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traveltrainsandcoffee · 8 months ago

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THE FFL END OF SEASON REVIEW 2023/24

The summer of 2023. Australia had retained the Ashes, bloody Manchester rain and a very controversial stumping. In football Man City had won the treble in May, but the big talk in the Premiership and FFL was about Harry Kane. Kane had been in most people’s teams for many years, but was probably leaving Spurs, but where? City, United? Spain? Germany or the Saudi Pro league. Several stars followed CR7 to Saudi Arabia, including Manager Steven Gerrard with his dodgy attempted Arabic and Jordon Henderson who caused a stir after always supporting LGBT+ then moving to a country which strictly banned such things.

The FFL had been won by a Colin for the last 3 seasons. The Hawk had the title and back in May he stated that he was only a couple of dodgy weekends off the treble. Could he go even better, what about Our Grimsby Roma. In 2022 he set a world record point’s score in winning the league. Mark Taylor had led the league, but ran out of steam and players finishing second, could he challenge again. Senol Durmush and Andy Flanagan had both won cups and were among the favourites. Could Kieron Mullin get back to winning ways?

The Euros awaiting at the end of the season, but just before the season started sad news. Former work colleague and friend Steven Spence died. Spenny won the 2004 Euro FFL. Rest in peace mate.

New managers joined FFL, both had had a go in the World cup, now the real thing for Holly Shakeshaft and Blessing Charumbira. FFL had now had members from Europe, North America, South America and now Africa. It then looked like Kane was staying, but just at the deadline Kane went to Germany and my phone exploded with managers frantically changing their strikers, well a couple missed the deadline and had to start with only 20 players. Thanks Harry. Milner was still in FFL, 3 years after I said it was the end for him Barista Sarah put him in the Team Aroma. So as England were battling and eventually losing in the final of the Women's World cup, The FFL started, with The Hawk as the early leader, with Senol, Paul Taylor and The Knightrider best of the rest.

September started with the return of Origi to the Premier league with Forest. Some managers in FFL seemed more interested in the size of his err, appendage than his football skills. The Hawk was starting ok, but behind the scenes all was not well, angry worried texts from him showed how many players were missing. His team was falling apart and in real trouble. A very understrength Hawk was beaten by Senol Durmush in the Bennett's Shield and went into freefall. Senol was going very well at the top of the league, but with many players injured, many FFL teams were suffering penalty points already. After a poor start Mark Taylor went for an Ice-cream with Harry Maguire at Mablethorpe. By the end of September Senol was still top, facing an unlikely challenge from Team Aroma, yes Team Aroma were doing well. That will never last.

October and VAR madness was in the headlines. A complete breakdown in communications between the VAR bunker and the ref resulted in a total mess. Liverpool and Liverpool fans felt a total injustice. Disco Lee Ritchie had a good online moan. The PGMOL stated that human error was to blame. In the champion’s league first group stage, Tappy, Sally Sands, Andy Flanagan and Mark Taylor were top of the groups. The Hawk was having a nightmare and was out. The month also saw the passing of Francis Lee and Bill Kenwright, along with World cup winner Sir Bobby Charlton. Bobby was probably England’s greatest ever player. In the league only 1 point between the top three of Jon Thomson, Team Aroma and Senol Durmush. Yes Team Aroma were still challenging.

November and three things I didn’t expect to be saying. Cameron back in the cabinet, Farage going into the jungle and Team Aroma top of the league. Our Grimsby Roma questioned how on earth have they done this? This would be a start of a great run by Team Aroma. Aroma famous for always doing badly, famous for some very dodgy player picks were top, clear and pulling away. Definitely their greatest FFL run in their history. Not so great news for Everton as they were deducted a record 10 points for spending far less than Chelsea, and Man City, but more than their Premiership allowance would permit. That’s fair play for you. Everton would get 4 points back on appeal, but have another 2 points taken for the same reason during mostly the same time period??? Forest had points deducted too. Imagine how many points they would have been deducted if they had spent as much as Chelsea have in the last two seasons? Man City had 115 charges hanging over their head, but this may take till the end of time to deal with. FFP and VAR would really spoil this season.

More sad news as former England manager Terry Venables sadly died. I don’t think anyone our age will forget the summer of 96. Early December and a bad injury to Goalkeeper Pope would have a huge impact on many teams. With Ramsdale not playing, Allison injured and so many defenders missing, this season would see more penalty points than ever before. In the champions league second group stages it was very tight. The final games saw last season’s winner Andy Flanagan along with Sally Sands, Kieron Mullin and Colin Fenwick through to the semi-finals. Mary Earps won SPOTY and had a Nottingham tram named after her. The AROMA TRAIN kept on rolling, they were now 30 points clear at the top and the Christmas number one. Could this be a Leicester city moment, could anyone stop them?

Over Christmas and New Year so much happened. Rishi came to Lincoln and even met Blessing’s mum in Sainsburys.. Orange netting flapping around in the wind caused panic at Blackpool tower, Klopp broke Tsimikas collarbone and the world was being introduced to the oldest looking 16 year old, Luke ‘the nuke’ Littler. Joey Barton started mouthing off against women in football and generally making a fool of himself. My German trip didn’t go very well. Firstly Harry Kane didn’t join me in the Augustiner Keller, then angry farmers, rail strikes, delays and rail replacement buses brought misery. More sad news as one of the world’s greatest ever players Franz Beckenbauer passed away. Back in Lincoln for my birthday and that life size cut out of Divock Origi was still stalking me from behind the bar in Red5. During all this time Team Aroma were top and clear. Barista Shann wanted to make room for the trophy, Olivia started writing a Team Aroma chant. There was even talk of an open top TVR ride along Guildhall Street with the trophy, if they won. You can almost see Andy driving, with Sarah and Shann in the back holding up the trophy. January ended with the news that Klopp would be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season. Lots of tears from Disco, Holly and half of Merseyside. Jordan Henderson hadn’t settled in Saudi and wanted out. I donated to Stonewall and ActionAid again, when asked on the website why I was donating I simply put ‘disappointed with Jordan Henderson’. A bit of edge crept into FFL. A few digs at Team Aroma from some managers including Colin Fenwick comparing it to an infinite number of monkeys writing the complete works of Shakespeare. Team Aroma’s Sarah came firing back. Not with Keegan style madness, but with Shakespeare. Not since the days of Flannery , Padgham and Burnett battling with Flynny and Mullin had we seen such scenes.

The FA cup. Team Aroma, Our Grimsby Roma and Jon Thomson got first round byes. The first leg of both champions league semi-finals were both draws. The FA CUP 1st round saw wins for Duncan Mackenzie who beat Gareth Dyke, Danny Lawson hammered Holly, Pam Taylor beat Andy Flanagan and Kieron beat Blessing. The tie of the round saw FA cup holder Senol beat Disco Lee Ritchie by 2 points. Blessing overlooked this disappointment and started crowing about Arsenal winning the league this season. Colin Fenwick won his champions league semi against holder Andy Flanagan, while Kieron beat Sally in the other semi. These were good days for Our Grimsby Roma, a Champions league final, starting to close the gap on Team Aroma and last 8 in the FA cup. Possible treble? The second round saw Jon beat Duncan, Kieron beat Danny and Colin beat Pam. Senol beat Team Aroma. More bad news for Aroma as the lead was being chipped away. Sad news as German world cup winner Andres Brehme died. Under pressure Roy Hodgson ended up in hospital and eventually left Palace. Liverpool WON the EFL cup, ‘beating the blue billion dollar bottle jobs’ Chelsea, not my words, but the words of Gary Neville.

In the FFL, the dream was over. After leading for 3 and a half months, key injuries saw Team Aroma slide down the table. Both Kieron Mullin and Colin Fenwick were going for the treble. The champion’s league first leg saw Kieron get a 2 point lead. Penalty points were hurting so many teams. Jon Thomson was 3 points clear of Kieron with Danny Lawson 3rd. The FA Cup semi-final saw Jon beat Kieron and Colin beat Senol. This ended Kieron’s treble dream and Senol’s hold on the FA cup. As Easter approached Jon had 15 point lead at the top.

Easter and it's very tight at the top. The penalty points have kept scores lower this year, but it’s very close between Jon Thomson, Kieron Mullin, Colin Fenwick and Danny Lawson. There was a national outcry as Nike changed the England Flag on the England shirt, not to mention the price £125. In FFL in one week every single manager apart from Holly got penalty points. Kieron Mullin won the first trophy of 2024 in winning the champions league. This was Kieron's 13th FFL trophy, an FFL record and the end of Colin Fenwick treble dream. It was also around this time that we were all introduced to the term 'Pickfordsexual' now I'm pretty clued up on the modern gender and sexual spectrum, but this one was new to me.

Harry Kane left spurs to win titles, unfortunately as the saying goes 'you can take the boy from Spurs, but you can’t take the Spurs from the boy' for the first time in 12 years Bayern München didn't win the league. Poor Harry, you really should have joined me for that beer at the Augustiner Keller.

By April Jon was 13 clear at the top of the league and preparing for an FA Cup final. Possible double. A bad couple of games for Arsenal saw them lose ground in the league and out of Europe. Blessing who had been very confident of their success was crushed, so much so that he started quoting Friedrich Nietzsche. This along with Sarah Henderson quoting Shakespeare makes you think ' whatever happened to the days of people shouting I would Love it if we beat them, love it.' More sad news as Joe Kinnear died, I remember seeing him as a manager on the touchline at a couple of games.

Late April and something very strange happened. Everton who started to improve beat Forest 2 nil. However 3 possible Forest penalty shouts were not given and VAR didn’t get involved. Forest issued a statement after the game accusing the Premier league of putting a Luton fan in the VAR box and that they were considering their options. This felt like full on tinfoil hat conspiracy time. Who was to blame for this very miss-guided statement? Nuno, The strange Greek owner or Mark Clattenburg in his vague ref advisory role at Forest. Most of the footballing world came out and condemned Forest. The FA talked of charging them with bringing the game into disrepute. Then shortly afterwards Clattenburg left his role at Forest. 'Clattenburg, you will go on my first whistle.' The FA Cup final was an all Italian affair as Juvejon played Our Grimsby Roma. Klopp and Salah had their touch line bust up, I was watching the game in a pub in Norwich with Holly Shakeshaft. We were given the true London stadium feel as the TV screen was about 5 miles from where we were sat. Colin Fenwick won the FA cup final by 4 points to win his 3rd FFL. Liverpool had found Klopps replacement, A Dutchman who looks like a cross between MVG and Matt Lucas called. Arne Slot.

May and the FFL was becoming a 2 maybe 3 horse race. Jon Thomson was top, with Kieron Mullin 2nd and Our Grimsby Roma 3rd, but 15 points back. Leicester City were heading back to the Premiership, Bayern were knocked out of Europe and Kane would again finish trophyless. The hammer blow, the KO came in the final few Man City games. Defender Gvardiol, who had missed a chunk of the season started scoring goals and keeping clean sheets. He got Kieron 12 points in only 2 games. Going into the final Premiership weekend Kieron was 15 points clear of Jon at the top.

The final weekend of the season saw Usyk beat Fury, Man City win their 4th Premier title in a row and Liverpool fans said their tearful goodbyes to Klopp. Kieron Mullin had all but wrapped up the FFL title. A now 17 point lead and with similar players left in the FA Cup meant he couldn’t really be caught. Moyes left West Ham, Pochettino was sacked. Luke Littler won the Premier League of darts and Rishi called a general Election. During his attempt at being a normal bloke he asked a group of Welsh guys if they were looking forward to the football (Euros). Wales haven't qualified.

The FA Cup final saw a mix up in City's defence and Utd go one up, two, no its offside , but soon it was two nil. Final few minutes and it 2v1. Utd hang on and win the FA Cup. No double for City, but is Ten Hag still getting the sack?

So Kieron added The FFL title to his Champions League title a record 14th career trophy, amazing when you consider he got -50 in penalty points. Jon Thomson took second place and Colin Fenwick 3rd. Colin also won the FA Cup. Team Aroma had their highest ever finish of 8th and made the champions league for the first time ever. A brilliant season for them, but it all felt disappointing after once being 30 points clear at the top, Andrew, Sarah, Shann, Olivia and the rest lamenting what might have been. The final champions league spot went to Blessing, by just 2 points over Tappy.

Thank you for a great Season, really great fun, soon be time for Euro FFL and we go again for the main event starting again in August

2 Final thoughts.

1. Will Kane ever win a trophy?

2. Can Team Aroma repeat this again next season?

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