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habeasdorkus posted:That's £5,000 less than last season. Which one of you guys is getting kickbacks from the TV contract?  Make the playoffs, Skip.
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Jan 25, 2014 06:22
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habeasdorkus posted:
No.  The Red Dragons deserve better than some jersey from some collegiate american football team called the Ducks.
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Jan 25, 2014 07:38
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KDavisJr posted:No. We'll make 'em red and put dragon wings on the shoulders instead.
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Jan 25, 2014 09:55
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Chapter the First: I know what you did last summer. July 2, 2016-July 30, 2016 We've got a two week training camp and four more friendlies before the season begins. The board votes are in, we'll be angling for promotion through either a top three finish or the promotion playoff, we'll be adding two new coaches, and the pitch was getting fixed up one way or another. Our wage budget is set at £36,000 a week, and £47,000 is added to the transfer budget.  Everyone pile onto the team bus and match up with your accountabili-buddy, we don't want anyone falling victim to the fierce wild sheep that roam the hills around our training camp.  Bah is left home, all alone. We've trimmed £8,500 from the wage budget, but we still have shopping to do in the form of a winger, a striker, and a right back.  Way to show off, England.  That's what the police are saying happened, but we all know better. (Late night, the woods outside of Wrexham training camp, BEN RIGBY is in his underwear, alone)  : Guys? Where did you all go? : …: Guys, this isn't funny. Hazing is an inappropriate way to build team spirit.: … : C'mon, I can hear you breathing... Just come out and turn on the flashlight.: …(RIGBY clasps the MASKED MAN by the shoulder and turns him around.) : AIEEEE!(At the team meeting next morning)  : Guys, I told you, hazing is an inappropriate way to build team spirit. Where's Rigby? : He never came back from the forest last night... I don't know how, we only left him 50 feet from the cabins.(Door flies open, RIGBY crawls in covered with dirt and blood) : MY SHIN! MY BEAUTIFUL, PRECIOUS SHIN! Our tactical comfort is increasing, the players seem to want to put in more time on the pitch even into the night where they practice under the bright lights in a large group.  (ANTHONY HAY, JUSTIN BAILEY, and WILLIAM HARRISON are sitting outside a cabin, sharing a drink)  : Well, we should get to bed. Coach is going to have us up at the crack of dawn. You ok to get back, Hay? : Yeah, I'll be fine. My cabin is only across the field where the lights suddenly went out. : Where's your accountabili-buddy?: Oh, him? He's a loser and went to go watch the new season of Community. I can't believe that show is still on, they've already had six seasons and a movie!: Are you sure? We can walk you back.: Please, what's wrong with you two? Like there's anything more dangerous than some feral sheep out here.(BAILEY and HARRISON give each other a KNOWING LOOK as HAY walks into the gloom) (Dissolve to HAY crossing the dark field) : 'Cause maaaaybe, you're gonna be the one that saaaaves me.: …: And after all, you're my wonder waaaaaall.: Oasis was wildly overrated, Stone Roses forever!(Smash cut to MASKED MAN raising a crowbar, HAY screaming.) At Garden Village, July 4, 2016 Friendly  v Wrexham_ Preview Match Analysis.png) Garden Village is a local amateur team based in Wrexham. They're a youth squad, and we're going to treat them mercilessly. Years from now the kids will be able to tell all their friends about the time they played mighty Wrexham. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Peters, Reid, Poole, Smissen, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Coulson, Franks, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Ashton, Thomas, Todd, Curran, Holt, Jenkins, Cobb, Rainey, Morgan, Price, Read. The match went as expected, we annihilated Garden Village from start to finish. There's really nothing to take away from this because the level of opposition was so low. Everyone got their minutes on the field, and no one picked up any injuries. Our youth strikers scored three goals between them, which is good even considering who they scored against. Man of the Match: Justin Bailey  v Wrexham_ Stats Match Stats.png)  v Wrexham_ Stats Player Ratings.png) Garden Village 0-7 Wrexham  Ibrahima Bah is the only senior team player not at the training camp, he's got the clubhouse to himself and has been binging on seasons of Archer. He likes Cyril the most, which is just one more reason why we need to get him off this team.  Can't hurt.  Portugal has been carried the entire tournament by Ricardo Lobo, who has eight goals.  (STUART SIMPSON, JUSTIN BAILEY, and WILLIAM HARRISON are huddled in conversation) : Look, I'm the captain. It's my job to protect this team. I'm sure I can handle whoever, or whatever is out there.: I can't let you do this alone, we all are responsible for that hobo's death! If he's back from the dead to haunt us, we need to face him together!: Why would a zombie hobo, a zobo if you will, be harming players who weren't even on the team last year? I think it's something else.: Whatever it is, I'll handle it.: But-: Captain's orders, Bailey.(Cut to overhead shot of SIMPSON in the dark and musty BOAT HOUSE) : I know I saw him come in here. Don't you know who you're dealing with, zobo? I'm the captain! You want to take on the Dragons, you've got one right here.(Jump cut to ground level shot looking up at SIMPSON, the MASKED MAN is in the rafters above him) : …: I should probably go turn on the lights, I can't see anything. He could be right above me for all I-(the MASKED MAN drops onto SIMPSON, jump cut to outside of the Boathouse where MUFFLED YELLS can be heard)  Due to our team's reliance on counter-attacking play, and our general speed advantage, I've ordered the field to be as long as possible, so we can stretch out opposing defenses and then run past them.  This was just a plain old injury. Yep. Nothing to see here.  Walsh is going to a nice  Worse than a crazed, potentially zombified hobo stalking our training camp, the Belgians win the Euro Championship. Belgium! They can't even form a government.  Lewis was too good to pass up, he'll be in rotation with Poole and Todd. Petit will be going out on loan. Stewart Lewis Centerback  His primary attributes are already twelves or better, and he's young enough that he should improve a good deal mentally. At only £625 a week it would be a mistake to not sign him. At The New Saints, July 11, 2016 Friendly  TNS beat us last year during our friendly, and that was a sign of bad things to come. Hopefully we can turn the omens around by returning the favor this year. Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Higgs, Ashton, Poole, Lewis, Smissen, Jenkins, Cobb, Holt, Price, Franks, Harrison. Subs: Gibbon, Peters, Thomas, Todd, Petit, Kadhim, Sinclair, Bailey, Rainey, Coulson, Read, Morgan. I played through this match so quickly that I didn't even realize TNS had scored in the first half until we were up 3-1. Our first half is miserable, but the second half is much more to my liking, and I don't have much more to say about this because I'm too focused on finding out who's kneecapping my players. Man of the Match: Liam Franks   TNS 1-3 Wrexham  It doesn't take much to impress this Holt kid. I just told the players to stop waddling about like they'd just messed their britches and get after the ball.  (THE COACH stands at rough wooden table illuminated by a single overhead light, across from him sits the MASKED MAN, tied to the chair. HARRISON, BAILEY, and SIMPSON stand behind THE COACH.) : See, I told you using your WAGs* posing for a Ladies of Wrexham calendar would work to lure him out. Zombies love them some tawdry calendars. First thing Americans are taught when we take the mandatory Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness class in school.* (WAGs stand for Wives and Girlfriends, and are a very hot topic in British media. In League Two our players date some fulsome lasses, but they're still lower quality Page 3 girls at this point) : FOOL! I am not some Hammer Horror creep to be trifled with!: Wait, I know that voice...(HARRISON steps behind the MASKED MAN and pulls off his hood revealing A SHOCKING SURPRISE) : Tackleford Manager Ed Philips!: Jinkies! : And I would have gotten away with it too, if not for the chance to replace all the photos you took with my in depth and artistic survey of cock shots!: You realize we're going to have to call the police.: Oh I don't think so. I know what you did last summer to that hobo. Turn me in and I sing like a canary.: It was an accident!: You think I wouldn't? Try me!: We'll let you go this time, Philips. But be warned. You do anything like this again and we'll use you as the quarry for our Most Dangerous Game inspired team building exercise. Just like that hobo I paid five pounds last year.: You haven't seen the last of me!(PHILIPS laughs maniacally as screen fades to black)  Well, I'm glad that's settled. All in all a productive training camp.  This is a six month loan. Yohan Netala Left Winger  Netala and Franks will handle most of the left wing duties for the season. If Netala doesn't work out, I'll send him home in January. I expect he'll be pretty good for us, especially if he develops.  Harrison has been in really good form lately, so until he goes cold Spilsbury is likely to be a backup. Shaun Spilsbury Striker  I'm not quite getting why Spilsbury isn't rated more highly by either my scouts or my coaches. His only weakness is that he's not very good in the air, which is admittedly a problem, but he's clinical around the net. That's something we haven't had on this team since I took over. He's not going to burn anyone with his speed, but he's plenty fast enough for this level, and he's got good technical prowess and off the ball skills for this level. I think he'll be pretty good for us.  As Philips was driving off when we released him he “accidentally” drove over Tony Holt's foot. What an evil rear end in a top hat.  We still can't give high win bonuses, I don't know why. We're nowhere near our FFP cap, and we've got over 600,000 pounds in the bank right now. It's irritating, I like giving high win bonuses because the more ambitious players are highly motivated by them.  Being picked to finish 9th isn't bad, if we match last year's overperformance of the season predictions we'll win the league.  Hey, I thought our field was supposed to be perfect? We haven't played a game on it and it's already down to very good? Our landlords are lazy. I guess I can't complain when our rent is a pound a year. vs. Norwich, July 17, 2016 Friendly  This is a payday for us, we keep all gate receipts from the match. If we're lucky we'll be able to earn a draw, Norwich has consistently finished top five in the Championship so far this year and will be very tough even as a preseason friendly opponent. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Defense Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Peters, Reid, Todd, Smissen, Kadhim, Bailey, Coulson, Price, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Thomas, Ashton, Lewis, Poole, McCarthy, Sinclair, Jenkins, Read, Franks, Morgan, Spilsbury. We led most of the match after Harrison put us up one-nil in the 20th minute, but couldn't quite hold out for the win. We played well and frustrated the Norwich attackers, 17 of their 26 shots were from long range and their goal came after we had made several defensive substitutions. We went unbeaten in the two friendlies I expected to lose, if we can beat Chester in a week we'll have had a very, very successful pre-season.   Wrexham 1-1 Norwich City  Please, take him! I'll throw in train fare! I've lowered my asking price to £1,000, pretty soon I'll literally be giving him away. At Chester, July 23, 2016 Cross-Border Derby  : “This is our last friendly, against a lower division opponent. I want to see a good performance to start us off right for the season.”Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attacking Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Todd, Smissen, Kadhim, Cobb, Bailey, Coulson, Franks, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Peters, Ashton, Lewis, poole, McCarthy, Sinclair, Jenkins, Netala, Price, Morgan, Spilsbury Did they even listen to me? We spend the first hour of the game beating our head against Chester's defense, and only manage to give me a headache. I change out most of the starters, hoping to get a spark, but instead Chester breaks through in the 69th minute, and then goes up by two in the 83rd. The team rallies to score twice at the death, but it's still a draw against a team we should have brushed off like gnats.   Chester 2-2 Wrexham  That's unexpected. Team USA beat both Qatar and Germany(!) in their group.  With McGuinness gone I choose William Harrison as our vice-captain. He's the obvious choice. With 15/15 determination/leadership and a lot of playing time there's no one who has better qualifications for the job. Simpson remains team captain, he's been great at it.   Finally. Bah is heading to France to play for a second division team there. I wish him all the best, and move him from the “selling” portion of my excel spreadsheet to the “sold” region. The players we've released or sold this offseason amount to just under £13,000 a week in wages. We made £220,000 on our sales, which is pure profit considering we paid zero transfer fees for those players. Our additions total £5,300 a week, and I feel that they're better players than what we've lost, so we've improved the team while saving £400,000 a year in salary.  As Bah leaves we fill our final hole. Gary Tench Right Back  Tench will share time with Thomas. Like the Ashton and Smisson combination on the other side of the field, Tench and Thomas give us both offensive and defensive options at the position. Expect to see Thomas against weaker teams or when we're at home and Tench when we're facing stronger offenses.  It's the morning of July 30th, and we're hours away from the start of our second season in League Two. I'm looking forward to it being our final season here. The prediction contest this year will be “how many points do we take this season?” Tiebreaker will be the number of wins. Submissions will be open until the posting of Chapter Three. 
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Jan 25, 2014 18:47
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78 points with 23 wins. Everybody else seems to be aiming high from what I can tell with the votes, so let's join in.
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Jan 25, 2014 18:56
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Obliterati posted:Once the transfer window closes, can we get a summary of spending/wage budgets for the Division? I find it's a pretty good view of the coming season. Absolutely. JT Jag posted:Clearly. Exactly! The Duck's uniforms are really, really sharp. Nike designs all of them, and It's helped their national brand immensely. They've gone from being a middling school in the PAC-10 conference to being a national powerhouse in part because potential recruits remember the school for their flashy uniforms. Galaga Galaxian posted:Just finished reading this over the last few days. Good stuff! As someone who has been playing Xpert 11 with goons for the last year, I find myself worryingly tempted to pick this up, even though I'm sure I'd be in over my head. I'm certainly no soccer expert (what I call a 4-5-1 is, I think, more commonly referred to as a 4-3-3), and I was even further from being one when I first picked up this game, so the real issue is how much of a timesuck are you able to have in your life? As for adding your team, I found the DB editor fairly easy to use but time consuming. If you're going to recreate a full team that'll be some work, but it won't really be hard to do. Tehan posted:The transfer window is open, has Tackleford taken a machete to their over-inflated roster yet? Or did we really tie against their cash-powered juggernaut? The team has been pared down somewhat, but they only gave free transfers to five players. They still have 44 people on their First Team and Reserve rosters. They've spent another 800k on transfers so far, but they're net sellers this year after Stuart Mair to West Brom for 1.3m, which is madness. You never, ever trade away someone that good as a LLM unless you absolutely have to. Most of my old team has been subsumed by new purchases, only four players on the first team remain from when I was running the show. Another 13 are on the reserve squad still, and they really don't have any prospects on the youth team to speak of except for the players I brought in. eta: Also, let me know what y'all thought of the Horror Movie interludes, the game can get repetitive over time, especially during the long march up the ranks to the highest levels, so I'm trying to keep things fresh. If they're welcome additions, I'll start experimenting with more ways of expanding the LP. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Jan 25, 2014 |
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Jan 25, 2014 19:07
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68 Points 20 wins.
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Jan 25, 2014 19:13
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Haha that whole training camp portion was hilarious, good job.
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Jan 25, 2014 19:13
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habeasdorkus posted:eta: Also, let me know what y'all thought of the Horror Movie interludes, the game can get repetitive over time, especially during the long march up the ranks to the highest levels, so I'm trying to keep things fresh. If they're welcome additions, I'll start experimenting with more ways of expanding the LP. That's excellent stuff - creative writing exercises are the glue that keeps an LP like this sticking together properly. It gives the team and specific players character and gets the reader invested in the stories going on (the major one there of course being our rivalry with Tackleford loving City). Experiment away, we'll be there to tell you if something works or doesn't.
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Jan 25, 2014 19:14
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84 points with 24 wins, am I being to optimistic?
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Jan 25, 2014 19:17
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Great stuff  Kinda wish I was American so I could have had some of these crazy camp shenanigans when I was a kid/League 2 up-and-comer. And I'll say 76 points with 20 wins.
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Jan 25, 2014 20:04
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habeasdorkus posted:I'm certainly no soccer expert (what I call a 4-5-1 is, I think, more commonly referred to as a 4-3-3), and I was even further from being one when I first picked up this game, so the real issue is how much of a timesuck are you able to have in your life? As for adding your team, I found the DB editor fairly easy to use but time consuming. If you're going to recreate a full team that'll be some work, but it won't really be hard to do. Nah, I'd just recreate the team name. X11 is a browser football manager game some goons play in leagues and its bloody simple compared to FM14. It doesn't have all these specific positionals even just "Forward, Midfielder, Defender", and the players are basically two stats "Skill" "Form" and some special traits. By the way, how much does the Tackleford coach make? 
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Jan 25, 2014 20:12
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Galaga Galaxian posted:Nah, I'd just recreate the team name. X11 is a browser football manager game some goons play in leagues and its bloody simple compared to FM14. It doesn't have all these specific positionals even just "Forward, Midfielder, Defender", and the players are basically two stats "Skill" "Form" and some special traits. Reminds me a bit of Pocket League, the phone soccer game I played before giving FM a shot. If you want to just create the team it'll be pretty easy, but there's still some work as you have to choose where your club is located and putting the club into a league/removing another club from the league so that everything fits. Philips is making 1,400 a week. Less than I was expecting after guiding the team to two straight promotions.
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Jan 25, 2014 20:20
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Guys. Guys guys guys. Check this poo poo out.  
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Jan 25, 2014 |
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Jan 25, 2014 21:06
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Jesus gently caress.  How the hell did we end up with somebody like that just falling into our lap?
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Jan 25, 2014 21:08
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TheMcD posted:Jesus gently caress. One of the coaches I hired was a dual British/Australian national. Upon signing he recommended this kid, who's a dual Croatian/Australian national that was playing at some Aussie academy. His Judge Ability and Judge Potential wasn't that great (6 JA, 4 JP) but I saw a whole passel of blue scores when I looked at him and signed him sight unseen. No one else in the world seems to have known about him. 
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Jan 25, 2014 21:11
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habeasdorkus posted:One of the coaches I hired was a dual British/Australian national. Upon signing he recommended this kid, who's a dual Croatian/Australian national that was playing at some Aussie academy. His Judge Ability and Judge Potential wasn't that great (6 JA, 4 JP) but I saw a whole passel of blue scores when I looked at him and signed him sight unseen. No one else in the world seems to have known about him. Hold on to that boy with two hands!
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Jan 25, 2014 21:15
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10 internet bucks says he gets injured for 6 months in the first game he plays.
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Jan 25, 2014 21:30
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FailAtMagic posted:10 internet bucks says he gets injured for 6 months in the first game he plays. What are the odds on him getting a double herniated disc, missing the entire season, and losing half his stats?
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Jan 25, 2014 21:33
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(Flabbergasted) Blimey! Can you get some more dual nationality scouts in? You've only gone and sourced the reincarnation of Cliff bloody Jones! Cracking work, lad! Is that a £5,000,000 release clause? That's going to bite us in the arse down the road...
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Jan 25, 2014 21:41
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AJ_Impy posted:(Flabbergasted) Blimey! Can you get some more dual nationality scouts in? You've only gone and sourced the reincarnation of Cliff bloody Jones! Cracking work, lad! He wouldn't sign without a release clause. He originally wanted a 500k release clause. When someone realizes what we have on our hands we'll at least get paid.
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Jan 25, 2014 22:26
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habeasdorkus posted:Guys. Guys guys guys. Check this poo poo out.  Carry on. 
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Jan 25, 2014 22:32
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I think we found our ace in the hole  Here's to a nice fat Goal Bonus for Mateo! This might be a tad far-fetched, but I'm going to say The Red Dragons will go unde-loving-feated 
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Jan 25, 2014 22:38
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Jesus. Time to pray he's got high Consistency and low Injury Proneness. I'll be absolutely amazed if we still have him when we get to the Championship.
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Jan 25, 2014 23:31
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pffft Championship? He's gonna win us the Club World Cup!
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Jan 25, 2014 23:48
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AJ_Impy posted:Is that a £5,000,000 release clause? That's going to bite us in the arse down the road... It is a good reason to try and pick up the odd non-home-nationality staff.
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Jan 26, 2014 00:12
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6/15/1997. He was born the day I graduated high school...
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Jan 26, 2014 00:13
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No way you're keeping that guy more than one season.
Blogkb - because you too like video games, old and new (it's just a blog)
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Jan 26, 2014 00:18
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Dwarsen posted:No way you're keeping that guy more than one season. Maybe, but we'll at least make a nice profit off him. The 5mil release clause is what a higher club has to pay us to snatch him away, right?
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Jan 26, 2014 00:32
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Tackleford will get him in the end. I just know it.
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Jan 26, 2014 00:35
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Galaga Galaxian posted:Maybe, but we'll at least make a nice profit off him. Oh yeah, it's an amazing find either way, and is gonna bring in a pretty penny when he inevitably leaves. And the release clause means that if a club bids that amount we have to accept. We could accept a lower bid too of course, naturally... EDIT: ^^ I loving hope not. Blogkb - because you too like video games, old and new (it's just a blog)
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Jan 26, 2014 00:36
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Galaga Galaxian posted:Maybe, but we'll at least make a nice profit off him. We can still sell him for less if we so choose. 5M is just the price point at which we're forced to accept an offer. He could still (theoretically at least) refuse the contract offer from the offering team though. I've never had that happen though.
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Jan 26, 2014 00:36
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Arquebus posted:Tackleford will get him in the end. I just know it. If they'd seen him first, that kid would've been snapped up and shunted straight into training for Manchester loving United.
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Jan 26, 2014 00:37
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80 Points, 23 wins I really hope that those attributes are real and not grossly exaggerated by the coach. I also did like that story interlude, I think that those are the little things that make good LPs great.
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Jan 26, 2014 00:53
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Zeroisanumber posted:6/15/1997. He was born the day I graduated high school... Speaking of young phenoms in FBM, I was curious about how people who played FBM speculated on young, gifted players and their future. Here's some people on a forum discussing a 18 year old Lionel Messi when he was at Barcelona B. There were some comparisons to Freddy Adu and his hype.
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Jan 26, 2014 01:13
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Zeroisanumber posted:6/15/1997. He was born the day I graduated high school... Is there something you need to tell us? 
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Jan 26, 2014 02:23
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habeasdorkus posted:Exactly! They also have Phil Night from Nike throwing tens of millions of dollars at them. Sometimes they look sharp and sometimes they wear poo poo like this: 
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Jan 26, 2014 03:15
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Hey man, there is nothing wrong with fighting against Breast Cancer, or cancer in general.
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Jan 26, 2014 03:19
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Chapter the Second: Putting the right foot forward. July 30, 2016-August 31, 2016 Our first match is this afternoon, our second match is three days from now. We're starting with what should be a fairly easy challenge, a home game against just promoted Oxford United, and then a decidedly more difficult challenge in our Capital One Cup match against Championship side Wigan.  Our early schedule doesn't look that bad, congestion wise, but it'll inevitably get cluttered when we enter the FA Cup draw and if we actually advance in the other two cups.  The second half of the season starts with a doozy, though, with back to back matches in late December and four games total over eight days. The very end of the season is also a bit odd, with a match against Dartford two days after one with Scunthorpe, and then twelve days off before the final game vs. Yeovil. If the season predictions are right, we should be able to finish strong- from March onwards we play four teams expected to be at the bottom of the table, while two of our three matches against promotion contenders are at the Racecourse Ground.  Good on him for earning promotion. Just don't expect us to take it easy on you, you scamp!  I <3 players with high professionalism. Higgs has a higher ceiling than Al-Beloushi, but Al-Beloushi rates as one of the best players in the league right now. I'm going to try to give Higgs more time this season, he's probably a better long term option for us than Al-Beloushi. vs. Oxford United, July 30, 2016 League Two  I'm going to base my selections for this game on pre-season form. We're still missing Simpson, which hurts a bit, but as we're playing a team picked to finish 21st I'm going to be playing more aggressively. We've got a bunch of players who still need to build up match fitness, and several of our new arrivals haven't practiced with the team yet, so I'll be making some swaps in around the hour mark. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Poole, Smissen, Kadhim, Cobb, Bailey, Franks, Coulson, Harrison(c). Subs: Higgs, Tench, Todd, Jenkins, Price, Morgan, Spilsbury. Cobb makes an excellent first impression, scoring just four minutes into his first league game with the team. He uses Harrison as a decoy to slip past the defenders, and places a shot from just inside the area into the corner to put us up one-nil. Poole doubles our joy just three minutes later when he finds himself unmarked on the near post during the corner. Oxford pulls one back when we fail to clear a corner of our own due to an error on the part of Sam Smissen, and with over seventy minutes still remaining I'm edgy about our position. I can relax when we restore our two goal lead less than a minute into the second half as Harrison provides a perfect cross to a waiting Coulson on the far post. I switch us over to the counter strategy knowing that Oxford will have to come at us hard if they hope to salvage anything from the game. Oxford are able to unlock our defense again in the 58th minute thanks to poor positioning on Luke Reid's part, and I'm anxious all over again. I bring Spilsbury and Tench on, and while Spilsbury almost finds the net it's a nervy final quarter hour before we can put the win in the books. We were outplayed, and we're lucky that Oxford squandered so many chances.   Wrexham 3-2 Oxford  You might have noticed that Natala wasn't picked for yesterday's game. That's because he's with Mali's under 20 team, kicking some Senegalese rear end. He picked up a goal and a 7.6 rating, and returns to the team today.  While making sure everyone has proper training assignments I notice that Franks performance and ability has been in a nose dive. I want to nip that in the bud, he's only 28 and he should still have a couple years left before he starts declining. If he goes downhill now, we might have some problems at Left Wing if Natala doesn't work out or won't continue his loan.  Funny, he's played better when he's at the striker position in the center of the field, and his main position is right wing.  Petit's off, he turned 18 last fall and thus isn't eligible for the U18's this year. With the signing of Lewis he'd have been stuck in the reserves all season, so I sent him off to get some first team time.  Harrison is looking great since he broke out of his slump last spring. I want to lock him up in case he goes bananas on the league and wants a whole lot more money. Or worse, gets an agent. It's a £125/wk raise, and a three year extension. We should be at least entering the Championship by the end of it. Hold onto your hats, y'all. One of the coaches I signed was dual English/Australian citizenship, and he imparted his knowledge of Australian players when he came on board. He suggested this kid, who's only eligible to play with us because he's got Croatian citizenship. Players from EU member countries don't need work permits. I signed him sight unseen just based off of what the coach could tell me. Mateo Mujkic Left Winger  Just look at that. He's a wonderkid! He's not just the best player on our team, but he's the best player in the league, by a wide margin. He'd be the best player in League One, and one of the best in the Championship. He'd be perfectly suited to a rotation role on a lower mid-table Premier League team. And he's only 19! Every coach thinks that he can get significantly better! It's clear that no one else knew about him, or he'd never, ever have been willing to sign with us. I tried to sign him through 2021, but his agent wasn't having it. I also couldn't avoid giving him a release clause, but at 5 million pounds we'll at least get seriously paid when some big team steals him from us in a year or two. I'll be trying to renegotiate his contract often, just to increase the value of that release clause, if we can get him signed beyond 2019 that would only make things better. Wow. This is awesome.  I'm looking forward to the day when our first League Cup match isn't against a much better team.  Our pitch is already downgraded to good, after only one match in Very Good condition. We've got a lively crowd to see us take on Wigan, though, the largest since 7,700 watched us play Stevenage in the FA Cup last year. vs. Wigan, August 2, 2016 Capital One Cup, First Round  I read Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier about a decade ago, and loved it. I also thought Wigan was pronounced “Why-gan.” I never realized I was wrong until I was actually talking to someone from Wigan, and they were greatly amused at my pronunciation. I don't see what's so funny, she's the one from a place pronounced “wiggin'.” Stuart Simpson is going to be playing this match despite only just having returned from his broken wrist, we really need him to stiffen our defense if we're going to win. Franks gets the start over Mujkic as Mujkic is not fully ready to play yet, but expect to see him soon. Orson Duchamps is in Wigan's lineup, and put in a decent performance in his first competitive match with the team, he'd spent the previous year on loan with a lower table Ligue One squad and acquitted himself well there. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Defense Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Tench, Reid, Todd, Ashton, Kadhim, Simpson (c), Bailey, Coulson, Franks, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Thomas, Poole, Jenkins, Cobb, Mujkic, Spilsbury. As if this game wasn't going to be hard enough, Ashti Kadhim puts us in an even tougher position when his attempt to clear the ball goes into the net early in the game. Harrison certainly looks up for the match and causes havoc for the Wigan defense, including straight up robbing one centerback with no one between him and the goal. He finds the net before the first fraction is done on yet another surging run that leaves Wigan's defenders looking like rooted trees after Liam Franks manhandles the ball away from a Wigan fullback and places the ball in space for Harrison to run onto. I tell the team that we can still win this game, and that I believe in them. They immediately reward me for my faith just after the restart when Gary Tench launches a ball fifty meters up the pitch that Harrison latches on to, dribbles past the keeper, and coolly taps in to put us up two-nil. We hold the lead despite increasingly desperate Wigan attacks, and we're moving onto the second round of the League Cup. Man of the Match: Billy the Kid Harrison.   Wrexham 2-1 Wigan  A couple of the wins over Tackleford were more satisfying, but this was easily our best win so far in this LP. Beating a team two levels above us, in what was if anything a lucky game for them, is fantastic.  Mujkic had already played most of a season while in Australia, and was in need of a rest when he came over. Generally the best thing to do is give them a couple weeks off of training and matches to recover, so I brink Mateo in for a chat.  If he thinks he's good to play, I'm willing to let him keep going until he shows signs that his play is suffering from fatigue. I'm also not willing to risk pissing off a guy who we're extraordinarily fortunate to have on our team.  And we're drawn against our parent team. We already drew against them once at the Racecourse Grounds, and after the Wigan match I almost expect to do one better the second time around.  Season ticket sales are up incrementally, but income from season ticket sales are down 9%. The new president and board must have been giving out a lot of season tickets to their cronies.  Having a Director of Football lets me delegate the task of finding an appropriate loan club for our players that have aged out of the U18's but don't have a spot in the senior club awaiting them. It saves some scutwork. At Torquay, August 6, 2016 League Two  I'm going to give Higgs every third or fourth start, and this one is as good as any. Simpson is worn out at the moment, so Cobb gets his spot in the lineup. Torquay is not expected to be very good here, but given that we're still molding the team and our trouble keeping Oxford off the scoreboard I'm going to opt for a counter-attacking style. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Higgs, Thomas, Reid, Poole, Smissen, Kadhim, Cobb, Bailey, Coulson, Franks, Harrison (c). Subs: Al-Beloushi, Ashton, Todd, Jenkins, Price, Mujkic, Spilsbury. Visions of autumn 2015 danced before me during this game. The players clearly let the Wigan match go to their head. We're down three-nil before half-time. Daniel Thomas has been especially suspect, after picking up an injury he made two bad mistakes leading to goals. Matthew Poole salvaged something from the game with a goal in the final twenty minutes, but Luke Reid earned his second yellow card in the 87th minute and we conceded again after that. It was a miserable game, with all of our worst habits from last year making a return.   Torquay 4-1 Wrexham  This will be Tench's chance to cement himself in the starting lineup.   Depending on how players earn their red card they can earn a multiple game suspension. In this case Reid receives the minimum, and I warn him to watch his step.  Simpson was healthy as a bull last season, but this is already his second injury. vs. York City, August 13, 2016 League Two  Billy the Kid is just returning from playing with his national team, and Simpson is out, so Cobb gets the captain's band tonight. I want a win to get us back on track after that Torquay debacle, but we're still wending our way into shape and we're starting five players who are new to the team so I'm going to try and temper my expectations. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Tench, Todd, Poole, Smissen, Kadhim, Cobb (c), Bailey, Coulson, Mujkic, Spilsbury. Subs: Higgs, Ashton, Lewis, Jenkins, Franks, Netala, Price. We very nearly go behind right after the whistle, but York can't get their shot on target. The run of play is all to us in the early going, by the 17th minute we've had 61% possession despite playing a counter-attack. We've also had seven corners, and on the last of these we take the lead when the auld onion bag pinballs to Chris Todd and he takes advantage of the clear shot. York muster up their gumption, and get back to their feet, but can't put the ball in before the whistle blows play dead. Our defense plays well in the second half, and in the 68th minute wonderkid Mateo Mujkic lifts a cross to a waiting Michael Coulson for our second goal. We finish out the game without conceding, and it's exactly the response to adversity I wanted to see from the team. Man of the Match: Michael Coulson   Wrexham 2-0 York  It's not a good sign if coaches fail a course, it might mean that they're incapable of improving. At Tranmere Rovers, August 20, 2016 League Two  Tranmere were relegated last season, but are touted to return to League one. I've looked at their team and I'm unimpressed. They've been gutted this offseason, and they look more likely to drop out of the Football League than earn promotion.  We've got our Capital One Cup match against Norwich in two days, so I'm going to see if we can't field a slightly weakened team to take advantage of Tranmere's predicament and rest some legs for the Cup match. By the by, that's Neil Senior, our old backup goalkeeper from two years ago, playing for Tranmere. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Tench, Reid, Poole, Ashton, Kadhim, Jenkins, Cobb (c), Franks, Netala, Spilsbury. Subs: Higgs, Smissen, Todd, Bailey, Price, Mujkic, Harrison. Tranmere are complaining to the referee early, claiming that Poole should have been called for a penalty nine minutes in. Otherwise it's a tidy half, neither side can create much, so we head to the lockers in a goalless clinch. Three shots cracked against the woodwork, none found their way across the goal line. We take the lead on an absolute fluke, Ashton makes a poor cross from near the midfield line that angles directly at Senior. The ball eats Senior up, and it deflects into the back of the net. The difference at the end of the game is that bizarre goal. Man of the Match: Matthew Ashton   Tranmere 0-1 Wrexham  He's great! Except for the whole reduction in season ticket income despite higher sales. I looked into it, and we're missing over £50,000 in season ticket revenue when you multiply the number of season tickets sold by their average price. I don't know if it's the game making a mistake or I missed something, but it's irritating.  I don't want to hurt Natala's feelings, but we have someone way better than him in Mujkic. Also, how do you pronounce Mujkic? “Mooj-sik”? “Mooj-kis”? I might just start referring to him by his first name.  With Simpson also struggling with his fitness I need Cobb ready for the next match. Stick him in the groin with that needle, doctor.  Yeah, it's not the kindest draw we could have gotten.  Another good crowd today. Cup games do quite a bit to help your bottom line, we've seen the most extreme version of this with our FA Cup matches against the Manchester teams but even a decent cup run with a bunch of home games will add over a hundred thousand pounds to your bank balance. This match alone will bring in that much in gate receipts, which we'll split with Norwich. vs. Norwich City, August 23, 2016 Capital One Cup, Second Round  Norwich is favored, but not overwhelmingly. 3-1 odds give us a 25% chance to win, 4-5 odds means the bookies think that Norwich will win just over half the time. It would be super sweet to beat Norwich, and we've been playing some fantastic football against better teams recently, but even a repeat of our preseason friendly would be great. If we lose, we'll have lost to a promotion contender from a team two levels higher than us in the league pyramid, and there's no shame in that. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Defense Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Tench, Reid, Poole, Smissen, Kadhim, Cobb, Bailey, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison (c). Subs: Higgs, Thomas, Todd, Simpson, Jenkins, Franks, Price. Norwich takes the lead in the 9th minute, scores again in the 14th minute, and never looks back. We are abominable, even when our defense firms up in the second half we can't put the ball on net for anything. A loss was always the most likely outcome today, but after our other performances this is a real let down. Mujkic and Tench are especially bad, but there's blame enough to go around for everyone.   Wrexham 0-3 Norwich  Cobb's going to be out for a month. I wonder if he and Simpson have a secret deal to trade “injuries” back and forth to get vacations.  I find the statement “Osbourne's selection certainly appears to underline a lack of talent within Wales recently” bemusing when three of the players play for Swansea. What, just because they play in the English league means that Swansea's not Welsh anymore?  We've got a match against Bradford during this period. With five first team players called up a youth player or two will get a crack at some game time. At Shrewsbury, August 27, 2016 League Two  Tench is out after last game's pitiful effort. Simpson will go as long as possible, but he's still not match fit so it's likely Jenkins will come on for him sometime in the second half. Lewis still hasn't made his way into a game for me yet, but that's the lot of a fourth centerback. Shrewsbury is a good team, we're going to have to play much better than we did against Norwich to pick up the three points.  Hopefully the team's reaction is indicative of their performance today. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Poole, Smissen, Kadhim, Simpson (c), Bailey, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Tench, Todd, Jenkins, Price, Netala, Spilsbury. Our offense from set pieces is still quite good. In the fourth minute Bailey launches a free kick towards the opponent's penalty area that Coulson heads back to Simpson. Simpson quiets the ball and unleashes a shot that caroms off the goalpost to Coulson. With the goalie lying sprawled on the ground, Coulson finishes the move and puts us in the lead. The match goes sour quickly afterwards, with Shrewsbury scoring two. One is on a very nice narrow angle shot, the second is entirely Thomas's fault for failing to mark his man. We weather a true storm of shots from Shrewsbury throughout the next three quarters of an hour, but the next goal is ours, against the run of play, from another set piece. If we could just survive the next 10 minutes I'd be pleased with the draw. We can't. Man of the Match: Matthew Poole.   Shrewsbury 3-2 Wrexham  We haven't had a truly serious injury to any of our senior squad players yet, but we've picked up a number of minor dings and dents that have kept us from playing at full strength.  My personal assistant has been ordered to send Scunthorpe's manager a bouquet of roses.  I think I can say without qualification that this is a much, much better start to the season than last time. The only unacceptable loss was to Torquay, and that was due to the margin rather than the fact that we lost. The Wigan victory is one that'll be remembered for years to come, a solid bit of “giant slaying” by the local boys. If we keep on this pace for the season, we'll end up with 82-83 points, which should be enough for promotion. That's about the same level of play that we ended on last season. I expect that we'll get better as the season goes on, so barring disaster we might challenge for the league title. 
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Jan 26, 2014 03:39
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Great start, and I'm loving how relaxed Higgs seems about being our backup for now. As for Mujkic's name, I'd lean towards being pronounced 'Moo-kitch', or at least that being what the commentators butcher his name into.
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Jan 26, 2014 04:00
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