The retirement of Alex Taylor

After the 17 day break Brugge were back in action against KRC Genk, who had chosen to play a friendly unlike Brugge. Alex hoped the time on the training ground would help his side cope with the two new players. Emerson and Centurion came in at left back and right winger and would hope to have instant impacts.

Brugge had the upper hand in the first 25 minutes and Fejsa won the ball back before passing to Izquierdo who made a good run centrally. He passed to Vanaken who played the ball to Centurion out wide. He ran at Tshimanga and knocked the ball past him and felt two feet slam into his legs. The ref showed an instant red card and no one from KRC Genk protested at what was a text book red card.

After 37 minutes KRC Genk had a ball out wide in a threatening position. Kivrakidis stood over the free kick and hit a good ball into the box. Deweast had some space and got his head onto the ball and on target. Butelle easily plucked the ball out of the air to keep the game level.

At half time Alex told his side to create something and chances would help them get a goal against ten men they just had to keep the ball and probe for the space.

57 minutes in Emerson took a throw in and got the ball back and went on a run down the wing. He passed inside to Vanaken who played a 1-2 with Martins before passing the ball up to Izquierdo. He passed to Ribeiro who dropped the ball back to Martins. He hit a great low pass to Cools on the far wing and he took a touch before drilling in a cross. Izquierdo got past his man and poked in at the far post to get Brugge ahead.

Alex pulled off Luciano and went with just Ribeiro up front to add some depth in midfield with Simons.

Not long after the goal Engels played the ball out of the back to Izquierdo in space on the wing. He passed up to Ribiero on the edge of the box and he held the ball then turned and to slip in Centurion who had found himself in acres of space. One on one with the keeper Centurion went low to the near post and Kotels was able to hold the shot and end the chance.

Brugge held on for the narrow win and Alex was happy with the result against a team that was near the top of the table. He was also happy that Emerson and Centurion had good debuts for Brugge and Alex hoped they would be able to build on it.



Standard drew to allow Brugge to extend the lead at the top of the table to three points with defending champions AA Gent a further three points back on them.

Woop woop, Brugge at the top good stuff man

Atoobie And staying there I hope

Another bid had been made for Jose Izquierdo and Alex rejected it out of hand and even if he had been planning on selling Izquierdo he would have rejected the bid as far to low for a player of his quality.

Izquierdo was informed of the bid and still happy not to force the issue which really pleased Alex as he wouldn’t have wanted to keep a player against his will but, he also didn’t want to lose a player who was undoubtedly one of the best players in the league not just Brugge. He was also on a very cheap deal which was a nice bonus although Alex might have to offer him a bit more if the offers kept on coming in for him.

Alex with little money left and still unable to get rid of Vossen and not wanting to sell anyone just wanted the transfer window to close to ensure that none of his squad left with him not having enough time to find an adequate replacement for them. So far no one was close to leaving with Ajax put off by the valuation on Denswil and he was the only player who seemed to be anywhere near leaving the club with everyone else happy to stay and try to win as much as possible.

Training got underway and Alex spent most of the time with his attacking players as he tried everything he could do to get them firing in goals. Philippe had the defence so well drilled that Alex knew if they could score past them then they would be able to do it quite easily against every other team in the league as the Brugge defence was big, mean and talented.

Alex was giving them a tougher time by changing the more defensive De Bock for Emerson who like to attack a but more. If it did impact the defence then Alex would simply insert Schonheim into the starting eleven who offered a lot less going forward but, was a very good defender.

Emerson though had the position under lock and key as his crosses were proving very decent as Alex had the attacking players going against the defence. Along with creating a lot of chances he casually fired a thirty yard shot into the top corer when he was forced to cut inside. Cools and Meunier were being given the run around by him and Izquierdo who were linking up well which was another thing that pleased Alex.

After a while he swapped so that Cools was attacking with Centurion against Emerson and Ribeiro, who was the next winger up after Izquierdo. Centurion’s first attack down the wing saw him pull off a wonderful Cruyff turn and his cross towards the far post being well cut out by Engels who had his hands full with the tricky Luciano but, was dealing with him well and cutting a lot out.

Alex was pleased with practice at the end his attack had been sharp and with even with the defence being banned from being to mean they still proved a very stubborn backline to break down with Engels excelling at centre back as usual. Alex was surprised that there was little interest in him as he felt he was laying far better then Denswil who a number of teams were looking at, but he was more than happy about that.

NOT VOSSEN DON'T YOU DARE SELL HIM

Great to see you cruising along at the top of the table mate!

Very professional of Izquierdo to not press the issue, looking like a very well-run club now!

BeanyUnited Annoyingly I can't would if I could as he costs a lot in wages and is awful

mgriffin2012 Hopefully we can keep cruising at the top for a few more months

Jack Yep pleased he is happy to stay as wage wise RBL can probably blow us out of the water

Brugge headed out to Royal Mouscron Peruwelz for another league game as Alex hoped for them to get some more good form going and hopefully slam some goals into the back of the net to get his strikers in form.



Two big changes were made by Alex putting in Vormer as Fejsa was banned for the game. Mechele also came in for Engels. RMP went for a 4-3-1-2 that was rarely seen in the league so they would have to fight no to be overwhelmed in midfield and have to push up a defender as they would then be outnumbered there.

Just before ten minute Butelle came out and claimed a cross from a free kick he got the ball wide to Emerson on the left wing. He passed the ball up to Izquierdo who played it inside to Vanaken who sprayed it wide to Dion Cools. He passed up the line to Centurion who faced a defender. He easily breezed past his defender and whipped in a good cross. Luciano got to the ball first and he reached out to poke the ball in and get an early goal for Brugge.

It was about all of the highlights of the first half as Alex told his team to be more creative and try and a goal or two to kill the game off and allow them to relax towards the end of the match.

Just after half time Cools was well tackled to end an attack and Meite hit the ball long. Mechele was running under the ball and then stopped for no reason and allowed the ball over his head and Olinga got the run on him to go in on goal. Alex was furious and Olinga took a big touch and fired his shot high over the bar. Mechele was puled off by Alex who felt he had been showing lapses in training lately but had hoped the game would focus him.

Just before the 50th minute Vormer stood over a free kick out wide. He looked up and saw that Vanaken was wide open just inside the box so passed to him. Vanaken hit his effort first time and it flew into the far top corner to double Brugge’s lead just as Alex had wanted.

From kickoff Engels headed an intercepted long ball up to Vanaken who headed it wide to Centurion. He ran inside past a defender before squaring the ball to Vanaken in the RMP half. The ball was played wide to Cools who breezed past an attempted tackle on him and passed up to Centurion who then whacked the ball across the pitch to Emerson. He nutmegged his man and passed up to Izquierdo he breezed past a centre back and he fired a powerful effort to fire Brugge into a three goal lead early on in the second half.

With the third goal the game was killed off and it just rumbled on towards an easy win for Brugge who were able to relax towards the end of the game and breeze to a victory and three more points.



Brugge maintained the lead over Standard and in third Oostende moved up to go five points behind Brugge.

Very good result mate, keep it up!

mgriffin2012 Thanks man

Alex, Philippe and Roel along with their families went out bowling one night, it would have been a relaxing if they Alex and Philippe hadn’t been ex-professional footballers and thus incredibly competitive while Roel wasn’t much happier about losing than either of them were.

Leaving the kids to their own games Alex eked out an early lead and accompanied it with a great deal of gloating and boasting. He was a decent player while Roel struggled and Philippe was very close to Alex’s ability. Which made for a tight game between Alex and Philippe while Roel was using creativity to try and keep up but, failing. Alex pulled off the first strike of the night and overcelebrated heading back to his seat.

Roel was up next and guttered before rolling the ball through his legs like a kid and was able to knock down 8 and shushed Alex as he headed back. Alex would have fired something back if he didn’t have to go and settle an argument between Lauren and Jake. Philippe got a spare and celebrated with a dramatic knee slide, they may have visited a bar for some time before they went bowling. There was a cheer for the next lane as Philippe’s wife got yet another strike, Alex was pleased not to be facing her as she had been hitting strikes with most of her bowls and her total was far ahead of his.

Alex got back up and hit a spare he celebrated with a dab. The lead continued to go between Alex and Philippe as Roel lagged further and further behind as the game continued on. It was heading towards a tight finish as Alex led Philippe by two points. He hit a disappointing seven and gave Philippe a chance to win the game at the death if he could take out every pin. Roel had his turn in between to add some tension and got a 4 and a 2.

Alex threatened to sack Philippe if he beat him and his mind games seemed to work for the first bowl as the ball only just clipped the outside pin and took two more down with it to set up a tense final bowl. Alex did what he could to put off his assistant but, the delivery looked good and five pins went down instantly one soon followed leaving one pin bouncing around. It fell and consigned Alex to defeat and the gloating celebrations of Philippe.

Roel proposed making the second game more interesting by each putting in fifty euros to go to the winner. Alex was surprised that Roel who was very cheap and thrifty would offer this and despite having hammered him last time Philippe and Alex were hesitant before finally agreeing and pulling out fifty euros to match Roel to go to the winner.

Roel was randomly picked to go first by the computer and grabbed a ball sauntered up to the line and then showed some incredible form and technique that had been missing from his other attempts and the ball flew down the middle and all ten pins scattered as the ball barrelled into them.

Alex and Philippe realised they had been done but, would fight all they could to somehow beat Roel but, his form looked incredible and they had little hope. Alex was up next and pulled off a spare before Philippe grabbed 8. Roel continued to bowl strike after strike and they were unable to keep up and ended up miles behind Roel who gleefully scooped up his winnings after a very good performance. They both grumbled a lot but, Alex felt he should have known that Roel had an ace up his sleeve before he was willing to put €50 on the line.

It was a top of the table clash as Club Brugge took on Oostende in a first versus third match. Alex went for his usual strongest team with Centurion and Emerson the only recent additions to the team. Oostende were playing a deep 4-4-2 and Alex hoped to break them down and get the win.

After 3 minutes Emerson whipped in a cross that was headed out to Vanaken on the edge of the box. He passed to Martins who sprayed the ball wide to Cools who only just kept the ball in. His low cross went into a small gap between the defenders and attackers until Izquierdo stepped up and smashed the ball high across the goal and into the top corner to give Brugge an early lead. Just what Alex had wanted.

After 25 minutes Oostende had a free kick a long way out in the centre of the pitch. Milic passed the ball to Varga out wide on the edge of the box. He cut inside past Cools and with Denswil coming towards him Varga shot low and it beat Butelle to get into the bottom corner and put Oostende level.

The game went into half time level and Alex tried to inspire his side in the rivalry game against Oostende who where less than half an hour from Brugge.

Just after half time Izquierdo had a pop from distance that went well over the bar. It was all that happened for twenty minutes until Ribeiro headed a goal kick back to Andre Martins in midfield. Martins passed back to Ribeiro who played in Luciano with a great low pass. From a tight angle Luciano went low to the near post and beat the keeper but, the ball bounced off the foot of the post and the rebound was cleared by Amadou.

After 82 minutes Montroup whipped in a corner. The ball went just over two Brugge players and fell to Musona six yards out. He was able to get a touch to control the ball and then fired off his shot from close range that Butelle reacted quickly to push the shot away. The ball hit an Oostende player but, they couldn’t react to poke the ball into an empty goal before Engels got over and pushed the ball away from the goal before Martins slammed the ball away to the halfway line.

The game ended in a one all draw and Alex wasn’t overly disappointed with the result it was a decent result against the team in third place in the league.



Brugge had a four point lead but, had played one game more than Standard Liege who were in second. With only five games to go until the teams points were halved it was looking very tight at the top of the table and Alex was hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2014-15 season when Brugge were ahead after 30 games but, the came second in the championship group.

It is still so tight at the top of the league, no let up for Brugge just yet! Keep putting points on the board and I'm sure the other contenders will start to stutter.

In the build up to transfer deadline day players from Alex’s side were being linked to a couple of teams with Denswil and Vanaken getting the most coverage. Alex called both of them and Vanaken said he would be happy for the club to reject any deals. Denswil repeated that he only had interest in Ajax and Alex was pleased with news as he headed home to get some sleep before what would be a very long day on the transfer deadline.



The first bid came somewhat from left field as West Brom submitted a bid for Meunier that Alex and Roel rejected without any hesitation. Despite Cools coming on in leaps and bounds Meunier was still a big player for the team.



Alex had a look at the recent deals online and saw deadline day had seen all of three grans spent in Belgium. Kante to Chelsea was the biggest deal while Alex was confused at Bayern slipping in to get Benteke from Liverpool for €5.5 million.



Before lunch a bid came in for Vanaken, from Udinese with whom he had not been linked. Having been reassured that Vanaken was happy Alex rejected the bid and told Udinese that Hans was happy to stay and the club had no interest in selling him.



Alex was sitting around not doing a lot when he got an email informing him that a very good player from Chelsea was available on loan. The amount of wages needed for him would put Brugge over the limit for wages currently so Alex set Roel on the board to increase with the reasoning being the unexpected bonus money form Europe. Roel quickly came back with the money that Alex needed freed up.



Alex then stumped up the cash that Chelsea wanted for Kenedy on loan and it was accepted. Unfortunately, soon after the loan bid was accepted Alex got a call that Kenedy had no interest in the loan as he wanted to go to a better league to impress Chelsea. Alex argued that it was a good league and they were still in Europe but, it meant little to the agent who soon hung up.

Alex was pleased with how the day was going as it got later and later and no more bids were getting placed for any of his players.



He was punished for his optimism when Leicester launched a bid for Denswil. As they weren’t Ajax Alex told them he wanted all the Kante money or he wouldn’t let him leave. Unwilling to part with €47 million Leicester informed Brugge that they did not plan to launch another bid for him.



The window got to an end and Alex was pleased despite a lot of interest he had kept his squad together and shown that the side would not be bullied into selling any player they didn’t want to by a club and had enough financial power and team spirit to reject bids and have the players happy to stay.



Alex’s week got an additional boost at the end of the season as Gedoz was cleared to make his return from his fractured jaw. It ensured that Alex would have the sort of dilemma picking his wingers that all managers wanted.