Kaiserslautern 2 Liverpool 1. Istanbul. European champions. Neyzinho 6. Fabinho levelled on 54 and for five minutes I could feel the whole thing going. Noukeu 59. Seven years ago this board told me they didn't have the confidence in me to fund a coaching course. There's a European trophy in the Fritz-Walter now. Still no coaching course.
Champions. And then this, on the BBC, before I'd said a word to anyone at the club: "Sources at Wolves have reportedly revealed that Falkirk's Ethan Vaux has applied for the manager's job." So that's how the players found out. Six years. Partick, Dumbarton, here. Challenge Cup runners-up last season, champions this one. 30 years old and apparently I have a reputation for signing anyone under 23. The trophy is in the building. I'd like one day with it before I start answering questions about Wolves.
38 games. 33 won, 5 drawn, 0 lost. 104 points, +103. Fourth title in a row. Barcelona got 97 and lost three all year, which in any other season is a championship and in this one is second. 78,251 a week, 82% of the ground. I keep waiting to feel something other than tired.
Top of the Championship on New Year's Day. Joel Macbeath took Young Player of the Month for December, 12 in 23, and he's told the papers I'm the reason for it, which is generous of him. We got him from Ross County. They gave me the manager's award the same morning. First one of those I've had.
38 games. 36 won, 2 drawn, 0 lost. 110 points and a goal difference of 110. Third title in a row, 99% of the ground full every week, Haaland 37 in the league. The board are pleased. Pleased.
Spanish Cup. 3-2. Nico Williams scored on 35 and again on 45. Torres and Osimhen levelled it inside two minutes just after the hour and I genuinely thought we'd gone. Yeray headed the winner on 82. Osimhen off on 84 and I couldn't tell you one thing about the last six minutes. Two years ago my own profile page told me I had achieved no landmarks. I read that page more often than I should have.
Erling Haaland: 61 goals in 34 appearances. European Golden Shoe. His score is 122. Messi's best on that list is 100, from 2011-12. Nobody else is within forty of him. Lukaku got 25 and finished second.
5th. 52 points from 27, and the single draw in there annoys me more than the nine defeats. No silverware. My own profile still reads "no landmarks have been achieved yet" every time I open it, which is a very polite way of putting it. We did beat Barcelona 3-0 and knock City out of Europe. It's a start.
Second league title in a row. 73,190 a week, 90% of the ground. The cup run: Albacete away 3-0. Leganes away 2-0. Granada away 5-0. Villarreal 4-1 and 1-0. Not a goal conceded in five rounds. Then 0-0 and penalties in the final. The board's grade for that run is a C-, with a note that they are "disappointed that the team only reached the Final". Only reached the Final.
Spanish Cup final. 19 shots to 6. Seven on target to one. xG 2.01 to 0.58. Carvajal sent off on 102. 0-0. Penalties: 8-7 Atletico. Fifteen of the first sixteen went in. Koke missed and for about forty seconds I thought we had it. Then Skriniar missed. Fofana scored. Camavinga didn't. Staff report calls it "a fantastic performance according to xG". Yes. That is rather the problem.
4-3. Uriarte 3, Ganea 26. Luduena got one back in first half stoppage time. Puig made it 3-2 on 79. Capa 86, Villalibre 90+1 and I thought that was that. Reis scored for them in the 96th minute. Retained. I have never wanted a whistle more.
Six journalists turned up to the press conference. I counted them. The question — the actual question I was asked — was whether I take pride in how many of our goals are headers. We're 3rd, 55 points from 31. Two star reputation. This is the level of scrutiny I'm working under and I have never felt more understood
San Mames, 53,332, and Barcelona never got going. Muniain twice inside 21 minutes, Villalibre after the break. 3-0. I get told I'm too young for this job roughly once a week. Not tonight.
Manchester City are out. 1-1 here, 2-1 on aggregate. Garmendia scored it and then missed a penalty on 68 that would have finished the tie, so the last twenty minutes took a year off me. 23 shots to 6. Jon Ruiz's 150th for the club, and the first he's conceded in 223 minutes.
Skriniar scored in the 2nd minute. Villalibre equalised on 83. Inaki Williams won it in the 117th. 25 shots. 25 fouls. Lekue won every tackle he went into, 8.4. Commentator said afterwards he could just about have pictured us holding on for a draw, but that he "certainly didn't see Los Leones prevailing". Neither did Barcelona.
Lost 5-0 at Leipzig. The players have decided to personally refund every supporter who bought a ticket through the club. Out of their own wages. Over $65,000 of it. Grill told the club site they felt they'd let the travelling support down. Nobody asked them to do that.
3-0. Popovic got all three — 44, 62, 71 — and a 9.0. Staff report grades it "an okay performance" on the basis that our xG was 1.64 to their 1.42. He is 19 and he scored a hat-trick. Okay performance.
Transfer budget for next season: €0. Not "limited". Zero. And there's a note underneath letting me know the guaranteed minimum for the season AFTER that is also zero, so I don't get carried away. Scouting budget €1,798. Club balance minus €665,816. Financial status, in writing: "Insecure". Thanks, I'd never have worked that out. Gate receipts this month came to €83. TV money a flat zero, as it has been every month. We did turn €9,796 profit in July though. Committed wages are already €30k over what we're allowed to spend. Pre-season starts Monday. Should be fun.
Twelve journalists in, all very pleased with themselves, and the opening question is whether Skriniar and Nacho can coexist. Skriniar is sitting next to me while it's asked. The game has him marked Downcast. Nacho is 32, highly influential in that dressing room, morale excellent, and I have already promised him he starts. I said if a player deserves to play he plays, and that these decisions get made on merit rather than reputation. Both of them heard it. That was the point.
7th in the Croatian Second League. Board expected mid-table so I've been given a B- and they have described themselves as "delighted". Delighted with 7th. Average home attendance 1,429, which the game helpfully tells me is 14% of the ground. So roughly 8,500 empty seats a week. Jazvic got 12 of our goals. First season anywhere, I'll take it.
