Montpellier - Hello France

Locked and Loaded

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So our January looked to be quite an eventful one. With not only bolstering the midfield but the requested transfer of Younes Belhanda. Who would also need to be replaced. Not to mention my continued quest to find French talent which brought some restrictions on players I would have bought else where. Matches against Bordeaux and OM were in the books. I was really looking forward to the match against OM to put them back in their place. To add to this if we managed to beat the teams we needed to beat it would rocket us into first place.

In February we had some decent games against some very average teams. The first match in the Knockout round in the Champions League against Manchester City at home.

January Transfers
Clement Grenier - 5.5m
http://www.parolesdefoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/clement-grenier.jpg

Jack Collison - 2m
http://www.footballtop.com/sites/default/files/photos/players/012562999143100.jpg

Games
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Ligue 1 Table
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Summary
A great two months. We couldn't find a home for Belhanda for the price I was looking for. The only offers I got was for around 15m, about half of what I wanted. So all I can do now is hope that with a good finish he will want to stay. If not, well at least it'll be a step closer to going more French, hey? The transfer of Grenier to Montpellier was an extremely thought out one. I had been tracking him for a while watching a few games with him in it.The Collison deal was a spur of the moment deal. Three hours till deadline was over his agent offered himself to us. Stating he would only cost around 1.9m and we got him for 2m. Personally I thought that has to be one of the best deals I have done in a very long time! Onto games the draw with OM was satisfactory and the loss to City was... average. A team in form and we tried our hardest. We will see what happens in away round.

January and February player's of the Month: Benjamin Stambouli and Federico Santanderhttp://images.midilibre.fr/images/2012/04/25/en-conduite-accompagnee_387620_510x255.jpg
Stambouli
http://images.maxifoot.fr/federico-santander-2.jpg
Santander

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Come and get us!

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Five games in March. The only real difficult fixture would be our Champions League return game to Manchester City and our away game at P$G. Which I was getting increasingly more nervous about. Other than that our three other games could be a nice way to rack up some needed points to retain this nice spot on top. Especially when Lyon had a game in hand.

In April we had five games. Yet these all seemed a little harder than in March. With games against Valenciennes, Bordeaux, Lyon x2 (French Cup fixture) and Ajaccio. I didn't really care about the French Cup game as the Ligue was a lot more important to me. Making sure that we placed well and hopefully got a spot in the highest European stage.

Games
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Ligue 1 Table
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Summary
Well our draw to Manchester City hurt. A good game though with a back and forth flow. The racked up a good 7 points in the Ligue though, in March. The P$G game sucked we were so close, hit the bar so many times! April was a dodgy month as Bordeaux got two past us and Lyon got their revenge. Decent wins against Ajaccio and Valenciennes. Belhanda has also played amazing these past two months. Wonder is he trying to get noticed. I hope so I want some good dosh for him!

March Player of the month: Younes Belhanda
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2013/1/8/1357677539448/Younes-Belhanda-008.jpg

April Player of the month: Antony Mounier
http://www.ligue1.com/images/photos/articles/web/fiche/1213_UK_amical_Mounier_Montpellier_Lozere.jpg

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The Stretch

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So our last month in the Ligue before the season breaks off for summer holidays and some valuable family time. Games against Stade Brestois 29, P$G (French Cup), SC Bastia, Lille and Toulouse. Needing only 6 points to secure the 1st position for a second year in a row for Montpellier was really something and all the players getting behind the team. We pushed on making sure we could grab the title. The assets with the win would be truly amazing to use.

Games
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Ligue 1 Table
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Summary
Not a great way to finish off the season. With the final loss to Toulouse. The other games were great though. (Will post up a proper summary tonight Soon) - So this will be a little more in detail and a season cover summary.

May player of the month: Daniel Congre
http://medias.lequipe.fr/img-photo-jpg/daniel-congr-de-montpellier/1500000000179481/0:291,999:794-665-0-70/df26c.jpg