My time in charge of Santos has come to an end and I am happy to pass it over to Aird who now takes control of the club and do what he see's fit for us.
This is what he is taking over from:
Club World Championship
Our very first game in charge was the final of the Club World Championship against the mighty Barcelona. After going ahead early on through Leo it all went downhill. Messi missed a penalty which would have seen Barca pull level as we held on despite a sever battering. The favourites eventually pulled it back through Sanchez in the second half and went all out to secure the match with the Chilean scoring again before Dracena sent the ball into his own net to give the Spanish and European Champions a 3-1 victory.
Sao Paulo State Championship
The State Championship proved to be somewhat of a formality for Santos as they cruised to victory in the competition blowing everybody else away ending the tournament losing only one of nineteen games in the league phase, against Gremio Baruei scoring an impressive 44 goals in the process conceding only 6 in the process.
The top 8 sides then qualify for the knockout stages and we were paired up against Americana in the quarter final before beating Gremio Baruei in the semis to face Palmerias in the two legged final. We played the first leg away from home and came away as victors following a 1-0 triumph setting us up nicely for the 2nd leg at home. We fell behind early on to a Kleber goal and things were very tense until Souza was sent off just after half time. We piled on the pressure and eventually pulled it back on the night courtesy of a Henrique own goal. We were then also reduced to ten men as our own Henrique was sent off with just over ten minutes left. We kept the same shape and held out to keep the game at 1-1 and give us a 2-1 aggregate victory and officially be crowned as Sao Paulo State Champions.
Copa Libertadores
We sauntered through the group stages picking up maximum points following double victories over Botafogo, O'Higgins and Leon de Huanuco. That put us through to the knockout stages however we fell at the first hurdle to Argentine side Independiente following a shock 6-2 loss.
Brazilian National First Division
My time in charge saw me start the campaign to be crowned as First Division Champions and it has been a bit of an indifferent start to this competition. Aird takes over with the club sitting in 7th place, but only 6 points off top, after 10 matches played.
Good luck Aird. The save file should be in your pm box on Monday night.
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