
#137 - Just enough
10/05/2045 -- Back to Spartans with the final run of the season. Despite we had some tough games yet to play we managed to finish third in the league after all. I’m satisfied with this result, it was the maximum we could get out of this season. It means we can compete for Champions League football next season once more, although we need to play two pre-liminary rounds first, which will be tough for sure! But, that’s something for next year.
We didn’t loose a single game till the end of the season except the return game against Manchester City, although that one was calculated already. I used nearly all of my reserve players and we even managed to score twice! Although losing 3-9 on aggregated isn’t a result to be proud of. But that £9,000,000 of price money sure is! I’m not sure yet how many television money we will receive at the end of the season from our Champions League run, but I think that will be around another £10,000,000 or something. Basically that will make us a very rich club next season, especially because our wage spending is still quite low.
Out of the last nine league matches we did win seven of them and played a draw against Both Rangers and Celtic. But if we had won both this games as well it wasn’t enough either. Hearts kept winning and also Dunfermline was able to extend their brilliant season all the way till the end. So those two clubs are secured for Champions League football next season, although I have some concerns about Dunfermline. They shouldn’t be there… Where are Celtic and Rangers for instance? They are really performing shit throughout the last couple of seasons despite the fact those two clubs are still way above everybody else in the league in terms of yearly wage money spending. Celtic manager Kenneth Vermeer was finally sacked somewhere in March after he survived for three years and also the Rangers manager was sacked at the end of the season. Time for something fresh over there in Glasgow.



As a whole the performances of the squad were quite good. Especially the signing of Shaun Breen really paid off! Celtic should be truly devastated. He scored 42 goals in total, from which 32 in the league! Absolutely stunning, especially because he only played 32 matches in the league either! He broke both the club records of good old Bryan Griffiths who scored 31 goals in the 2024/2045 season (and 31 goals as a whole that season as well). He is worth £12,000,000 now and I’m even considering him for the national squad! Also Williamson did a great job again, Hinchcliffe performed stunning with taking care of 20 assists and surprisingly Walker-Nightingale is still hanging on with 14 goals, despite he is one of the weaker players in the squad now. The centre backs are still very good either. Jamieson together with Chauvin performed great and also Beckley is still a very useful reserve player.
I think most of the squad can stay for sure. I have lengthened the loan terms of Williamson, Jamieson and Griffiths-Trevor once again. The other guys on loan are leaving. Goodwin is still terrible just like three seasons ago and Torrance performed very disappointingly and didn’t play much anymore in the second half of the season. Although Stephens did okay, we are not seeing him back next season. The positions that need some upgrade are the full-backs once again… Mart Kamphuis isn’t as good as I was hoping for and the contract of Jamie Gray is expiring. Harrison did okay, but is slightly getting older already. But at this point it’s not my concern anymore...

Time to make place
With all those millions drifting around at Ashmore Park currently and with my main goal (winning the league) already fulfilled, and winning the Archie Gemmill Trophy together with the Scotch League Cup from last season as a bonus, my time has come. I’m 67-year old right now, I don’t have the power anymore to focus myself any longer for doing two jobs at the same time. I decide to step back as a Spartans manager. I laid down a very solid base for the nearby future, especially because of our success in the Champions League and the money we have earned because of that. I will stay as the chairman of this club, but we are going to search for a new manager. I’m in charge now for six seasons with some great successes all around. The only thing I can do better is winning some European silverwork at some point, but that will be a very long term project I don’t have the motivation for any longer.
But this story is not going to end yet. There is one final job to complete, the Scotland one! Although it will be very boring most of the time and probably not bringing any success either because of there are far better nations all around, but it felt like I need to do something back for Scottish football and this will be it. I owing much thanks to Scotland and this is the way for paying them back. I will be in charge at least until the 2048 European Championship and at that point this story will end. Don’t expect much updates anymore either, I will flew through this last episode quite fast because there are not much matches to be played throughout a year beside of the big tournaments. For which we should qualify ourselves in the first place! There will be no summarize from my recent Spartans years either, instead I will do one big summarize of my entire career when I finished the Scotland job!


