This is the story of my first season with my favourite team, Liverpool! I started this game about 4 weeks after I had purchased Championship Manager 9900, after failed games with Barcelona and Lazio. I realized that being big clubs like Barcelona was too easy, so I went for what I thought was a challenge with Liverpool. I was no stranger to Championship Manager, having had Champ 2 and Champ 9394.

The first thing I did was transfer all of the players which I knew I would not play. Among these names was Jamie Redknapp, Phil Babb, Stephane Henchoz, and Steve Staunton. I was extremely surprised at the response I got, seemingly the other clubs in CM thought alot of these players whixh led to Jamie Redknapp being sold to Celtic for £5.25M, Staunton back to Aston Villa for £2.2M, Henchoz to Spurs for £5.75, and a £2.8M offer from West Ham for Rigobert Song was accepted and went through. This left with me with around £30M to spend, but I thought I did not need any players as the squad was booming with talent!

A friendly away to Reading, and then Crewe proved me wrong. After getting beat 2-1 by Reading and 2-0 by Crewe, I knew a change of formation and tactics was needed! I looked at my squad and had two great defensive midfielders in Dietmar Hamann and Steven Gerrard. I had two good midfielders in Patrick Berger and David Thompson. I looked at Thompson's stats amd realised he was a great player so I decided he would make the cut, after poor performances from Vladimir Smicer, who was later transfer listed and sold to Lyon for £7M. Erik Miejer played well against Reading and Crew, but with Folwer avalible and Owen coming back soon, he would eventually lose is place. I decided I needed a great attacking midfielder who could play well in a free role position, and I found this in Joe Cole.

I managed to get Joe Cole for £8.75M with other fees based on appearances. He was injured for my first game at home to Wimbledon, so Titi Camara was played where Cole would eventually play. We beat Wimbledon 2-1 with Erik Miejer scoring both goals, but we got beat in our next match away to Middlesbrough 1-0. But after that match we then went 8 games without getting beat. Included in that was a 2-0 home stomping of Newcastle, with Robbie Fowler scoring both and a hard fought 2-3 victory against Bradford, with Miejer scoring 2 and Joe Cole scoring on his debut. Included in that streak was a 5-0 aggerate win over Man City in the League Cup, Michael Owen was back and back in style, scoring a hat trick against Manchester United at home, but the game ended up 3-3. Joe Cole was playing astounding, with an 8.50 average. But it was his old club West Ham that beat us 1-0 at Upton Park with a late winner from Wanchope. We then suffered a 3-0 thrasing from Leeds United at Elland Road, but took our angry out on Southampton in the next match, beating them 5-1.

After that we lost a few and won a few, but our League Cup form did not drop, as beat Coventry 3-0 at home, and then Norwich 2-5 away! We were playing great, we proceeded to beat Crew 3-2 at home in the FA Cup and then beat our rivals Everton 3-1 at home.

This was now around Christmas time, and with Joe Cole, Michael Owen and Patrik Berger playing remarkably well other teams took notice. A £10M offer from Arsenal and Manchester United for Patrik Berger was rejected, but a £20M offer from Barcelona for Michael Owen was not. He agreed terms and left us for the Nou Camp. I knew this was a huge gamble, but could not say no to a £10M profit. With the money I bought in Emile Hesky, knowing that if he did not produce, I would slip up badly. He did produce though, scoring two on his debut and a futher hat trick a few games later against Spurs at home in the League.

By now we were 3rd in the league behind Arsenal and Manchester United, and were only 6 points behind Manchester United .We beat Man United 3-2 on aggergate in the League Cup Semi Final but were beaten in the FA Cup 5th Round 2-1 by a Manchester City team, feeling vengefull after their League Cup 2nd Round exit! We continued winning games in the league, but a 4-0 thrashing against Manchester United and a 2-2 home draw with Arsenal pretty much ended title hopes. We beat Lecister 3-2 in the League Cup Final, with Patrik Berger scoring all of them, and they were all free kicks! After the Leage Cup Final, a 2-0 beating from Sunderland and a 4-3 home win for Chelsea put us into 6th postion, batteling against Leeds and Chelsea for a better Cash Prize. Europe had already been secured.

It came down to the last game of the season to see who won the league between Arsenal and Manchester United, and to see who who came 4th between me and Leeds, with Chelsea slipping up big time in the previous games. Arsenal beat Lecister away 3-0, but Manchester United hammered Bradford 5-0 at Old Trafford. I finished the season in style, with a 5-1 win over Derby, which included a Joe Cole double, and one from Fowler, Hesky and Berger.

All and all the board were pleased with my performance, as I was told to get a respectable league postion. Joe Cole finished top goalscorer in the whole Premiership, with 24 goals, he also made the Priemership Team Of The Year, along with Sami Hyppia, Patrik Berger and Robbie Fowler. Robbie Folwer was voted Fans Player Of The Year, while Joe Cole came second to Robbie Keane in Young Player Of The Year. One of the players that impressed me alot was David Thompson, after a few games he started playing great, he was always going to be outshone by Patrik Berger who scored nearly every free kick and especially by Joe Cole, who finished top goalscorer. But I will guarentee that when you reach at least season 5, David Thompson will be great!

acidburnz920

(You can find acidburnz920's tactic for Liverpool in the download area)