Season 2005/2006

Battlefield.Blue

Battlefield.Blue

Well-Known Member
What's your memories of Eck's last season?

Disastrous and yet bizarre in a sense. First Scottish team to make the last 16 of the Champions league yet finishing 3rd in the league. Mad. Hearts started like a train then faded. Hibs also had a cracking side.

Why did it go so horribly wrong domestically? Our squad was still good enough on paper to mount a proper defence of the title up against a Celtic team in transition.

I remember after we won the first Old Firm thinking we were going to romp the league. Strachan was already under huge pressure after the Artmedia gubbing. Their full backs that season were Paul Telfer and Mo effin Camara!

Maybe Helicopter Sunday, amazing and unforgettable as it was just papered over the cracks?
 
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Last 16 everything else was a disaster. Wouldn’t even say on the paper the team looked good was poor overall with some terrible signings added in
 
There was not really much of a budget to go out and spend but the signings Eck did make were pretty poor. Names like Fanfan, Jeffers, Nieto, Rodriguez and Ian Murray make me cringe still. If Hearts didn't have an owner who was nothing short of mental, they probably would have went on to win the league that year.
 
It was a bit of a fiasco from the start. Waterreus over Klos. Poor start to season and just never recovered. CL run was strange. We couldnt beat Artmedia in two games yet probably should have went through against Villareal at the knockout stage.

We went on a 10 game run without winning. Odd changes to the team and Eck becoming quite petulant too. To top it off we finished 3rd in a two horse race.
 
We only spent £1.4m that season and had some disastrous signings that summer including Maniero and Jeffers.
 
Incredible to think we bought the captains of Monaco, PSG and Marseille in one summer and somehow ended up paying off two of them for being duds and freezing the other one out for 12 months.
 
All the good things about the 04/05 squad fell away. Novo and Ricksen lost form, Rae was finished, Andrews’ injury caught up with him, Prso couldn’t do it all himself.

The main signings were nowhere near good enough to replace that. We won’t mention the utter dross that came as well.

I do remember Bob Malcolm becoming a midfield regular and spraying passes around for fun.

It annoyed me how poor Celtic were on paper and that season gave them a boost for further success.
 
SDF said:
Incredible to think we bought the captains of Monaco, PSG and Marseille in one summer and somehow ended up paying off two of them for being duds and freezing the other one out for 12 months.
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Looking back it seems more baffling how after this we thought Paul Le Guen and more signings from France would be the answer.
 
For me it completely fell apart when Prso got injured in the game against the yahoos when we got beat 3-0. Poor guy was practically dragging the team through games up until then. The European run was unreal albeit strange.

Very bizarre season and like @MickF24 said before, Hearts really should havewon the league that year if they didnt have an owner fresh from shutter island.
 
Just actually went through this season on the Eck Years on Heart and Hand. Forgotten how much id blocked out from it and disastrous it was, everything was ok when we beat the scum in August.

Losing toHearts early on to go 11 behind
Thompson left mid
Franny Jeffers
Getting gubbed regularly of Hibs
10 game winless run
The old firm games

Could go on its mad how we got through to last 16
 
That was the season where it became clear McLeish had lost the plot with agents. He was taking these mindboggling punts on the basis they were good 4 or 5 years before. Such a waste of wages.

A putrid season and I the manager also let himself down in terms of how he handled himself. "This one is for the Alex McLeish fans" after the Inter game etc.
 
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prenzlauerbear said:
That was the season where it became clear McLeish had lost the plot with agents. He was taking these mindboggling punts on the basis they were good 4 or 5 years before. Such a waste of wages.

A putrid season and I the manager also let himself down in terms of how he handled himself. "This one is for the Alex McLeish fans" after the Inter game etc.
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‘Agents’ or just ‘agent’?

Eck was far too close to Willie McKay and we ended up bloating the squad with his clients.
 
It was a miracle we won the league in 2005 and it wasn't really a surprise to see us fail to build on that. We'd failed to do the same after winning it in similarly close circumstances in 2003.

We were incredibly lucky in Europe, winning one game in the entire group. McCormack's goal in the draw against Porto was really the result that sent us through.

I remember thinking that McLeish even got the game at Inter all wrong - if we won, we were through; if we drew or got beat, we had to rely on the result of the other match. As I remember, we were hanging on, when really we should have just went for it - even if we'd lost a goal we should could have went through. Inter were probably just too good, though I'm sure they were already through.

We were unlucky not to get a point at the San Siro. I also think we'd have got them again if we'd beaten Villarreal and made the quarters?

Ultimately I think that season - and the one after it, as well, actually - serves to prove that success in Europe doesn't always predicate success at home. Under both McLeish and PLG Europe served as a welcome respite from the pressures of domestic football. Both lost their jobs. One to ponder in terms of Gerrard, I think.

Klos made a howler against Celtic in the LC and that was it for him.

Final game against Hearts, who'd already made second, was horrible. They played Celtic a few weeks earlier and there was a lot of agonising about whether or not to "support" Celtic that night.

Hard to imagine now, as history has been kind to his tenure, but there was a real appetite for McLeish's head that season. Protests, demonstrations, the lot. I remember it was announced he was being kept on and this place went mental.

There were rumours that PLG might not be interested if we'd finish second and not make the Champions' League. Sadly for us he still was!
 
ohstefanklos said:
Just actually went through this season on the Eck Years on Heart and Hand. Forgotten how much id blocked out from it and disastrous it was, everything was ok when we beat the scum in August.

Losing toHearts early on to go 11 behind
Thompson left mid
Franny Jeffers
Getting gubbed regularly of Hibs
10 game winless run
The old firm games

Could go on its mad how we got through to last 16
Click to expand...

The 3-0 cup defeat against Hibs ( second time we lost to them by that margin at home that season) was first time I can remember leaving Ibrox early. Total capitulation and that was our last realistic chance of winning any silverware done and dusted in early February.
 
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