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Chapter One: Testing our mettle. July 1, 2018-August 1-2018 I still can't get over those group stage results. I'd say it's clear there's huge corruption going on, but Russia got knocked out. Since it's being held in Russia, and since I don't think Costa Rica can match their bribery budget, at least some of the games are on the up and up and merely coming out weird. But Qatar winning three games is either the game evincing heretofore unrealistic outcomes or heretofore unseen verisimilitude. Qatar even has mercenaries on their team, their best player is a Spaniard named Ramon.  Always, always with the contracts. It's interesting to compare soccer to a sport like baseball, where teams seek to lock in their best players to long term deals. There tends to be a lot more manager and front office continuity in baseball, but it's nice as a fan to know that your favorite player is going to be with the team for a long time, even if by the end of his contract he's in his late thirties and massively overpaid and you're calling him a bum because he didn't turn out to be one of the handful of players that remained great into his twilight years.   It's amazing how much our players have come into demand the last six months. Prior to the January window I had to actively try to sell players, and the only times another team asked unbidden for one was when I accidentally had left the asking price at zero. Since January we've had out of the blue offers for Todd, Upson, Tench, Read, Smissen, Simpson, Holland, and Harrison.  Make that Todd, Upson, Tench, Read, Smissen, Simpson, Holland, Harrison, and Lewis.  Hi Sampdoria, how about giving me some of those players you want to loan out. And you're only asking for £130k for a four star right back? He's a little old for me, almost thirty, but how about sending him over here as well. At Castell Alun, July 1, 2018 Friendly  The second of our creampuff opponents, these first two friendlies are entirely about building match fitness. Everyone in the starting 11 are first team players who most need game time to get ready for the season. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack. Starting 11: Higgs, Curran, Lewis, Mejasic, Troelsen, Holland (c), Holt, Rainey, Gorman, Pym. Subs: Love, Smissen, Kemp, Poole, Todd, Newman, Simpson, Bailey, Shirra, Harley, Coulson, Harrison. This isn't quite the slaughter that our first match was. It's still a dominating result, and all the better as I started a number of new players and backups. We had complete control of the match the entire way through the game. A final tally of 8-0 would have been more likely than them scoring a sole goal. Man of the Match: Mark Holland   Castell Alun 0-4 Wrexham  No repeat for the English this time around. At least you'll always have memories of 2014. This is a surprising result, but not one that comes out of left field, England wasn't as good as their ranking in the game and Switzerland is a solid, middle of the pack European country that can do some damage if they get some puck luck.  We've been selling an average of 200 jerseys a month for the last year, and were selling about 150 a month before that. Since I've been here that comes to about 8000 jerseys, or enough to clothe one in every five Wrexham natives.  For once we're the heavy favorites in a League Cup match after three years of facing Championship sides in the first round.  Mujkic is worn down from playing soccer year round, and needs a break. I send him off for two weeks, but that will get interrupted by a callup for more international matches, and I might have to give him another break. Better to rest him and have him fit for the season than trying to determine when I can most afford to give him a vacation when the fixtures are looming right before us.  That four star fullback was asking for over £18,000 a week. He won't be joining us.  Hopp is brought on board as my tactical guru. He's got a 15 in tactical knowledge, and while he prefers the 4-4-2 to my 4-5-1 he agrees with me on the merits of playing a fast, direct game. Now I'll finally be able to make individual opponent adjustments without worrying that I have no clue what I'm doing.  We can actually get loan players to come to us? Wonderful! Tedesco is a midfield prospect, I couldn't resist bringing him in for the year. He knows some Spanish after a loan year with Tenerife, which I'm automatically fluent in as an American (heh), so I should be able to talk with him while he learns English.  I've just made a contract offer for an incredible midfielder, which if he signs with us would leave us with too many players for too few positions. West Ham made their second offer for Mark Holland the same day. If we get the midfielder I'm trying to land, West Ham is welcome to Holland.  And that's the guy I'm trying to sign. There's three German clubs seriously interested in him, one of which has made him a contract offer. None are top flight teams, but one Bundesliga team is looking into him, and I'd imagine they can blow our wages out of the water and offer a more prestigious competition to play in.  Meanwhile, outside of the bustle of the trading floor, our team has retained most of it's tactical acculturation over the offseason, though that will shift as we buy/sell more players.  Our field seems to have just enough staying power to last through a season without becoming awful.  Why must you deny me, Santoni? What makes Braga better than Northern Wales?  Ok, well that is quite attractive.   I keep telling them not to go to the Taco Bell, but do they listen to the man with experience being in his early 20s and just drunk enough to make that type of bad decision? Nooooo.  Order is mostly restored.  I'm surprised he turned them down. And pleased, it's hard to find a four star ball control U18 coach. At Ajax, July 7, 2018 Friendly  Between Ajax, Swansea, and PSG we're playing three Champion's League squads over the coming weeks, and PSV will be in the Europa League. These will be among the toughest matches we've faced in preseason at Wrexham, and drawing any of them will be an accomplishment. Luckily, we finish up our preseason against Tackleford, so we should be able to end on a high note. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Defense. Starting 11: Higgs, Peters, Lewis, Curran, Mejasic, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Coulson, Gorman, Pym. Subs: Love, Smissen, Kemp, Poole Todd, Newman, Holt, Tedesco, Shirra, Rainey, Harley, Harrison. We start the game out looking dangerous, and Pym gets a chance in the first ten minutes. As the minutes tick by Ajax becomes more and more assertive, but we're hardly performing poorly and go into the half without having given them a single chance. Ajax takes firm control of the match in the second half, but we keep them off the board until the 73rd minute. It looks like we're going to finish at 1-0 until a penalty is called in the 87th minute and Ajax is able to convert. Losing two-nil is not great, but is certainly an acceptable outcome against a Champion's League side in a game where we started backups.   Ajax 2-0 Wrexham  Switzerland reaching the semis is quite an upset, as is Romania. It's Spain's tournament to win, though, they're clearly the class of what remains.  I upped my offer to Pettersen as high as it can go. If he signs with us he's getting nearly £10,000 a week and has a potentially ill considered 25% yearly raise. We'll see if it's enough.   We can now sign Bosnians and Serbs without needing to get them work permits.  I didn't have a prayer at signing him. Nottingham offered nearly triple what I did. Guess we won't be selling Holland.  The Swiss are having a magical run, one more win and they've pulled of an amazing upset. Spain, as expected, waltzed into the final. At PSV Eindhoven, July 14, 2018 Friendly  PSV is the least of the four teams in European competitions that we'll be facing. That still means they're much better than us. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Higgs, Peters, Lewis, Poole, Mejasic, Simpson (c), Holland, Tedesco, Rainey, Gorman, Pym. Subs: Love, Rush, Vaillant, Curran, Todd, Newman, Bailey, Shirra, Harley, Coulson, Eden, Harrison. It's an even match, and we repeatedly see our counter attack pierce the PSV defense. We give up two goals from corner kicks, however, and we're down by one at the break. We knot the game up at two in the 78th minute from a corner kick of our own, and regardless of the last ten minutes I'm happy with the team. PSV throws the kitchen sink at us in those last minutes, and we hold on for a well deserved draw.   PSV 2-2 Wrexham  Maybe this will stop teams from pestering me about selling him.  I'm waiting to the end of the transfer window before re-signing players. Lewis is going to get his contract soon enough.  Meanwhile, congrats to the Swiss, who beat Spain one-nil after extra time. Or should I say congratulazioni! Or glückwünsche! Or félicitations! Or gratulaziuns! Geez, Switzerland, we get it, you have a multitude of different official languages. Anyways, three cheers for the Swiss team, may they all be gifted fine watches, delicious chocolate, and Nazi gold. Oh, and an American wins Golden Boot despite only playing in three matches. Once we get that back line solved maybe we'll make it to the knockout round.  A whole lot of international managers get sacked. Germany, England, Italy, and Brazil are all seeking new leadership after their poor showings, but somehow AU-Klinsey still has his job in the US.   A live TV audience is going to watch us get trounced twice over the course of three days. Yay.   Baker and Walsh find homes for at least half the year. Their salary is covered by the loaning team, if all works out well the loans will get extended and we'll be off the hook for the entire amount.  I lock up Scott Shirra for the next four years, by the time his contract comes up he's going to be an incredible bargain.   Did something get lost in translation there?  At 33-1 you might as well put a tenner on us.  Y'know how I said that you should be careful when adjusting your budget? I didn't heed my own advice. We're stuck with normal bonuses for the season because I didn't reserve enough cash in the transfer budget to offer high ones.  Mujkic has had an awful summer playing for Australia, they don't seem to care that he's exhausted and needs several weeks off. It led to him being mediocre at the World Cup, which I'm sure galls him. vs. Swansea, July 21, 2018 Friendly  Not too long ago being in the Championship would have given us pretty good claim on “best team in Wales.” That was before Swansea became the club they are right now. If we somehow win this, we're going to have some very nice bragging rights. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Higgs, Vaillant, Poole, Curran, Peters, Holland (c), Bailey, Tedesco, Rainey, Coulson, Pym. Subs: Rogers, Mejasic, Rush, Lewis, Todd, Simpson, Walley, Shirra, Harley, Eden, Gorman, Harrison. Given how many opportunities Swansea had in the first half, it's surprising that their lead is based only on a Holland own goal minutes before halftime. We can't until I sub out all three wingers and strikers, and I'm rewarded with an equalizer from Gorman. It looks like we'll hang on for the draw, or even have a chance to win it in the end, but back to back goals in the 79th and 82nd minute put those hopes to bed. Despite a weak first half we didn't embarrass ourselves against the Swans, but the real test is coming up next.   Wrexham 1-3 Swansea  AVB is your new England coach. He's only 40. I guess I can laugh at him for getting turfed from Chelsea and Spurs but he's not that much older than I am, and I'm at least two magnitudes less successful in my profession.  A fullback! Finally. I've scouted upwards five hundred fullbacks in the past year to find just two. That's a really high wheat to chaff ratio. Claudio Siegrist Right Back  This young Dutchman is our highest paid player, pulling in £10,750 a week for the next three years. He's also got the potential to be a solid Premier League fullback, something that neither Tench nor Peters were likely to amount to. I'll be having him work on his marking first and foremost, but I expect him to settle into the team quite well. vs. Paris Saint-Germain, July 23, 2018 Friendly  PSG are the giants of French football. They are the fourth wealthiest club in the world, worth over a billion pounds. We're worth £7.5m. Our income last year was a record best £7.9m. PSG made £271m. If we stay within three goals and don't get shut out this will be a huge victory. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Defense Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Lewis, Mejasic, Simpson (c), Shirra, Bailey, Coulson, Gorman, Harrison. Subs: Rogers, Peters, Vaillant, Poole, Curran, Newman, Tedesco, Holt, Rainey, Eden, Harley, Pym. We're only down by one at half time, but that's because Danny Higgs is playing marvelously. We haven't been bad, allowing just four shots by PSG, but we also haven't been able to do anything when we've had the ball outside of one corner kick that was just kept out. The second half is more of the same, and when the final whistle blows we're able to hold our heads high and say that we hung with the class of football. Man of the Match: Danny Higgs   Wrexham 0-1 PSG  Troelsen has been playing constantly this summer as well, he's never had a chance to settle into the club because Denmark decided it would be a good idea to force him to play constantly. I'm not pleased.  Smissen is still out for over a week. It's a good thing we signed Siegrist. At Tackleford City, July 28, 2018 Friendly  I'm looking forward to picking on someone smaller than us again. This is our last friendly, and I expect nothing but a win. We did well against much bigger clubs, but three losses and a draw are still three losses and a draw. I don't think I'd make us 20-1 favorites over Tackleford, however. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Higgs, Vaillant, Todd, Poole, Siegrist, Simpson (c), Bailey, Tedesco, Rainey, Gorman, Harrison. Subs: Rogers, Peters, Kemp, Curran, Lewis, Newman, Holland, Holt, Shirra, Coulson, Eden, Pym. We get and then lose a lead in the first half, and Harrison appears to be in another of his slumps based upon the three clear cut chances he throws away. We outplay Tackleford in the second half, but it looks like we're going to be held to a draw when Pym is able to score from a lovely through ball by Gorman in stoppage time. It's the final statement of the game, and we cap an impressive pre-season that saw us go toe to toe with some of the best in Europe with a win. Man of the Match: Ryan Gorman   Tackleford 1-2 Wrexham  Stop it. Seriously. Next thing I hear about Smissen, I'm ending this update.  I warned you!  That was a busy offseason. We've signed six first team players, sold two for the princely sum of £1.75m, and are spending more than twice as much on salary as we did last year, although still some £30k a week less than our wage cap. We went into the homes of the best Dutch teams and lost narrowly to one while battling the other to a draw, and held the champions of Europe to a one goal victory. Our success or failure this year will depend entirely on how well our young players develop, our average age at the moment is under 22 years old. But it's a brave new world we're entering, and we're not minnows anymore. 
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Mar 6, 2014 00:22
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Prediction for this year: 16th or 17th, with one decent cup run.
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Mar 6, 2014 00:32
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I'm going to guess a little more optimistic and say 14th. I still find myself just a little confused about "where" we are in the grand scheme of football (blame being an uneducated yankee who calls it soccer by default). After this is the Premier League, then Europa League, then Champion's League?
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Mar 6, 2014 00:56
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Sudoku posted:I'm going to guess a little more optimistic and say 14th. After this is the Premier League. If Wrexham does well enough (i.e. fifth place, wins the FA Cup or Football League Cup) they get to play in the Europa League. If they do really well and get one of the top four places in the League, they can play in the Champions League (the exception is if they won the Champions League but failed to finish in the top four in the Premier, in which case they play in the Champions League and the fourth place team is bumped down to Europa). e: also there's some more stuff about the Europa League I think but gently caress if I can recall it.
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Mar 6, 2014 01:03
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 Taco Bell does not actually exist in the UK! Vaillant and Rimmington probably got poisoned by one of the many, many independent vendors that cluster around the bars and pubs in most town centres; a bad donner kebab, most likely.Also I'm guessing we finish a little lower than normal, 18th at most; the championship is where it starts to get tough.
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Mar 6, 2014 01:03
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I'm going to predict 1 slot away from the promotion playoffs, and a completely failed cup run.
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Mar 6, 2014 01:10
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Sudoku posted:I'm going to guess a little more optimistic and say 14th. Not quite. We are at the second tier of the English football pyramid, with only the Premier league left above us. The Europa League and Champions League are continental competitions: The highest finishers in each league qualify to participate, with a maximum of four teams per country in the latter for the two countries who have performed the best in Europe over the past half decade. (Currently Spain and England.) The major cup competitions (The FA Cup and Capital One Cup) and the highest league finisher outside the Champions' League spots take the Europa League places. (If the cup winners already qualify for European competition, the places trickle down.) TLDR: If we get promoted, we're in the top flight.
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Mar 6, 2014 01:18
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Disproportionation posted:
It's six years in the future, Yum! Corporation cannot be stopped, only delayed. I actually looked up the locations of Taco Bells in the UK when I first made a joke about it way back, I could only find three. Might be a bit optimistic that one made it all the way to Wrexham in six years. Mad Wack posted:I'm going to predict 1 slot away from the promotion playoffs, and a completely failed cup run. AKA the most aggravating possible season outside of getting relegated? Sudoku posted:I still find myself just a little confused about "where" we are in the grand scheme of football (blame being an uneducated yankee who calls it soccer by default). After this is the Premier League, then Europa League, then Champion's League? Basically the big thing to realize is that you play in your national league and in a continental competition at the same time. So we're in the second highest level of English soccer, the Championship. We're also in the two main English cups, the Capital One League Cup and the FA Cup. If we get to the Premier League and finish in the top four we get to play in the Champion's League the next season, at the same time as we play in the Premier League. Same goes for the Europa League if we finish fifth or win either of the Cups (and a couple other permutations, but I'll explain them if/when they happen, we can finish as low as seventh in the Premier League and still get a Europa League berth depending on who wins the cups).
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Mar 6, 2014 01:22
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A good comparison about the Champions League is that it's like the NCAA Basketball tournaments (every nation gets at least one team, but the better nations get more than that, up to 4), only instead of playing it immediately after the current season, it's played throughout the next season. So the first games for the qualification rounds (for teams in leagues that have no chance whatsoever of making it to the group stages, let alone the knock-out rounds- like the Welsh football league (we're in the English league)) start over the summer, the Group Stages start in fall, the knockout rounds after the New Year and final in May. It's even more confusing in the CONCACAF Champions League for American teams, because unlike the vast majority of footballing nations who run through the winter, the MLS runs through the summer- so an American team makes the CONCACAF Champions League, then their tournament starts in the second half of the next season and finishes in the first half of the season after that, if they haven't lost to a Mexican team yet (only Mexican teams have ever won the CONCACAF CL). Then the winners of each of the major tournaments (every continental system has one) plays the next year (for a short tourney, four games at most) in the Club World Cup, along with the top team in the host nation. The European Champions League and South American Copa Libertadores are each considered far more prestigious than that tourney, though. Sky Shadowing fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 01:33
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Team is performing pretty well against other Championship sides using 2nd stringers. This makes me optimistic about the season. Originally I would have predicted lower third of the table, but now I'm thinking we can make mid table - say 16th? I like all the new signings, some great talent there.
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Mar 6, 2014 01:37
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habeasdorkus posted:AKA the most aggravating possible season outside of getting relegated?  Of course!
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Mar 6, 2014 05:05
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Yeah that looks like a pretty ballin' place to take in a game.
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Mar 6, 2014 08:19
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I'm going to push the boat out and say promoted. Most likely by fluking into the playoffs.
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Mar 6, 2014 11:47
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I say 12th. What's more midfield than that?
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Mar 6, 2014 12:30
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I'm gonna say we end up barely above relegation zone, 20th or so. Consolidation is a must.
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Mar 6, 2014 14:41
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Going to be optimistic and say 14th or 15th. Have you made enough of a name for yourself to be considered for any of the international teams? Actually, is it possible to just play the game as an international team manager without getting into clubs at all?
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Mar 6, 2014 14:57
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We'll finish with a solid 10th place. Also if Klinsmann doesn't get fired I think Brown should learn german and help us out. Clearly AU Löw wasted our most talented generation.
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Mar 6, 2014 15:03
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I was way too pessimistic re. the previous season, time to be way too optimistic for a change: 8th place, though with a mediocre championship run.
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Mar 6, 2014 15:07
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C. Everett Koop posted:Yeah that looks like a pretty ballin' place to take in a game. Some information about Braga's Stadium: it was built for Euro 2004 (the game in the picture is this one: Netherlands vs Latvia). It's built on an quarry, holds 30.000 people and doesn't have stands behind the goal. It received many awards and is a pretty interesting stadium. 
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Mar 6, 2014 15:10
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I have alot of faith in our Mighty Dragons. I say they make the Top Ten, with a good Cup run. A 10-20% chance we luck into the playoffs. This mainly hinges on we don't suffer too many injuries.
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Mar 6, 2014 15:25
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I think habeasdorkus emphasized this before, but the quality jump between League One and the Championship is definitely the largest jump in the game. Championship sides have an order of magnitude more resources than League one and the Premiership an order of magnitude more than the Championship. They actually call the playoff final for the Championship 'the richest game in football' because if you win it, your team will pretty much be guaranteed about £90 million.  But yeah, I will be incredibly impressed if habeasdorkus get's the Dragons in the top half of the table, let alone above that. It usually takes me about 2 seasons at least to go from Championship to Premiership if I come from League One (and I haven't seen a Championship this full of big names in a long time in FM). A Tartan Tory fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 15:34
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I bet that Wrexham have to have to fight to avoid relegation.
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Mar 6, 2014 15:50
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The leap in talent and competition from League One to Championship is pretty steep. We have a very solid team though so I think that we'll adjust and land somewhere around 16th-18th for the year.
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Mar 6, 2014 16:17
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Camoes posted:Some information about Braga's Stadium: it was built for Euro 2004 (the game in the picture is this one: Netherlands vs Latvia). It's built on an quarry, holds 30.000 people and doesn't have stands behind the goal. It received many awards and is a pretty interesting stadium. I... I think I have a stadium boner.
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Mar 6, 2014 16:24
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From the image habeasdorkus posted, it also seems like they ripped it off for one of the stadiums in RedCard 20-03, though that could just be my memory filling in blanks with it.
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Mar 6, 2014 17:13
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I'm gonna say 18th but hope for better! Will be a tough season, but hopefully the youth continues to develop into stars.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:34
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Are we guessing where we'll end up at the end of next season? 13th! In that case.
Blogkb - because you too like video games, old and new (it's just a blog)
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Mar 6, 2014 22:24
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A Tartan Tory posted:They actually call the playoff final for the Championship 'the richest game in football' because if you win it, your team will pretty much be guaranteed about £90 million. Of course you can then go out and spend your whole transfer budget on wage-hogging new players and get relegated and gently caress your team over substantially, but before you set your spending plans, anyway, you're fine, thanks to the TV money. That dough was the whole point of the Premiership anyway. I'm going to say... ninth. I have faith!
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Mar 7, 2014 00:04
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Chapter the Second: Stumbling out of the gate. August 1, 2018-September 1, 2018 Don't worry about the title, I'm sure it wasn't written with foreknowledge of what's about to transpire.   Now that we're in the Championship we're going to see a lot less fixture congestion in the front half of our schedule. No Johnstone's Paint Trophy, no FA Cup matches before January. It means playing something like four to eight fewer fixtures a year.  Three years ago we were predicted to finish 21st in League Two. We finished 14th. This is going to be a similarly difficult year, but we've got a great amount of young talent, one of the best players in the league in Mujkic, and we should steadily improve as the season goes on.   Holt and Curran are both buried on the depth chart. I'll send them out on loans where we'll pay the salary and can recall them if we need them due to injury.  At some point I'm finally going to say yes. That point is probably about £600,000. At Fulham, August 4, 2018 Championship  Fulham plays at the picturesquely named Craven Cottage. They're an old club, with a great deal of history, and have been in the Cottage since 1896. Fulham as a club has never won major honors, and as recently as the 1990s was playing in League Two. I've heard that their fans are a pretty friendly bunch, as well. Craven Cottage currently has a statue of Michael Jackson outside of it, thanks to former owner Mohamed Al-Fayed. Michael Jackson has no connection with Fulham, outside of playing a concert at the stadium once and attending a game once. Ultra rich people are weird.  Their entire starting 11 is better than ours with the exception of right back. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Lewis, Peters, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Rainey, Gorman, Harrison. Subs: Love, Vaillant, Poole, Tedesco, Shirra, Coulson, Pym. It's a scoreless first half, but Fulham has better of it and has a goal disallowed for offsides. They smash the crossbar just before the whistle, and we escape to the locker room. Our performances have been OK, with the exception of Siegrist and Harrison, who I pull aside for personal chats. Fulham scores on a corner just after halftime, but Harrison makes up for his earlier errors and gets us the equalizer. Both sides play well for the rest of the game, which finishes level. We take a point from a team that was in the Premier League the previous season.   Fulham 1-1 Wrexham  A minor knock, we'll have to use Holland at defensive mid until Troelsen gets back from his mandated rest.  Bristol City is a Championship team. It's definitely the highest level of play Curran can hope for on loan. Don't be a twit, Curran.  Hahaha, no. I might just sell Smissen if he's going to take that much to re-up. He's near the peak of his capabilities as is, and we've got four fullbacks on the first team when you count Vaillant, along with two youth players who can play in an emergency.  In a month we'll be past the transfer window and I'll be able to determine exactly how much I can offer Lewis.  Poor Holt, so unwanted.  That's good, but what's better is that we raised ticket prices again and as a result pulled in 500,000 more pounds than last year for a total of £1.4m in sales. Our balance sheet is at a very healthy £3.1m, and thanks to the increased TV revenue (£275k a month) we should be close to breaking even most months.  Our financial health stems from my firm grasp on wages. Despite seeming like a drunken sailor offering £10,000 a week salaries to players, I've kept our current wages well below that of any competitor, even Chesterfield is spending £500,000 more than us. We're positively dwarfed by West Ham, the Hammers are outspending us by a margin of ten to one.  We've also made a profit of £1.55m on our players sold, which is half of the reason our bank account is large enough to be earning us £7,500 a month in interest. Some of this could change before the end of the window, if I find a cheap left back I'm going to sell Smissen and if I find a great player out of contract who I can sign I'm definitely bringing them in. Add in new contracts for Lewis, Higgs, and Bailey and we might catch up to or pass Chesterfield's wages.  It's too bad he wouldn't get a work permit, he'd be a good replacement for Smissen. Of course, if he had a EU passport he would be a lot more expensive. vs. Bury, August 6, 2018 Capital One Cup, First Round  Bury's still buried in League Two, this gives me an opportunity to let some of the kids play.  Just to give you an idea of how far we've come in two years. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Love, Siegrist, Vaillant, Poole (c), Kemp, Troelsen, Shirra, Tedesco, Coulson, Eden, Pym. Subs: Rogers, Smissen, Chapman, Newman, Walley, Mujkic, Harrison. Bury is lively the first ten minutes, which they cap by a goal. We assume control after that, equalizing in the 44th minute. Vaillant needs to come off at 52 minutes after suffering his second minor injury of the day, and Bury spring back to life in the final half hour of regulation while we play disjointedly. We're forced into extra time, and we have a great chance to take the lead but Harrison misses an absolute sitter in the 96th minute. Instead it's Bury who take the lead in the 103rd minute. Coulson answers immediately, but the goal is called off for offsides. It's an awful call, Coulson was certainly onsides when the pass was made, but there's no replay in soccer. A flurry of chances from both sides to finish the game, but this time we are the giants and Bury the giantkillers.   Wrexham 1-2 Bury  At least no one saw that debacle.  This is adding injury to insult.  Curran finds a place with Notts Co. in League One. vs. Bristol City, August 11, 2018 Championship  I think we have a good chance of taking all the points here, Bristol doesn't look very impressive. If we can get a win we'll have taken four points from our first two games, a pretty exciting pace. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Higgs, Vaillant, Todd, Lewis, Peters, Holland, Tedesco, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison (c). Subs: Love, Siegrist, Poole, Troelsen, Shirra, Rainey, Coulson. It's an even first half. We look the better team, allowing Bristol just one shot. The referee is handing out yellow cards like candy, and Peters is sent off 52nd minute after picking up his second. It doesn't matter, Lewis scores from a corner in the 62nd minute, and we still look like a better team even with only 10 men. Man of the Match: Stewart Lewis   Wrexham 1-0 Bristol  Smissen is on his way out, we'll get £450k-475k for him. To replace him is this Italian hunk. Giuseppe Garuti Left Back  Less defensively adept than Smissen, but more physical, creative, and technical.  I really wish Simpson had the ability to play at a higher level than this, I'm going to miss him as captain.  Best of luck to you, Sam. You were a capable lower league left back. Rangers now have both of our former starting fullbacks, having previously purchased Tench.  I'm not selling Lewis, though. He's still got the potential to get better and could end up being with us into the Premier League.  Our scouts have done a lot of work since the board voted to expand our talent hunt to the continent. It's resulted in a slight slip of our knowledge of UK and Irish players, meaning that it will be slightly harder to find diamonds in the rough at small UK/Irish teams, but we've already compiled an excellent database of Southern European players, and made a good start on Central Europe.  One thing I wish I knew more about were the economics of soccer television deals. I'm very well acquainted with the ones in baseball, where Major League Baseball has national deals with networks like ESPN, TBS, and Fox that bring them roughly a billion dollars a year, which is then split amongst all the teams. They also sell online streaming subscriptions, through MLB Advanced Media, and have a deal with the cable and satellite companies to offer the Extra Innings package that has out of market games that brings in considerable income. And on top of all that every single team either sells their rights to a regional sports network or owns their own cable channel, which can bring in staggering sums (for example, the LA Dodgers new deal is worth 7 billion dollars over the next 25 years, or £180m a year, and they're just one of thirty teams). Then there's the comparatively minor amount brought in by selling rebroadcast rights to foreign networks. So I really wonder how the TV rights work in Football Manager. I know I can watch every English Premier League game live on my computer through NBC, and they have five or six games a week broadcast on their sports network with one on the flagship network. So I have to believe that, along with the nation-wide games broadcast by BSkyB and BT (which is worth a billion pounds a year!), every single game is broadcast in England for local fans. I doubt that I, as an American, could watch every Fulham game while the actual supporters living in London couldn't. I just have no clue how much those rights are worth. Likewise, rebroadcast rights for the big European leagues are also probably much more valuable than a sport like baseball, I know the EPL rights went to NBC for $83.3 million a year over three years. To finally get to my point, I'm surprised that the Championship TV rights are worth so little. We're talking about £32,000 split between two teams for live primetime coverage of a game, and the leaguewide rights are just under £70m total. That seems right if the game is only accounting for the national broadcasting deal that Sky Sports has, but that would mean that unless you're picked as one of Sky Sport's live games you're not on TV at all. I'd like to be enlightened about this. At Middlesbrough, August 18, 2018 Championship  In our first three games we'll have played two teams that have recently been in the Premier League. In fact, other than Crewe Alexandra, Chesterfield, and Peterborough United all of our opponents this season will have a history of playing first division football. Six of them have titles to show for it, such as Derby, Nottingham Forest, Wolverhampton, Burnley, Ipswich, Sheffield United, Sunderland, and three time winners Huddersfield. None of those titles are recent, the newest of the bunch was Nottingham Forest in 1978, and the Sunderland and Sheffield United titles date back to the 19th century. But we're up against teams with history, whereas our best ever finish is 15th in the second division way back in 1979, one of just four years the club has spent at this level. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Poole, Lewis, Garuti, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Love, Vaillant, Todd, Troelsen, Tedesco, Rainey, Coulson. Middlesborough scores twice via headers in the first quarter hour, and it looks bleak. Mujkic lightens my mood by getting us one back in the 45th minute, and then makes me elated by tying it up in the 64th minute. Harrison misses a must-make opportunity that could have won us the game, though, and we lose when Higgs scores a horrible own goal in the 87th minute when he picks up a loose ball and carries it across the goal line. Man of the Match: Mateo Mujkic   Middlesbrough 3-2 Wrexham  I just found our keeper of the future, bumming around Prague. David Novotny Goalkeeper  We've got four 5-star potential players on the team. Novotny is one of them, along with Todd, Mujkic, and Shirra. He needs work before he's ready for the starting role, but he's going to be with this club for a long time. I signed him all the way through 2023, by that point he should be starting for us. Given that he has no contract clauses that will increase his price, he'll still be earning just £2,500 a week.  I expect that this will be a common occurrence.  Just one second, Mateo.  Galatasaray was practically giving him away, he should have been much more expensive but they were determined to sell him for some reason. He's not quite good enough to start for Galatasaray, one of the two biggest clubs in Turkey and a regular Champion's League presence, but he's more than good enough to play for us. The £900,000 fee is by far our highest transfer expenditure, but one I deem “totes worth it.” Dejan Djurovic Midfielder  Here's another addition to the club with five star potential, but he's ready for a spot in the first team immediately. Djurovic is a Serbian, meaning he only just became eligible to play in England without a work permit when Serbia entered the EU. I'm guessing that's how we got him, no one else was interested and we got lucky. We've now got a Croat and a Serb on the team, so I'll be looking for a Bosniak and a Montenegran in order to reform Yugoslavia.  I haven't forgotten, I have until September 4th. You'll get my offer when the window closes. At Huddersfield, August 25, 2018 Championship  As mentioned previously, Huddersfield has won three top division titles. All of those came in the form of a threepeat in the early twenties, and they've never regained that glory. We're going to take some time to settle in as a team, I've brought in too many new players, not all of whom speak English and almost all of whom are from other countries, to expect everyone to be comfortable in the team yet. The plan is to get draws from these early away matches and attempt to win at home. Huddersfield is predicted to finish fifth, so any result here would be a surprise. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Defense Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Lewis, Mejasic, Troelsen, Holland, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison (c). Subs: Love, Vaillant, Simpson, Shirra, Rainey, Pym. We're down 3-0 before the first half blessedly comes to an end. Claudio Siegrist, our highest paid player, earns a deplorable 4.3 rating by forgetting that he's supposed to jump when a cross comes flying through the air and allowing two goals. Mateo Mujkic is also poor, earning a 6.1 rating. Justin Bailey is looking nothing like the player of the year candidate he was the year before. This is a rude awakening, and we were simply not good enough even given the low expectations I had.   Huddersfield 3-0 Wrexham  Holt had just a year left on his deal, and no place in the squad. After weeks of not drawing any interest at all, four different Premier League teams came with offers for him on the final day of the transfer window.  Chris Todd gets his first call-up from the Welsh national team, he only turned 19 in May.  He's surprised by his inclusion on the team, but is irritated by Stewart Lewis wanting a new contract.  Hey, Harrison was also called up. He has a clause in his contract that gives him a raise if he's capped. I didn't expect it to kick in so soon. But it's no problem that so much of the team is getting called up, unlike those unwashed peasants in League One and below we're scheduled for a break when these matches will be occuring.  We're getting to the point where real money is being thrown around in transfers. It's also the first time we've been in a league where more money has been spent on transfers than earned from transfers, sales amounted to about £29m.  Already the worm starts to turn. Can't keep you happy, can I? vs. Ipswich Town, September 1, 2018 Championship  Ipswich finished well last year, but are predicted to rank 20th at the end of this season. I would very much like to get the Huddersfield whomping out of my players minds with a nice victory to start September. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Lewis, Garuti, Simpson (c), Shirra, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison. Subs: Love, Vaillant, Poole, Holland, Tedesco, Coulson, Pym. Within minutes it's clear that the team is playing much better than they had against Hartlepool. But we nearly get nothing for our supremacy over Ipswich, not putting points on the board until Bailey's free kick finds Lewis's head in the 41st minute. We begin the second half in the same manner, commanding every aspect of the game but failing to make Ipswich pay. It comes back to haunt us when Ipswich scores an equalizer, and then the winning goal, late in the game. We lose having fashioned just one goal out of thirteen chances. Man of the Match: Justin Bailey   Wrexham 1-2 Ipswich  What concerns me most from our first month in the Championship was the thwomping Huddersfield laid on us. At no point during that game did we seem able to handle them. Missed opportunities like the Ipswich Town match, or the fluke end to the Middlesborough game will happen, and they're frustrating, but the team still showed that they could hang with their opponents. Similarly, while it stings to go down to Bury in the League Cup we were playing a squad with three youth starters and players who had only just arrived. We should have still won, but it's not a sign of weakness. We'll have to see how long it takes this team to gel, and whether players like Simpson and Bailey can adjust to the higher level of difficulty, before I can start predicting what form the season will take. The prediction contest this year is: How many players ask to speak with me about a concern they have between September 1 and the end of the season? That will be things such as gripes about playing time, wanting to be let out on loan, wanting a new contract, or wanting to be sold to a bigger club. Note it's the total number of players, not the number of times I'm asked, if someone keeps bugging me they only count once. Also, I say we finish in 9th and make it to the fifth round of the FA Cup. I haven't played beyond this update as I write, so I have no foreknowledge as to what will actually happen. 
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Mar 7, 2014 |
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Mar 7, 2014 01:29
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Seven. Seven players. Welcome, everyone, to the Championship, and the soul-crushing beatdowns it can provide at times.
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Mar 7, 2014 01:41
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Going to go with 19 players. The combination of a robust youth team, and a possible slump late in the season, leads me to think we're going to have a whole bunch of complainers.
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Mar 7, 2014 01:50
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Sky Shadowing posted:Seven. Seven players. Try living it irl... 
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Mar 7, 2014 01:59
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Whoops, I didn't realize I hadn't finished fleshing out the match reports. When I play the matches I jot down things I want to talk about, and then go back later to polish them. In this case when I was copying in the URLs I didn't do my editing runthrough as I usually do, and then I missed it again when doing my final once-over before posting. Fixed now.
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Mar 7, 2014 02:04
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I'm going to go with a nice even 10
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Mar 7, 2014 02:11
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Gonna go with 15 players.
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Mar 7, 2014 02:19
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11 Players
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Mar 7, 2014 02:20
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Nine seems fine.
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Mar 7, 2014 02:24
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(Unlucky) 13 Players
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Mar 7, 2014 02:28
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Gonna go with 12 Players! Unfortunate start, hopefully the players will shape up soon!
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Mar 7, 2014 02:36
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Six.
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Mar 7, 2014 02:36
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