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habeasdorkus posted:The A's have it. We're packing our bags! Oh please bring Reggina back to its firner glory of getting their rear end kicked by seria A teams instead of being in the drop zone to seria c 
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Dec 14, 2013 05:34
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Go for a rival in the same division.
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Dec 14, 2013 12:06
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The only job open immediately is a team in the Northern Irish league, which will simply not do. I'm going to play several iterations and create save spots where we get different jobs over the course of several months, and then present several options (since you're not guaranteed to get any job that you apply for, and jobs come open as managers get fired during the season).
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Dec 16, 2013 15:22
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Chapter the Fifth: Unemployed, in Greenland October 1, 2014  Ouch, I didn't realize it right away, but I got fired for asking the board to consider a lower points goal.  It's frustrating as the board confidence wasn't even that low. My own fault for lowering the owner's stats, I suppose. In most cases, i.e. if your owner isn't an rear end in a top hat, you won't get fired for this level of performance.  So I'm unemployed. Time to take a vacation. I've set it to apply to jobs for me as they come open, and I'm making saves at each job offer so we can pick which one we want without being pressed to accept the first that comes along. I'll be looking for job offers until the end of the year, and then write up the offers we get.  Hey, I'm a hot property on the market! I've only been unemployed for eight days and I'm being offered job interviews.   Job interviews give you the chance to tell a team how you want to play. I tell Macclesfield about my plan for domination via youth, and that I believe we can finish mid-table with their 12k/wk budget. I decline to ask for any improvements in the facilities or youth setup, as Macclesfield quite simply cannot afford it right now (their finances are “Insecure”- which means if things get much worse they'll be put into administration). They'll get back to me with their decision shortly.  Hey, you wanted to interview me, remember? What sort of crap is this? (It's the game telling you how much chance you actually have of getting an interview, there's three levels of interest from very little to some to being high on their list of potential hires).  And now you offer me a job right after you slagged me? Well, they're going to be one of our options.  The vast majority of our job applications will be unsuccessful, we did well with Tackleford but we don't have that much of a reputation yet, and are virtually unknown outside of English football. Nocerina and Halle, both 3rd division foreign teams, reject my application out of hand.  Hey, I've got to pay the bills somehow guys. Every day I'm not managing is a day my virtual family is on the dole.  An interview with Aldershot, also in the Skrill Premier, falls through when I ask for a little more than the 5,000 pounds they initially offer as a transfer budget. I'll be less greedy in the future.  Well, I'm flattered that they're flattered.     Wrexham, at the time of interview on October 22, 2014, are in 13th place in the Skrill Premier. Their board is slightly unfavorable towards developing players through their youth system, so I offer to focus on set pieces since that's something they want to see to balance out my philosophical requests.  A couple of days later, Wrexham offers us a job, accepting all my perquisites. It's now late October, and we've got 2 job offers.  Another job offer doesn't show up until December, when Torquay, a League Two side comes calling.  Hereford also approaches with a job offer just before the new year, giving us a grand total of four options to choose from. Despite several interviews we weren't offered jobs at any foreign clubs, which limits our choices to three Skrill Premier and one League Two teams.  The Moss Rose Macclesfield Town 22nd, Skrill Premier Nickname: The Silkmen Wage Budget: £12.2k/wk Current Wages: £12.3k/wk Transfer Budget: £0 Financial Status: Insecure Goal: Mid-table finish Start Date: October 9, 2014 Macclesfield is a small city of about 50,000 an hour east of Liverpool. The club needs some serious rebuilding. Half their salary is in players who are on their reserve squad, and most of those players are transfer listed. The budget is miniscule, less than 1/3rd what we had at Tackleford. The only bright side is that they've accepted my goal of bringing in young players, but even that will be difficult seeing as we have literally zero transfer budget. We're charged with getting a mid-table finish out of a team that's roughly half loaners and that's teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Macclesfield Town is not an especially distinguished position, the club was formed in 1874 and has, but for one season when they were immediately relegated, never played higher than League Two. For the vast majority of it's history the club has played in the regional leagues. The team is presently owned by a pair of Kurdish brothers who don't have much money but are fairly patient.  The Racecourse Ground Wrexham 13th, Skrill Premier Nickname: The Red Dragons Wage Budget: £32k/wk Current Wages: £26k/wk Transfer Budget: £15,500 Financial Status: Okay Goal: Top Half Finish Start Date: October 24, 2014 Wrexham is a town of 40,000 souls about 45 minutes south of Liverpool in Wales. Wrexham FC, founded in 1864, carries the distinction of being the oldest football club in Wales and the 3rd oldest professional team in the world. Wrexham has a long history in the Football League, having played 87 years consecutively prior to relegation in 2008 in divisions as high as what is now the Championship, along with winning a record 23 Welsh Cups. The current team is is relying heavily on loaned players from higher division teams, and has a fair amount of dead weight on it's reserve side. Wrexham also has a purpose built training field that rates as “top training facilities.” The team is fan owned, with a patient board chairman who has an exceptional level of business accumen and who can marshal a surprising amount of resources for a fan trust.  Plainmoor Torquay United 22nd, League Two Nickname: The Gulls Wage Budget: £18k/wk Current Wages: £22k/wk Transfer Budget: £19,500 Financial Status: Okay Goal: Avoid relegation. Start Date: December 18, 2014 Torquay is a seaside town in southwest England of about 65,000 people. A fan owned team, Torquay United was founded in 1899 and has stuck around the lower divisions of the Football League since the 1920s. The club is owned by a rather penurious fan trust, and has a very low wage budget. The Chairman doesn't want to see us relegated, which should be possible as we only need to avoid finishing in the bottom two for that, but we'll be operating under a tight budget to start with. The team's finances are not strong, and we're under orders to shave it even more during the upcoming transfer window.  Edgar Street Hereford United 20th, Skrill Premier Nicknames: The Lilywhites, The Bulls Wage Budget: £13.5k/wk Current Wages: £13.5k/wk Transfer Budget: £5,000 Financial Status: Boned. Goal: Avoid Relegation Start Date: January 2, 2015 Hereford is yet another small English city of just under 60,000 people, located in cattle country near the border of England and Wales. The team, founded in 1924, is dead broke, with over £500,000 in debts at the present moment. Hereford has spent most of the last fifty years flitting betwixt league and non-league football, with it's last stint in the Football League ending in 2012. It's owned by a local businessman of few resources and little talent. The team itself is not that impressive, but unlike other squads does not depend heavily on loaner talent. It's also dealing with a lot of injuries, but most of those should resolve themselves soon. I'll be leaving things up to a fan vote, the vote will end tomorrow at 5pm EST. And then I can finally get back to playing the game. Your options are: The Silkmen of Macclesfield. The Red Dragons of Wrexham. The Gulls of Torquay. The Lillywhites of Hereford. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Dec 16, 2013 21:36
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Red Dragons!
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Dec 16, 2013 21:51
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Red Dragons
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Dec 16, 2013 22:00
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I'll go for the Red Dragons too.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:00
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Yeah, the Red Dragons seem best.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:01
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Wrexham seems like the best choice here, both in terms of actually being the best choice in the game and in terms of plot.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:16
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It's time to Enter the Red Dragon. All signs point to Wrexham. Second highest transfer budget next to Torquay, except Wrexham's Wage budget is bigger, and isn't in debt. Also the nickname's awesome
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Dec 16, 2013 22:39
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Wrexham - The Red Dragons - purely because Wrexham seem to offer the best chance to build a legacy.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:43
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The Red Dragons I hear they've got a great striker by the name of Dollarhyde.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:44
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Wrexham - Third oldest team in the world, let's get them back to the top table.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:52
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Wrexham - We're going to Wales, boyos!
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Dec 16, 2013 22:58
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sebzilla posted:Wrexham - We're going to Wales, boyos! Wales is OK. 
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Dec 16, 2013 23:00
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Voting Wrex as well.
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Dec 16, 2013 23:30
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When in doubt, go for the team with the history. Red Dragons of Wrexham, definitely.
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Dec 16, 2013 23:43
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We're going to have a mascot: Also, I'm going to start doing updates in Welsh.
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Dec 17, 2013 04:58
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habeasdorkus posted:Also, I'm going to start doing updates in Welsh. Go for it.
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Dec 17, 2013 05:01
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I think Wrexham has it, but I'll add my vote for it.Wrexham. Let the Red Dragons soar to dazzling new heights!
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Dec 17, 2013 06:20
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Yeah go with Wrexham or, in fact, anyone but the loving Turkeys. We only laugh at the Torquay, laugh at the Tooooorquay...
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Dec 17, 2013 10:19
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Yeah, it's a bit pointless now, but go for Wrexham. Welsh supremacy! Also, how has Tackleford being getting along in your absence?
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Dec 17, 2013 10:37
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Viva la Dragons!
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Dec 17, 2013 13:49
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Wrexham
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Dec 17, 2013 14:29
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Looks like it's Wrexham by a landslide, so might as well be a glory-hunter and claim allegiance. Really enjoying this LP so far
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Dec 17, 2013 17:14
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mfcrocker posted:Yeah go with Wrexham or, in fact, anyone but the loving Turkeys. We only laugh at the Torquay, laugh at the Tooooorquay... Don't forget Hereford. The Turkeys are a stupid name, but at least it isn't the Lilywhites. Would you want lead a team to the Premier championship with a team named the Lilywhites? Also if Torquay does avoid Requlation it won't be because they go bankrupt before they do.
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Dec 17, 2013 18:01
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habeasdorkus posted:Also, I'm going to start doing updates in Welsh. Oh god yes. Please do this unironically. Wrexham 
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Dec 18, 2013 03:16
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DOOP posted:Oh god yes. Please do this unironically. If I knew even a smidgen of Welsh I might try it. Since I don't, I'm not going to risk the wrath of Cymry by trying and failing. Unless I get their blessing to just start tossing things into google translate to see what it spits out. eta: So I'm in charge of Wrexham now, and man do they have a lot of players loaned from other teams. Yeesh. 10 of them! And they all cost money!
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Dec 18, 2013 05:50
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I know nothing about soccer/football and this is incredibly interesting. I'm just sad you had to leave all those virile young men behind, but there's always more where that came from.
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Dec 18, 2013 10:09
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Interlude: Wales is OK! October 24, 2014  We're hired! I manage to negotiate a two year contract at £44,500 a year for myself, so we're now earning more than we had been at Tackleford. Moreover, the contract size in comparison to the team's bank account means we've got a longer leash than we might otherwise have, in stark contrast to the situation in our last job.  It's Wrexham's 150th anniversary, so we should make sure it's memorable. For good reasons, not because I destroyed the team or something.  In time we can hopefully show those wannabes at Swansea and Cardiff City what a true Welsh powerhouse looks like.   Wrexham is in decent, but not great, financial shape. We're losing money at the moment, and I'll be looking to clear some salary space in the upcoming transfer window to improve our budget outlook. We've got over £100,000 in the bank, meaning I should be able to release some staff and bring in replacements.  Wrexham is carrying 60k in loan debt, but that's not going to be a burden. More interestingly, there's going to be a board election on April 4, 2015. I'm not sure exactly what that's going to do, I've never played a team run by a fan trust before, but I'm guessing it might change our board of directors and possibly our Chairman. That would be too bad, I've peaked under the hood at our current Chairman's stats, and he's as good as we could hope for. We also have snazzy uniforms, sponsored by Glyndwr University.  Glyndwr University are also our landlords, owning the Racecourse Grounds. The stadium is in good shape, which is far more than could be said for the old Fig Pole in Tackleford, although like our old stomping grounds the field has already been turned to poo poo before the end of autumn. It's reasonably large, too, which means we shouldn't have to worry about expansion for a few years. We're only drawing an average of 3,300 fans a game right now, about 40% the amount Tackleford was bringing to the stands.  Wrexham has two affiliates in the Welsh Premier League, Airbus UK and Cefn Druids. They don't cost us anything except a yearly friendly, so I keep the links for now. I also ask the board to find us a parent club, as it certainly can't hurt and if we get it done before the January transfer window closes we might be able to add a couple good loaners for the second half of the season.  Thankfully none of these guys are under contract for longer than next June. Depending on how much mutual termination will cost, I'll probably replace the team physio and the scouts, and I might just sack the lot of them. The first order of business is hiring an rear end Man, however, as we currently do not have one, and without one it's difficult to make a full evaluation of the team. You also may note that we have a lot of Directors, which comes from being a Fan Trust. I'm happy to use the “Nickname” feature to rename any of them into Goons. That way when one of those directors talks poo poo to the media about one of our players, I'll know who to blame.  Wrexham's former manager was fired after a poor run of form, but he did beat Tackleford after I'd been sacked, so he couldn't have been all bad. The club is still alive in all three competitions, but sadly Wrexham no longer competes for the Welsh Cup due to UEFA not allowing English league teams to gain Europa League qualification through winning the cup.  We're 11 points back of a playoff spot, and making the playoffs is my goal for this season. If we get promoted to League Two I'll be very happy, but I'm not expecting it and neither is the board.  We have one youth player, Wayne Hennesey, that might amount to something, assuming he stays out of his families blood feud with the Couvoisier clan. We'll have to rebuild our youth team from scratch, which is frustrating considering how we left Tackleford with a jewel of a youth system a few updates ago.  None of these guys are staying, the only question is how quickly I can offload them.  Because we have a Director of Football, we can use him to try and sell off players we don't want rather than having to offer them to teams multiple times ourselves. He'll make offers starting at 100% of their assessed value, and work his way down to the minimum I set. The guys set as listed for nothing are worth less than five figures, and the only guy who might bring back more than pocket change is Derek Murray, who was noted as being a pain in the rear end to deal with at my initial press conference.  We have some decent players according to my new rear end Man, Chris Turley. Most of them are on fairly short deals, and the team has no-one near as good as Duchamps, but the team seems to stack up pretty well overall compared to other Skrill Premier sides. The players in blue are loaners, the one concern I have is that all of those loans are due to end before Christmas. It'll free up a bunch of money, we're paying ~£500/wk for each of them, but a few of them are amongst our best players. I'll be trying to extend the Bunel loan, for example. Goalkeepers Charlie Nsangou Sweeper Keeper  Charlie is our 20 year old keeper and possibly the best player on the team. He's been capped by Cameroon at the U-20 level, and he should be pretty solid, although I would like his aerial ability to be higher and I'm concerned about his eccentricity stat. Eccentricity is a goalkeepers likelihood to do something weird, and it's a double edged sword. They might make a save no one else could have because they were playing a hunch, or they could get robbed by the opposing striker because they didn't pick the ball up when they had a chance. Eccentricity is one of the key stats for a sweeper-keeper and if Nsangou had better creativity and physical stats I'd be tempted to play him as a one. Sweeper-keepers are a form of goalie that take a much more active part in distributing the ball and they commonly play well off the goal line. We'll see how Charlie does as he develops. Neill Senior Goalkeeper  “Double L” Senior is our other keeper, and at 21 he's already decent. This means he's a perfectly good keeper for our level and should anything happen to Nsangou, or if Nsangou becomes unplayable due to repeated mistakes, Senior will be able to step in without missing a beat. Defenders Raymond Wright Right Wingback  Wright is a very offensive-minded back, which makes him most suited for the wingback role. Wingbacks are crosses between Fullbacks and Wingers, and thus they need to be fast, have the ability to dribble, pass, and cross the ball, all while having the work rate and stamina to get back to fulfill their defensive duties. Given that I have several players who are best as wingbacks, I'll very likely be creating a tactic that will utilize them most efficaciously. His high throw in score means that he'll be in the Sam Edwards role, although he won't be able to create the types of opportunities that Edwards did. Alan Tierney Centerback  Tierney is our aging captain, and has solid technical and mental skills that are undercut by his lack of speed. He'll be playing as a limited defender, and I'm going to try not to have him play in situations where we use a higher than average defensive line as he does not have the speed to get back and defend against any player with even moderate pace. Damian King Centerback  The other half of our centerback pairing, he has many of the same attributes as Tierney. We desperately need faster centerbacks, as both King and Tierney are almost ready for the glue factory. We have some loaner defenders that pair well with them, but as I noted all of those loans will end by the first week of December. Luke Holtham Right Fullback  Holtham is a more traditional fullback, and his tackling score is the highest we've had so far. He's got low stamina, which means we won't be able to use him as much as I'd like, but his ability to also play centerback makes him very useful. Daniel Thomas Wingback  Daniel Thomas is another wingback, and he's got world-class speed and Premier League acceleration. That's about all he has, other than decent stamina and an acceptable work rate. We won't be using him when we need strong defense, he's designed to run all day. Being able to play both sides of the field is very useful for squad rotation. Midfielders Justin Bailey Central Midfielder  This kid is pretty good for our level, and will be taking our corners. He'll also be playing as our attack minded midfielder for the most part, with a creativity and flair of 13 he'll be the one I'm looking to when we're setting up attacking moves. I have to wonder what else is in his character makeup that makes him only “Fairly Determined”- with a Determination of 17 I'd have expected his personality to be “Resolute.” Stuart Simpson Defensive Midfielder  This is our midfield anchor. I'd prefer it if he were quicker and could mark better than a 10 year old, but he should be good at closing down opposition players and winning the ball from them. Simpson will feature as a ball-winning midfielder either in the second midfielder or the defensive midfielder position. We won't get to see him for a couple weeks as he's recovering from a gashed leg currently. Ryan Watts Winger  Watts is temperamental, which means that we have to try and keep him happy or he'll be a cancer in the locker room. Still, he's going to be useful as one of our attacking wide midfielders, even though he's going to be worthless on defense. I need to remember not to play Watts and Thomas at the same time as they both can't defend and the other team will have a field day on our left side. Mike Sumner Winger  Another offensive minded player with little defensive value. He'll be a rotation option, and I don't expect much for him. Like Watts, I need to not play him on the same side as Thomas. Well, what I really need a better left back that can actually defend. But it's beyond the transfer window, so we're going to have to suck it up. Conor O'Hanlon Central Midfielder  I'll say this for Wrexham's prior manager, they compiled a fair amount of team speed considering the division they play in. Unfortunately that means that most of their players have egregious weaknesses in other areas. In O'Hanlon's case it's that he can't actually make use of his speed to run with the ball (Dribbling of 1, Technique of 5, dim diolch!) and it means he's going to have to improve quickly to be a useful part of the team. Forwards Nic Bull Striker/Winger  This kid has potential, but he's already 23. He might be a late bloomer, and the fact that my rear end Man thinks he could be a good Championship player means he's going to get lots of chances to develop. I expect for him to drive me crazy by proceeding to prove me wrong. His mental skills are a significant weakness, I'm going to match him up with either Cannon or Hughes to be tutored in an effort to improve them. Tom Cannon Striker  Nothing much to say other than it makes me feel old to see players in their decline phase when they're younger than I am by over half a year. Cannon's physical stats will continue to drop over the course of the season, but hopefully he can stave off father time until his contract is up. Darren Baker Striker/Winger  Baker has one thing going for him, he's fast. I have no clue why my rear end Man thinks he'd make a good false nine, he doesn't have the stats for it, but he'll definitely get some time on the right wing. His inability to finish is the first thing we need to rectify, and he'll get time on the training field to develop that. Jordan Hughes Striker  Hughes is ready for the glue factory. He doesn't have the speed or quickness to create space, and his technical skills aren't nearly good enough to make up for the lack of physical ability. He's likely to get buried on the depth chart, or I'll see if some other team will take him in January given our surfeit of strikers. Danny Hopkins Striker  A pretty well rounded player, with no real strengths other than good anticipation and positioning. Given our weakness in the midfield and that we have too many forwards to give them all playing time Hopkins will likely see time at central midfield and a training regimen to get him comfortable in the position. What's abundantly clear at the moment is that we have a significant lack of non-loaner defenders and defensive/central midfielders. We'll get by fine for the time being, and I'm actually pretty pleased with some of the talent on the team, but our current centerback pairing would lose a race to a three legged turtle and a couple injuries could really hurt our ability to play defense. So we'll need some luck to get to the start of the new year, when we can start really changing the roster up. That's the state of the team at present, our next match actually came before all this was written up because I needed to wait until my rear end Man came on board before I could actually write about the players. How did we do? You'll have to wait to find out. We won. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Dec 18, 2013 |
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Dec 18, 2013 21:33
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Cool overview of the team. I'll volunteer to be a director. My qualifications are that I don't know anything about the sport.
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Dec 18, 2013 21:46
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Captain Foo posted:Cool overview of the team. I'll volunteer to be a director. My qualifications are that I don't know anything about the sport. Then you're perfect for the job, clearly. Also throwing my hat in the ring as a possible director because it's fun.
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Dec 18, 2013 21:54
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Captain Foo posted:Cool overview of the team. I'll volunteer to be a director. My qualifications are that I don't know anything about the sport. I will volunteer on the opposite grounds: I know a bunch about the sport...but nothing about the game.
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Dec 18, 2013 21:58
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I volunteer too, because why not?
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Dec 18, 2013 22:05
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I volunteer, my qualifications are that I'm pretty good at 13, not so great at 14. In 13 I did manage to bring a team from the BSN up to the Premier league though.
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Dec 18, 2013 22:14
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Sign me up as well if there is still room. This should be fun to follow, since I've never managed a fan-owned team before.
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Dec 18, 2013 22:35
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Is FM14 remotely faster to play than the previous iterations? I always loved the game but I don't know if I can justify wasting 900 hours to play a single season anymore.
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Dec 18, 2013 22:41
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Throwing myself in as director. My qualification is give me a 3-5-2 formation or give me death. 
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Dec 18, 2013 23:04
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Dibs on the director whose first name begins with 'A'.
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Dec 18, 2013 23:25
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| # ? May 30, 2024 00:08 |
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Toss me in as a director. If I screw something up you can mark me down as a yank expat with more passion than sense or knowledge, who just got the post cause he's so much friendlier than that rear end in a top hat (every org like this has one.) I just hope I'm hilarious.
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Dec 18, 2013 23:35
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