With the domestic competitions becoming somewhat of a formality, the only challenge that is currently presenting itself on the home front is, frankly, beating records having been set by ourselves.
This season, we managed to go unbeaten, drawing only four times, and shipping just 6 goals in 28 league matches. The FA Trophy was just as easily won, although we did concede 2 goals in the first match, only to go on to win it without conceding again.
In the Champions League, we managed another run to the Playoff stage, seeing off Andorra's Santa Coloma (5-2 agg) and the Estonian side Flora (4-0 agg) before falling again at the last hurdle to Swedish side Örebro (2-4 agg).
This meant participation for the second time in the Europa League group stages, where we were pitted against Trabzonspor (0-0h; 4-0a), Braga (1-0a; 1-2h) and Real Madrid (having a certain 35-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo in their ranks, 2-0a; 0-3h), thus we finished bottom of the group with just 1 point and 1 goal.
This run, however, brought another windfall, meaning the bank balance now rose to a beautiful £10M, a fraction of which, after the end of the season, is being spent on further expanding the stadium, and in building a youth academy.
After seeing no progress for quite some time, I decided to step down from my post as Malta Under-21 manager, which I felt, for the time being, was becoming an unnecessary burden. In the rankings, both the Maltese Premier League and Mdina Knights did well, rising 49 to 142nd and 57 to 252nd respectively.
After a short foray in the Europa League (which although included a 7-1 home win against Montenegrin team Lovcen, ended in the 3rd Qualifying Round with defeat to Scotland's Falkirk), the Knights immediately set to continue the impressive run of eight consecutive wins with which we finished last season, winning the first round of the FA Trophy, and then the first three matches in the league.
This form was continued all season, losing just twice, drawing twice, and winning the rest, winning the league with 5 games to spare and breaking both points and goals records (which stood at 60 and 62 respectively), and the FA Trophy; conceding just 15 times in 28 league matches, and only once in the Trophy (a 92nd minute penalty in the Final).
Following such successes during the season, the board decided to upgrade my training facilities, and to build a youth academy, with the hope of nurturing young Maltese talent, hopefully to start competing with foreign players.
The Maltese Premier League climbed 49 places to 191st in the Competition Rankings, whilst Mdina Knights moved up 12 places to 305th in the European Club Rankings.
Having only qualified for the Europa League this season following last year's success in the Champions League, it is unnecessary to say that I was quite disappointed to be eliminated in the first qualifying round to Flamurtari.
However, with every cloud comes a silver lining, and I saw this as an opportunity for us to focus on the domestic league this season, and ensure that come next season we would be competing in the Champions League again. But this was seemingly not to be; another disastrous start to the campaign, which again saw us being eliminated from the first round of the FA trophy, this time to Floriana, and inconsistency in the league saw us occupying a lowly 5th position at the start of February, 14 points off the pace.
Something really had to be done. The squad which had traveled far and wide in the Champions League the previous season was growing old, and the new recruits which I had brought in since did not have the impact I was hoping for (although one of them had proved to be a gem).
To show the extent of our troubles, it is enough to mention that by the start of February, my top scorer was a central defender, with just three goals. Thus I kindly asked the board to eliminate any restrictions on our scouting range, and after complying, I was then free to scout the world for talent.
In the January transfer window 7 new players were brought in, six of which were Nigerian, and the other Libyan, amounting to £850K (one of these players was attracting interest far and wide, and had offers from Barcelona and Real Madrid, amongst others, rejected!) After training facilities were improved the previous summer, several new coaches were brought in, the highlight of which was Michael Carrick.
After undergoing so many changes, I was afraid results would, if possible, turn even worse. However, it was not so, and we went on a great run of form, finishing the season on a run of eight consecutive victories, which saw us run Sliema close to first place, finishing just one point behind in second.
The new signings had clearly worked their magic, with six of the seven finishing in the best 11 for the season (and the one that didn't was because I bought two left wingers), and one of them scoring 9 goals in 13 appearances to finish top scorer (the central defender Akanji went on to score an impressive 7 goals). Note that 13 goals were scored in the first 15 matches of the season; 33 were scored in the last 13 matches!
This influx of foreigners however, brought with it a moral, if anything, problem; my team at the start of the 2019-20 season (just after the summer transfer window opened) comprised of 10 Maltese players, 11 Nigerians, a Brazilian, a Libyan, and an Uruguayan. This meant my team was more foreign than Maltese. However, the positives here far outweigh the negatives, and I am certainly not going to wait for Maltese talent to catch up with the quality of my team, I will just simply ensure that my scouts are correctly placed to catch any budding Maltese talent, until then, I will only buy the best possible players for my team.
Mdina moved 18 places up the European ladder following the 18-19 season to 315th position, while the Maltese Premier League also rose, by 73 places, to 240th place.
A season which started in such well-documented success in the Champions League could, and really should have carried on to end with success at the local level.However, football rarely ever follows logical paths, and that is exactly what happened this season.
For several possible reasons, one of the most probable being the increased amount of games played during the season, performance in the domestic league was, to say the least, a shambles. The traditional opening of the domestic season, the first round of the Maltese Cup saw us bow down to St. Andrew's, who would eventually finish the season last in the bottom league.
This was followed by losses in the first two Premier League Matches, and then by four straight victories, a taster of the inconsistency which would characterize the season to come. Perhaps low morale due to several losses in the Europa League group stage also played their part, as this was clearly a team capable of big things on the local stage, with more and more foreigners interested in plying their trade in Maltese football.
This posed yet another problem however, rather than increase the team's capabilities. These new signings barely seemed to want to gel in with their team-mates, and with the language barrier posing a real hindrance to this process, I had to resort to play as much of my Maltese contingent as possible, after which results gradually started to improve again, although it was then too little too late, and I finished the season third, which meant I missed out on the Champions League, and another great windfall.
The end of the season brought with it, however, some good news. The board announced they would be increasing the stadium capacity by 3200 (at a cost of £2M) and also that they would be improving training facilities (at a cost of £1.4M). Furthermore, they decided to turn professional again.
Mdina Knights obtained quite a good European coefficient for this season, rising up 108 places to 327th in the Club Rankings, whilst the Premier League dropped 75 places to 313th.
Since Malta's coefficients had dropped over the previous season, this year saw me enter the Champions League at the First Qualifying Phase, pitting me against Luxembourg's champions Jeunesse d'Esch-Altezze. Confident that this might be our first ever victory against international opposition, I fielded a defensive formation in the away leg, keeping the score 0-0. The return leg was the first ever game in the new stadium. And what a befitting way to open the venue, for the Knights overcame all my initial expectations by completing a 6-0 rout over their opponents.
However, I did not expect continued success, being drawn against Croatia's Dinamo in the Second Qualifying Phase. In the first leg, which was played at the Mdina Knights Stadium, we managed an incredible 2-1 victory, albeit Dinamo had 2 men sent off in the 57th minute, whilst leading 0-1.
Thus, reasoning that I had won due to numerical advantage, I didn't hold much hope away from home, especially since they had an invaluable away goal. However, as fate would have it, not only did I manage not to succumb to a thrashing, but managed to hold them to a 2-2 draw after extra time, finishing the match with 8 men!
This was already an incredible achievement, and all the further I progressed meant more and more windfall when I was finally eliminated. The Third Qualifying Phase pitted the Knights against the Georgians Dinamo Tbilisi, another though match to endure.
After winning the first leg 2-1 in Tbilisi, I started to doubt whether this was all down to luck, or whether my team was really at such a high standard. Such a precious lead, with 2 away goals was then followed by another 2-1 victory at the Mdina Knights Stadium, meaning I had progressed to the Playoff, where the victor would eventually play in the Champions League Group stages.
Although I was so close to playing in the Group Stages, I certainly did not expect to progress against such formidable opposition as Austria Wien, and although we put up a tremendous fight, we could do nothing to stop them from progressing, losing 2-1 away from home, and then 0-1 at home.
This is certainly unbelievable progress, and has certainly shown me that my goal of winning the Champions League is certainly possible, and maybe not so far along in the future as I had previously anticipated.
Moreover, financially, it was even more rewarding; winning a total of £2,000,000 in prize money and almost £1,000,000 in gate receipts and match-day income. Hopefully this will be a huge catalyst in the increase of both Mdina Knights' and the Maltese Premier League's reputations, and enable us to buy ever better players.
Update - I did not notice before, but progressing so far has landed me in the Europa League Group stages! More prize money and more gate receipts :D
I'm certain that the new 10,000 all-seater Mdina Knights stadium will see a great deal of local success, but will it see success at the international level?
One thing's for sure, it will generate a great deal of money from gate receipts, a much needed benefit, as last season saw a small, but steady loss every month (although not enough to put the club back into debt), and it is now imperative that we start making profits.
On another note, I have finally managed to buy the first players from outside Malta, in the form of two Nigerians (although I could not scout them beforehand, so they are still an unknown quantity, until they join us in September). Hopefully, there will be more, since the level of Maltese players is still nowhere near enough to compete in Europe, although I am hoping it will improve gradually.
May 2017 brought with it the end of my seventh season in charge of Mdina Knights, and another enthralling story to go with it.
After that demolishing in the Champions League way back in mid-July, the domestic season started with a First Round cup tie against Second Division Naxxar Lions, a match which we won 3-0, and which I hoped would be a precursor for the season.
It was soon made clear though, that things were not to be plain-sailing, with a loss on the first match of the season against Floriana. However, my team was quick to dispel my fears that this season might not live up to the success achieved at the end of the previous, going on a 20 match unbeaten run, which saw us build a massive 10-point lead at the top of the League, and arrive at the Cup final (although it was a bumpy ride, progressing twice on penalties).
But there was to be a twist in what is soon becoming a traditional mid-season slump of form. Three losses in 6 matches, and that massive lead was excruciatingly chopped down, and another couple of draws saw us drop into second place.
However, some poor form from my competitors coupled with some few wins from my side saw me return to the top, although with only a precarious lead, which I took through to the final round of matches.
But before that, I had to see through the fourth successive Cup final, and having had 2 matches in the previous six days, my players were exhausted, and their morale was low, having lost the previous one, leaving my lead at the top of the league at one meagre point. So it was, that the Cup dominance was finally broken, and the trophy went to Sliema Wanderers.
A week off allowed the players some rest, and although morale was still quite low, we went into the final match of the season against second-placed Tarxien knowing a draw would be enough to certify a second successive Premier League trophy. The match started with a kick in the teeth, with Tarxien scoring a penalty in the 19th minute, however, with Tarxien dominating play, hope was restored with a goal a minute before half-time. That must have been an enormous catalyst, as the second half was truly a different story, with the Knights dominating possession, and finally turning this dominance into two late, late goals.
This season was truly a tale of two halves, and although we did finally win the Premier League, after hanging on with the skin of our teeth, there certainly remains much to work upon.
The Premier League dropped 17 places to 238th.
