every getting ready for school was loud enough to rouse him from his sleep and he decided he might as well get up as he knew how long it would take for everyone to be ready to leave.

Alex was hardly out of the bedroom when he was roped into helping get the kids ready for school and any hopes of a quiet lazy morning died with that. He was employed to find a missing notebook for Lauren that contained her homework. She had been working on it at the kitchen table and it was no where to be found.

It ended up in a cupboard somehow probably as a result of clearing the table for dinner or something similar. As he was awake Alex drove the the kids to school and told his taste in music and car dancing was “embarrassing”. Alex ignored it as his right as a dad was to do some embarrassing dancing was his right, he added in some terrible singing into the mix to top it off.

Alex dropped them all off at school and enjoyed some peace and quiet on the drive back before he would have to deal with a number of other people with the same mental age as his kids. He enjoyed yet more awful singing as he made a pit stop back home to get some more breakfast before soon heading back out this time heading to the training ground which was located in a nice small village just outside Bruges.

Alex led some light training and continued to work on creating chances as Alex felt his side was reliant quite a lot on set piece goals and he wanted to try and see his side getting more goals from open play. Alex was encouraged by his midfielder’s ability to create chances and he was more than happy with what Gedoz and Izquierdo were able to provide from out wide and also cut inside and chip in with goals in the sessions he had done which was encouraging. He was disappointed that the scrimmage between the two sides of his squad that finished 1-0 with Engels heading in a corner.

The ability of his defense continued to be solid and hard to break down and were able to somewhat carry a lack luster attack from open play in being hard to break down and not conceding many goals. Alex was pleased that Philippe had stayed with him and had been able to drill the defense into a very good unit even when Alex chopped a changed it a decent amount to ensure that everyone got playing. They also chipped in with a very helpful number of goals for Alex.

Solid away win in Europe mate, imo with a slight dip in form if your defence is remaining solid, it is only a matter of time before your strikers/midfielders step up = winning form yet again! I wouldn't be too worried

BeanyUnited Defence has been good generally, the big exception being Roma, and the goals that they have chipped in helped. Yeah they have been looking decent up front just have to get the goals coming at the end of it.

Alex’s side played host to KV Melchen who came and seemed to plan to clog up the midfield and make it hard for Brugge to break them down. Alex named his full strength team as he hoped to claim another 3 points to help them stay at the top of the table.

The game got off to a slow start. After 23 minutes Fejsa played the ball wide to Gedoz but, Antunes stepped up and intercepted the pass and played the ball forwards. Fejsa intercepted the ball back and played it to Vanaken who got the ball to Gedoz out wide. He cut inside and raced in on goal, a defender came over and deflected his shot and it went straight to the goalkeeper to end the chance.

Just before half time Brugge got a free kick just in their half, he played the ball up to Vanaken in the KV half. He played the ball wide to Gedoz in space, he cut the ball back to Meunier who played it inside to Santamaria. He played the ball up to Fejsa who hit it out wide to Meunier. He took a touch and whipped in a great cross. Luciano got up and smacked a header past the keeper, unfortunately the ball hit off of the bar and bounced away to be cleared.

The second half slogged on and as the game went to an end Alex was unable to get his side to create any big chances and Alex was forced to settle for a point against KV.



Brugge’s lead was cut to two points with surprise Oostende in second place just behind them trying to capitalize on any mistake.

Alex was looking around at football news from abroad and noticed something on Fernando Torres who Alex had tried and failed to sign. Alex clicked on it and was quite pleased when he saw the headline of the article. Torres had made ten appearances from the bench and played poorly in all of the games and failed to score or get an assist.

With what Alex would have paid for him in wages he was pleased that he wasn’t getting a striker with a high wage demands and very little to show for it along with Jelle Vossen.

Alex was more than happy he missed out on Torres and got back to trying to find a new left back for the team with De Bock leaving in January a new one was needed soon. With a lot of the near by leagues having players who were all very expensive Alex planned on looking further afield for his new left back so that he could get better value for money.

Croatia was the first country where Alex looked for his left back, he found some players with good upside but, none of them were ready right now for first team football which was what Alex wanted in his new left back. The only couple who Alex thought would be good enough for first team football cost far more than he was willing to spend on the left back so he moved his search further afield.

Alex looked around Serbia, Turkey and Russia to see if any team there had a cheap left back who he could take. None of the Serbian players were good enough for Alex to want to keep while none of the players from Turkey or Russia were good enough and cheap enough for Alex to want to sign them.

With Europe ruled out Alex decided to look at reports for players from South America to see if he could get value for money from there. He had a lot of reports from Argentina and Brazil and started looking through them to see if he could find what he was looking for.

Having looked through all of the reports one player stood out to Alex and as a bonus he was unhappy and wanted to leave his club. Alex got onto Roel and told him to try and get the player in to Brugge for the start of the January transfer window to replace De Bock.

Roel was on the case and as a result Alex was confident that he would have his man soon to add to the South American contingent at Club Brugge.

Alex had his full team out to take on Lokeren who were having a good season and were in fifth place. Lokeren were looking set out to defend and Alex hoped he wasn’t in for a repeat of a number of games this season where his sides had struggled to break down a disciplined defense.

After 5 minutes De Bock intercepted a pass and Brugge started to move forwards. Vanaken got the ball and played it to Santamaria who played it wide to Gedoz, who tried to beat his man but turned to play the ball back to Santamaria. He played it to Vanaken who passed to Izquierdo wide on the left. He cut inside past his man and burst into the box but, couldn’t steady himself and his shot flew wide of the goal.

After 8 minutes Brugge had a corner. Gedoz hit a deep ball in and Fejsa ran onto the ball and smacked a powerful header in past the helpless keeper to put Brugge ahead. Alex was pleased they had got a goal that would force Lokeren to come out at some point.

After 37 minute Santamria was tackled and lost the ball and Lokeren broke quickly towards the Brugge goal. The ball was played up to Jean who beat Engels and passed to Persoons, he played it wide to Abulrahmi who whipped in a cross. Jean got a foot on it to redirect it goalwards, Butelle got some fingers on the weak effort but, it wasn’t enough to stop the ball from trickling over the line and in to level the game.

From kickoff Brugge got the ball wide to Izquierdo who was fouled to give Brugge a free kick wide and just in the Lokeren half. Gedoz hit a ball in that beat everyone and ran to the far post where from a tight angle Luciano poked the ball in to get Brugge back in front. Alex was pleased with the quick response to stay in front.

At half time he told his team to be wary of the counter and continue to get balls into the box when they could as Lokeren were struggling to deal with them.

After 50 minutes just outside the box Fejsa won the ball with a great tackle and hit it long forward. Luciano jumped up and chested the ball down before turning his defender who reacted slowly. He passed to Santamaria who slipped a ball in for Gedoz between the LB and CB. From a tight angle Gedoz powered a high shot just inside to far post to get Brugge 3-1 ahead.

After 91 minutes Lokeren launched a long ball into the Brugge box that caused panic. Simons put in a good tackle to push the ball away a bit. Persoons got the ball thirty yards out and slipped in Jean. He took a touch and shot, Butelle reacted quickly to plam the ball away. Right to Abdulrahmi who passed the ball towards and empty goal only for Butelle to pick himself up and dive backwards to push the ball out for a corner kick.

It was a great double save and sealed a 3-1 win for Brugge over Lokeren. Alex was pleased with the win and three more points. He also liked that they had scored three times but, only one was from open play.



The top of the table was very tight but, Alex was pleased his side were on top and felt that Oostende may drop off a bit at some point in the season which could help.



Alex had a nice chat with the Lokeren manager, Georges Leekens, after the match and they talked a bit a few days later. Alex liked having someone he could talk to who was in a similar position to him with low job security and all the of the other trails and tribulations of being a manager.

With some time off with a week before a game Alex was taking a relaxing afternoon off to do not a lot. He got a call from Roel that he had to come in to sign off on the signing of the new left back.

Alex signed all stuff that was sent into the FIFA TMS system and after a few minutes everything came back approved. The move for the Santos player was complete and Alex was more than happy with getting his man to come in to replace the want away De Bock.

All the scout reports were good and for an initial €1.2 million with some more in clauses possibly that could drive the fee up to a bit less than €2 million euros at around €1.8 million at the max.

He was also pleased with the cheap deal that Roel had taken hours to work out with the agent of Emerson. He would be on €7.25k a week with other bonuses and, Roel had negotiated hard on this, no release clause in the deal so that if they had to sell him Brugge could get full value

Alex was pleased to have his swoop for him completed and have the issue sorted so that he would have a left back at the start of the window and Alex still had enough for one more good signing.

Alex found the number of his new signing and decided to give him a call. Before learning Emerson spoke no common language with him so Alex would have to find a translator for the call. Emerson’s agent agreed to translate the call and Alex was sure that the agent would charge them for his “service”.

Alex was then able to get through to his new signing and communicate with him. Alex had a good feeling about Emerson who agreed to train with Brugge after the season in Brazil ended so that he could adapt quicker when he officially joined the team. He also agreed to start trying to learn Flemish if he could find anyone who could teach him in Sao Paulo.

With that done Alex talked with Roel over where they could improve the team. He was thinking a winger was the best option with Silva leaving and Ebert injured a lot they lacked depth out wide and he didn’t want Gedoz and Izquierdo to tired at the end of the season.

It was a long trip to Liege for Brugge, the longest trip of the season for them in the Belgian League at just a tad under two hours. Alex was quite bored towards the end of the trip and Alex concerned that his players had spent to long on the bus to play well.



Liege rolled out their usual formation which was one Alex had never seen before as they had played twice before Alex had been hired so he never got to face them. The 3-2-3-2 lacked width but, would clog up the centre of the pitch Alex guessed. Alex put in Schonheim and Ebert in his only changes from the last game as Brugge looked for another win.

After 14 minutes Liege were passing the ball around the back. Alpasan hit the ball long to M’Poku out wide. He chipped the ball up to Santini who ran forwards with the ball. He had to hit the ball back to Peuget, he played it up to Alpasan who played the ball up to Yattara. He flicked the ball behind him to play in M’Poku. He squared the ball to Alpasan who fired the ball low and into the open goal to put Brugge behind.

After 32 seconds Brugge were defending again. Standard took a throw in deep in the Brugge half to Yattara, he played a 1-2 with M’Poku to get in behind the Brugge defense out wide. Santamaria slid in to get the ball but missed in wiped out Yattara getting nowhere near the ball. It was a stonewall penalty and it was given. Furman went for the Paneka penalty and Butelle stood tall down the middle. To complete the embarrassment of a saved Paneka Butelle chested the ball down before picking it up to end the chance.

The team got into half time a goal down and Alex tried to motivate them to get the game back and level so they could pick up a point.

After 53 minutes Schonheim took a throw in deep in the Standard half. He took it back to Vanaken who played it to Cools at the edge of the D, Cools passed to Meunier on the penalty spot and turned his man and hit a weak shot towards the near post that was a weak effort and somehow beat the keeper to sneak in low at the near post.

After 75 minutes Brugge were passing the ball around the edge of the box after a couple of failed attacks and the ball was worked wide to Schonheim. He was in space and he rolled the ball forward and slipped as he hit in a cross. The ball was overhit and left the keeper in no mans land as the ball floated over his head. The ball hit off the top of the bar and bounced away.

After 85 minutes Butelle hit a free kick long Standard won the ball in the midfield. Milec hit the ball wide to Stojkovic he played the ball up to Tetteh. He ran down the and hit a cross deep to the back post that was headed away to the edge of the box. Alpasan played the ball to M’Poku who turned and hit a curling shot towards the far post. Butelle dived but, couldn’t reach the ball as it curled inside the far post to put Standard ahead late on.

Alex threw everyone forward at the end to try and rescue a point at the end of the game but, it came to nothing and Alex spent a long time on the bus ride back lamenting the loss.



The result left Anderlecht level at the top with them but, Brugge had a game in hand with Oostende and AA Gent three points behind them on the same number of games as them.

Alex was heading to a meeting with the board to discuss how his tenure was going, he was about as confident as one could be going into a meeting with bosses in an industry where a manager lasts about as long as it takes to find a replacement.

“Well the obvious place to start is how we are doing in all of the competitions so far.” Vincent Mannaert, the president, said after some small talk. “First the League we are top in a tight table and your goal was to win the league. I think we have a reasonable chance of doing so and are best placed to so would say that the board is happy with how you are doing in the league unless anyone disagrees.” He looked around and seeing no objection continued.

“In the Champions League you go to the playoff which is what we expected and the good win away to Monaco and close tie vs Zenit means we are pleased with how that went. As a result of the loss we just expected you to be in the group stage however, we appear likely to leave the group so I think I speak for all of us when I say that is going well and we are hoping, but not expecting,” He quickly added “for another run like last year. Overall I am pleased with how we are doing in Europe.” He looked around to nods of agreement.

Alex was relieved with how well the meeting was going so far so good he thought. “Now onto the Belgian Cup” Vincent said which snapped Alex out his daydream. That hadn’t gone so much to plan. “We expect to be in the final but, in the one game it was a tight win over a second division side. It is the least important of the three to us but, we will still judge how you did in it and it wasn’t good although we are still in which is what matters most. Anything to say about what we thought Mr. Taylor.”

Alex though for a second. “Everything Is fair enough I think everything except the Belgian Cup is going well and I am confident that we can continue to do well for the rest of the season.”

“Good” Vincent said. “Now onto Veroniek who can talk us over how the club has done financially since Mr. Taylor took over at the club.”

The presentation was long and tedious but the jist was they had made a small profit since Alex took over with a big part being European prize money and the extra big ticket home games that the run gave them. Alex felt he had done well enough on the financial side given his lack of knowledge about it and if he was being brutally honest didn’t care about that much as long as he didn’t run them into the ground financially.

They then went over the transfer business that Alex had done, Luciano and Andre Martins were hits. Schonhiem and Zokora not as much. Overall they seemed pleased and Alex was more than happy with how the meeting had gone.

“Now just the small matter of the agreed philosophies. We are happy that you have been playing attacking football but, you agreed to buy youngsters and that is something we feel you haven’t don’t care to explain why?”

“Well I feel that I have bought some youngsters but, I prefer to bring players through like Dion Cools as we have a good academy and it would be pointless if we didn’t use it. Overall I also think that we have a very young squad and so what we need are more experienced players to ensure that the youngsters we do play can reach the full potential with the help of some more experienced heads.”

The board all looked at one another, “Okay then,” Vincent said. “That is fine overall we are vey happy with how things are going and you are very safe in your job currently.”

Alex was pleased the meeting had gone about as well as it could have although the use of currently after telling him he was safe did rankle with him a bit.