With the £16m profit from the previous seasons trading I'd notched up a juicy transfer budget of £70m! I decided if i was going to challenge for the champions league I'd need some quality players so i tried for Neymar. To my shock even a £80m bid was rejected so it seemed he was off limits, i instead turned to Edinson Cavani who had wanted out of Napoli to their poor standings in Serie A - a steal at £12m.
I also needed someone solid on the left of midfield so i spent a record £31m and brought in Eden Hazard from Lille.
Chamakh moved on to Sampdoria for £5m and Park Chu Young to Sevilla for £6.25m and I'd finally got a permanent deal for Diaby to Koln at £4m - linked with the sale of a lot more reserve and young players I'd taken in a total of £28.5m.
Changing of the Guard
After Derby had beat Man Utd in the FA Cup final i was expecting a tight Community Shield clash but ended up 2-0 victors. We then went on to win out first 8 league games included home victories against Spurs and Liverpool, the money seemed well spent, but 3 straight defeats to follow, all in different competitions - Liverpool got revenge and knocked us out of the carling cup at the 4th round, Man City who had matched me for all but 3 points so far were now the main rivals in the league had snatched a 1-0 win over me in manchester - and then AC Milan beat us in the champions league group stages.
Another 5 straight league wins were to follow and November saw me claim my 10th Manager of the Month Award :) We then got revenge on home soil over AC Milan and were for the first time winning the group. A loss at everton had allowed City to catch up in the league and i could tell it was going to be a fight all the way to the end of the season. Over Christmas i had a crazy schedule of 4 games in 7 days 3 of which were Man Utd (H) Chelsea (A) & Spurs (A), the final being west brom at home. I managed to beat United 3-1 but a 2-0 loss at chelsea and 2-2 at spurs had allowed city to take control of the league and they didn't look like dropping points anytime soon.
Catching Up
This year's Champions League had drawn us with Juventus which ended up a 9-1 Aggregate win and also saw Real Madrid drop out to Man City in the first knockout round. With Barcelona failing to qualify from their group i could sense a chance of winning the trophy for first time!
From 16/2/2014 to the end of the season i had managed to only drop points once - an away loss to united, however i also lost another FA Cup Semi to them on penalties but the epic run of wins was enough to seal the title for a 3rd consecutive year, much to the delight of the board.
But i wasn't done there, I drew Inter Milan in the Quarter finals of the CL and managed to coast a 2-1 away victory and rounded off with a 1-0 at home, Zenit awaited in the Semi finals. With this being a CL Semi final i expected more of a challenge but 4-0 home and 2-0 wins secured a final place... against Man City.
City had been the pests all season and i really thought i was going to lose but Cavani started it all off with a 3rd minute goal and Willian made it 2-0 before the ½hour mark, city pulled one back before half time. I was dominating possession so i left the attacking side unchanged and Cavani got his 2nd in the 49th minute. Then City saw Darijo Srna see red in the 64th and surely now I couldn't be caught. But Aguero pulled one back just moments later and it was really end to end stuff. Walcott made it 4-2 in the 80th minute and Cavani sealed a hat trick with an injury time penalty and finally I'd been crowned Champions of Europe! :D
Gallery
The Champions League Final
Final League Standings
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