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Chapter the Ninth: Daedalus is our daddy. March 11, 2018-April 2, 2018 Eleven games left, and we're six points up on our closest competitors for the second automatic promotion spot. Winning the league isn't out of the question, but finishing second would be a gigantic achievement for a club of our stature.  And there goes a third of our Upson income. The transfer kitty currently sits at £1,700,000, you're going to see me be much more aggressive when it comes to buying youth prospects this time around.  It's time to go shopping! Our youth prospects are actually pretty good this season, with Lloyd Eden, Graham Graham (aka “Double G” aka “Crackers”), Rickey Kemp, and Stuart Cassidy all looking like they could have pro careers. I'm only going to show off the very best of the youth I bring in, as several of my signings will end up being sale bait and never cracking our starting 11. Still, if even one of the dozen or so players I have my eye on turns into another Upson it will be worthwhile. vs. Portsmouth, March 13, 2018 League One  Another month of playing like we have all season and we should earn promotion without a sweat. Portsmouth are decent, though, and we're due for a loss at some point. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Higgs, Tench, Poole, Lewis, Smissen, Harper, Simpson (c), Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Taylor, Peters, Todd, Price, Rainey, Coulson. Harrison sends the fans into jubilation after four minutes with a goal, but he was correctly whistled for offsides. It's Portsmouth that gets on the board with a brace of goals before the thirty minute marker, they're killing us with their counter attack. Gorman continues his recent stretch of good performances by halving the lead in the 36th minute, but we perform poorly in the second half where we miss more easy chances. It's our first loss of 2018, and with both Bournemouth and Sunderland losing we don't miss a step on the table.   Wrexham 1-2 Portsmouth  The first of several youth signings.  We're about to get promoted! Can't you wait two damned months?!  I'll naturally be looking to bring in better players anyways, hopefully I can keep Mujkic happy for longer than I managed with Todd.  We're not famous enough to snipe the big club's youth yet, and by the time we are I'll be too busy with finding Eastern European wunderkinds to bother.   Yep, more youth.  Argh. This was definitely the best young player I'd found, and he decided to stay with York City in friggin League Two instead of coming to us. Poor choice, kid!  And it would cost us at least £600,000 to get him now, instead of the £60,000 we'd have had to pay if he'd just signed with us. Enjoy mediocrity, kid! At least, until some Premier League team comes along and pays the piper for you.  That makes Doug Harley here our final signing. With the youth intakes I signed we've added nine players to the U18 side for a grand total of £47,000 in transfer fees. Not a bad haul at all. Missing out on Mirfin hurts, though. He was easily the best player we could have signed on the cheap.  Our first postponement of the year. This will make for a very crowded schedule at the back end of this month.  And we've got a game scheduled for then, too.  Mujkic, Harrison, and Todd are all pulled from their international teams. Note to international coaches, if you want my players play your international friendlies when I'm not in the middle of a thick slate of games, you assholes.  Getting promoted just got a lot harder. Tom Taylor, this is your moment to shine. And yes, I know you haven't gotten into a single match so far this year. So make the most of these six weeks. At Port Vale, March 24, 2018 League One  Port Vale has had a successful year in League One, sitting right about mid-table. I'm sure they'd like to claim our scalp and keep us from moving up to the Championship. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Taylor, Peters, Todd, Curran, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Rogers, Tench, Lewis, Harper, Shirra, Rainey, Coulson. Harrison puts another into the back of the net early, but yet again he's flagged for offsides. It throws him off for the rest of the game, he misses two more clear cut chances before I pull him in the second half. Taylor gets hurt at the half hour mark, but can run it off, we're in deep trouble if it's anything that will make him miss more than a few days. Ioan Peters also gets crunched just before the whistle, and that could also get messy with Daniel Thomas already in the trainer's room. The game ends nil-nil, and we drop two very easy points thanks to Harrison's poor display.   Port Vale 0-0 Wrexham  Lovely. This means Jonathan Rogers, our 16 year old youth keeper, will be our netminder for our most important game in months. At Blackpool, March 27, 2018 League One  No, it's even worse. Rogers is on international duty and I forgot to call him back. So our brand new youth signing Ian Ritchie will get to play keeper, with fellow youth Graham Graham providing backup. We're going to need a miracle to keep our four point lead on the second automatic promotion spot. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Defense Starting 11: Ritchie, Tench, Lewis, Poole, Smissen, Harper, Simpson (c), Holland, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Graham, Peters, Todd, Price, Gorman, Rainey, Baker. Harrison is injured in a challenge that leads to a Blackpool corner, which they convert on. We can't do anything against them, they're bossing the entire field, and we have just one shot through 41 minutes when I switch us over to the counter from our defensive huddle. It works to perfection, Coulson equalizes in the 45th minute and we go into the lockers all square. But Blackpool won't be denied, scoring a double salvo ten minutes after the second half kicks off. Mateo Mujkic is able to bring us back to within a shout, but after Simpson is hurt in the 75th minute we can't get anything on target and slump to our second loss in three games after having not fallen in league play for the previous n games.   Blackpool 3-2 Wrexham None of the injuries from the Blackpool game result in missed time, thank goodness. But I'm becoming concerned about our ability to hold onto second place.  Price, Thomas, and Taylor are all out at the end of the season, while I'll renegotiate the staff contracts in June. vs. Millwall, March 31, 2018 League One  Taylor still isn't fully back, so Ritchie is once again between the pipes. Millwall are much easier meat than our most recent opponents, however, so this should be a good chance to pick up three points. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack. Starting 11: Ritchie, Peters, Todd, Lewis, Smissen, Harper, Shirra, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison (c). Subs: Taylor, Tench, Curran, Holland, Price, Rainey, Coulson. Millwall takes the game to us, they have four shots to our none after fifteen minutes, and we're still looking for our first by the end of the half. We're extremely lucky to be tied. I scream at the players, but we still don't show any life until I sub off the ice cold Harrison and poorly performing Mujkic for Coulson and Rainey. Gareth Rainey makes the most of his appearance, scoring 7 minutes after coming on. It's only our third shot of the day. It's still enough. We did not deserve the three points from this match, but our defense was solid and we got what we needed. Blackpool drew, so we're back to three points up on them while remaining just two behind Sunderland with a game in hand. Man of the Match: Sam Smissen.   Wrexham 1-0 Millwall  Tackleford has woken up just as we've been slipping, so we're now 20 points up on them.  If all goes to plan we're not going to be competing for the League Trophy next year. How sad for us.  Teenagers, amirite?  He's probably in his room crying to The Cure albums and writing on his Angelfire site about how mean his coach is. That's what kids these days do, right? At Hartlepool, April 2, 2018 League One  The scheduling Gods are cruel, giving us just one day off between matches. Thanks to the Blackpool postponement we're not going to have much rest even after the upcoming match. Getting anything from this fixture is vital. A single point would keep us ahead of Blackpool, and only one back of Sunderland, with six games remaining to play. A loss means that Blackpool could match us on points if they win, although we have a solid goal differential advantage. We're pretty worn out at the moment due to fixture congestion, but Hartlepool will be as well. Whoever planned this Monday game should be given the old cattle prod. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Taylor, Tench, Curran, Poole, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Price, Rainey, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Ritchie, Peters, Todd, Harper, Holt, Coulson, Read. Harrison is flagged for his third offside's goal in the last four games, but this time he has a legitimate complaint with the ref:  It's not the only thing to go wrong for us in the first half, but Hartlepool can't find the goal. I scorch the paint in the visiting locker room, exhorting the team to show some pride. They clearly don't listen, allowing Hartlepool to take the lead in the 54th minute. Harrison misses an easy equalizer, and I yank him to give Read a shot at showing me he deserves more time. Hartlepool adds another goal, and Read shows clear signs of being a whinging mule when he skies an easy chance of his own. From there it just gets ugly. Hartlepool makes it four-nil in the 81st minute, and then adds another in the 84th to complete the humiliation. Tom Taylor was especially awful for us, failing to make simple saves on goals that Higgs would never have conceded. We are well and truly in a funk.   Hartlepool 4-0 Wrexham  Yes, this is exactly what I want to deal with right now. Yes, I am being sarcastic.  I wouldn't have been yelling at you if you hadn't been less effective than a three-legged cow on the pitch. Do your goddamned job, Holland.  Still untouchable, even with the recent wobble.  We might be flailing, but so are our closest competitors. Sunderland lost again, leaving us two back with a game in hand. Blackpool lost as well, leaving us three points up on them. Mansfield has pushed their way into contention for automatic promotion, we're two points up on them with a game in hand. We could still watch ourselves get forced into the roulette wheel of the promotion playoffs, or we could win the league. It's going to come down to the wire thanks to the wretched month we just had, but we put ourselves in position to weather this type of storm and can still claim the title given that Sunderland chose the exact same time to fall apart.   Board VotesWe're coming up on the end of the season, and we have some votes to take. For the purpose of setting the budget I am going to presume that we earn promotion. If we do not get promoted, I will reduce the amounts in our wage budgets accordingly, and vote #4 will be canceled.  We're in very strong shape financially. We've got over £1.6m in the bank, and if we do sell Todd in the offseason we're going to be swimming in cash. We've also got several sponsor deals coming up for renewal, all of which should bring us much more cash than we earned when they were first negotiated.  Our expenditures are up moderately from the previous year, largely due to  Our turnover is up year over year, the sale of Upson easily matched what we had previously earned from deep FA Cup runs. It can be expected that our income will only increase in a higher division thanks to much better TV revenue, greater fan support, and increased ticket prices. VOTE 1: Wage Budget  (Smoothly) Our current wage cap puts us at £42k/wk and £2.2m/yr, which if we were using all of it would place us in 13th amongst League One teams. If we were in the Championship, however, you can see that same wage cap would have us at less than half the salary of the cheapest club in the division. I would like to see the wage cap raised so that we can at offer contracts that are competitive with at least the lower spending Championship clubs, either at £100k/wk and £5.2m/yr, or at £150k/wk and £7.8m/year. A) You haven't even used the budget we gave you so far! You can have a little more, but that's it. (£50k/wk, £2.6m/year) B) You're right that we'll have to spend more, but we're concerned about ramping up salaries too quickly. (£100k/wk, £5.2m/yr) C) We need to spend money to make money, but we're still just a small club from northern Wales and can't compete with the big London clubs. (£150k/wk, £7.8m/year) VOTE 2: Chris Todd (Stannis Baratheon-esque-ly) Chris Todd is being a prat and agitating for a move to another club. He's still one of the best young players we have, and we have him under contract for two more years. I do not want to sell him, I don't want to set an example that malingering will get players transfer listed. Obviously, everyone has a price, if we're blown over by an offer we should accept it. Tottenham offered us £5.25m for him in January. A) That's right, show him who's the boss. (Don't sell Todd for less than £10m) B) We agree that we should only accept bids that help the team, but we think it might be time to sell if we can get the right amount of cash. (Accept offers above £5.5m for Todd) C) If he doesn't want to be here we don't want him to be here. Get paid, get out. (Sell Todd for less than or equal to £5.5m) VOTE 3: Mateo Mujkic (Smartly) I would like to extend Mateo Mujkic again, and up his release clause. I'm asking permission to go outside the team's wage structure to do so. If you haven't noticed, he's been one of our very best players this year, with 13 goals and 10 assists in 34 matches. A) He's already going to be making almost £5,000 a week next year, and we're comfortable with the £10m minimum release clause. (No special dispensation to re-up Mujkic) B) We agree that he's important, but remember that he's just one player. (Can spend up to £7,500 wk on Mujkic) C) We want top dollar for that kid, make sure we get it. (No wage structure for Mujkic) VOTE 4: Scouting Range (Assertively) We're no longer slumming it in the lower leagues. It's time to start acting like it. I would like our scouting range expanded, so that we can look to bring players from across Europe to Wrexham, rather than relying on finding talent from solely the U.K. and Ireland. If you vote yes, I will be bringing on five new scouts to spearhead our hunt for continental talent. A) Absolutely not. You want people who speak Spanish, Italian, and French to come to this club? Disgusting. (No change in scouting range, no new scouts) B) Of course. Now that we're in the big time we need to start using every bit of talent we can get our hands on. EuRail passes and new laptops for everyone! (Allowed to scout European countries, may hire up to five new scouts) Voting will be open until the posting of the next update.
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Mar 3, 2014 20:46
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ACAA At some point this board won't humor you and give you everything you ask for. I just pray that day is today.
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Mar 3, 2014 20:59
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Still a fan of the "spend money to get money" and "scout players to get money" theories, so let's go with CBCB.
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Mar 3, 2014 21:01
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C, A, C, B (Assertively) Back to back promotions should give you enough clout to go out and make us great. Keep the players you want, if they want to whine like Jean-Marc Bosman then they shouldn't have signed the bloody contract. They're professionals, they should act like it. Spread the net far and wide, you've got a great eye for a player. Make sure your scouts have interesting nationalities as well so we can find more Mujkic-esque loopholes.
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Mar 3, 2014 21:24
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Well that's an unfortunate run of things; good thing we've still got it, but I hope the Dragons shape up soon! As for votes; C, B, B, B - Provisionally, use the money from Todd sale if it goes towards Meteor's wage if he demands it. Meteor's worth more than Todd in the long run, so maybe we can get something out of the sale to keep who we really want.
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Mar 3, 2014 21:28
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C, A, B, B If we're going to be respected at the next level, that requires a reputation for not folding on chances to give ourselves an advantage. This is a big opportunity to make a statement that no matter where we wind up in competition next year, we aren't to be taken lightly.
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Mar 3, 2014 21:47
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C, A, C, B. Go get us promoted, you crazy bastard.
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Mar 3, 2014 22:54
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I think every FM player was dreading this moment, the always inevitable run of bad form when you're having an otherwise amazing season. CBCB
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Mar 3, 2014 23:02
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Lets not go completely overboard. BBAB. A doubling of the wage limit should be good enough to stay up and consolidate in the Championship. We can sell Todd for a hefty fee, which should help immensely for getting in new players, and to cover for more unforeseen expenditures. It'll be nice if we can keep Mujkic, but sell him if his wage demands are too much, or we get that 10M bid. It'll hurt to lose him, but with that much money, we can easily rebuild the team. Especially if the scouting limitations are lifted.
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Mar 3, 2014 23:04
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B, B, B, A (Passionately) While an extension of funding and the presence of Mateo Mujkic will be necessary to continue improving at the pace we've been doing, let's not do anything crazy here like signing any more foreigners. 
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Mar 3, 2014 23:18
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CACB - you have to spend money to make money.
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Mar 3, 2014 23:31
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B,B(accept 5.5M),C,B The team has done well, the wage requests are reasonable, scouting has worked out very well in the past. No reason not to see that your demands are reasonably met.
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Mar 3, 2014 23:53
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I'm gonna vote BBBB.
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Mar 4, 2014 00:06
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BBCB
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Mar 4, 2014 00:10
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Scout all you want but I'm not gonna be satisfied until we get a natively Welsh player who had parents traditional enough to name him in a proper olden welsh way. Granting us a baller whos name is an indecipherable string of consonants. Pnyydhh Fvngydd or something beautiful like that. (It seems like you always get your good players stolen for international duty though and I doesn't higher tiers of play have a mandatory amount of UK you need to field?)
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Mar 4, 2014 00:12
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Vote 1: I would prefer an option between B and C, something in the 6 to 6.5 million pound range, until revenue streams can catch up. In absence of that option I must vote C but I really don't want to. Vote 2: B Sell. Vote 3: C Vote 4: B Though do you really need 5? I guess scouts are cheap.
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Mar 4, 2014 00:18
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Jenner posted:doesn't higher tiers of play have a mandatory amount of UK you need to field?) They just need to be trained in England/ English league. Unless we sign a bunch of foreigners, it's not going to be an issue. Now, once we get to the Premier league, and we have a realistic shot at good foreigners? That's a different story completely.
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Mar 4, 2014 00:18
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1. B. Increase the wage structure gradually to be more competitive with the rest of the Championship, but be careful not to drive us into debt. 2. B. 5.5M and above is a lot of cash at our level. You could buy a lot of new youth players with that sort of dosh. I'd take that. 3. B. Don't blow everything up for Mujkic. I want to keep him but if you give him too much money it'll risk ruining our finances. 4. B. Our scouting and youth development is the club's strongest point. Any measure to strengthen it is warrented.
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Mar 4, 2014 00:33
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Jenner posted:doesn't higher tiers of play have a mandatory amount of UK you need to field?) EU citizens, not UK. You get I think 18 squad spaces for any old player with an EU passport or work permit, and the other 7 are open only to players who are either; a) trained at your club for a certain number of years prior to turning 21 b) under 21 It's not very restrictive unless you go full Chelsea.
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Mar 4, 2014 01:07
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Chapter the Tenth: Down to the wire. April 1, 2018-May 6, 2018 That last spate of games was awful, but things look a little better for the last half-dozen matches. We've got Bradford away as they try to lock down a playoff spot, and Bournemouth at home where they try to hang onto their own playoff spot after a poor run of form. Beyond those two we'll travel to 22nd ranked Oldham where we should be able to beat them even playing away; 17th and 18th placed Shrewsbury and Coventry, and 10th placed Notts County.  I'd like to see a bit more gumption from you guys.  … This is some type of conspiracy, right? At Oldham, April 7, 2018 League One  This is the match that we need to win. Oldham is in the relegation zone, they're by far the easiest opponent we'll be playing. If we want to get promoted, we absolutely have to beat them. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attacking Starting 11: Taylor, Peters, Todd, Lewis, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Rogers, Tench, Poole, Harper, Shirra, Rainey, Coulson. We look better from the start, but our best chance goes begging when Lewis misses a wide open goal in the tenth minute. Oldham weathers the storm, and starts looking dangerous. They score in the 22nd minute, and then again, and we're we're sinking at the half. We batter Oldham to start the second half, but can't score. Then Harrison puts the team on his back, halving the deficit with a 58th minute goal and drawing us even in the 60th. Each goal was assisted by Mujkic. We have the better of Oldham for the rest of the game, but can't find a winner. It's an unfortunate draw, but heartening to see the team finally play well again even if it did require us going down two goals. We stay in second place, two back of Sunderland with a game in hand, and a point up on Bradford with a game in hand. Man of the Match: William Harrison.   Oldham 2-2 Wrexham  Daniel Thomas just returned to full health, so this is not the problem it could be.  I'm surprised that Harrison isn't in the team of the week. vs. Bournemouth, April 10, 2018 League One  Bournemouth is sixth, and seeking to hold onto the final playoff spot. Since we failed to beat an Oldham team we really should have we can't rest for a second. Our opponents have hit the skids even worse than we have, though, going from a 95 point pace at midseason to winning just four of their last fifteen league matches. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Taylor, Tench, Lewis, Poole, Smissen, Harper, Simpson (c), Bailey, Rainey, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Rogers, Thomas, Curran, Holland, Shirra, Gorman, Coulson. The game starts and Bournemouth sets about hacking down our players left and right, leaving Harrison, Harper, and Bailey sprawled on the pitch at points during first half. They're too eager to beat us about the head, and we take the lead on an own goal by Bournemouth's right back just after the break. That's not the final goal of the match, though, as the ref misses a blatant offsides that lets Bournemouth equalize. After that tough to stomach call we can't get anything going for the final twenty minutes, and are lucky to not concede and lose the match. The draw leaves us a point behind Sunderland, and only two up on both Blackpool and Bradford, with four matches left in the season.   Wrexham 1-1 Bournemouth  Bailey's been uninspiring for the last month and a half, going from brilliance to dross and taking down our offense with him. He's still been very good for the season, but hasn't regained the sublime form he had when we were crushing all comers. vs. Shrewsbury, April, 14, 2018 League One  OK, seriously, we have to start winning some matches. Shrewsbury is a bottom half side, and we're at home. We can't afford to keep dropping points if we want to avoid the playoffs. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Taylor, Tench, Lewis, Poole, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Rogers, Thomas, Todd, Harper, Shirra, Rainey, Gorman. The posts deny us twice near the start of the game, seeing off attempts by Bailey and Coulson. Harrison has yet another goal disallowed, this time he was offsides by a step at the most. Bailey has the goal at his mercy for a second time, and misses. Shrewsbury makes us rue our ineptitude in front of the goal, scoring just before the break. We finally get a shot on target and past the keeper when Gorman levels it in the 75th minute. It's looking like a draw when Shrewsbury takes the lead on a defensive lapse in the 87th minute, and we fall out of second place. But a Harrison stoppage time goal allows us to save the point, leaving us in second on goal differential. We're behind Sunderland by three points now, and must focus on finishing second before we could even consider capturing the league. Man of the Match: Justin Bailey   Wrexham 2-2 Shrewsbury  Down goes our most reliable centerback for the rest of the season. This game sure does want to make things interesting. vs. Bradford, April 21, 2018 League One  This is the most important game of the season. If Bradford tops us, they're at 78 points, and it's likely that one of Mansfield or Blackpool passes us in the standings. If we beat them, we stay in second place and have one less competitor for our automatic promotion spot. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Taylor, Peters, Todd, Poole, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Rogers, Tench, Curran, Harper, Shirra, Coulson, Read. Bradford gets a single shot off in the first half, but it's enough to put them ahead until Mujkic can make it one-one. We continue to pile on the pressure, but we can't score before a scary moment sees Tom Taylor go down, forcing me to bring on 16 year old Jonathan Rogers. Mark Holland gives us the lead in the 73rd minute, and it's one we don't relinquish. Harrison continues his feast or famine ways, failing to score on more than one opportunity, and Adrian Read continues to make no argument for more playing time when he can't tap in the goal that would put us ahead by two. Mujkic gets us that third goal, capping a brilliant performance that sees us move to the top of the table for the first this season as Sunderland falls. Man of the Match: Mateo Mujkic.   Wrexham 3-1 Bradford  Well, that's not too bad.  But that is. Higgs is still five days from returning, and we've got a game in seven. I'll have a hard time deciding whether to start him or Rogers against Notts County.  At the very least we'll be in the promotion playoffs. It seems at the moment as if no one wants to win the league, I can't believe after winning just two of our last ten games we're in first place.  Smissen and Tench have been wildly variable in their recent performances. We really need to find some better fullbacks this offseason regardless of what else happens.  I don't want him doing an iota of exercise before the next match.  I'm “under fire”? I know we haven't played great the last couple months, but we're on pace to earn back to back promotions. Ingrates.  You need to discuss this right now?     It's entirely possible he gets moved over the break. He's only got a year left on his contract and I can't afford to let him leave for nothing. At Notts County, April 28, 2018 League One  A win here could seal an automatic promotion spot. Notts Co. is finishing out a decent but unexceptional season, they don't have any chance of making the promotion playoffs so this match is merely an opportunity to play spoiler against us. Higgs is getting his first start since his injury, despite only just having been cleared to play by the trainers. I may love young players but I'm not putting our season in the hands of a sixteen year old. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Higgs, Tench, Todd, Poole, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Rogers, Thomas, Curran, Harper, Shirra, Rainey, Coulson It's an even first half, we earn three half chances but can't make anything of them. It doesn't matter, Gorman scores a sensational goal in the 61st minute to put us ahead. We're able to cling to that lead, and it ends up being the margin of victory, keeping us at the top of the table and securing our promotion into the Championship. For all the tumult of the last two months we still have a chance to win the league. Man of the Match: Matthew Poole   Notts Co. 0-1 Wrexham   Only one thing left to do, and that's win the league. So long as we match whatever Sunderland does, we'll add that title to our trophy case.  Our stadium will likely need some upgrading, I believe that Championship and Premier League clubs are not allowed to have standing room only seating. We have a grace period to change our seating plan, which we'll probably want to use seeing as those upgrades will be expensive if the team is footing the bill.  About time Mujkic wins the award, he's been brilliant all season.  He's probably right that he can do better. I look forward to seeing it.  But what about Bailey! He has 21 assists in league play and the second highest average rating!  Oh, they're both in the running. Man, this is like Sophie's Choice, except it's which of my players I want to praise instead of which of my children I'm forced to leave behind. So, same thing, right?  Gee, thanks! But I hope you don't mind if we hide you on our way to the league title. At Coventry City, May 5, 2018 League One  Coventry avoided relegation by winning their last match, so they no longer have anything to play for. We still have a shot at winning the league, so we better be the more enthusiastic squad out there. Let's finish this season on a high note, let's take that title. Richard Cobb and Neil Sinclair are both starting for Coventry, I bet they wish they were still Dragons. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Higgs, Tench, Poole, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Taylor, Thomas, Lewis, Harper, Shirra, Rainey, Read. We keep gifting Coventry possession, and it bites us when Coulson is intercepted and Coventry score on the break. We are profligate, wasting our chances, and at the half we're losing while Sunderland is locked in a draw. I pull Coulson, who's been awful recently, and tell the boys to get out there and finish strong. Bailey is the man of the moment in the 64th minute, netting the equalizer, but Sunderland have pulled ahead in their own match. We don't stop fighting for a second goal, keeping Coventry on their heels, but miss chance after chance until Harrison finally scores in the 90th minute as stoppage time opens. The goal puts us level on points with Sunderland and ahead on the table thanks to goal differential. Minutes later we walk off the field not just victors but champions, for the second year in a row. Man of the Match: Mateo Mujkic   Coventry 1-2 Wrexham  That's a cherry on the cap of a great season.   Meanwhile, Tackleford gets to spend a third straight season in League One.  That was a better season than I could have possibly hoped for. The real problem now is that our young players are starting to get too big for their britches, and seeking to move onto bigger clubs. Holding onto as much of that talent as we can, while reloading ourselves, is going to be vital if we want to attain my goal of reaching the Premier League within the next two years. Still, it beats the heck out of the fight for a playoff spot I expected at the start of the season. We also finished 22 points up on hated Tackleford, meaning that A Tartan Tory wins this years contest. Let me know what you'd like me to do.  Board VotesI'm going to leave voting open until the next update to let everyone have a chance to toss in their two cents. Below is the information you'll need: We're in very strong shape financially. We've got over £1.6m in the bank, and if we do sell Todd in the offseason we're going to be swimming in cash. We've also got several sponsor deals coming up for renewal, all of which should bring us much more cash than we earned when they were first negotiated. Our expenditures are up moderately from the previous year, largely due to Our turnover is up year over year, the sale of Upson easily matched what we had previously earned from deep FA Cup runs. It can be expected that our income will only increase in a higher division thanks to much better TV revenue, greater fan support, and increased ticket prices. VOTE 1: Wage Budget (Smoothly) Our current wage cap puts us at £42k/wk and £2.2m/yr, which if we were using all of it would place us in 13th amongst League One teams. If we were in the Championship, however, you can see that same wage cap would have us at less than half the salary of the cheapest club in the division. I would like to see the wage cap raised so that we can at offer contracts that are competitive with at least the lower spending Championship clubs, either at £100k/wk and £5.2m/yr or at £150k/wk and £7.8m/year. A) You haven't even used the budget we gave you so far! You can have a little more, but that's it. (£50k/wk, £2.6m/year) B) You're right that we'll have to spend more, but we're concerned about ramping up salaries too quickly. (£100k/wk, £5.2m/yr) C) We need to spend money to make money, but we're still just a small club from northern Wales and can't compete with the big London clubs. (£150k/wk, £7.8m/year) VOTE 2: Chris Todd (Stannis Baratheon-esque-ly) Chris Todd is being a prat and agitating for a move to another club. He's still one of the best young players we have, and we have him under contract for two more years. I do not want to sell him, I don't want to set an example that malingering will get players transfer listed. Obviously, everyone has a price, if we're blown over by an offer we should accept it. Tottenham offered us £5.25m for him in January. A) That's right, show him who's the boss. (Don't sell Todd for less than £10m) B) We agree that we should only accept bids that help the team, but we think it might be time to sell if we can get the right amount of cash. (Accept offers above £5.5m for Todd) C) If he doesn't want to be here we don't want him to be here. Get paid, get out. (Sell Todd for less than or equal to £5.5m) VOTE 3: Mateo Mujkic (Smartly) I would like to extend Mateo Mujkic again, and up his release clause. I'm asking permission to go outside the team's wage structure to do so. If you haven't noticed, he's been one of our very best players this year, with 15 goals and 14 assists in 34 matches. A) He's already going to be making almost £5,000 a week next year, and we're comfortable with the £10m minimum release clause. (No special dispensation to re-up Mujkic) B) We agree that he's important, but remember that he's just one player. (Can spend up to £7,500 wk on Mujkic) C) We want top dollar for that kid, make sure we get it. (No wage structure for Mujkic) VOTE 4: Scouting Range (Assertively) We're no longer slumming it in the lower leagues. It's time to start acting like it. I would like our scouting range expanded, so that we can look to bring players from across Europe to Wrexham, rather than relying on finding talent from solely the U.K. and Ireland. If you vote yes, I would also like to bring on five new scouts to spearhead our hunt for continental talent. A) Absolutely not. You want people who speak Spanish, Italian, and French to come to this club? Disgusting. (No change in scouting range, no new scouts) B) Of course. Now that we're in the big time we need to start using every bit of talent we can get our hands on. EuRail passes and new laptops for everyone! (Allowed to scout European countries, may hire up to five new scouts)
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Mar 4, 2014 01:12
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tarbrush posted:It's not very restrictive unless you go full Chelsea. Yep. Basically as long as we have 8 homegrown players we're able to have a full squad of about 25 players.
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Mar 4, 2014 01:21
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(Giddy with glee) Back to back Titles! My oath, you've done far better than could ever have been hoped for, and I didn't even have to threaten you to die trying this time! Onward and upward, the Red Dragon is taking to the skies!
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Mar 4, 2014 01:23
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Hey, wait a minute. I thought Alex Gill was Director of Football. When did he become General Manager? BBCB
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Mar 4, 2014 01:57
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Fedule posted:Hey, wait a minute. I thought Alex Gill was Director of Football. When did he become General Manager? Same job. I do kind of wish I could rename him "hench-lackey" and get rid of any notion that I'm not the primary decision maker. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Mar 4, 2014 |
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Mar 4, 2014 01:58
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BBBB, hooray for uniformity.
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Mar 4, 2014 02:05
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Congrats to the lads for our back to back promotion trophies! The hard work is just beginning though. Its going to be hard to move on the youngsters that had been doing so well for us, but I'm sure a nice big cash injection for each of them will lessen that impact quite a bit.
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Mar 4, 2014 02:13
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BBBB, congrats on the promotion!
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Mar 4, 2014 02:18
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BCCB Things are going well and our aim is to start a football dynasty, we don't need dead weight and we need to do whatever is in our power (as long as we wield that power responsibly) to get there.
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Mar 4, 2014 02:28
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Nice win. Hopefully that will shut some of the guys up a bit. How do we lift revenues at this point, it seems clear we somehow need to get our wage budget up to 25-30 million quid to set us up for a premier league run, but where do we get the cash from. I think we need to Sign up parent clubs for the fee revenue if nothing else. Also how much would a bling new stadium cost, or do we keep that for the premier league?
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Mar 4, 2014 02:33
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B-B-C-B. The benefit of winning and being able to sell off Meteor for a ridiculous fee will more than make up for breaking our wage structure. If some other player is jealous and wants to become a generational talent, we'll pay him too! I've loved following along the thread-but a general question for everyone: How restricted is the mobile version? I don't trust my laptop to handle the game, but I've always loved breaking Out of the Park over my knee for baseball and kill way too much time with that... will the phone version satisfy my love of dressed-up-spreadsheets, or will it just be a cruel tease?
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Mar 4, 2014 02:46
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C-B-C-B Need to stay competitive to fight on this new level.
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Mar 4, 2014 03:22
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The Dragon's Lair Webcast Wrexham FC's Premier Supporter Podcast WrecsamDragons.co.uk/DragonzLair Published May 7, 2018 View count: 21 Unique IP addresses: 3 Comments: 1- “Ooooh Grwn, I'm so proud of ya, you big internet star! But do you have to work so blue? - Love, Mum”  : Hello everyone to the Dragon's Lair! I'm Grwn Glyndwr and I'm here with everyone's favorite local hooligan, the Dragontamer! :(Cheesy sound effect of what might be a dragon roaring if you really wanted to believe it was): What a marvelous end to the season! That Yank really is the greatest, and our local lads are going to be playing in the Championship next year. Let's take a look back at all the amazing numbers they put up this season, and see what made our Dragons so great!: RAWR! I agree, Grwn, and where better to start than this teams offense! : They had a run of over twenty games in a row where they scored in league play, and set fire to League One in their first year back!   : And so many of those from set pieces, lil' Justin Bailey couldn't stop himself from leading the league in assists the number of corners that found their way into the back of the net! : And they did it all without much by way of help from the refs, unlike those [bleep]s at Sunderland, who were given a whopping eight penalties.: Well, the Black Cats were paying those refs in pussy, if you know what I mean.: Uh, no. I don't. Was that an attempt at a pun?: Yeah. Erm. Moving on. : It's not like their defense wasn't a peach either, fifth best in the league.: And that despite all of Coach Brown's cavilling across the course of the season!   : They still didn't do that great on defending set pieces though.: Yep, that sure was one of the gaps in their scales. Still, they had a whopping +33 goal differential, makes you wonder just how well they can do next year in the Championship, am I right?  : Just look at how little they spent on the team, though, they were 21st in the league in wages!: And it was a sad day to see young Michael Upson traded downriver to those Swansea bastards, even if it brought back a princely sum.: Indeed, two million quid isn't anything to sneeze at.: Besides, who's going to miss him when we've got Billy the Kid-(A goat noise sound effect interrupts the webcast, making it impossible to hear Grwn's words) : -for us! : It wasn't just the Billy Goat show this year, that Australian lad the Coach keeps calling Meteor really came through. : I know! Fifteen goals and fourteen assists, what a year! But that brings us to last year's player of the year-: Awww yeah,: Justin Baaaaaaileeeey.(poor quality bow-chicka-wow-wow music plays in the background) : He's amazing.: Just a tidy little lad.: He's even shorter than your sis!: Hey, leave her out of this! (Slapping can be heard in the background, along with muffled grunts)  : Anyways, I think it's pretty clear that Mujkic and Bailey are the two finalists for League One player of the year this year.: Oh yeah, no way that anyone else could win. I'd say William Harrison would be right with them-: Nah, too inconsistent.: Right, he was boom and bust all season. But no way some Irish ffwl like Paul Crossan tops Bailey or Mujkic.(Shouting can be heard over the mic pickups of both Grwn and the Dragontamer.)  : Lads, I made Frey Bentos for you, would you like some?: (Not speaking into the mic) Mum! We're in the middle of a live webcast! Gawrsh!(scrabbling at the mic button can be heard, then dead air)   We had a pretty great little season, but it wasn't without some problems. We desperately need a better backup goalkeeper. We also need better fullbacks, I'm not sure Smissen, Tench, and Peters are up for the higher level of play we'll be facing. Add in the need for a real striker option behind Harrison, a new centerback if Todd is sold, and Coulson's extremely poor play towards the end of the season, and I think it's unlikely that we don't see some significant changes in the team for next season. Board voting is over. On question one, a £100k/wk wage budget will be set based upon the majority vote. On question two, we will seek to sell Todd for a price of £5.5m or above. On question three, there will be no individual limit on what we can offer Mujkic. On question four, we're going to start scouting Europe. Onto the offseason! habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Jan 29, 2015 |
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Mar 4, 2014 04:04
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BBCB is my vote, congratulations on winning the title, i was on the edge of my seat when reading through that last update, next season is going to be a hard one but i believe we have the ability (if not the budget) to compete in the championship and avoid relegation. though even being relegated after a full season with all the t.v revenue and other income would allow us to build (albeit a bit slower than we might like) into a good championship team. *EDIT* god dammit, missed out on the vote by the ten minutes it took me to catch up with the last few posts and write this one, ah well.
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Mar 4, 2014 04:14
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Well done on the promotion, here's to hoping that the next season works out so well, but I reckon you won't be seeing a promotion this season without rebuilding your team. I think by the end they were really struggling.
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Mar 4, 2014 04:15
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Tithin Melias posted:Well done on the promotion, here's to hoping that the next season works out so well, but I reckon you won't be seeing a promotion this season without rebuilding your team. I think by the end they were really struggling. ABBA. You ask us for all this extra money, but you've just shown us that all you need to hand us promotion is to be in the relegation zone in wage budget terms 
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Mar 4, 2014 04:43
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VOTE 1: Wage Budget B) (Concerned) Let's just hope you're right about the financial shot in the arm from the next league, and Sky Shadowing's kickbacks don't bankrupt us in the meantime.(£100k/wk, £5.2m/yr) VOTE 2: Chris Todd B) (Malevolently) If only the mewling prats could see that we could just... replace them. With better players... that we can afford by selling dead weight. And we'll just laugh all the way to the bank. (Accept offers above £5.5m for Todd) VOTE 3: Mateo Mujkic B) (Quizzically) The last time this was brought up, didn't he end up under the normal cap anyways? The meteor's bright, but sooner or later someone with real spending power is going to take him - just make sure we get paid well to be able to replace him when we need to do so. (Can spend up to £7,500 wk on Mujkic) VOTE 4: Scouting Range B) (Passionately) What do you mean, 'We've only had scouts in Britain, Wales, Scotland and Ireland'? GO TO THE BLOODY CONTINENT AND GET US SOME TALENT! (Allowed to scout European countries, may hire up to five new scouts)
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Mar 4, 2014 05:47
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A "live" webcast? Magical. I wish this thread would get promoted into the "gold" league. There's a board vote for you.
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Mar 4, 2014 06:58
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So the Meteor doesn't want to move to a bigger team still, does he?  I was wondering how he'd take your earlier proclamation of "Let one of the biggest teams in football buy one of my players? No loving way!  "Though one a similar note, I do find it funny how some of your players just seem so determined to move onto a "bigger club" where they'd probably end up a second-tier backup player as opposed to one of your best and brightest. I guess they might make more money? Would they have better potential for improvement due to (presumably) better training staff and facilities as opposed to getting more minutes playing for a "lesser" team? I mean, would such a move truly be beneficial for them, or are they pigheaded and just want to wear the uniform of a team whose name most people might recognize? Galaga Galaxian fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Mar 4, 2014 |
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Mar 4, 2014 09:24
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So is it possible to add The Dragon's Lair to the list of media sources so we can get Grwn fawning all over you at press conferences? Oh, and CBBA. I only want Welshmen in the squad so you can still be 'under fire' for not signing enough Englanders. Smoky Bandana fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Mar 4, 2014 |
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Mar 4, 2014 10:11
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| # ? May 31, 2024 12:54 |
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quote:We also finished 22 points up on hated Tackleford, meaning that A Tartan Tory wins this years contest. Let me know what you'd like me to do.  Did Ed manage to get himself fired as well? Please say he did! One change made to the database you say? Hmm. Ok, give Glasgow Rangers a Scottish Wonderkid Striker with the best (but still realistic) stats possible so that Scotland and them can go on to glory (or sell him for cash to shore up all the debt problems... )
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Mar 4, 2014 12:31
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