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I really like that Tackeford is doing so well, it'll be that much sweeter when we've climbed through the leagues to beat them down.
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Jan 23, 2014 20:18
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| # ? May 28, 2024 16:32 |
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Hey, Scunthorpe managed to claw their way out of the basement. We get to beat up on them and make fun of their name again next season!
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Jan 23, 2014 21:34
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Yep, I would guess that's the general sentiment. I find it hard to judge their final potential though. Do they have enough of a fan base to bring their budget back up to sustainability and get rid of the transfer embargo? Can we expect to see them in the premier league down the road? The Championship? Or will the transfer embargo limit them to whichever level their current squad is capable of reaching?
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Jan 23, 2014 21:35
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Chapter the Ninth: Midtable dreams. April 1, 2016-May 1, 2016 Five games left. Depending on how we close out the season we can either make ourselves at home in the midtable or lose our foothold and go into our vacation having missed our goal for the year.  I was shortlisted for manager of the month for the first time this year. About time, and a sign that we're getting better as the season goes on.  The improvement in our league position also puts me in a very secure position job wise.  Don-Duncan is the one player I'm considering re-signing. He's been reasonably good for us, but also looks like he's maxed out his talent. McGuinness and Holtham are gone. On the staff side we don't need Upton, and we can find a better scout than Howard. .png) Let's see if we can teach Harrison how to beat the offside trap. It takes not just good pace and speed but anticipation, concentration, and off the ball skills. Harrison has world class speed, but he's much weaker in the mental areas. I'd also try for Coulson to learn this, but he's slower than Harrison and doesn't have even his level of concentration. vs. Bradford , April 2, 2016 League Two  Big crowd today. Too bad the team is so exhausted they're going to see a lot of subs. We've got a lot of players with only high 80's stamina right now. It shouldn't hurt us too bad, and after today we have a full week before our next game, but it does mean we're going to be rotating in some players. Bradford's been pretty decent this season, they're on pace to finish mid-table, so we can't take this game for granted. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Poole, Don-Duncan, Simpson, McGuinness, Clarke, Franks, Price, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Ashton, Martin, Kadhim, O'Hanlon, Cooper, Morgan. Bradford is put on their back foot from the very start. Harrison is unable to put it on goal in the opening minutes after a perfectly placed corner by Bailey, but makes amends for his earlier profligacy in the 7th minute when he sprints past the defenders to get onto a long ball from Thomas and beats the keeper. The score doesn't stay one-nil for long, Al-Beloushi makes a huge error and leaves the opposing striker Alfred Kofi with nothing between himself and the goal. 1-1. Kofi earns a more deserved goal, sliding the ball past three defenders and Al-Beloushi at a tight angle, as we near the half-hour. 2-1 Bradford. We aren't out of the game yet, but I'm stretching my vocal cords and getting into my Angry Bruce Banner mode late in the first half when an overeager Bradford player matches Al-Beloushi's mistake and puts the ball into his own net. 2-2. Kofi caps his day with a hat trick in the 62nd minute, scoring despite being well marked by Reid. 3-2, Bradford. We're able to answer once again in the 69th minute, as it takes all of four touches to go from Al-Beloushi's feet to Cooper's blast into the net. 3-3. The final twenty minutes are uneventful, and despite several corners in stoppage time we cannot pull ahead. I make clear in no uncertain terms that we should have won the game, but privately I'm relieved that we didn't lose it.   Wrexham 3-3 Bradford  The 23rd is our second to last game of the season. Which means Coulson and Bah might only be fit for the final game of the season as they'll still have to recover some after officially being declared fit to play.  Barnet has been stuck in the relegation zone since November. They've only won once in 2016, and that was back on January 5th.  How hard is it to just stay out wide? Just angle for the touchline!  They're back to bitching about the pitch. I wonder if that means...  Nope! Very poor, but not terrible. We might not get to terrible, we only have 2 more home games. vs. Lincoln, April 9, 2016 League Two  Lincoln can clinch another season in League Two by getting a point from one of their next four games. Let's not be the ones who give it to them. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Martin, Don-Duncan, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Franks, Cooper, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Ashton, Poole, McGuinness, Clarke, Price, Morgan. The word of the day is squander. We squandered this match. Despite holding Lincoln to just five shots all game we can't put the ball on net. Harrison is the culprit, taking six shots and failing to put a single one on target. There is only one good thing to be said about this draw, and it's that it feels like those early games with Tackleford in the Skrill North where we just weren't quite clicking. If that's the case and I'm not just imagining things we're going to be in excellent shape next year. Man of the Match: Daniel Thomas.   Wrexham 0-0 Lincoln  Barnet have nothing to play for anymore, and haven't won in over three months. We'd better win this game.  Yay.  At Barnet, April 16, 2016 League Two  As I said, Barnet is terrible, and I really want to end this season on a high note. We're now back in 16th place thanks to other teams playing games, but the whole mid-table is extremely cluttered. We could finish anywhere from 10th to 20th depending on how these last three weeks go. That's going to require us to start winning games again, and Barnet is the easiest opportunity we'll have for three points. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Martin, Ashton, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Franks, Cooper, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Don-Duncan, Poole, McGuinness, Clarke, Price, Morgan. Liam Franks puts us ahead in the 20th minute when a ball rebounds to him from a corner, and we never look like losing. We handle Barnet with elan on our way to a two-nothing victory, icing the game on an Aidan Cooper goal in the 64th minute. It's exactly the sort of result I wanted to see, and it moves us back up to thirteenth place on the table. Man of the Match: Justin Bailey.   Barnet 0-2 Wrexham  One day they're going to come to my apartment and discover a wall full of crazy made out of Tackleford press clippings.  Rest up for the next match, mein liebchen! At Cheltenham, April 23, 2016 League Two  Coulson is on the bench for this one, he's at 89% stamina and not ready to play a full 90 minutes. Cheltenham has slunk to 18th place, while we're still at 13th. I have a good feeling about this match, we haven't lost in five games and Cheltenham's unimpressive form should give us a chance to continue that run. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Martin, Don-Duncan, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Franks, Cooper, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Ashton, Poole, McGuinness, Clarke, Price, Coulson. Luke Reid gets booked in the 5th minute, and gives up a dangerous free kick that Al-Beloushi is able to handle. Simpson gets carded as well in the 33rd minute, and we have to play even more cautiously than usual to avoid either of them getting a second card and going down a man. We're unable to create chances in the first half, but Cheltenham can't make anything of their own opportunities despite earning 13 corners. Harrison has the best look at goal of any player on the day in the 53rd minute, but puts it narrowly wide. I bring Coulson on in the 70th minute, hoping for some magic, but he's unable to get it in gear. Instead, as I'm pondering whether four draws in five games is really that bad a result, it's Liam Franks who saves the day. He scores in the third minute of stoppage time, and we take the victory. Man of the Match: Liam Franks   Cheltenham 0-1 Wrexham  That's a tough drop for Bristol, which has been in the Football League since 1920.  Bah is back, but it's unlikely that he'll be selected for the final match of the season with Franks being awesome, Harrison being in pretty good form, and Coulson being healthy again.  Bailey is on the shortlist for League Two Player of the Year. Good for him! vs. Torquay, April 30, 2016 League Two  Here we are, the final match of the season. We will end the season anywhere from 12th to 16th on the league table, with a win today we'll finish either 12th or 13th. Regardless of what happens, it's a significant improvement from where we stood last autumn, and much better than the bettor's predictions that we'd finish 22nd. We've avoided relegation, and the team is in good shape for the coming year. Our final opponent, Torquay, has dropped out of the promotion playoff chase, and the worst they can do is fall one spot on the table with a loss. They have nothing to play for but pride. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Martin, Don-Duncan, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Franks, Cooper, Coulson. Subs: Higgs, Ashton, Poole, McGuinness, Clarke, Price, Harrison. Some things are not to be. In this case it's an end of the season victory. Torquay take the lead early, double it before the halftime whistle, and starve us of chances. They win, and it's a reminder that we still have a lot of work to do if we want to challenge for the league title next year. Coulson has an especially bad day at the office, earning a 5.9 rating, but no one distinguishes themselves in a game where the players appear to already be on vacation.   Wrexham 0-2 Torquay  Clearly there's a lot of work to do before next season begins, and that last game leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but we're in strong shape for the next season and I believe that we can earn promotion to League One by this time next year. We finished on an 8 win, 6 draw, and 3 loss run over the last three months. If we can replicate that form next year we'll be on pace to earn automatic promotion. Now it's time to spend another week or two training, start sorting out who we want to sell and who we want to bring in, and see how all the leagues and competitions pan out. Grab a rest, you've earned it. 
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Jan 23, 2014 23:41
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Well, middle of the table after promotion really is a pretty solid result especially considering all the injury problems the team has faced throughout the season. I think we'll be in a good place for next season and am looking forward to Tackleford getting stomped in league 1... please let that happen...
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Jan 23, 2014 23:54
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(Passionately) I'm very pleased to have taken over the Presidency of such a prestigious club like Wrexham. With our current manager, I foresee great things for this club, and I don't intend to muck around with our current success any. (Assertively) I am aware that many of this club have taken Tackleford's shots at our current leadership personally, and I don't particularly agree with them either. Scott is a magnificent capture for this club who will lead us higher than we've ever dreamed. (Aggressively) I am of the opinion that a good old fashioned rivalry adds to football, and as a man of Wrexham, I want to inform Tackleford that when we see you next year in League One, having earned success and not bought it, we will see who's really better. In the event I actually have any power whatsoever, I would heartily approve of editing the database to make us and Tackleford rivals, since it's clear that the Wrexham fanbase and board hate those fuckers, and given the war of words they can't be too fond of us either. Sky Shadowing fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 23:54
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Chapter the Tenth: No rest for the wicked. May 1, 2016-June 9, 2016 We don't have any games scheduled, it's time to take a vacation! Get me out of this country where it rains all the time (except when the sky is trying to kill me with small ice stones) and it always smells like sheep! Book me on the next flight to Cabo!  Wait, I can't? I have to get the team ready for next season? Aww. Sassafras.  The first thing to look at is whether any of our Under 18 players are ready to start putting in time with the first team. Chris Todd is the only one to have done so to any real effect so far, Morgan got a cameo in the Barnet game as well. Gary Petit looks like he's ready to play some time at Centerback, while Holt, Morgan, and Peters will also get limited time with the first team. None of them besides Todd are advanced enough to play more than a half dozen games with the first team, though. Peters and Hay are the only two that will age out of the U18 league after this coming year, players who are under 19 on January 1st are eligible for the next season.  My scouts know of about 350 players in the British Isles who are going to be reaching the end of their contracts on June 30th and who would potentially be interested in joining us. I order updated scouting reports on all of them. They fill my inbox for most of the next month, and this is just the first cull.    Bah, Clarke, and O'Hanlon are on the trading block. Bah is adequate as a backup but not quite good enough for this level of play and has been surpassed by Harrison and Coulson. He makes £1,500/wk, and is our 7th highest paid player. Clarke has been solid for us, earning a 6.77 rating in 21 starts and 10 sub appearances in League Two last year, but is 27 and earns £1,700/wk, tying him for our 4th highest salary. O'Hanlon barely played last year but still earned £1,000/wk. All of them could be useful players for us next season. All of them are replaceable at equal or lower price, and can be improved upon. So they're getting sold. Adian Cooper might also get sold. He improved as the season went on, but he's earning £1,700/wk and his performance did not match his wages. I'll want to play both Franks and Coulson next season, which means one of them will be playing on the left wing at times, and that means less opportunity for Cooper.  I'm naturally going to start by asking for a high price, over the course of the transfer window I'll lower my asking price if there's no interest.   Don-Duncan and McGuinness were drawing interest from some English teams. English teams can sign players from other English teams to pre-contracts only a month prior to the end of the current contract. So rather than wait to see them leave on a free on June 30th, I offer them to the interested parties at a low price. Now instead of having to pay most of their June salary (£4,500) I'm going to get paid that amount for giving these teams first crack at signing them. It's about £9,000 in total, which is a small sum but important when you're running the slim margins we are.  I give the players just over a month off. We're going to be aiming high next season, and I want to have everyone getting as much training as possible. Thanks to the amount of positional rotation we did no one played more for us than Simpson's 51 games last season, and only three players appeared in more than 40 games. The player with the most appearances was Al-Beloushi, who appeared in 69 matches, 47 for us and 22 for the Kuwaiti national team. As he's a goalkeeper, I'm unconcerned about him wearing out. A month should be enough to have everyone return in shape and rested.   Our end of season meeting is a little schizophrenic. The team splits on whether it's fair that I expect a top half finish next season or whether it's better to shoot for the mid-table again, and the result is that no one is happy.  I'm going to aim for being “untouchable” after next season.  We didn't have a single disappointing training performance, while several players improved a great deal. A good thing about having a young team is that you improve as the season goes on not just because your players are getting comfortable with your tactics and their teammates, but because they're improving as players. Since I tend to have young teams, and because I tend to win promotion every couple years as a lower league manager, you'll probably see years in the future that follow the arc of the most recent season. Slow starts with strong finishes are the norm with me until I get established in the Premier League.  They now rate as just good rather than great training facilities. Still better than most of our immediate competitors.  I tried to ask the board if we could relay the field, but it wasn't an available option. The pitch condition has returned to OK with the end of the season, it never got below “Very Poor” so no one wins the contest. I don't know if it will improve from “OK” on it's own, but I can reset the pitch condition manually, so I'll include it in my board requests at the end of this update.  Don-Duncan refused a contract offer with me that would have paid him £575/wk last month. He made out well by going to Luton.  Crystal Palace and Crewe Alexandria are both sniffing around Stuart Martin.  Martin really came on last season to be a rock in our defense, but he's also our highest paid player by a lot and his contract is up after this coming season. We can re-sign him but he'd want a raise from his already high salary.  Poole was pretty good this past season, and Chris Todd could use more playing time, so I offer Martin to Crystal Palace and Crewe Alexandria to gauge how much they're willing to give me for him.  This is what it will look like when we finish improving our Youth Academy. It seems like the staff requirements aren't all that high, we'd meet the level 2 academy requirements as we are right now.  I'm quite pleased that we made a net £8,000 on two players that would have been leaving for nothing.  We haven't had this happen to us, yet, but players will act out if they're unhappy ingame. This ranges from talking poo poo in the media about how they want to leave, to skipping practice, and more. I really wish there were a mod to have them involved in DUIs and prostitute scandals, as the lack of such really ruins my immersion in a game dedicated to verisimilitude.  I can't get Palace and Crewe into a bidding war with each other, so we don't quite get £100,000 for Martin. It's never fun to sell players who are doing well for you, but Martin was just getting paid too much.  The Hammers win the FA Cup. And with that, it's time to start looking at how the other leagues did this year.    French club Lorient won the Europa League for the second time in a row. If the game is current with upcoming rules changes (and it has in the past), that means they get a berth in next year's Champion's League.  Alternate Universe David Moyes is much better than his real world counterpart. Liverpool somehow made it up to 8th place a season after they sold off AU Luis Suarez (ingame name “Angel Suarez”- which I'm quite hoping isn't random) for a bajillion dollars. The scousers were languishing in 18th place at mid-season. Everton's magic doesn't play in Football Manager, they join Wigan and Derby in the drop.  Atletico Madrid won La Liga, breaking the dozen year long duopoly of Barca or Real Madrid winning the title. I'm not sure how anyone can follow the Spanish league, it's got to be dull knowing that the season's going to come down to the outcomes of the Clasico's between Real Madrid and Barca. They're both so rich and such prestigious clubs that they can buy basically anyone they want, so they're never going to have more than a year where they're not quite the very best teams in the world.  That's more competition than is in the Bundesliga, though, where Bayern Munich is an all-conquering colossus of a team. Finishing 17 points ahead of second place in a top league is madness.  Italy had a close race, with AC Milan outlasting Fiorentina and a late charging Juventus.  Paris Saint-Germaine lapped the field, as is their wont.  Our parent club still can't get back into the Premier League. Best watch out, Norridge, we'll be in the Championship in two or three years.  Tranmere, Port Vale, Carlisle, and Bury all drop down to League Two, and will play against us next season.  Coventry, Mansfield, Northampton and Tackleford loving City all get promoted to league one, while Bristol and Barnet are replaced by Oxford United and Dartford from the Skrill Premier.    Last but not least, Barcelona won the Champion's League in a year where they couldn't manage to win La Liga. Manchester United made it to the finals, but just missed doing a double. Moyes out!   With the League Two season officially ending after the playoff final, we get paid. An extra £218,000 helps our bottom line.  Todd is officially a professional now, he goes from earning £80/wk to earning £450/wk.  Hah! You weren't even in the running for the award, Ed Philips! All that cash can't buy you respect!  Justin Bailey is awarded the Goal of the Season for this beaut from back in October, while Coulson places third for his goal in January. Check out that celebration on Bailey's goal.  While all those exciting happenings were going on, my scouts finished working through the task I set of them. I'm down to 107 players who'll be available to sign on pre-contracts in 10 days time, and I order my best scout to file reports on the ones who look like bargain signings.  The Olympic draw occurs, England fails to qualify while the US is drawn with a group very reminiscent of the real life 2014 World Cup. We just can't avoid Ghana!  Many of the players I scout accept new contracts with their current teams or are transferred between the time I shortlisted them at the start of the month through the present.  England is still on a bit of a World Cup hangover, they can't beat Wales at Wembley.  We've added 1,200 club members since last season, each paying about £12 per season as dues.  I really do wonder who these sponsors are. Maybe Lavender House Salon thinks that there's an untapped market amongst our fans?  One benefit of investing in the club is that we can use those expenses as a tax write-off. I wonder what type of entity we're incorporated as. If we're a non-profit, shouldn't we be tax exempt? That would have saved us £700,000 this past year! I have no clue about English/Welsh tax law, I guess I need to pick up the Accounting Manager 2014 expansion pack to really drill down into that.  The eggheads lower our wage budget by £5k/wk, the current transfer budget is from selling players, primarily Martin.  We so don't have to worry about this.  There is no way I'm letting Harrison go. But could I interest you in one slightly worn Ibrahima Bah?  I go through all the League Two teams to see who needs midfielders, strikers, and left wingers, and try to foist Bah/Clarke/O'Hanlon/Cooper off on them. No dice.  We're going back to camp! Yaaaaay! I hope the ghost of the hobo we killed last summer doesn't haunt us!     It's now May 30th, so I've made offers to several players who will be out of contract in a month. You might recognize Graeme Underwood, who we had on loan from Norwich last season. Below is our shopping list: Striker, first team: Someone to challenge Harrison for the starting job. Winger, backup: A backup for Coulson/Franks, if we sell Cooper. Central Midfield, backup/rotation: A replacement for Daniel Clarke. Defensive Midfield, backup/rotation/first team: A replacement for Tommy McGuinness. If I find someone better than Kadhim I'll consider splurging and making Kadhim the backup. Left Back, rotation: To match with Ashton. Right Back, rotation: To match with Thomas. Poole is being promoted to Martin's old spot as starting centerback, Todd is being promoted to Poole's position as backup CB, Petit is being brought into Todd's old job as 4th centerback, and Tony Holt is taking O'Hanlon's old job as our third central midfielder.  Sam Breakspear has a whole lot of potential, and a great, great name, but he's probably not quite as good as Harrison right now. Thus, if his agent wants to play hard to get I'm not going to the ends of the earth to sign him.  Well I hope confidence didn't decrease during the offseason. There's nothing new to judge me on!   Stupid leaked transfer stories. Of the four players I made offers to, only one actually signed with us.  Smisson will play left back with Ashton, you'll get a better look at him next update.  Everyone arrives for preseason in fine fettle. We're on the verge of a new beginning.  Our preseason friendlies will take us to Tackleford, and play a match against our parent club Norwich. Besides that we've got three matches against smaller Welsh clubs, and the Cross-border derby with Chester. We won't make a huge amount of profit from the games, but it'll add an extra 50,000 pounds or so to our balance and give us a forgiving schedule as we get in shape for the coming season.  BOARD VOTESWe need to set the wage and transfer budget for the coming season, as well as determine our season goal. I also have two requests to make of the board. First, our current financials: Balance:  We currently have £260,000 in the bank. That's down from £925,000 last year, but the numbers are not exactly comparable as we have yet to bring in any money from season ticket sales. Income:  Our total turnover for the 2015-2016 season was £4.1m. This is nearly the exact same as the 2014-2015 season, which means that, once we account for the FA Cup bounties from the Man City and Man U matches, we saw an increase in income of £600,000. We should see a smaller increase in income this year as crowds continue to grow and we continue to improve as a club. NB: The total says £6.1m turnover because I added, then removed, 2m from the club bank account in late December when I was checking to see how the maximum salary offers were linked to current club balance. That 2m shows up under “Other” income. Expenditure:  Our total expenditure amounted to £4.9m this past year. This was a significant increase from the £3.25m we spent the year before. The largest causes for this increased expenditures were from increased player salaries (up £437,000 year on year), youth facility improvements (£330,000), youth setup (up £145,000 year on year), match day expenses (up £135,000 year on year) and other expenses (up £220,000 year on year). Youth facility improvements are not being requested this year, thus it is likely that expenses will decline somewhat in the coming year. As such, it is likely that we remain in the black even without any income from the FA Cup, assuming we maintain our current rate of expenses. QUESTION ONE: Season goal. I believe we can make the promotion playoffs this season. If you feel differently, the wage and transfer budgets will be adjusted according to our ambitions. If there is not a single majority position among the board, a compromise goal will be chosen based upon all votes. A) We expect at least a mid-table finish. If you do better, that's wonderful, but not expected. (20% decrease in wage/transfer budget) B) We will be looking for a top half finish from you. (10% decrease in wage/transfer budget) C) The board agrees, we expect you to at least make the promotion playoffs. D) That's not ambitious enough. Finish in the top three, earn automatic promotion. (10% increase in wage/transfer budget) E) Win the league, or die trying. (20% increase in wage/transfer budget) QUESTION TWO: Wage budget. Your accountants have set the initial wage budget at £38.3k/wk, with £32k in the transfer budget. That is a decrease of £5,000/wk from last season's budget. Last year they overestimated how much the team could spend due to the surprise income from the FA Cup. I would like to request a £36k/wk wage budget and an additional £50k in the transfer budget. At the end of last season we were spending £34,000/wk on wages and are presently spending £28,000 a week on wages. Please state your preferred wage limit and how much additional money you would like to add to the transfer budget. (e.g. 35k/wk and 0, or 38k/wk and 60k) The average of your votes will be taken and used as the wage budget and added to the transfer budget. I reserve the right to discount outliers (e.g. 100k wage budget, 1 million pounds added to the transfer budget). Note that this total may be adjusted by the result of question one. QUESTION THREE: Additional staff. I would like to hire two additional coaches, one to train shooting skills and another to share goalkeeping training duties with our current goalkeeping coach. Currently we have just 2.5 stars in Shooting training, our second lowest category next to our goalkeeping coach at 2 stars per keeper skill. It would cost us approximately £700/week to take on these coaches. If there is not a majority for any one option, a compromise amount will be found. A) You may not have additional funds to hire coaches. B) You may have £400/week more to hire coaches, but not £700. C) The more coaches the merrier, £700/week for new coaches. QUESTION FOUR: Pitch condition. I would like to have our landlords relay the field. Our current pitch condition is merely OK, and will degrade quickly over the course of the coming season. A) Relay the pitch. B) Don't relay the pitch. Voting closes at 12pm Eastern Standard Time on Saturday, January 25th.
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Jan 24, 2014 00:11
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Re: income, I think we can be expected to make about 3.8m next year absent any big paydays from playing Premier League clubs. Re: the team, I'm excited to see what a Franks/Coulson/Harrison attacking combination can do. They haven't had a chance to all be on the field at the same time yet due to injuries, and they all showed some flashes of brilliance last season.
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Jan 24, 2014 00:25
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(Cautiously) I agree, C. Automatic promotion, though nice, shouldn't be expected. We're not Tackleford flipping the bird at the FA and football. 36k/wk and 50k added to the transfer budget is reasonable. No need to break the bank on this. B. Coaches are nice, but let's not go overboard here. We can always reconsider this if we get an unexpected financial windfall from the FA Cup. Almost tempted to vote no because as the pitch got worse our results got better, but let's take advantage of this while we can, it being free- Relay the pitch.
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Jan 24, 2014 00:25
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1. C (Cautiously) I agree that a shot at promotion is definitely in the cards given how much the club improved in the second half of last year. 2. (Cautiously) 36/wk and 50k added to the transfer budget is reasonable. 3. C (Passionately) We should have staffing that reflects our ambitions. 4. Relay the Pitch (Bored) Yes, yes. The pitch is in poo poo condition and the school should do something about it.
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Jan 24, 2014 00:59
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No real need to reach for the stars just yet, but a top half finish should be expected. Those numbers look complicated, so just do whatever the hell you want on the wage budget. Coaches are always nice, and concentrating on improving our team will make us even more of an opposite to Tackleford. 700 quid per week for coaches. Relay the field. Why the gently caress not?
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Jan 24, 2014 00:59
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QUESTION ONE: Season goal. Going with B here. Things were going well towards the end, but perhaps to do with other teams tiring out in the final stretch. You lingered in the bottom for much of the season. I foresee that perhaps becoming mid table this season with a late charge at the end, probably not enough to make promo playoffs however. QUESTION TWO: Wage budget. You may have your 36k and 50k increase. However, the board feels their wine cellar also is deserving of an increase of expenditure. QUESTION THREE: Additional staff. Easily a C answer. The more QUESTION FOUR: Pitch condition. Relay that bitch. I prefer grass between my toes, not mud and dirt.
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Jan 24, 2014 01:03
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C - promotion, whatever you want, whatever you want seems fine, don't relay, let's test how much it can handle!
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Jan 24, 2014 01:06
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(Cautiously) Baby steps. Those are the things we took last season. This season, we're going to do what Tackleford did, and we're going to do it better. Win the league or die trying. (Offhandedly) You want £36k/wk wage budget and an additional £50k in the transfer budget? Sure, just win the bloody league or die trying. (Assertively) 700/Week for new coaches? We'll throw in a bus to park in front of Manchester Whoever on our annual trip up there. Just win the thrice-damned, accurséd league, or forfeit the last breath of your body, the last drop of blood your heart can give. (Implacably) It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Wrexham have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory. Relay the pitch. Win the league. And if you chicken out and die instead, we'll rip open the gates of the eternal abyss, drag your tormented soul out of the lake of fire that forever burns yet has no warmth, stick you back in the dugout, tell you to stop being such a soft jessie and win the bloody league already! I'm not asking for much, am I?
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Jan 24, 2014 01:36
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1. (Drunkenly) E. WIn or die! (ANd it will be die. I got this axe y'see) 2. (Morosely) I know jack crap about money, cept it's mine so no more money 3. (Joyously) THe More the MErrier! C 4. (Giggling) Heheheh you said lay. Go for it mate.
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Jan 24, 2014 01:54
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1. D. We need to be aiming high. The Tackleford scum are in League One, and we are not. Reach for those stars, but don't be breaking the bank while doing so. 2. Your requests are reasonable, make it so. 3. C. The better training our players get, the more and faster they'll improve. This doubly important because of our Youth focus. 4. A. Relay the pitch if possible. If things hold as they did last season, it will become Terrible quality in the New Year. Might as well relay it this summer so we can avoid that.
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Jan 24, 2014 02:41
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I'm interested in finding out how far the team is currently in the black. Using the tables you provided, we appear to have £4.9 Million in expenses. We will be spending £475,000 less on capital expenditures. (youth upgrades) At the same time you've requested a salary increase of 104,000 £, 50,000 £ for transfer and 36,400 £ for coaches. Also, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume another increase of £220,000 for other expenses. This brings total expenses to around £4.8 Million. I don't have enough data to accurately predict revenue without knowing Y/Y growth or the direct impact of the Man U game. Assuming a 15% increase, it appears to be around £4.7 Million, or a deficit of around £100,000. How long can the team afford to run at that rate? Question 1: C: I think you know the game better then I do. I'm just a numbers guy. Question 2: 36 K/week and 50K/Transfer are acceptable, provided that we can afford it. Question 3: C: Coaching is important. Question 4: A: Why would anyone choose otherwise?
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Jan 24, 2014 02:44
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rizzen posted:1. D. We need to be aiming high. The Tackleford scum are in League One, and we are not. Reach for those stars, but don't be breaking the bank while doing so.
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Jan 24, 2014 02:54
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Playoffs If it's on the same slider you can do whatever, I'm fine with the new proposal Get two new coaches Relay the pitch if it's free otherwise don't.
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Jan 24, 2014 03:00
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QUESTION ONE: Season goal. B) We will be looking for a top half finish from you. (10% decrease in wage/transfer budget) C) The board agrees, we expect you to at least make the promotion playoffs. We expect you to make the playoffs, but this club cannot continue to spend money as it has without needing a big FA Cup payoff year after year. Promotion playoffs with a 10% reduction in the wage/transfer budget. QUESTION TWO: Wage budget. £34k/wk for wages, with £29k in the transfer budget. QUESTION THREE: Additional staff. B) You may have £400/week more to hire coaches, but not £700. By all means, please hire a shooting coach as some of the lads couldn't find the back of the net with one of those Google cars this past season. We don't see it necessary to hire an additional goal-keeping coach when we already have one. QUESTION FOUR: Pitch condition. A) Relay the pitch. It doesn't come out of our pockets and to have people degrade the pitch is to degrade the club and to degrade the board's personal reputation which affects us in our business deals outside of futbol.
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Jan 24, 2014 03:02
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ThePenIsMightier posted:I'm interested in finding out how far the team is currently in the black. Using the tables you provided, we appear to have £4.9 Million in expenses. We will be spending £475,000 less on capital expenditures. (youth upgrades) At the same time you've requested a salary increase of 104,000 £, 50,000 £ for transfer and 36,400 £ for coaches. Also, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume another increase of £220,000 for other expenses. This brings total expenses to around £4.8 Million. We made nearly a million in profit in the 2014-2015 season, then took a 700k loss last season. At the moment (July 30th) we have £571k in our bank account. I don't tend to max out my wage budgets. We spent £1.6m on player salaries last season, which equals out to £30.7k/wk, even though we had a wage budget maximum of over £40k/wk. Right now it's just before the start of the season and I've pared the wage budget down to about £23k/wk. That'll go up some before the transfer window closes, but it's still going to be nowhere near the £36k/wk budget I requested. I request budgets larger than I use because it allows me to offer better wages to players to entice them to come sign with us without having to promise them more playing time. For example right now I'm only able to offer a player £650/wk for a rotation level job, which means if they're decent I have to give them a First Team or Key Player contract in order to pay them what they want, and then risk them getting irritated over lack of playing time. Also, we made £220,000 selling players, which is a nice increase in our cash reserves. We're in pretty healthy financial shape right now, we'll probably turn a profit of a few hundred thousand dollars this season regardless of what happens with the FA Cup.
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Jan 24, 2014 06:01
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1. I don't expect you to win the league, but we should aim for the Top Three 2. Whatever you want is fine. 3. £700 for coaches is fine. 4. Relay the field. You're gonna lead this team to glory. Its's only right we give you what you need.
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Jan 24, 2014 07:12
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Q1. (Calmly) From your own assesment, we expect you to make the promotion playoffs next year Q2. (Calmly) Your wage budget request off 36k/wk and 50k has been accepted Q3. (Sternly) Get the coaches and they better be good. Q4. (Annoyingly) Is this really a question? Relay the loving pitch Wrexham ain't gonna be known for lovely playing conditions!
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Jan 24, 2014 08:27
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1. E: TAKE 'EM ALL DOWN! 2. No preference/Whatever you want, you're the manager. 3. B: More coaches. 4. A Get those lazy bastards out here and make them relay that pitch!
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Jan 24, 2014 09:13
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Aim for the playoffs, same budget, hire some coaches, and relay the pitch.
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Jan 24, 2014 10:34
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Playoffs If the accountants are OK with this being a fair trade-off between wages and transfer, I am OK Get coaches, get money Relay the loving pitch this year and every year it is still free and our pitch is still lovely and stop asking me about this because I don't care while someone else is paying.
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Jan 24, 2014 15:00
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TheMcD posted:No real need to reach for the stars just yet, but a top half finish should be expected. I agree with this man's choices.
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Jan 24, 2014 15:34
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Lynneth posted:I agree with this man's choices. Thirded. I don't really care that much about the budget, I'm pretty sure we'll be fine no matter what regarding money. Besides, I trust your judgement.
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Jan 24, 2014 15:42
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(Assertively, on the phone) Scott Brown? Yeah, the loving Yank? First, congratulations in getting out of the shitter. Second, gently caress Tackleford. Third, get that pitch relaid. You CAN get promoted, ya know, just don't try to crash and burn and be all Portsmouth about it, or try to do some stupid bullshit like them Rangers did. Get *A* good defensive coach, a good one in the lower levels will make a world of difference. I'll also suggest that you get an assistant manager out of Ayrshire that speaks like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi5-V75v-6I
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Jan 24, 2014 16:12
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:Relay the loving pitch this year and every year it is still free and our pitch is still lovely and stop asking me about this because I don't care while someone else is paying. It doesn't matter if we have to pay. If the Red Dragons are going to conquer the world of Soccer, we can't afford to have lovely pitches.
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Jan 24, 2014 17:26
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Not voting, but have you seen that buyout for the transfer clause on Dewi Morris? £906k seems like an absolutely ridiculous buyout.
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Jan 24, 2014 18:21
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Season goals: Reach the playoffs, we do not want to stagnate here. Automatic promotion would be awesome, but it seems out of our reach right now... if you think it can reasonably be done, count this as a go for the top three, we trust your judgment. Wage budget: 36k p/w and +50k to transfer budget, as you asked, is fine since we're angling for promotion and I guess we'll need to bring in at least some quality players that might also serve us in the higher league. Additional staff: Have as many coaches as you wish. If we homegrow quality players, those low wage/transfer budgets will eventually mean a lot less. Pitch: Relay the pitch, bad pitches make for poor football and more injuries.
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Jan 24, 2014 19:19
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Volume 4: Raised Expectations Prologue: Out with the old, in with the new. June 9, 2016-July 2, 2016 The thing I have the hardest time with in Football Manager is showing any sort of loyalty to my players. “Oh, you were great for us last season Stuart Martin, here's the door!” “Hey, Ibrahima Bah, thanks for getting us promoted from the Conference National! Hope you don't mind if I relentlessly shop you around to any willing buyers.” The game takes note of this lack of loyalty, it means players will be less willing to trust their position on the team, which generally doesn't help. But we were a mediocre League Two team last year, so changes must be made if we're going to earn promotion. Still, we have players that are going into their third season under my guidance, and they're important players to the team. Bailey, Simpson, and Thomas have all played the last three full seasons with Wrexham, and they form a core which we can build around.  Evans is out, he was not that good for us and thus I have zero interest in extending his loan.   I've ditched the 4-2-3-1 for now, and created two more 4-5-1 variants, one based around an attacking style of play and one for parking the bus. This will allow us to change our style of play more fluidly depending upon our opponent. If your players only ever train a single play mentality (Attacking, Counter, Control, etc.) then when you ask them to change it up they're going to be awkward. It's best to have a tactic that uses your base mentality (in our case Counter) that you use most often, as well as an additional defensive and offensive style of play. If they're all based around the same formation the players will pick it up even more quickly and will start with at least some familiarity with the style.  Don-Duncan, McGuinness, and Martin take off, our youth signings come in. Carl Walley Central Midfielder  Walley is quick, determined, and raw. He was also born in the year 2000, which makes me feel incredibly old. 2016 isn't that far off, guys, and there's going to be 16 year olds who were born in a year that didn't start in a 1. Some of them are already 14.  Michael Upson Striker  Upson suffers from vertigo. It's the only sense I can make of a 1 in balance. We're equal opportunity employers, so we're happy to help him work through it because he's got a whole lot of potential. I'm not sure he'll amount to something, he loses his footing in a stiff breeze, but the goal with prospects is that you get a ton of them and a few eventually pan out. Adrian Read Striker  Read is the best player we signed in March. I'm not sure how Histon got him, England is well picked over by the big clubs when it comes to the youth academies and even a late bloomer like Read is likely to find his way to a league club's academy. Their gain becomes our gain, though. Read is pacey and has a solid first touch and dribbling skills, as he improves on the mental and technical sides of the games he could definitely become a very good player in short order.   World Cup Qualifiers for 2018 are ongoing, and the US is making it hard for themselves again by drawing with Canada. I'd say this is the game's latent anti-Americanism showing itself, but we did draw with Canada in the first stage of qualifiers last time around too. A goalless draw at home against Honduras isn't as bad, but it's still really bad. The US is very lucky that CONCACAF is a joke conference and only Mexico is real competition.  Wales is making a good showing of itself in the Euro Championships, holding off a strong Ukrainian side.  Luke Reid was a different man in the second half of last season. He went from being error prone and one of my worst signings ever to being my first choice centerback. When I tried to sell him in the January window (which is about the time he started playing well, coincidence?) I lowered my asking price to zero. It stayed at zero when I took him off the transfer list a few weeks later, and I forgot about it until several teams started asking if they could have him. No harm done in this case, but you should try to remember to reset the asking price if you have a disloyal player who will get his head turned by bigger clubs making offers for him.  Impatient agents are the worst. I hate them so, so much. I hate all agents, but impatient agents are less willing to haggle, which means if you start with too low an offer they'll quickly threaten to pull out of talks while still demanding the moon and the stars.   Color me very surprised. Wales made the knockout round of the Euros! They did lose their all-world winger, Shaun Davies, to a twisted ankle, though. It's not that likely they'll make it to the quarter-finals, but this is still an amazing accomplishment for a nation of 3.5 million people. Even better, England hasn't locked up their trip to the knockout round yet.  Britain is one of the best placed third teams, and gets into the next round by the skin of their teeth. More on the Euro's as they develop.  Our local businesses provide us with £80,000 in sponsorship money a year, the lion's share of which comes from our jersey sponsorship.  It's no surprise that Justin Bailey won the fan's hearts, he was our little cheat code on corner kicks with all the assists he served up.  That's £5,000 less than last season. Which one of you guys is getting kickbacks from the TV contract?  The raises amount to about £1,000/wk total. A third of that goes to players who we're selling, like Cooper and Clarke. At Tackleford City, June 24, 2016 Friendly  To keep the rivalry with Tackleford fresh in everyone's mind despite being a league apart this season I schedule our first friendly against the Yorkshire bastards. This may be only a friendly, but I desperately want a result. As I haven't sold O'Hanlon, Clarke, Cooper, or Bah yet I bring them to the match as subs, we may end up having to keep one or more of them if buyers don't materialize in the next two months. Formation: 4-5-1 Defense Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Poole, Ashton, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Coulson, Franks, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Peters, Ratcliffe, Petit, Todd, Holt, O'Hanlon, Clarke, Cooper, Price, Morgan, Bah. Our defense plays well for the entire game. Tackleford is able to score on a Callum Williams header in the 20th minute off a free kick, but they cannot score from open play. We're not their equal physically or technically, however, and our counter attacks repeatedly break down when Coulson, Harrison, or Franks have their pockets picked by the Tackleford defenders. We equalize in the second half when Harrison makes our one chance of the day count on a breakaway where he blazes past both the defenders and the keeper before tapping the finish home. Our subs and their subs fight the rest of the game to a draw, and I'm pleased with the player's performance.  I expected to lose this game, coming out with a draw after going behind to a team that's likely better than anything we'll face in the league this year is a good sign of things to come.   Tackleford 1-1 Wrexham  Those jerks at Tackleford has wounded one of ours! Where's our ultras to defend our honor? Thomas will be healthy by the start of training camp, but this does mean I'll be using youth fullbacks in the Newport County match coming up in a few days.  First cut for the upcoming training camp are made. I'll have to bump some youth players for any incoming signings, such as Smisson, but it should be another fun time at Camp Wekilledahobo.  McGuinness's replacement is signed. He's better than McGuinness, but I doubt he'll steal much starting time from Kadhim.   £30,000 for O'Hanlon is quite nice. There's always someone willing to sign pacey players with no technical skills. Swindon Town swooped in for Aidan Cooper, and I somehow missed getting a screenshot of that. He sold for £75,000, bringing us to just over £200,000 from selling players this transfer window. Not bad, considering that we didn't pay a dime to bring in any of the players we've sold.  The Cinderella story is over. Hold your heads high, Wales, you did better than anyone ever expected. And imagine how jealous the Scottish are about your success!  I was really hoping England would crash out in the group stage. The schadenfreude coming from Cardiff would have been felt in Dover.  Daniel Clarke's replacement. He's quite good and will challenge Bailey for starting time. Remember that agent fees come from the transfer budget, they're a reason why I like to have a decent amount on hand even if I'm not actually buying players. At Newport Co., June 29, 2016 Friendly  Newport are another of the six Welsh team playing in the English leagues. They're currently in the Skrill Premier, and should serve as good practice for our younger players. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Peters, Reid, Ashton, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Coulson, Franks, Harrison. Subs: Higgs, Ratcliffe, Rigby, Petit, Todd, Cobb, Holt, Rainey, McCarthy, Price, Read, Morgan. Things immediately go wrong, we allow a goal at the fifth minute, and never seem comfortable in the first half, giving up several more chances. I holler at the players during the break, and keep the first team on until we finally equalize in the 61st minute on a Harrison goal. As time wends down it looks like the subs won't be able to break through to give us the win, but two minutes into stoppage time Tony Price cuts in from wide, unmarked, and has all day to take the shot that gives us the victory. It's a lucky win against an opponent we should have had no difficulty with. Man of the Match: Tony Price   Newport Co. 1-2 Wrexham   It's June 30th, which means it's now one year until most of the team's contracts expire. Since we're going to be bucking for promotion, I want to wait before offering new contracts to anyone- and I want to be careful about any promotion escalator clauses I give out as they'll rapidly make reasonably priced players overpaid.  The board did this on their own, I guess that's why I wasn't able to request it.  Daniel Brown is a new scout, a replacement for the one who's contract expired. I wonder if he's actually doing any work or just faffing about on the SA boards with his LP of Appeals Court Manager 2014.  Wigan just got relegated from the Premier League. I predict we're going to receive a rapid exit from the Capital One Cup. The only silver lining is that we're at home.  This all seems correct, except for saying that we have a large team. If anything we're a bit on the lean side. But calling us promotion contenders is a huge step up from where we were last season, predicted to finish 22nd and just barely avoiding relegation. Richard Cobb, Sam Smisson, and Neil Jenkins have arrived just in time to join the training camp rosters. Sam Smisson Left Back  Smisson has the potential to be our left back for several years to come. Good work rate, stamina, and pace means that he'll be able to run up and down the field all day long, and he's a good match for the more stalwart Ashton, giving us offensive and defensive options at left back. Neil Jenkins Defensive Midfielder  Jenkins is a more creative defensive midfielder than Kadhim, and is a step up on McGuinness. He'll be a useful depth option in case of injuries or ineffectiveness, but he's going to have to show me something before I start penciling him in as a starter. Richard Cobb Central Midfielder  Cobb is the best of the three, and the highest paid at £1,300 a week. He has poor physical stats, but very good mental stats and is easily the most apt passer on the team. He seldom makes a poor decision, has good creativity, and is rarely caught off guard. He's able to play both central midfield and defensive midfield, but given his lack of pace I'd prefer to keep him in the middle of the field with someone behind him to pick up quick players who run past him. He'll challenge Bailey for the starting 11 job.  We obviously need to start selling more jerseys. Maybe we should start stealing designs from the University of Oregon?   That Norwich link has been pretty useless. This is the second season Ferguson has refused to come to us on loan.  Summer camp! I'm sure there won't be any repercussions from the accidental killing of that old man last year! 
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 24, 2014 19:39
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Season Goal: C Playoffs. I'm not expecting the earth but don't get complacent. Wage Budget: £36k/wk wage budget and an additional £50k in the transfer budget. Seems reasonable. Additional Staff: B £400/wk make it work. Pitch: Relay it.
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Jan 24, 2014 19:45
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Mmm. Those are some very tasty stats on Cobb. Shame about his physical side. Though if that were any better, there is no way we'd ever get the chance to sign him in League Two.
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Jan 24, 2014 20:35
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1)D Because if we want to make it in the playoffs might as well aim for the top three 2)£36k/wk wage budget and £50k transfer budget sounds ok to me 3)C If you say these guys are good and our goal then yeah hire them for £700/week 4)A why is this even a question?
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Jan 24, 2014 22:59
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The transfer window is open, has Tackleford taken a machete to their over-inflated roster yet? Or did we really tie against their cash-powered juggernaut?
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Jan 24, 2014 23:15
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I was all ready to complain that you confused England and Britain, but you mentioned Scotland's appalling team later so I'm not sure if you're screwing with us  . Either way doesn't matter because this LP is the reason I've got Wimbledon in the Championship. Good start to the preseason! I always find arranging friendlies myself to be a confusing hassle but the money is just too good for me to leave it to the AssMan.Once the transfer window closes, can we get a summary of spending/wage budgets for the Division? I find it's a pretty good view of the coming season.
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Jan 25, 2014 02:10
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Obliterati posted:I was all ready to complain that you confused England and Britain, but you mentioned Scotland's appalling team later so I'm not sure if you're screwing with us If I did write British when I meant English, I'm sorry! I do know the difference between the two.
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Jan 25, 2014 02:32
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Just finished reading this over the last few days. Good stuff! As someone who has been playing Xpert 11 with goons for the last year, I find myself worryingly tempted to pick this up, even though I'm sure I'd be in over my head. So how easy is it to add in new teams? I'd be tempted to recreate my X11 team, Blue Shift, or perhaps be sillier and make a National Team for the most glorious nation in the world, Tropico.  QUESTION ONE: Season goal. C - I believe reaching the promotion playoffs is completely obtainable. QUESTION TWO: Wage budget. Your proposed changes are acceptable. 36k/wk and an additional 50k for the transfer budget. QUESTION THREE: Additional staff. C - An additional 700/wk for coaches is acceptable. Honestly I'd be tempted to drop the player salary budget a smidgeon (1kish) and increase the staff budget by the same amount if it was an option. QUESTION FOUR: Pitch condition. Apparently the landlords have already relaid the pitch, so this point is moot.
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Jan 25, 2014 06:03
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