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Ah, right where they belong. It's a good era for North Welsh football it seems!
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Jan 19, 2015 00:29
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| # ? May 28, 2024 19:50 |
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My votes: £160m We still have quite a lot of stadium debt that we need to clear. I also see imagine that Supermercado won't be long for this team, freeing up some £11 million in wages. B Focusing on our own youths seems to be dependent on the luck of the RNG. Our manager has proven that he's good at sniffing out talents for the future; let's exploit that as much as we can. £148 000 + bonuses Hey, all your whining about how your accomplishments should mean an increased wage, guess what? That's what those parachute/balloon/whatever clauses were for. Despite that, I'm willing to authorize a 15% increase from your current 129k/wk salary as well as new performance related bonuses. This will set your net wage at almost 50% higher than your closest peers. I am not sure if any manager is worth this - had you come with this last year after your hubris and arrogance lost us the title, I would have laughed in your face, but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt this time.
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Jan 19, 2015 10:59
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Prologue: The rocket's red glare. June 10, 2026-July 13, 2026 Copa Mundial 2026. Lets show everyone what the Yanks can do.  Hunter Fisher is 21 and along with Isaac Parsons represents the first flowering of what I hope will become a golden generation for the United States. He'll split time at his position with Brian Burman, between the two of them we should have well rested and dangerous wingers throughout the Cup.  Those temperatures seem cool for LA in the summertime.  We're actually the oddsmakers favorite for this match, which is a surprise considering how well Bulgaria did in World Cup qualifying. vs Bulgaria, June 12, 2026 World Cup, Group A Preview  The USMNT has the personnel to play a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-5-1 needing to make substitutions, which allows me to adjust our formation on the fly. Bulgaria coming out in a 4-2-3-1 as well. A win in our first game will make everything so much easier, so cross your fingers. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Rubio de la Fuente, Parsons, Latham, Needham, Bruno, Woods (c), Padilla, Fisher, Spence, Ulusal, Dolinsky. Subs: Toninho, Beer, Bartlett, Schlegel, Romaneiro, Burman, Ramos, Hartman, Baker, Moctezuma, Carroll. 3m: We score in the final minute of our last friendly, making me worry about our offense. So of course we start hot, with Sinan Ulusal pouncing on a miscleared ball. USMNT 1-0 Bulgaria 4m Bulgaria answer with a chance of their own, but it's safe hands from Rubio de la Fuente. 11m: We're doing a reasonable job keeping possession, but can't do anything dangerous with the ball. 14m: Isaac Parsons picks up a ding, and I'm fervently hoping it's nothing that will keep him out of later matches. 16m: Bobby Padilla was so terrible in the 2023 Copa America that I left him out of the national team for a full year. I was very tempted to leave him out of the World Cup squad, as he'd never been more than decent. So of course he's the man who laces a blazing free kick into the net to give us a multiple goal lead. USMNT 2-0 Bulgaria 17m: Parsons almost makes it 3-0, but jerks it wide left, his injury is affecting his play.. 29m: Woods picks up a yellow card, he's got to be careful. Two yellow cards in the group stage equals suspension for the next game, and we can ill afford to be without him. 30m: Bulgaria is being much more aggressive now that they're down by two, I'm moving us to the 4-5-1 and hoping to catch them out with a counter attack. 37m: I'm a genius. A counter attack gets us a corner, and the corner gets us a third goal off of Bobby Padilla's left foot. USMNT 3-0 Bulgaria Halftime: Padilla is having the game of his life, and we're in great shape to grab all three points. Bulgaria brings on a fresh attacking midfielder to try and change up their look. 51m: Bulgaria goes to their bench again, bringing on another attacking player in an effort to salvage a point from the match. 52m: Our opponents have been taking shots, but they're from range and not particularly dangerous. 54m: Midfield destroyer Yanko Stoychev picks up a yellow of his own after upending Padilla. 56m: The Bulgarians are out of substitutions after swapping out yet another attacking player in the continuing search for something that can unlock our defense. 58m: Put out the lights, the party's over. Left back Borislav Dimov collides with Hunter Fisher and can't continue, leaving his nation down a man for the final thirty minutes. 58m: Immediately following the injury Fisher takes the ball 60 yards down the pitch and sends a perfect cross to Scott Dolinsky, who volleys the ball into the back of the net. USMNT 4-0 Bulgaria 58m: I'm yanking Woods and Parsons, the former because of his yellow card and the latter because of his injury. Darren Latham slides to Parson's spot at right fullback while Mark Bartlett comes on as centerback and Sebastian Schlegel, the 31-year-old German emigre, takes over as our anchor man. 65m: Bruno picks up a dumb card, our two senior players who I need to stay on the field the most are now at risk of missing a match. 69m: Close but no cigar on a long range stroke by the other Dimov on Bulgaria's squad. 85m: After letting Bulgaria bounce around with possession for ten minutes, we get an opportuniy to break forward at pace. Scott Dolinsky goes agonizingly close, putting the ball inches off target. 88m: Tasko Valkov, the opposition's left back, picks up a yellow after a frustrated tackle on Ulusal, it's been all America today. 90m: 2 minutes of stoppage time. Full Time: What a performance! Not only did we get three points, but it's going to be incredibly hard to top us on goal differential! USA! USA! USA!  Man of the Match: Bobby Padilla   USMNT 4-0 Bulgaria  Our next match is in five days, against Japan. It's very likely that Parsons will miss it. Brent Woods will cover for him, and either Sebastian Schlegel or Peter Romaneiro will start as our defensive midfielder.  Bulgaria is currently ranked 13th in the world. I think we showed that the ranking flatters them.  I think Padilla proved his worth to all the doubters who said he should be left off the team, too.  I'm not going to tell the boys that they shouldn't take confidence from their performance, though.  I think it does more than keep our hopes of advancement alive. We're in the catbird seat. What is a catbird seat, anyways?  This is why the World Cup should be held in the United States, we would almost certainly set a new attendance record. We'd break the 1994 record we originally set.  Oh come on. There's no place for you here, just leave and make us some money. I'm guessing your coach wants you to finish your negotiations so you can focus on the World Cup, considering you're part of the Welsh squad.  Ghana picked up a win over Japan, so Samurai Japan will need at least a draw if they want to keep alive any hope of reaching the knockout round. A draw for us, on the other hand, will probably see us through.  Chelsea can't hang on to their great left winger despite making the Champions League.  Hey, nice work Johnny Quibz.  And nice work, Wrexham. We're now a #1 seed, meaning we don't have to worry about being in the same group as Real Madrid again. Bring on the cupcakes like Videoton!    Now that the board has begun to zero in on the budget I can get around to giving contracts to those who waited patiently for them. Loseille, Reed, and Shirra earned £151,000/wk last year. Next year they'll earn £375,000/wk. Loseille and Reed are suddenly the fifth highest paid players at their position in the world.  Don't get overconfident, this is a whole new ballgame. I don't think we'll be putting four goals past Kojiro Minami.  You tell em, anonymous ex-USA player! vs Japan, June 17, 2026 World Cup, Group A  A win and we're through, a draw and we're probably through. Japan, on the other hand, needs to take the game to us if they want to advance. I'm going to play on the counter, if we can manage an early goal we can force them to run around all game and their defense will suffer for it. One concern is that both Woods and Bruno have yellow cards, if they pick up another they'll be suspended for our final group stage match. As such I've told our players to not hassle our opponents on the ball quite so much. Matt Baker and Jose Francisco Ramos are in the starting lineup in the place of Spence and Ulusal, and Woods is playing right back while Schlegel anchors our defense in midfield, but otherwise the lineup is the same as against Bulgaria. Japan is using the same 4-5-1 formation we used, as opposed to the tight packed 4-2-3-1 that they used against Ghana. Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter Starting 11: Rubio de la Fuente, Woods (c), Latham, Needham, Bruno, Schlegel, Padilla, Ramos, Fisher, Baker, Dolinsky. Subs: Toninho, Beer, Parsons, Bartlett, Romaneiro, Spence, Hartman, Burman, Ulusal, Carroll, Moctezuma. 11m: It's a dull opening, as we have a couple shots from counter-attacks that come to nothing,. 18m: More counter attacking, Bruno has a long shot curl over the bar and out of play. 20m: Japan still hasn't had a shot yet, our defense is doing their job and staying at home. 22m: Millions of children nine months from now will be named Bobby. A long throw from Bruno into the box catches the Japanese defense unawares, allowing Padilla to run onto the ball from deep and hammer it home. USMNT 1-0 Japan 28m: Dolinsky gets whacked by Masaaki Morikawa, but is able to fight through the pain and continue. 38m: Japan is having a great deal of possession since we scored, but still have managed only an off target effort. 45+1: One of Japan's best offensive players, attacking midfielder Yosuke Yamazumi, pulls up lame just before halftime and has to be subbed off. Halftime: We're 45 minutes from advancing! 49m: Japan almost equalizes with a shot from Shintaro Fujii that beats Rubio de la Fuente but goes harmlessly wide to the left. 50m: Japan has come out attacking with a purpose, earning a corner and looking dangerous. 52m: Hunter Fisher misses an easy chance, he had the whole net to work with from inside the six yard box and put it where Minami could reach. That could cost us. 61m: And it does, Japan are right back into the match! Hiroki Amo scores on a bounding ball in the penalty area, and this game is a long way from over. USMNT 1-1 Japan 61m: Dolinsky has been uninspiring, so Rodrigo Moctezuma is getting his first taste of World Cup action. 69m: We're still getting good breakaway chances, Hunter Fisher cracks a shot off the woodwork. 77m: Japan's Amo scores when Rubio de la Fuente can't handle the incoming corner, and now we've got 15m to save a point we've held all match. I knew I should have started Toninho. USMNT 1-2 Japan 78m: I send on Mario Carroll and move Moctezuma to the left wing, and bring on Isaias Hartman for Jose Francisco Ramos. We're switching to high tempo 4-2-3-1 to chase the equalizer. 79m: Amo almost has his hat trick, our players can't get so far ahead of ourselves that we give up another goal. 84m: Schlegel goes off the bar! Oh so close! 89m: Bobby Padilla can't repeat his free kick magic, putting his shot not far over the bar. 90m: 2 minutes stoppage time. Full Time: There is no joy in Mudville, and the players are going to get an earful from me.   USMNT 1-2 Japan  Maybe if you'd spent less time gawping at the notion of losing, you could have prevented it.  Well, we gave up two goals in the final half hour, no wonder we're upset.  But we still have another match, so let's not get gloomy just yet.    The other groups have now finished their first matches and there's a few surprises, the largest of which is France getting blitzed for five goals by Senegal.  Bulgaria beats Ghana the day after we fall to Japan, putting the whole group at three points. We should be able to advance with a draw thanks to our +3 goal differential, either Japan or Bulgaria will win and we'll advance over Ghana (currently -1), or they'll draw and we'll win the group.  A dark day for Wales. Not only are they eliminated with a game to play, but the elimination comes at the hands of an England team that locks down their ticket to the knockout round.  This is the farthest thing in the world from my mind.  That's quite a step down from the World Cup. I'm not sure what happens if Japan makes a deep run and is still playing in mid-July.  Hey! You can't beat me so you headhunt my coaching staff? .png) Money cannot overcome the loyalty these people feel for me! It wouldn't have been the worst thing if de Campos left, but I hate hunting for coaches. I have to pull out a PDF to figure out which ones are actually good every time. It's why I still haven't found a new goalkeeping coach.  Keep your sinful lucre away from Wales.  I hope your confidence shows on the pitch, because you're getting the start after Rubio de la Fuente cost us a point last game.  We're underdogs? Hah.    After two matches, there's the potential for some major surprises. France is on the outside looking in at the moment, but get to play Colombia next. Scotland is still alive, as is South Africa. vs Ghana, June 23, 2026 World Cup, Group A  Of course it comes down to Ghana. It always does. Ghana and the US have had a strange conjoined fate over the last several world cups. In 2006 Ghana knocked the United States out with a 2-1 victory in the final Group Stage match. Then in 2010 they beat the United States again, this time in the knockout round. That was a gutting loss after Extra Time, won by Asamoah Gyan's goal in the 93rd minute. That's where our realities diverge. In the real world the United States faced Ghana again in the World Cup, but this time it was Americans who caused the heartbreak when youngster John Brooks scored the go ahead goal in the 86th minute of the first group stage match. In our Alternate Universe the Ghanaians were also matched with the US for the 2014 World Cup and won 1-0. That loss meant the US failed to make it out of the group stage despite beating Uruguay and drawing with Russia. In 2018 Ghana failed to make the World Cup, but in 2022 the American and Ghanaian national teams were again matched in the group stage, with the United States winning 2-1. That brings us to the present. Ghana is coming out in a 4-5-1, while we're in a standard 4-2-3-1. Both of us know that if we win, we're in. I'm taking the risk of starting 17-year-old Moctezuma as our right winger, hoping he provides a spark but very ready to switch to Fisher or Burman if he hasn't done much by the half. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Toninho, Parsons, Latham, Needham, Bruno, Schlegel, Padilla, Woods (c), Moctezuma, Ulusal, Dolinsky. Subs: Rubio de la Fuente, Beer, Bartlett, Romaneiro, Schlegel, Ramos, Hartman, Fisher, Baker, Burman, Carroll. 5m: We're getting possession early, but aren't breaking down Ghana's defense. 9m: Ghana's Richard Duodo sends a shot off the left post! I try not to let my concern show. 15m: It's still nil-nil in both this match and the Bulgaria-Japan match. We're looking comfortable in possession, but haven't been able to turn that possession into anything. 21m: Precise passing from Bruno to Woods to Ulusal to Dolinsky gives us the lead! USA! USA! USA! USMNT 1-0 Ghana 22m: I switch us over to the 4-5-1, Ghana now needs two goals to survive and will have to attack. 27m: We're still getting a lot of possession despite the change in tactics, and turning that possession into shots. 31m: Dolinsky misses his second of the game by inches. 42m: Despite playing a counter formation we've still had 55% possession. Ghana haven't take a shot from anywhere near the goal since their initial effort. 44m: We're let down by our set piece defense, as we head away a corner but can't clear it. That allows Baba Owusu to score the equalizer and we have to slink to the lockers stewing over the goal. USMNT 1-1 Ghana Halftime: Bulgaria and Japan are still scoreless, if things finished as they are we'd actually win the group. I tongue-lash the players for their set piece sloppiness, then try to rebuild their confidence. 48m: Scott Dolinksy is playing well, but missing the final touch as can't get a half volley on target. 51m: Kiddy-league defense sees two Ghanaian defenders run into each other when trying to clear out an errant Moctezuma cross, the ball rolls directly to Dolinsky and he easily puts it away for his second of the game. USMNT 2-1 Ghana 52m: Ghana makes a curious substitution, removing their goal scorer for a more defensive minded player. 56m: Woods takes a cleat to the ankle, and is hobbled as he runs off the pain. 58m: Moctezuma feeds Dolinksy, but the naturalized Englishman can't get his hat trick. 60m: Brian Burman comes on for Rodrigo Moctezuma, who had flashes of brilliance but played inconsistently. 61m: Obed Diallo is subbed on for Ghana. 62m: Toninho makes a sprawling save on a Ghana breakaway, and we maintain our lead. It's a great save, and a huge boost to our morale. 67m: Ghana have switched to a 4-2-3-1 in an effort to grab the two goals they need to avoid elimination, and make their final substitution. Ghana now have three Diallos on the pitch at their attacking positions, perhaps they're trying to confuse us? 71m: Padilla makes a surging run into the box, and the defender can only knock the ball away. It rolls off to the side of the net, where Sinan Ulusal is able to put it past the out of position keeper! USMNT 3-1 Ghana 75m: Masataka Shimane puts Japan up 1-0 on Bulgaria, it's exceedingly likely they'll finish second in the group. 82m: I'm able to sub off Wood and Bruno, sparing their thirty-something legs the final minutes and preventing them from picking up a late game yellow that would keep them out of our knockout round match. 90m: 2 minutes of stoppage time. Full Time: And we've done it, winning our group over Japan on goal differential. Man of the Match: Scott Dolinsky   USMNT 3-1 Ghana  drat right we should be happy that we beat Ghana in our quadrennial grudge match.  Really? Our group wasn't that difficult, it shouldn't be a surprise that we advanced. Anyways, who's next?  Oho, I know how to play against Australians! It's huge that we won our group, if we'd come in second we'd be facing off against Argentina.  Wrexham is second in England, and fourth in the world. I'm not sure if Barcelona's reputation is broken, they're somehow still #1 despite not having won jack for the last five years. Juventus is somehow above us and Man United too, which is also a bit odd even taking into account the Turin-based team's recent success.  Back to the Premier League for a bit. I'm not sure if this is in addition to the prior 5 point penalty, but Man City might be in slow meltdown mode where they regularly are getting docked points and unable to finish in a Champions League place. An unexpected upside, we won't be on the bottom of the table when the season starts!  Our minds are in concordance.  The rest of the world might not know he's the best player out there, but our fans do.  It's going to be tough to top that, those are some Messi-esque numbers.  Reed and Stringel are going to be gold plated locks for the decades by the time their run with the club is up.  Our entire best 11 have been with us for at least part of our Premier League days, even Danny Higgs was with us for the first half of the 2019-2020 season. At some point I'm going to do an interlude and try to see which of our lads would be worthy of joining Wrexham's real-life all time team.  I'm not sure who they're going to face, we're going to be in the United States for training camp and I don't want us flying back just to play them.  Wales can come home with their head held high, they did win a game at the World Cup and were in a tough group.    The first round is over, and there aren't that many surprises. France going out is certainly one, though, and Iran advancing is probably a surprise to most.  We lose one of the few people who can play left wing on the national team, but he hasn't been seeing time because Ulusal has been so strong.  Mujkic and Bastable are by far their best players; if we can contain those two I like our chance. vs Australia, August 27, 2026 World Cup, Knockout Round  If we beat Australia, we accomplish my goal for this World Cup and the United States will have reached the Quarterfinal for only the second time in about 90 years. We have some seriously tired players, though, and I'm leaving Needham, Schlegel, and Dolinsky on the bench as potential subsitutes. Australia going with a flat 3-5-2, they're relying on Meteor and his counterpart to run all day to give them some width. So we're going with the 4-2-3-1, I think their back line is suspect, and we might be able to exploit their width. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Toninho, Parsons, Latham, Bartlett, Bruno, Romaneiro, Padilla, Fisher, Woods (c), Ulusal, Carroll. Subs: Rubio de la Fuente, Beer, Jimenez, Needham, Schlegel, Hartman, Ramos, Spence, Burman, Moctezuma, Dolinsky. 6m: 75% possession to start, which is just what I want to see. 8m: Mujkic finds Bastable on a cross, I've seen it dozens of times but as their coach instead of their opponent, but Romaneiro just barely gets back in time to deflect the shot! 10m: Kemal Selimovic of Australia gets a head on a corner, but nods it into the side netting. 21m: We get a corner of our own, and Darran Latham tonks his effort past the keeper to give us the lead. USMNT 1-0 Australia 28m: We nearly go up 2-0 when Hunter Fisher zeros in on the goal from range, but the Ozzie keeper gets a hand on it to tip it over the crossbar. 30m: Australia again threaten from a corner, if we survive this I might have to go back and jazz up our corner tactic with something less ineffective. 32m: Mario Carroll frees Brent Woods on the break with a perfect pass to his feet, and he puts it in off the corner of the post! USMNT 2-0 Australia 37m: Ok, now I feel comfortable going to a 4-5-1 counter-attacking formation. 38m: Fisher again denied a great goal, he's really feeling his oats out there. 43m: The Ozzies are getting a lot more possession now, but they're not doing anything especially impressive with it. They're also drifting way too far forward for them to recover if we can get a killer ball to our wingers. 45m: Hunter Fisher does not stop! Woods picks him out as he races downfield and he's all alone with the keeper, who has no chance to stop his shot from a handful of yards away. USA! USA! USA! USMNT 3-0 Australia Halftime: I could not have asked for better. We just need to protect our lead, and we'll be in the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002. 50m: Well, we couldn't expect to keep Bastable and Mujkic off the board for the whole game. Bastable scores on a corner, and Australia is jolted back to life. USMNT 3-1 Australia 56m: Padilla is trying to reenact his free kick goal against Bulgaria, but he can't get the ball down and it zooms harmlessly over the net. 58m: Damnit, Meteor. He makes a classic crashing run, and it's suddenly a one goal game. You're not supposed to do that to me, Mat! You're supposed to do it for me. USMNT 3-2 Australia 58m: We need fresh legs, so off come Padilla and Latham and on come Needham and Ramos. 65m: Australia are knocking on the door for the equalizer, we really need to turn momentum in our favor. 69m: Australia start using their subs, everyone who started the match is dead tired with conditions down in the 50-60 percent range. 74m: Brent Woods is injured in a collision, but gamely waves off the Physio and fights on. Australia subs on a fresh striker to pair with the winded Bastable. 83m: Momentum has swung back our way, and Australia are looking like they've punched themselves out. 85m: The opposition centerback, Duggan, hacksaws down Fisher and gives us a free kick. We dilly dally over it. Just a little more time... 89m: Bastable makes a run but is well marked and we're able to clear the ball, though Australia get their sixth corner of the game. 90m: Three minutes of injury time, I won't uncross my fingers until they're over. 90m: We clear away the first corner, but Australia gets another, and John Karbon gets the equalizer seconds before regulation is up. USMNT 3-3 Australia Full Time: We've got 30 minutes of Extra Time coming up, something that should never have happened. I'm using our last sub to bring on Rodrigo Moctezuma, in the hope that the kid can find the promised land. 94m: I think we're the ones who've run out of gas, as Australia score easily to open extra time. USMNT 3-4 Australia 99m: We harry the goal, but can't push one across. 105m: It's halftime in extra time, and we're on the verge of elimination. We need a goal in the next 15 minutes, or it's curtains. 115m: Five minutes left, and it's looking grim. 120m: One minute left, and we're done. 120m+2: We have two last gasp corners, and we watch the ball spin behind the net after striking just outside of the goal. Full Time: We blew a three goal lead, and our chances to make the quarterfinals. We got cocky, and Meteor made us pay. Man of the Match: Mateo “Meteor” Mujkic   USMNT 3-4 Australia  That's a brutal result, and I'm not satisfied with advancing to the knockout round for the first time in 16 years. I deserve a huge share of the blame, I made no changes to the default corner defense tactic, and corners are what killed us throughout the tournament.  Maybe I should have been harsher on them after the match, they have no business being happy after losing a chance to go to the round of eight.  After the friendlies did anyone think our problem was going to be allowing goals instead of scoring them? We were an offensive juggernaut during our time in the World Cup, with eleven goals in four games. Our defense was a sieve, though, allowing seven goals in those same four games.   Still, in four years we'll be even better, and far more battle-tested. Players like Parsons, Fisher, and Padilla will be in their prime, while our promising young players will be old enough to play a major role. Also, we'd have played Germany in the next round, so it's not like we were going to make it much further if we did get past Bastable and Mujkic.  England didn't even make it to the quarterfinals this time, or to penalty kicks. The would be favorites get trumped by Mexico, and by Isaac Stringel. Also, this means we made it as far in the World Cup as England. Suck it, English! USA! USA! USA!  Enough grumping over spilled milk, it's time to refocus on Wrexham. I'm going to be extending Hammatt, Allan, Kocsis, and Maloney. I'll also be triggering Bouzid and Blyth's three option years. Matias Mercado has a vesting option with 15 games played, if he plays anything like last year he'll trigger it and we'll be glad for it. The big move of the offseason will be the sale of Shahed Parr, assuming we can get more than £20m for him. Parr has been very good for us, but he wants a raise and he's not far from his decline phase. It's better to sell him while we can get something for him. I'm also toying with the idea of selling Sinan Ünsal, who doesn't fit in our 4-4-2 diamond and would bring a kings ransom in return.  This thread may have succeeded at turning Scotland into a giant, they have five players on their national team that we've had a major impact on. Two of those, Mair and Shirra, are just high potential players I plucked from the hinterlands and trained up to be stars. But Scott Scott, Paul McStay, and John McGoon, Jr. are entirely your doing, and they're all major cogs in the Scottish war machine.  Australia are the only true underdogs in the Quarterfinals, but it could have been us!  If you put a gun to my head, I guess I'm cheering on Australia, Holland, Scotland, and Uruguay. The club is worth £1.15b. That's £1,150,000,000. That's a loooot of money. I don't think we have to worry about our £120m debt, we have the collateral to borrow against. We're still a long way off from Real Madrid, though, who lap the field with a value of £1.76b. That's a full £500m ahead of second place PSG.    I finally get around to scheduling our pre-season friendlies, including a game against the semi-pro squad a couple towns over from where I grew up and a trip to Manchester United for the hell of it.  Parr might stay at Wrexham because no one wants to take him at a price I find appealing. If I can't find a buyer I'll extend him for a couple years to provide the bridge until Kristian Bale takes over our as our starting right wing.  I want to get in on this, but I can't justify the price.  For £9.25m, though, I can definitely justify bringing in an excellent, young wide midfielder.  We're one of four clubs who've put in an offer, and it's likely that Dortmund joins us. It's also likely that a bunch of other clubs will jump in, that's a criminally low price for a top quality player.  Hurrah for Holland, but the upside-down dream dies against the stern German defense.  Alas for Scotland, they ran into Isaac Stringel. Mexico is now just two victories away from a nigh unprecedented repeat, something that hasn't occurred since the 1958/1962 Brazilian teams.  Ayari is only 19, but I'm already thinkin' he's likely to get shipped off and won't ever play for us. He's already worth a couple million, so we'll get our money's worth when he goes.  You cannot stop Die Mannschaftt! Especially not when Matthias Laux is nailing his penalty kicks in the shootout.  That makes for a Germany vs. Mexico final. I guess I have to root for the Germans, since they never won the 2014 Copa Mundial in this Universe. Angela Merkel will only be 71 in 2026, I'm sure she'll be at the match cheering on her bros.  Real Madrid popped up and offered me £11m for Enrique. I countered with £15m. They accepted. This gives me the financial flexibility I need to strengthen the club, so he's gone. Enrique is a hell of a player with still unrealized potential, but we have better options at left back and defensive midfielder than a guy who's slightly less stout of heart than a fainting goat.  They offered him way more money than we did, £78k/wk to £60k/wk, so I guess I can understand his choice.  That must have been hell to watch for Mexicans, with the equalizer coming in the 89th minute. Stringel made his penalty kick but was let down by the rest of his team. Congratulations to your 2026 Weltmeisterschaft winners, Germany.  I'm “Secure” as USMNT coach, and there's not much chance they'll replace me before the next World Cup barring a compete debacle during a Gold Cup or something.  He's 32-years-old, but just signed a new three year deal with Valencia. It's very unlikely but not entirely impossible that he'll still be able to play a role in the 2030 World Cup.  Both the US and Wrexham get some plaudits at the end of the World Cup, with Bobby Padilla's goal being rated second best of the tournament and Isaac Stringel's third.  Hunter Fisher's only 21, I'm interested to see how he does in four years when he's had some time to mature.  Laux, Stringel, and Thiago all made the Dream Team.  And Stringel was granted the Golden Ball for best player in the World Cup after he dragged Mexico all the way to the final. USMNT  A three goal lead with 45 minutes to play. Lost in large part because I didn't do my job and improve the corner tactics. Ugh. If the United States hadn't been so hapless for the better part of two decades before I arrived they would have shitcanned me, and with good reason. It's time to look forward to 2030, and relish everything up to the final hour of our World Cup experience. Wrexham  Our pre-season is going to be relaxed by necessity, a lot of our players are going to still be worn down from their time in the World Cup. It'll be nice to have a whole month where none of the matches matter after the hectic nature of the last year. Also, check it out, we're not in last place!  Board Votes will close at 12 am EST, January 21, 2015 habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Jan 19, 2015 |
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Jan 19, 2015 15:22
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I reaaaally wanted to play the World Cup, and with 11 votes I had a decent idea of where our budget was going to end up. Don't worry, I'm keeping track of everything on the spreadsheet so it'll all get balanced out in the end. I cannot believe we lost to Australia. That was perhaps the worst 30 minutes I've spent playing this game. I felt like a genius in the first half, and then it got blown to flinders because I didn't improve our corner kick strategy over Wreham's. Wrexham isn't great at stopping corner kicks, we allowed four goals from corners last year out of our total of 21 conceded, but when the players are that good an average tactical setup will do OK. That was not the case in the World Cup and with the US's lesser players. I really wonder how things would have gone if we'd had Scott Stevens and Chris Ramirez available, because part of the problem was that Needham and Latham were just gassed by the end of each match and I didn't trust their backups.
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Jan 19, 2015 15:26
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Is it possible to see the stats of the German team and any other noteworthy players on the Mexican side who aren't Stringel?
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Jan 19, 2015 16:32
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Minilude:Copa Mundial/Weltmeisterschaft finalist spotlight. July 13, 2026 El Tri Mexico has two players who are among the best in the world at their jobs, Isaac Stringel and Rodrigo Jimenez. You'll recall that second name from the many times I've drooled over the prospect of him coming to Wrexham.  Rodrigo is nearly the platonic ideal of a box to box midfielder, if he had higher stamina and teamwork attributes he would be the perfect midfield machine. As is, he's merely the best midfielder in the world. He and Stringel were backed up by the blazing hot Jose Roberto Sanchez, a good player for Barcelona who played out of his mind at the world cup.  Sanchez is the only player who scored against Germany in the entire tournament, with a goal just after halftime. Mexico also got excellent play from their wingbacks, who provided a lot of offense while still handling their defensive duties.   Really, though, it was the Isaac Stringel show. He scored six goals and had four assists, meaning that he was directly involved in ten of Mexico's sixteen goals. If I went back and looked at the other six, I'd bet money that he had a hand in creating those, too. Die Mannschaft What's really impressive is that Germany was able to win the World Cup despite losing their all-world striker Niklas Duhnke to a torn hamstring in the first 20 minutes of their first match. There's a reason why they had to grind out so many close, low scoring wins.  Without Duhnke they were punchless, scoring more than one goal only against minnows South Africa and Iran. What got them through the tournament was amazing defense.  Captain Neckbeard here organized that defense, and they just ground out win after win in the late rounds. They needed penalties to get past Spain in the Semifinal and Mexico in the final, but they didn't allow a single goal until the second half of the final.  At the center of that defense was Mattias Laux and Sven Schick, who's as capable a defender as any in the world at the age of 21.  Add to that back line the work of Wiebach at right back, along with Witt and fellow defensive rock Ivan Srdarev in the midfield, and there's a reason why Germany never gave up any goals. Their keeper walked into the Golden Glove, he only had to face seven shots on target the entire tournament. But that's soccer. 22 men run around for 90 minutes, and at the end the Germans win. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Jan 19, 2015 |
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Jan 19, 2015 17:49
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habeasdorkus posted:Amhazair: Tackleford stayed up in the Championship. Their whole team could use improvement pretty meh, and they have plenty of money in the bank (56m) I'm thinking about a somewhat leftfield improvement Idea. (Giving them a Scottish top prospect wouldn't be unfun, but it has been done already) How's their manager and backroom staff currently? Would you consider it "one thing" to give them a top quality backroom staff? I'm sure they've been bringing in close to a dozen meh players each year for 2 decades now. Perhaps sugar daddy owner might start clueing in that having a competent scouting team might allow them to find better players, a better manager might help them identify exactly which of those would be most useful to the team, a good director of youth development might help bring along some youngsters in that mix (their facilities are probably top notch already?) a better coaching team will have those players play at the top of their potential and a better manager again might have them get the best possible results out of that quality. I'm actually quite curious to see if and how quickly this would actually improve them, I'm currently bitching at the sugar-daddy fueled Lommel United of my own game which has the second-highest wage budget of the Belgian first division (next to me) and use it to hand out ridiculous wages to players who might just be good enough to keep the club in the division but no better than that, so I've been wondering about what can break through that behaviour for some time already.
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Jan 19, 2015 19:34
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I can do that! One bitchin' backroom package for Tackleford City, coming up. I'm also interested in seeing how well it works, I've noticed the same problem in my games with the au natural new sugar daddies (e.g. Bologna) I think it's a combination of two things: One, the club doesn't have a very strong reputation, so they can't lure really high quality talent that would actually help them progress towards greatness. Two, the players know the club is loaded, and so their salary demands are in part based upon what the club's budget is.
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Jan 19, 2015 19:52
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We talk about the players a lot, but I'm curious as to the goalie situation. Do we have an absolute thief in net or are we squeaking by with a semi-competent oil drum?
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Jan 19, 2015 19:53
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Bootcha posted:We talk about the players a lot, but I'm curious as to the goalie situation. Do we have an absolute thief in net or are we squeaking by with a semi-competent oil drum? He's said that Minami's the best in the world, and if he's not certainly in the conversation. Wrexham should be fine. If you mean the US, it's not Timmy Howard so who knows, but keeper's been one of the few areas we produce world-class talent.
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Jan 19, 2015 20:01
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On Wrexham we have Minami, who's a stud: I brought him in last summer after a couple seasons of following his progress, we spent 45m pounds on him. That's an outrageous sum for a goalie, but he's been worth it. We sold Vid Kovacevic to Manchester United for about 25m to help defray that cost, and he was their starting keeper last year. Kovacevic had been with us since the winter of our first Premier League campaign, Liverpool wanted to be rid of him for some reason and we were able to snag him for only a million pounds. So we really haven't had a mediocre keeper at Wrexham since old Danny Higgs in the lower league days, and he was still a perfectly competent player who went on to start for Everton after leaving us. On the US keeper is a position of relative strength, the key term being relative. Toninho and Rubio de la Fuente are both solid keepers who can find starting jobs in the top divisions of European football. Neither of them are going to set the world on fire, but they're at least capable. Both are around thirty right now, so between them we've got one starting keeper for the 2030 World Cup.
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Jan 19, 2015 20:13
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While we're talking about the US team, Habeas, I'd like your take on a conversation we've had around the office. We've got people (the more hardcore fans, tbh) who do believe that there's no reason we can't be a world superpower in futbol, since our standard of living compared to the rest of the world allows us to produce elite-caliber athletes on the regular. On the other side there's people who think that we'll never be a world superpower since futbol will never be a priority in America. I'm in the middle, since I think it'll take a significant blow to American football in order to create a vacuum where futbol can take in those athletes. Curious as to what your, and I suppose others, take/s is/are.
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Jan 19, 2015 20:39
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I dunno how I feel about those Pasadena temperatures seeing as that's what it's like during the winter 
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Jan 19, 2015 21:09
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SC Bracer posted:I dunno how I feel about those Pasadena temperatures seeing as that's what it's like during the winter If you look at the match results at the end of the update, you can see that the actual temperature was a sunny, breezy 80 degrees. USMNT Chat! This is a very frequent topic of conversation within the soccer-fan clique that I know. My own personal take is that the US is already at the point where it can expect to get to the World Cup and with a non-Group of Death draw get to the knockout rounds. America probably stands somewhere between 15th and 25th among all nations, which ain't shabby! We've come a long way in just 30 years, in the early 1980s we played all of two international matches over two years. That being said, there's a whole lot more to unpack, and the ground has been deeply trodden before. Most of it revolves around the fact that the US doesn't have anything like the academy system other nations have, and that our youth leagues are not designed around improving players but about kids having fun. That has a significant impact on how our players turn out, and you only have to look at the women's game to see it in full force. The main reason the US is so dominant is because unlike in the men's game the US actually has more infrastructure for identifying and training girls who have potential than almost any other country. That, combined with the fact that we're a nation of 320 million people who have the biggest pool of talented athletes to draw from, means that we're a world power. If the point isn't clear, look at it the other way around. Using roughly the same development system that has made the United States the best nation in the world in women's soccer has left the United States as a middleweight nation in the world of mens soccer. There's definitely more to it than just that, but I don't think the main thing holding us back from being a superpower are other sports. The idea that we'd be great if only the next LeBron or Marshawn Lynch played soccer is pretty silly when you stop to think about the skills required to be a top flight professional at different sports. That goes double for an intensely technical game like soccer. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Jan 19, 2015 |
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Jan 19, 2015 22:09
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It's also we are far more spread out then most major soccer nations. Implementing the infrastructure necessary to produce amazing homegrown talent will be a much bigger undertaking then it would in say Scotland. I do think we should make soccer coaching classes easy to find and affordable that way we can have kids starting to learn the fundamentals as well as having fun.
LionYeti fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jan 19, 2015 |
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Jan 19, 2015 23:49
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Quote is not edit
LionYeti fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jan 19, 2015 |
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Jan 19, 2015 23:49
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On the subject of other World Cup squads, what was the Australia side that beat you looking like? Was it just Mujkic/Bastable + 9, or has the AU produced another Golden Generation? After that agonising loss to South Korea, I'll take Australian success wherever I can goddamn find it.
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Jan 20, 2015 12:42
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Australia was a Stars and Scrubs squad. You've got Mujkic and Bastable, obviously, but on top of that there's also John Karbon, an attacking midfielder who plies his trade at Bologna that rates at 2.5 stars for Wrexham (Shahed Parr level), and Kemal Selimovic, a midfielder who's a starter on PSG and is also rated at 2.5 stars. Their keeper is also pretty good, a two star rating for Wrexham, and plays for Shakhtar Donetsk. Essentially, they have a world class offense and not much else. Also, I just saw this while looking up Karbon and Selimovic, but Mujkic retired from international soccer after the World Cup! No more losing him to the ASEAN Cup for two months every other year! Bastable also retired after the World Cup, it's the end of an era for Australia. Neither of them are old, I guess they got tired of spending two months every other year stuck playing Singapore and East Timor. eta: Closing voting as no one has voted recently and it's time to finalize the budget. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 16:19
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Chapter the First: Downshifting. July 13, 2026-August 14, 2026 A whole month where we play nothing but friendlies? This is the life.  The board issued a £160m budget for transfers and wages as well, and will be offering me a contract extension as well.  I drew this up to give us a better late game defensive formation than just dropping the defensive line of the 4-2-3-1 further back. It hasn't been a very big deal in the past, but after the World Cup I like the notion of a team that can smoothly switch through three formations depending on what's needed. I'm taking odds on whether I ever use it or not, and if I decide to scrap it for the WM in December.  Let's get back to business.  I know what happened here. I brought a lot of young players up to the main squad for training camp, and they all got freaked out about my demand that we win the title. Then everyone was pissed off because I didn't hide my irritation at the reaction. Also, van Leeuwen, mouthing off in a team meeting is not a good way to start your tenure with this club.  At least he'll be better by the time season starts, and Kocsis can get some reps while Minami is down. I should probably look into buying another keeper, though, we don't have anyone in the youth squad who I would trust in more than a friendly.  Geez. I didn't even put Ünsal on the transfer list, I just sent out a feeler to see what the market was like. What a brat.  No one even wants you, at least not for over £50m.  Our ranking will be better in the run-up to the next World Cup as we'll have to go through CONCACAF qualifying and those matches count for significantly more than friendlies in the rankings.    I also got Hammatt to put his John Hancock on a new contract. That leaves only Parr and Mercado as potentially expiring contracts after this season. The upshot is that last year we spent just under £550,000/wk for those nine players, while now we're spending close to £1m/wk.  We've now got the fourth highest wage bill in the world, clocking in at £135m.  I added a teenage keeper who won't be a complete embarrassment if we're forced to use him, this now gives us a grand total of one serviceable youth goalie.  No more of this co-favorites crap. We're the best, and everyone knows it.  It still doesn't hurt to juice the bonus pool, though.  They did make us fly all the way back from America to play them, those jerks!  And one of our excellent prospects got hurt, too. I hope their fans enjoyed the hiding we gave them.  Stringel and Laux need a break after playing in the World Cup, and since they were unavailable to join the training camp it's best to have them go now instead of being stuck bumming around Wrexham alone.  First Chelsea's former head coach and now Arsenal. England sure does know how to pick em.  We'll have something like a dozen players out on loan again this year. I feel like Chelsea.  van Leuween played against Norwich and they immediately after asked to take him on loan. He refused, which is frustrating because he's got no spot with the senior team. I wish new signings who weren't promised major roles were more willing to go on loan right after coming in, it certainly happens all the time in real life.   That's not ideal, we might play the first match of the season with just Laux and Tounkara as healthy senior centerbacks.  It's time to finally leave America. I'm feeling a little wistful, the last two months are the longest I've spent in the United States since I put on the mantle of Coach.  Hands off of JQ, Real. He's not going anywhere.  You think Thiago's going to leave the reigning champions of Europe for a mediocre French club just because some rich Latvian wants to play at ownership? Quelle amusement.  The ingame board knows quality when they see it, and offered me the maximum length contract possible to go with a £21k/wk raise. The esteemed voting board is similar in form, giving me a three year extension (at my insistence) with a £160,000/wk salary. My minimum for accepting a new contract was £150k/wk, anything less and I'd have refused to sign now and we'd go back for another round of negotiating in January.  Nice work, guys. You didn't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.  Only one friendly left now, and it's against Manchester United. Then we'll play United for a second time in the Community Shield, where I am going to try my hardest to keep from going hell-bent for leather after a win. I just need to keep telling myself that it's only a friendly.  Stringel got back from his break still exhausted, so I turned him around and sent him right back out the door. I can imagine how exhausting it can be to carry an entire nation on your back.  HAHAHA! FINALLY!  It took a kings ransom, but I've got my man!  A half dozen teams wanted Rouissi.  But that's nothing to the 14 clubs that made loan offers for van Leeuwen.  Which in turn is nothing close to the 32 (!) clubs that made an offer to borrow Ikeda.  There weren't nearly so many suitors for Tim Jefferies. We still couldn't sell him, but at least Blackburn is paying full freight on his salary this year.  United were not taking it easy on us. They started almost their entire first team, and then added the rest when they went down by two goals in the first half. Once again a Scott Brown team allowed a three goal comeback in the second half, and there's whispers on the interwebs that I've grown too proud.  I can't resist any American who has three star potential for our senior team. O'Brien is a German-American dual national, so I need to get in good with him and convince him to play for the USMNT over Germany. vs Manchester United, August 9, 2026 Community Shield  I was just sandbagging last game, United. This time it's for real! Also, we're playing at a neutral site (Wembley) instead of in Manchester, so that should help. Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Vivace Starting 11: Kocsis, Reed, Tounkara, Laux, Loseille, Maloney, Parr, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Stringel, Thiago. Subs: Landgraf, Cirjak, Sadula, Zouaghi, Allan, Damgaard, Mercado. We're playing very well, but Kocsis has to make like Minami to keep it at nil-nil in the 24th minute. Then, after knocking on the door for the whole game, Shahed Parr finally puts one of innumerable rebounds past Kovacevic ten minutes later. After the second half beings Thiago scores to give us a two goal advantage, and seems to be back in form after an unusual five game drought between the end of Italy's World Cup appearance and our first three preseason games. That's all we manage, with several more chances going begging. We pay for our profligacy when the ageless John Baxter pulls Manchester back within a shout with 15 minutes remaining. Ten minutes later it's all tied up as we're in the process of bungling back to back matches, and we're facing penalty kicks despite dominating the game for the first seventy minutes. When we lose on penalties it seems foreordained, and casts a cloud over the start of our season. Man of the Match: Mateo “Meteor” Mujkic   Wrexham 2-2 p Man United  Those late game collapses against United, following the USMNT's epic collapse against Australia, are scaring the hell out of me. I'm worried that we're going to stumble out of the gate. I don't want to spend most of the season chasing the leader again, it'd be far better if we just blew everyone out of the water for once. I'm not sure exactly what the problem is. It could be overconfidence, or World Cup hangover, or just that we've been missing players. Or it's just bad luck and there is no problem.
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 19:50
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Oh what pride hath wrought! We set out to destroy the megabastards, but now that we are among them, we have set upon destroying ourselves! Truly, this is the hour of doom! Beg not for forgiveness might Wrexham, but accept the fate that we have earned ourselves! DOOM!
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Jan 20, 2015 19:57
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When you're figuring out clubs to loan your youths too, how do you decide where to send them? I've never played FM.
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Jan 20, 2015 20:18
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I just offer them up for loan and see who asks for them. The loan offer will tell you how long the loan is for, what position they plan on using your guy in, how often he'll get played, and whether they'll cover any of the players salary. I prefer to send players out on a full year loan where they're either going to be a "first team regular" or a "valuable first team player" - if they're going to sit on the bench they can do so from my bench. I rarely ask for other teams to pay part of the player's salary because doing so means I can't recall them from their loan if we have an injury crisis or a spot opens up for them. The reason we got so many offers is because guys like Ikeda and van Leeuwen are average or better Premier League players at this point, they're young and still improving, and they're free. It means I can reject those offers that aren't for a full year, or that are from teams planning to use them as a rotation option, or that are from clubs in crappy leagues where the player won't be challenged enough to develop. Also, Norwich tends to ask for several of our younger players each year since we're their parent club. I have the option to send players directly there, but since they can refuse to go out on loan if they don't like who they're being loaned to I've found it's better to just solicit loan requests and let the player choose from a bunch of options after you weed out the ones you find unacceptable.
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Jan 20, 2015 20:32
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quote:You bet your arse I'm happy, just don't keep losing games to United and you can take all the money you want. Dammit, I wanted that Community Shield... *snorts coke paid for by Minami shirt sales*
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Jan 20, 2015 20:37
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Chapter the Second: “And they're off!” August 14, 2026-September 10, 2026 One thing that we have going for us is that the core of our team remains the same. Of the players who spent last season on our senior team only Enrique is gone. That could change a little before the end of the transfer window, but I'm not actively trying to move anyone at this point. My biggest concern going into the season was Mujkic and Minami both missing a lot of time to national commitments. I thought we'd have to cope without our captain during both the Asian Cup and the stupid ASEAN Championship, depriving us of our Meteor for half the year, but look!  He's only 29, so he could return at some point, but that run to the quarterfinals might be his swan song on the international stage. Meteor finishes with 106 appearances for the Socceroos, with 34 goals and 48 assists. That would be enough to put him second all time in real life for appearances, behind Mark Schwartzer, and goals, behind Tim Cahill. I can't find a website with their leader for assists, but he's almost certainly number one in that category. In this universe he's also behind John Karbon of Bologna and Matthew Higgins of Shakhtar Donetsk for caps, and Rocky Bastable for goals. The Bastard of Madrid, nee Wrexham, also retired on the same day as Mujkic. Between the two of them they had 208 caps, 98 goals, and 79 assists. That changes Australia from the best team in the Asian Cup to something far less impressive.  Quibz will miss the next match, I don't want to take any risks with his recovery, but having him back is a relief as he provides a great deal of depth and versatility being able to play across the entire back line. vs Reading, August 15, 2026 Premier League  We pissed away our last two matches, glorified friendlies or no. It's time to control the ball and get a solid victory to start the season. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Cirjak, Tounkara, Laux, Loseille, Maloney, Allan, Mercado, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Reed, Spyropoulous, Ünsal, Mercado, Damgaard, Stringel. Parr starts the season with one hell of a goal, chipping the keeper from the edge of the box in the third minute. Then a handball on a corner gives us a PK, and everyone knows that the Golden Boy never misses from the spot twenty minutes later. Thiago scores his usual goal in the second half, and while Minami is forced to make one save late in the game it's Reading's only shot of the afternoon. Man of the Match: Shahed Parr   Wrexham 3-0 Reading  Meteor and Bailey are 12th and 13th, respectively, in all time league appearances for Wrexham when you include real life.  I'm really looking forward to getting our new stadium. Another 10,000+ seats will help our bottom line.   You're a pain in my rear end, Damgaard. At Huddersfield Town, August 23, 2026 Premier League  I'm interested in seeing how Huddersfield does a year after they shocked the league by not only staying afloat but finishing in the top half. Then I remember that their coach retired and they hired Worst Manager Ever Noel Tosh. They're getting relegated. Meanwhile, little old Burnley is turning out to be David to Man United's Goliath, having won twice and drawn once with the Mancunians since returning to the Premier League two seasons ago. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Tounkara, Laux, Loseille, Maloney, Ünsal, Parr, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Quiboulaz, Bailey, Allan, Damgaard, Stringel. In the fourth minute Huddersfield suffers the ignominy of an own goal, the strike from the offending centerback couldn't have been better had he been wearing green and black instead of white and powder blue. Tounkara adds a goal on a recycled set piece, we're deadly when teams don't immediately clear the ball a long ways downfield. Thiago's golden feet and crown aren't on target, so all our scoring is coming from our back line, with Loseille joining Tounkara on the scoresheet when he cuts inside onto a ball from Shirra and looks like a born forward spanking it past the keeper in the 84th minute. Then just before the death it's not a Thiago goal but rather an assist for setting up a Shirra goal. Man of the Match: Scott “The Golden Boy” Shirra   Huddersfield 0-4 Wrexham  Aww c'mon. He was only on the pitch for the last thirty minutes!  And Bailey hasn't even seen the pitch yet because of his own injuries.  Boo! They just didn't want to give us home field advantage!  I want the easiest possible group.  That's not bad, but it's not the easiest possible group. Wolfsburg is the weakest of the two seeds, but I was hoping for something more like Braga and Slovakian micro-giants Zilna (They've won the Slovakian league eleven years running) for the third and fourth opponents.  I was winding up to kvetch about how we never get a League One or Two side in the League Cup, but then I looked and only one was left by the time we entered the competition.  It's a youth movement! Pretty much everyone over thirty has been cleared out so that the youngest players can start building some rapport. vs Real Madrid, August 28, 2026 UEFA Super Cup  Loseille is actually suspended for this game after picking up one too many yellow cards over the course of last season's Champions League campaign. Mercado is in the starting lineup, it'll be nice for Real Madrid fans to see their old talisman. Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Vivace Starting 11: Minami, Cirjak, Tounkara, Laux, Quiboulaz, Shirra, Ünsal, Mercado, Allan, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Reed, Leandro, Maloney, Bale, Damgaard, Parr. The Golden Boy is in rampant form. In the fourth minute Real's keeper can only punch the ball away, and it flies to Shirra. His fine form continues when he threads a pass through defenders to Thiago. It's the only goal we'll score all game. Madrid can't solve our offense, though. So it comes down to the 89th minute when Rocky Bastable has one last chance to equalize against his old club. His shot goes off the post, and we've picked up our first trophy of the season. Man of the Match: Dramane Tounkara   Wrexham 1-0 Real Madrid  It wasn't our most impressive performance, but it nets us our first trophy of the year. It's the 17th of my tenure at Wrexham.  Good, the last thing we need is him getting crocked on international duty just as he's recovering from his current injury.  Burnley takes a point from a trip to the Etihad! They've now picked up four of six points from the Manchester teams.  That's going to be a big loss for Arsenal, Cirelli was the tip of the spear for their offense. Perhaps AJ_Impy's efforts are bearing fruit? Arsenal's financial status is only OK, and this makes no sense otherwise as they laid out £40m for him but are only getting £33.5m back.  So that happened fast, I hadn't realized the transfer deadline was only two days away. I won't be sorry to see Cirelli go, especially since we host Arsenal in two weeks.  Even after selling Cirelli it's no problem for Arsenal to thrash United. United are off to a rough start, and have already lost twice.  Is that a panic buy by Ryan McLeod? We play Everton this afternoon, I wonder if they'll hold Darby out of the starting eleven pending the transfer.  I guess we'll never find out. That happened quickly, and now Everton won't have a top quality attacker to throw at us in five hours. vs Everton, September 1, 2026 Premier League  The Toffees without Darby looks a lot less dangerous:  They're also missing very good defensive midfielder Andre Williams to a suspension. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Tounkara, Laux, Loseille, Ünsal, Shirra, Parr, Allan, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Quiboulaz, Maloney, Quiboulaz, Cirjak, Kocsis. Everton jolt us out of our complacency early, but can't finish the job. On the same play Shirra picks up a knock and spends a few minutes getting fussed over by the physio. During that time Parr gives us the lead. After a half-hour it's surprising that we're only just now scoring our second goal, this one a Laux production from a corner. After an hour, we could be up 8-0 when Thiago scores our third, and then the flood gates finally open. First the refs decide to help us out by giving a soft penalty, then Loseille bamboozles the embattled Everton keeper with a long range effort, and finally Thiago wraps things up with a 90th minute goal to make it six-nil. Man of the Match: Thiago   Wrexham 6-0 Everton    It's been a good start for the Dragons, and these awards don't even take into account the six-spot we dropped on Everton. We can be pretty happy going into the international break.  The Premier League seems to have shipped out more talent than they brought in, with Chelsea, Arsenal, and Man City all net sellers. Man City also massively slimmed down their wage budget, dropping a full 25% from £121m last year to £89m in an effort to comply with Financial Fair Play rules. We were buyers ourselves, spending a modest net total of £5m. That's mostly due to the price tag on Moctezuma.  Two quick friendlies against the Swiss and Panama, and the United Arab Emirates, and then everyone can get back to their professional careers. At least until the October international break.  I can see the hunger in their eyes. Now lets find out how they handle it.  Heh, Wankdorf.  My contributions to the mighty footballing state of Scotland continue. Lajos Kocsis also got his first cap, so good for him too.  Actually, it'll give me a chance to break a bunch of youngsters into the squad without throwing them into the deep end. I'm going to try and schedule one challenging opponent and one “kids table” opponent until CONCACAF qualification starts.  And in other news our U20 squad went to Uruguay and dismantled the locals 6-0.  So much for starting slowly. Wrexham looks just as much a juggernaut as ever, not conceding once across four matches. The USMNT brought in a lot of new blood and held the Swiss to a draw in the Alps before proceeding to pound the UAE. And then the U20 squad handled Algeria 2-1 before pasting the fourth place finisher at the last U20 World Cup six-nil in front of their parents. Lets hope this keeps up, we play Arsenal in two days and then travel to Old Trafford to face a reeling Man United a week later. Beating both of them would vault us out above the contenders for the league title. 
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 21:03
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Chapter the Third: Fresh meat. September 12, 2026-October 1, 2026 The last two weeks and change of this month is packed with fixtures, and tougher ones than August's lot. We host Arsenal and visit Manchester United, and if we take four points from those matches we'll be in position to build a lead over our two closest rivals for the title. We also have our first two Champions League games and host Crystal Palace in the League Cup. I'm going to be using a lot of kids over this period to keep our senior team from getting ground down by the incessant march of matches.  When Thiago plays for Wrexham, he breaks records. Why would it be any different when he dons an Azzurri kit? It's barely September and Thiago already has 46 goals on the year in 45 matches. He could well lap his ridiculous total of 62 from last year.  We're being pegged at a 25% likelihood of winning the Champions League. Even I think that's really high. vs Arsenal, September 12, 2026 Premier League  The Gunners haven't missed Cirelli yet, they're the only other team that's won all three of their matches so far. One way or another, the tie atop the table will be broken. Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Vivace Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Tounkara, Hammatt, Loseille, Maloney, Parr, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Stringel, Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Quiboulaz, Ünsal, Allan, Damgaard, Mercado It's a gritty game through the first hour and change, as we hound Arsenal but can't bring them to bay. I move us into the 4-2-3-1, hoping the change in style will throw off Arsenal enough for us to pick up a goal. It does, in the seventy-sixth minute, and then works again after another six minutes. Arsenal go down to their first loss of the season, and we're alone atop the peak. Man of the Match: Steve Reed   Wrexham 2-0 Arsenal  Apparently losing the Community Shield on penalties doesn't break our unbeaten streak.  We could be dogged by fitness issues all season, our players have logged a lot of game time with little rest over the last year between our triple and the World Cup.  United went down two-nil to winless bottom dwellers West Brom, but managed to come back in the final half hour. They're clearly out of sorts, and I just hope it lasts until next week when we play them. vs Basel, September 16, 2026 Champions League, Group H  Fourth seed Basel gets to face a weakened lineup so that our best can rest up for the Manchester United game in three days. Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Vivace Starting 11: Kocsis, Patel, Quiboulaz, Tounkara, Cirjak (c), Zouaghi, Ünsal, Mercado, Allan, Damgaard, Thiago. Subs: Minami, Reed, Laux, Spyropoulos, Alvir, Bale, Moctezuma. The first half is a back and forth affair where we were arguably outplayed. It comes to a close with us ahead by a goal after J Quibz and Tounkara both score and Claus Damgaard gets away with a blatant penalty that rightly has Basel's players furious. The games ends with the same score, despite our playing much better and a bad mistake by Callum Allan that should have resulted in a Swiss equalizer. Man of the Match: Jonathan Quiboulaz   Wrexham 2-1 Basel  Quibz played brilliantly for an hour after getting injured, and scored a goal despite the gimpy knee. I guess it just swelled up after the match. At Manchester United, September 19, 2026 Premier League  Along with Arsenal this is our first big test. A loss for United would give them as many losses in their first five games of this season as they had all last season. One huge advantage for us is that Vid Kovacevic is out with a dislocated shoulder. The Red Devils do not have a high quality backup, and have been forced to play a League One quality teenager in his place. That's part of the reason why they've conceded five goals in their last two matches. We need to take advantage of his misfortune and add to their misery. Our fairly small senior team (only 20 players compared to the standard 23) means that a lot of our youth prospects will get chances to join our bench over the course of the season, with Sebastian Marquez's appearance today we've now had ten youth players active at some point in our first seven games. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Hammatt, Laux, Loseille, Maloney, Shirra, Parr, Stringel, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Tounkara, Marquez, Allan, Bale, Moctezuma. In the twelfth minute Stringel is hacked down from behind just before reaching the penalty area by centerback Nathan Bennett, who earns a yellow and could have seen red. There's no way Thiago is doing anything but aiming for net, and he swerves it past the United wall and inside the near post for a beaut of a goal. We put it into the net ten minutes later as well, but Shahed Parr was wildly offside and the ref noticed. We're not having success keeping possession of the ball, so I order the team into the 4-4-2 diamond with orders to counterattack rather than go on offense. Even that can't keep Manchester United from equalizing before the break, though. So this season far we've allowed one goal to all other opponents, while damned United have tagged us for three. When halftime comes around it's time to introduce another tactical wrinkle and implement the 4-5-1. It works, the formation stymies the hell out of United and they never look threatening. I'm looking forward to getting a point and keeping out unbeaten streak alive. In stoppage time, however, David Maloney is able to flick a corner kick on to an unmarked Laux, and we're the ones with the dagger at the death this time! Man of the Match: Thiago   Man United 1-2 Wrexham  This is very good news for the USMNT. Parsons is one of the best players in Liga MX, and won't get better playing that level of competition. Santos is a giant in Brazil, and he could easily reach his full potential (roughly Tonci Cirjak quality, but more like Reed in his distribution of skills) playing for them. vs Crystal Palace, September 22, 2026 League Cup, Third Round  Can I be accused of taking Crystal Palace too lightly? Yes. Does that stop me from playing a lot of raw kids? No. Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Vivace Starting 11: Kocsis, Cirjak (c), Tounkara, Marquez, Mattuschka, Lewis, Ünsal, Mercado, Allan, Damgaard, Thiago. Subs: Minami, Loseille, Laux, Spyropoulos, Bouzid, Mujkic, Blyth. Damgaard gets us off on the right foot, but credit to the 15-year-old Rene Mattuschka who created the chance with a pass most Premier League fullbacks couldn't place as well. Then Mercado deflects a shot from the penalty spot right off of Thiago, and it ricochets right to Ünsal. That was a lucky outcome, and it might just be one of those days for Palace. We score another two goals in the opening ten minutes of the second half. Ünsal gets a second by getting on the end of a perfect Cirjak cross, and then Thiago scores before leaving the pitch to the wild applause of the visiting stands. Palace are able to score two goals in the final thirty minutes against a lineup consisting entirely of backups and youth squad members, which I'm sure is cold comfort to them. Man of the Match: Sinan Ünsal   Wrexham 4-2 Palace  Excellent. I look forward to his ongoing improvement.  Can I get away with putting him off until the end of the season?  Yes, I can. He still has almost three years left on his contract, and I dislike giving raises more than eighteen months before they can be stolen by another team. At Burnley, September 29, 2026 Premier League  They've beat Man United and tied Man City, so there's some giant killing in Burnley's blood. They also used to be a fairly big club themselves, having won the top division twice. That last time was in 1960, though, so it's only barely in living memory at this point. And we did run riot to the tune of a seven-to-naught victory the last time we played. Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Vivace Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Hammatt, Laux, Loseille, Maloney, Parr, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Stringel, Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Tounkara, Bailey, Mercado, Allan, Blyth. Burnley made of much sterner stuff this time around, and it takes until halftime looms to break through. Shirra sends the ball out to Mujkic wide, Mujkic gets to the byline and sends the cross back to Shirra, and things are going smoothly. That is, until we cough up the equalizer just before halftime. I shake my head in deep disappointment, and start doing the vocal exercises my ENT says are needed to protect my larynx when I berate the players. I also switch us to the 4-2-3-1, we desperately need to take control of this match and an open, attacking formation isn't getting it done. I'm glad I did my exercises right after the half when Reed is whistled for a penalty that the Ref was forty yards away from, and screened by half of each team. It's a terrible call, but Burnley convert an we're behind for the first time all season. The Golden Boy picks us right back up five minutes later, it's all even again. I keep expecting Thiago to put us ahead on a free kick, he keeps coming closer and closer with each one, but instead Meteor crashes the dreams of the Burnley faithful. This time it's Shirra setting him up as he slips the defense. It wouldn't be a one goal Wrexham lead if we didn't give our opponents a chance to tie things up at the death, but we take all three points when their dying effort hits the post and bounces harmlessly wide. I'm going to need some cough lozenges, I've been screaming at everyone from the ref to the players to the fans since my midgame pep talk, and I'm busily scripting a monologue of rage for the ride back to Wrexham. Man of the Match: Scott “The Golden Boy” Shirra   Burnley 2-3 Wrexham  How can you walk into Munich or Madrid or Manchester and expect to win if you nearly blow it in Burnley? The winner of the last prediction contest asked me to give Tackleford a great staff, replacing the mediocrities that currently guided the club. Let's see if that's had any impact on them a fifth of the way through their season:  It certainly appears so- Tackleford are suddenly out ahead of the pack with a game in hand. It would be nice if they came up to the Premier League, I miss beating them up. Colwyn Bay, btw, is currently in a promotion spot in League One. If they get promoted it's essential that I get the Mini-Cwp going again since we'll have four Welsh teams in the top two divisions. At CSKA Moscow, September 29, 2026 Champions League, Group H  Another win and we'll be close to locking up our trip to the knockout rounds. With only a West Brom match coming up before the October international break I feel OK about making some of our starters play twice in a week. I am excited to see Moctezuma and Bale on the pitch at the same time, though. They're Wrexham's future, and if they play well that future will be closer than expected. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Tounkara, Laux, Loseille, Bale, Ünsal, Moctezuma, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Hammatt, Maloney, Allan, Mercado, Stringel. We're taking plenty of shots but they're not from dangerous positions. Our best chance comes after Moctezuma wins us a corner and Tounkara forces the Moscow keeper to make a fine save. I spend halftime hollering at the players and getting red in the face, and in the second half we finally net two goal five minutes apart on our way to another victory. Man of the Match: Steve Reed   CSKA 0-2 Wrexham  We're going to draw, and lose, eventually but this hot start has been pleasing to the eye and spirits. That United have gotten off to a middling start and City are still stuck on two points thanks to the Financial Fair Play penalties makes it all the better, we've opened a nine point gap over United and a sixteen point gap over City . It's too early to start thinking about running away with the league, Chelsea hasn't lost yet either, but it could happen.  
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 22:48
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In the first update you've got a couple of pictures and captions out of sorts, around the time of heading back for the feeder club friendly and bitching about them hurtin' our dudes.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:57
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Thanks for catching that. I don't know how I missed it, I guess it's from having played way too much FM over the MLK weekend.
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Jan 20, 2015 23:09
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My doomsaying was... a bit preemptive, I believe.
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Jan 20, 2015 23:32
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Sky Shadowing posted:My doomsaying was... a bit preemptive, I believe. Your defeatism is how you lost your position, Shadowing, and don't you forget it!
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Jan 20, 2015 23:55
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It looks like if we can beat Chelsea on Halloween then winning the Prem should be fairly easy barring sudden team decline.
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Jan 21, 2015 00:15
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habeasdorkus posted:Colwyn Bay, btw, is currently in a promotion spot in League One. If they get promoted it's essential that I get the Mini-Cwp going again since we'll have four Welsh teams in the top two divisions. Excellent, good to see my boys doing extremely well! Do they still have all the hockey players I asked you to give them?
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Jan 21, 2015 03:02
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Re: Loans Really surprised about your loan strategy When i get to megabastard level it is easy as hell to get 300k/ month payments + 100% salary paid for even youth players. And no real limit on how many you loan out as long as their potential is 150+ In my last seria A season, I made over 120 million in loans (40 players at 3.8 mil per season). Just saying, easiest way ever to never have money issues 
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Jan 21, 2015 04:01
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 Apparently AEK has gotten their stadium built in FM-verse. A pretty big improvement over real life, where it's been a recurring joke about Greek football for quite a few years.
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Jan 21, 2015 12:22
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Chapter the Fourth: I hate Extra Time. October 1, 2026-November 1, 2026   Always nice to start the month with some awards. But I sense something unwelcome coming around... At West Bromwich Albion, October 3, 2026 Premier League  Fun fact: West Brom has never beaten us in my tenure. Ten matches, nine losses, one draw. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Cirjak, Hammatt, Tounkara, Loseille, Maloney, Bailey (c), Parr, Allan, Damgaard, Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Mattuschka, Quiboulaz, Zouaghi, Ünsal, Mercado. Thiago wastes four chances in the first 10 minutes, and then biffs another in the thirtieth minunte. So of course five minutes later he scores on a free kick. That Thiago.  Just before the half Daniel Maloney comes out of the game with an injury. That could be real trouble if it's serious. He's our first choice as a defensive midfielder, and once he started getting more time last year our defense stiffened up greatly. His absence doesn't hurt us in this match, thankfully. Our defense doesn't allow the Baggies a single shot in the second half, and the match ends after the irritating but talented Claus Damgaard picks up a goal in stoppage time. Man of the Match: Tonci Cirjak   West Brom 0-2 Wrexham  Their coach was doomed anyways if losing to us would push him off the plank.  I'm not quite sure of the logic behind this decision. West Brom are looking like sure relegation victims and have one point through 7 games. Tackleford City is walking the Championship and seem likely to get promoted. It's entirely possible, maybe even likely, that Ben Wharton takes the job and ends up in the Championship next year while his old team is in the Premier League.  Manchester United have a losing record, three wins against four losses. Part of that is from playing Arsenal, Chelsea, and us, but they already have as many losses as they had in any of the last three seasons. Brown Manse, Wrexham (October 5, 2026) (WILL BROWN comes down the stairs carrying a DUFFLE BAG, looking around as if to make sure no one else is there)  : Hey son, what's up?(WILL BROWN startles, then turns around)  : I, uh, gotta catch the bus.: Oh, I don't have to leave for Switzerland until tomorrow, let me give you a ride instead. I want to talk about the exciting news that one of your coaches said you had!: About that... (COACH grimaces, crestfallen) : Oh. Well, I guess you have to make the choice you think is right...: I'm sorry! I'm not American! I'd never even been to America until I went with you!: No, no... it's ok. Do you still want a ride? I can change my flight to leave from London, it's no problem.: Are you sure you're ok with this?: Yeah, I will be. I'm proud of you.(The two EMBRACE MANFULLY. Closeup on COACH's face, contorted with MIXED EMOTIONS)  We've got a glut of young attacking talent. If most of them pan out we're going to be both good and deep in the 2030 World Cup. Even if that's without my son...  Wasn't exactly referring to you, Woods. You're a weird guy.  We actually had five clear cut chances to their two. But we gave up three goals from corners in less than ten minutes, and there's no coming back from that. I'm going to finally modify our corner tactics now.  At least we beat Panama.  The Americans are an irrepressible lot, I'm surprised by how happy they all are at getting stepped on by a decent opponent and then defeating a bunch of chumps. vs Crystal Palace, October 17, 2026 Premier League  Hi again Palace. You guys up for a repeat of our last encounter? Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Cirjak, Quiboulaz, Hammatt, Loseille, Laux, Damgaard, Mercado, Allan, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Reed, Maloney, Bailey, Ünsal, Parr, Stringel. The first half sees Claus Damgaard, playing as a central midfielder, juke his marker out of their boots and then beat the keeper one on one for the first goal of the game. Any hope of Palace getting back into the match vanishes when their defensive midfielder tackles Mercado from behind and earns his second yellow card. It's a convincing win, even if we only put the ball into the net once. Man of the Match: Claus Damgaard   Wrexham 1-0 Palace  I wish I could ensconce him in bubble wrap and put him in a hyperbaric chamber between matches. It's not surprising he's getting tired, he'll have played about 70 matches by the end of the year on top of having played over 60 the year before. That's a lot of miles to put on his odometer, the surprising thing is how tireless he's been until now.  Say what?  You just got back from injury less than a week ago. How can you already be complaining about a lack of playing time?  You've got three years left on your deal, and I intend to get good value when we do sell you.  You too?  How can it be impossible to find a backup keeper who knows their drat role? I'm just going to start ignoring Kocsis if he starts asking for a loan. vs Wolfsburg, October 20, 2026 Champions League, Group H  Wolfsburg is where Matthias Laux got his start, spending five years with their reserve side before breaking into the senior team as a backup before we purchased him at what's become clear was a bargain price of £6m. It won't be a reunion, though, he's worn out from the last game. The same goes for Thiago. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Cirjak, Hammatt, Quiboulaz, Reed, Maloney, Ünsal, Parr, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Stringel. Subs: Kocsis, Loseille, Laux, Bailey, Allan, Damgaard, Thiago. There are those that say you can score too quickly in soccer. That's poppycock, and so I'm delighted when Parr puts us ahead in the first five minutes. Then Mujkic proves that Wolfsburg's defenders operate on Jurassic Park T-Rex logic, he stands stock still in the box for a few seconds, and the Wolfsburg defenders forget he exist. Stringel doesn't, passing him the ball for deposit into the net. Less than two minutes later Maloney wins a fight for the ball and makes an on target pass to Shirra, who takes one touch and then blows it past the keeper from the top of the penalty area. The second half sees Shirra pick up his second by being in the right place at the right time when the keeper can't corral a Stringel effort, and then Parr gets his second from a Loseille cross to the far post. By this point it's just embarrassing for the Germans, and when Shirra scores on a free kick to notch his hat trick they've looked ready to get the hell out of Wales for the better part of an hour. Man of the Match: The Golden Boy   Wrexham 6-0 Wolfsburg    The biggest surprise halfway through the Group Stage is Braga, who look almost certain to advance. The other surprise is that all four Premier League teams have won all three of their matches. You'd think that someone would be able to hold one us to a draw, but apparently not. vs Brentford, October 24, 2026 Premier League  Brentford are in their seventh top division season ever, and only their second since 1947. Their last EPL appearance in 2017-2018 saw them finish dead last. This year they're looking much better, sitting in eighth place after a quarter of the games have been played. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kocsis, Reed, Hammatt, Laux, Loseille, Bailey, Shirra, Mercado, Stringel, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Minami, Cirjak, Quiboulaz, Maloney, Ünsal, Allan, Parr. For 20 minutes in the middle of the first half Thiago is a god made flesh. He scores four goals in that span, and the second one is something to behold. Taking the ball from behind the midfield line all the way up the field, he breaks the ankles of two defenders and then beats the keeper. His fourth is also nifty, a turn and shoot on a rocketed cross from the right side where he doesn't let the ball touch the ground. Brentford score twice late in the match, but we have the final word when Steve Reed hits from range. Man of the Match: Thiago   Wrexham 5-2 Brentford  Wrexham has tied the EPL record for most consecutive wins, matching the mark set by Arsenal from February 2002 to August 2002. vs West Bromwich Albion, October 27, 2026 League Cup, Fourth Round  We take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in three days, they're the only other undefeated team in the league. I'm resting several of our big guns for that. But not Thiago. You don't sit someone who just scored four goals in 41 minutes. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Kocsis, Cirjak, Spyropoulos, Laux, Quiboulaz, Marquez, Ünsal, Mercado, Allan, Damgaard, Thiago. Subs: Minami, Reed, Hammatt, Bailey, Brown, Parr, Pickee. There's a Thiagoooool in the 15th minute, and I'm going to tell you something I've known for a while, I know what song his chant is based on. I've been hearing it in my head every time he scores now for a few months. I'm sure many of you remember Bailamos by Enrique Iglesias from the late 1990s. Well, try singing Thiagoooo in the same manner that Iglesias sings Bailamos in the refrain, and you'll be infected with the same ear worm I've been suffering. We don't score again, though, and my hatred of one goal leads is reinforced when West Brom equalize in the second half to take us to extra time. Another 30 minutes of play is the last thing we need with our packed schedule. I make my final substitutions, including the unhappy Mitchell Pickee, at the end of regular time, and he quickly puts the ball in the net. Sadly, he was offside. So it takes until the 113th minute until Shahed Parr, who wasn't even supposed to be playing today, can finally put away the game. We dominated West Brom in their house at the start of the month, and the squad was clearly looking past them today. Man of the Match: Thiago   Wrexham e 2-1 West Brom  A two hour long slugfest with West friggin' Brom was not what we needed three days before we play Chelsea.  Also, what's happened to Quiboulaz? He's entering his third significant stay in the trainers room this season. Quibz is vital to keeping the squad rested, he's the only senior team player who's naturally adept at playing left fullback other than Loseille, and his availability as a centerback allows Laux to play defensive midfielder. At Chelsea, October 31, 2026 Premier League  A win against Chelsea could give us an eleven point cushion over the rest of the league if other results go our way. It's not going to be easy, Chelsea are the only team in the league who've allowed fewer goals than we have. I'm also forced to put Thiago on the bench, playing all 120 minutes wore him out more than he can recover with just two days rest. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Tounkara, Hammatt, Loseille, Maloney, Ünsal, Parr, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Stringel. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Sadula, Bailey, Zouaghi, Moctezuma, Thiago. “Shirra brilliance” shouts the television announcer when The Golden Boy makes a long diagonal pass for Mujkic in the middle of the first half. There's no one within 10 feet of Meteor when he takes his shot, and just like that we're winning. Chelsea hit back immediately, it's not as pretty a goal but it counts just the same. I switch to the 4-5-1 shortly before the break as we haven't been keeping possession well, and we're very quickly dangerous on the counter. That's proven when Parr chips the keeper to put us back ahead right on the other side of the half. We can't hold it, though, as Reed gives away a terrible penalty in the 71st minute, and we're all tied up again. I bring on Thiago for Stringel, but he can't find net before time runs out. Both teams remain undefeated, and our winning streak comes to an end. Man of the Match: Ed Hammatt   Chelsea 1-1 Wrexham  The draw doesn't stop me from adding yet another one of these. I think you could build a small home from the ones I've gathered over the years.  Check out the table, it doesn't look anything like past years. Arsenal and Chelsea are where you'd expect, a point behind second place. But look who's with them. Liverpool! And check out second place. It's Southampton! Not only that, look at the bottom of the table. The only one of them who you'd expect to be there is West Brom. Manchester City is still in the relegation zone, and even if they hadn't been docked five points they'd only be in ninth place. And the biggest surprise of all, Manchester United have a negative goal differential. There's a lot of season left, but things are going almost perfectly for us, and nothing says that more than a twelve point lead over Manchester United after just ten games.  
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Jan 21, 2015 |
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Jan 21, 2015 15:46
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You have beaten Man U far too much, their will has become broken.
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Jan 21, 2015 16:25
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quote:Bailamos I'm working on the Thiago version, suggestions are always welcome.
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Jan 21, 2015 17:00
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AU-Moyes finally became Moyes!
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Jan 21, 2015 17:23
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habeasdorkus posted:I'm working on the Thiago version, suggestions are always welcome. Bootcha posted:Aren't player chants supposed to be short and sweet, and possibly based off radio music? Gotta be short and sweet to remain in the heads of an already overwhelmed Wrexham fanbase.
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Jan 21, 2015 19:04
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"Boyo" is strictly a Mid/South Wales thing. We never use it here in North Wales, unless we're mocking the Southerners. 
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Jan 21, 2015 19:08
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Oh man when the Will Brown scene started, I thought the game picked up someone's suggestion in this thread about him sticking it to his dad and leaving for another team.
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Jan 21, 2015 19:59
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