In this 2nd season, I noticed a couple of issues: 1) European competitions adopted the new real-life format. 2) Real-life newgens don’t come into the game through the database save file. These aren’t massive issues, and I couldn’t be bothered to restart, but it may curtail the longevity of the save.
Trebor Mahtal had successfully stepped into the shoes of Big Sam as he led Bolton Wanderers to European qualification and a UEFA Cup semi-final run. But a big summer lay ahead as he looked to refresh his playing squad.
Last season’s success saw the Bolton bank balance hit £116m with a transfer kitty of £65.5m. That was boosted by selling Ricardo Gardner to Spurs for £7m and several backups for an additional £11m profit. While Gary Speed retired to became a coach and the likes of Andranik and Iván Campo were released. But most importantly, they saw off interest from AC Milan and Real Madrid to keep Nicolas Anelka.
Mahtal recruited a mass of players led by 21-year-old Gerald Piqué for £13.5m, left back Armand Traoré for £12.5m from Arsenal and Andy Carroll for £13.5m from Newcastle. Also arriving were 17-year-old Antoine Griezmann for £3.6m from Sociedad, winger Alex Teixeira for £1.3m from Vasco, defenders Garry Bocaly for £10m from Marseille and Marek Suchy for £2m from Slavia Prague and midfielder Ignacio Camacho for £8.5m from Atlético. They later loaned in Dimitri Payet from Saint-Étienne and signed full back Amaral for £7m from Palmeiras.
Mahtal stuck with his 4-4-2 approach, but those transfers see plenty of changes to the starting lineup. The weak point is probably the wide areas with plenty of players needing to develop quickly.
Putting Faith In Youth At Bolton
Elsewhere in the Premier League, the big movement was managers. Sir Alex Ferguson stood down to become director of football at Man UFC and was replaced by Marcello Lippi. Chelsea and Everton sacked Avram Grant and David Moyes and replaced them with Roberto Mancini and, oddly, Avram Grant. Arsenal and Liverpool lost their managers as Arséne Wenger and Rafa Benítez quit to join AC Milan and Inter, and were replaced by Fabio Capello and Zaragoza’s Victor Fernández.
Mahtal’s summer business saw the bookies boost their expectations, predicting Bolton to finish 8th with title odds of 100/1. Chelsea are 11/5 favourites followed by Man UFC (3/1), Liverpool (10/3), Arsenal (5/1) and Newcastle (33/1). Promoted Stoke and Watford are relegation favourites along with Derby.
Bolton began with a big local derby at home to Wigan and Anelka’s penalty edged a 2-1 win. More local rivals followed with a trip to Maine Road and Kevin Mirallas’ first goal for the club set up a 3-1 win before earning a 0-0 with nine men at home to Liverpool. Mahtal handed Carroll a full debut at home to his former club and… he got injured, Kevin Davies replaced him and created the winner for Anelka.
That set up another good start, which got better as Anelka scored two more and Davies ended a 13-hour goal drought in a 6-2 hammering of Stoke. Anelka continued his flying start to the season with the only goal at home to Watford, the second in a 3-0 win at Middlesbrough, a brace in a 4-0 thumping of Reading and the opener in a 5-0 rout of Sheff U, which sent his team top of the league after 11 games.
However, they lost Anelka (twisted ankle then fractured ribs) and Davies (hip) to long-term injuries, which curtailed their form in a tricky December that saw defeats at Birmingham, Chelsea, Man UFC and Arsenal. That left Bolton in 6th position heading into January, but Mahtal’s predecessor didn’t fare so well, as Newcastle sacked Sam Allardyce on 23 December with the side sitting 11th in the table.
New UEFA Cup Format
The new-fangled format in real life has trickled into this database, which saw Bolton given a set of challenging UEFA Cup fixtures, including trips to Sporting, Besiktas, Nice and Lazio.
The campaign started with a great performance in Portugal as an Anelka brace inspired a 4-2 victory. Mahtal gave some fringe players an outing at home to Qarabag and Carroll and Camacho bagged their first goals in an easy 6-0 win. Davies and Nolan earned a 2-0 win in Turkey before a 3-2 defeat at Nice. Bolton responded with a 3-1 win at home to Celtic that was crowned by a sensational Anelka strike, running from the halfway line before smashing home from 25 yards. Winger Daniel Braaten nicked a 1-1 at Lazio before the league phase ended with Carroll’s brace downing Zrinjski 2-1 and a Braaten hat trick leading a 4-0 win over CSKA Sofia. And that saw Bolton qualify in 5th place.
Nice were dispatched 3-0 in the last 16 before Jussi Jääskeläinen’s nine saves in Spain earned a 2-1 victory over Sevilla before Bocaly scored the only goal at the Reebok. That sent Bolton into the semi finals against Lazio and an Anelka double earned a 3-1 win in Italy before a 1-1 at Reebok Stadium secured Bolton’s first-ever European Final!
Anelka Returns To Inspire Bolton
Anelka returned after three months out, during which Bolton won three out of 12, with a brace to inspire a 2-1 win at Newcastle and the only goal at West Ham. He also scored the opener in a 2-0 win at Sheff U that lifted Bolton to 2nd in early March. The form fell off a little as they focused on European matters but Pablo Piatti’s injury-time winner at Everton wrapped up Champions League qualification.
Mahtal’s side tied the club’s all-time record finish of 3rd, previously achieved way back in 1891/92. They finished on 73 points, which would have only secured 6th last season, after 22 wins, 7 draws and 9 defeats and scoring 70 and conceding 42 (which, unusually, were the same tallies as last season). Anelka was the second-best player in the league with his 7.49 average rating only bettered by Cristiano Ronaldo’s 7.76. He was also the fourth-top scorer with 19 in 22, only 6 fewer than Drogba’s 25 in 34, and got a league-high 9 player of the match awards.
Historic UEFA Cup Final
Bolton’s opponent in their historic first European final was a strong Valencia side that boasts terrifying attacking options David Silva, Vicente, Sergio Agüero, David Villa, Juan Mata and Joaquin. The two sides met in Spain at Athletic Club’s San Mamés. Mahtal didn’t have any injury concerns coming into the big game, but his big quandary was who to play out wide as his wingers were in pretty poor form. But he eventually went with the starting lineup of:
Jääskeläinen; Hunt, Suchy, Pique, Traoré; Vaz Té, Nolan, Piatti, Braaten; Davies, Anelka
Subs: Carroll, Grohe, Jørgensen, Camacho, Mirallas, Bocaly, Amaral, Helguson, Bong, Payet, Teixeira, Kerlon
One of those winger decisions paid off early on as a superb run by Piatti saw the ball played into Vaz Té, who laid it off for homegrown full back Nicky Hunt to drill in a low opener on 7 minutes. Valencia probably had the better of the first half and levelled up through Agüero just before half time, then the two sides played out an even second half.
Mahtal rang the changes and one of them instantly delivered early in extra time as Vaz Té’s low cross was flicked home delightfully by Carroll at the front post. Valencia countered straight from the kick off and Jussi pulled off a superb save from Villa’s strike. But they levelled up again through Julio Baptista (who, ironically, played for Bolton in real life) in the fourth of two minutes of first-half injury time and immediately went in front after the break. Despite Mahtal throwing everything at it, that double strike killed the game off, so Valencia were UEFA Cup winners.
Mahtal had well and truly usurped Big Sam by leading the club into the Champions League for the first time and coming within 15 minutes of its first-ever European trophy. Their success was again thanks to Anelka’s 27 goals in 36 games, which was more than double next top scorer Carroll (12) followed by Braaten and Davies (10) and Vaz Té and Nolan (8). Piatti impressed with a club-high 12 assists followed by Vaz Té (11) and Mirallas (10), while Jussi proved vital with 20 clean sheets and a 7.11 average rating.
Could Mahtal and Bolton step things up a level next season? And how would he go about strengthening for the Champions League? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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