Levante - A season in review

A brief overview of the season can be found below, but first off, a few words from the “Mr Levante” himself. 

“It’s all over. We’ve put in a great shift this season, overcome massive odds, and still the authorities in charge have seen fit to ensure we play in division 5 once again next season. We’ve missed out on the playoffs by a single point. It’s an absolute gutwrencher. I haven’t been this disappointed since Gareth Southgate played a gentle back pass instead of taking a mans penaly in Euro ’96. 

Looking ahead to next season, I’m already excited. We’ve got a deal agreed for a new player to join the club, one who will be our new star for next season. His name? Gerviniho. We’ll be saying goodbye to Martin Benitez, Clinton N’Jie and Fillip Djuricic to get him in, but all in all I’m happy. Djuricic came in for Steven Gerrard anyway, so essentially I’ve swapped a retired has been for a superstar. That’s working the transfer market properly right there 

You’ll see from the stats below what a great season we have had. We took 4 points from Torino in the league. They were the pre season favourites, but we smashed them. A league double over Flamengo, smashing PMW 5 – 0 & West Brom 4-0, winning 4-1 away to Santos. That’s just a few league highlights off the top of my bonce. But the cup, the mother funking cup. Look at that. We took 4 points off of Juve, and three of them in Turin. Battered Lyon 5 – 0, we did Palace twice, and Olympiacos. Liverpool beat us in the end, but only through foul means. The scoreline might say they won 2 – 0, but it doesn’t tell you about what I caught Kinnear doing to the officials before the game.... 

To be honest, taking all of this into account, and also looking at the shocking capitulation of ome other clubs, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Anderlecht, Juve, and AC Milan to name just a few, we should be given a bit of credit, and a reward. As such, I’m looking forward to us starting next season in division one. It’s fully deserved, and I have proved myself to be beyond compare. I am the greatest of all time. McMillan with that whining about how he’s got promoted with loads of different clubs. Beddows spouting off about how well AC have done. Jesus, my dear old nan could’ve got those sides promoted Josh. And Beddows, next door neighbours cat would have got Milan into the top 4 this season. 

So yeah, forget the likes of those two. Forget Hewitt calling himself the king. Forget anybody that isn’t in charge of Levante right now. There is no doubt about it. There is only one Greatest of All Time. Yes, me. The GOAT. Bask in my glory, look up to me, admire me, but remember, you will never equal or beat me

Also, I did say at the start of the season that I would walk away if we didnt improve. We improved in every area bar defence, where we conceded one more goal than last season. It has been a hard decision, well for me at least, not the board. They were desperate for me to stay, and so I have agreed to give them another season” 

  

Highlights: Giant killings in the WCC, and improving upon the previous seasons finishing spot for the first season time. Also add to this the youth team doing well, indicating some good talent coming through for the future     

Lowlights: Missing play offs / Only drawing at home to Juventus. I’d also like to mention the Prince losing his job at Anderlecht. We’ve had some run ins over the seasons, but the truth is I quite like the lad. I hope they have a change of heart and keep him on actually, or in a worst case scenario he ends up at AC Milan.  

Player of the year 

Leandro Damiao -  Levante’s best player on 23 seperate occasions. TOTW nominations 10 times, 29 goals and 17 assists in all competitions. Arguably the best player in the Top 100 right now. He isn’t for sale, but 2 94 plus players might get us talking. 

Young player of the year 

 Isaac Success: 2 MOTM awards at first team level, and 9 times in the youth cup. 10 goals and 4 assists in the youth cup, and at first team level he managed 5 goals and 2 assists. A great season for the young man. 

One’s to watch 

 Isaac Success – He’s been phenomenal in the youth cup, and also scored a few at first team level. If he kicks on, he can be a real star for us and make himself a regular member of the first team. 

Lewis Baker – A top midfielder. So long as he stays, and unless we get a sensational offer for him, he will do, I’m expecting him to start running games at youth level next season, and also get a few first team opportunities. He’ll play in cup game’s I would think, and may get a taste of league action at times as well. 

Ryan Sessegnon – The boy is 16 years old. Half the clubs in the league are asking after him, and he hasn’t kicked a ball for us as yet. Clearly he will go on to be an absolute star. He’ll get a few opportunities in the youth cup next season, and it won’t be too long before he’s banging on the door if the first team. 

Results 

H Celtic L 1 - 3
A Partizan W 0 - 1
A Werder Bremen L 1 - 0
H Santos L 0 - 2
A Torino D 1 - 1
H - Lyon W 5 - 0	World Club Cup
H Augsburg W 3 - 1
A Espanyol W 1 - 2
A Chievo Verona L 1 - 0	Top 100 Shield
A Hellas Verona W 0 - 3	World Club Cup
H FC Twente W 1 - 0
A Hertha Berlin D 2 - 2
A River Plate W 0 - 1	Top 100 Cup
H Rubin Kazan D 2 - 2
A  Anderlecht D 1 - 1
H Juventus D 0 - 0	World Club Cup
H Club Brugge W 2 - 1
A Celta Vigo L 3 - 1
H Standard Liege D 0 - 0 (L 4 - 5 pens)	Top 100 Cup
A Crystal Palace W 0 - 2	World Club Cup
H Independiente L 1 - 3
A Dynamo Moscow L 3 - 1
A Lyon D 3 - 3	World Club Cup
H West Brom W 4 - 0
A Malaga D 1 - 1
H Hellas Verona L 1 - 2	World Club Cup
H FC Koln D 0 - 0
A Flamengo W 0 - 1
A Celtic D 0 - 0
H Partizan W 2 - 1
A Juventus W 1 - 2	World Club Cup
H Werder Bremen L 0 - 1
A Santos W 1 - 4
H Crystal Palace W 4 - 0	World Club Cup
H Torino W 3 - 1
A Augsburg D 1 - 1
H Olympiacos W 2 - 0	World Club Cup
H Espanyol D 1 - 1
A FC Twente W 0 - 1
H Liverpool L 0 - 2	World Club Cup
H Hertha D 2 - 2
A Rubin Kazan L 2 - 0
H Anderlecht W 5 - 0
A Club Brugge L 3 - 1
H Celta Vigo W 3 - 1
A Independiente D 2 - 2
H Dynamo Moscow L 0 - 2
A West Brom D 3 - 3
H Malaga D 0 - 0
A Koln D 1 - 1
H Flamengo W 2 - 0

Youth results 

H Borussia Dortmund D 1 - 1

H Wolfsburg D 1 - 1

A Fenerbahce W 1 - 2

H Everton W 3 - 1

H Udinese W 4 - 3

A Everton L 1 - 0

A - Wolfsburg L 4 - 1

H - Fenerbahce D 3 - 3

A - Borussia Dortmund L 1 - 0

A Udinese W 2 - 0

A Flamengo L 5 - 1

Transfers in 

Player in	Club from	Fee
Junior Auro	EC Bahia	£500k + Gilles Dewaele
Mati Fernandez	Olympiacos	£7m
Che Adams	Southampton	£3.2m
Filip Djuricic	Besiktas	£5m + Steven Gerrard & Miller Bolanos
Aniello Viscovo	Stade Rennais	£239k
Teles Ralf	Beijing Guian	£1.8m
Jacob Bedeau	Bury	£239k
Kemar Roofe	Leeds	£719k
Corey Jordan	Arsenal	£239k
Luke McGee	Stockport	Marcus Maddison and Chris Forrester
Britt Assombolonga	Nottingham Forest	£1.6m
Samuel Tetteh	RB Salzburg	£959k + Emil Hansson
Nahitan Nandez	Aston Villa	£4.7m
Christophe Jallet	Chievo Verona	£2.7m + Ahmed Elmohamady
Pelle Clement	Free Agent	£1.8m
Bryan Vejar	Colo Colo	Junior Auro

Transfers out 

Player out	Club to	Fee
Dani Romera	Marseille	£2.7m
Jonathan Kodjia	Nottingham Forest	£1.7m
Kylian Hazard	Atalanta	£2m
Karl Darlow	Crystal Palace	£3.3m
Ibrahim Sangare	AZ Alkmaar	£1.5m
Yuri Berchiche	Espanyol	£2m + Pablo Armero
Mate Simao	Deportivo Alaves	£2.3m
Kelvin Leerdam	Vitesse	£2.9m
Thomas Rincon	Olympiacos	Miguel Veloso & Anto Grgic
Sofyan Amrabat	Manchester Utd	£1.9m
Diogo Verdasca	Sporting Covilha	£1.2m
Luis Canga	Napoli	Christian Gentner & Anderson Nene
Sean Klaiber	FC Utrecht	£1.1m
Lebogang Phiri	Spartak Moscow	£4.4m
Pablo Romero	Rionegro Aguilas	£2.1m