Part 222: Chapter the Eighth: Bombs away!
Chapter the Eighth: Bombs away!February 3, 2028-February 29, 2028
Two games against Arsenal and another against Chelsea make this a tough stretch, especially as Southampton is no slouch and managed to beat us in their home leg of the League Cup semifinal. Arsenal's manager tends to buy and play a lot of young players, he's like me in that regard, so here's hoping that thinks he can get away with sending callow youth against us FA and League Cup ties.
Our kids on loan for the purpose of development are actually doing pretty well. And one of our USMNT pickups, Andrew Paredes, is crushing it in Serbia.
Isaac Parsons' off to a strong start in Italy too, if he can develop to his full potential over the next two years we're going to have one of the best right backs at the World Cup.
Not all the USMNT news is good, though, as potential star striker David Hunt will miss the Olympic Qualifiers. This is why you should have let me bring him to Europe! He wouldn't have gotten hurt training on a shitty State University of New York field outside of White Plains. Instead, he'd have gotten hurt on a high quality pitch in Wales!
At Reading, February 5, 2028
Premier League
We're in a similar situation to the West Brom and Arsenal matches last week. Reading are at risk of relegation and three days later we'll be playing Chelsea, who are two points back of us. Shahed Parr is in the starting lineup for Reading, he's recently returned from a month-long spell on the sidelines for a fractured arm.
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Quiboulaz, Hammatt, Loseille, Bailey (c), Allan, Moctezuma, Bouzid, Damgaard, Stringel.
Subs: Kocsis, Leandro, Tounkara, Lewis, Marquez, Mujkic, Lundbye.
We're not able to get any goals from open play in the first half, but it simply doesn't matter. We're deadly from dead ball situations. James Loseille scores on a free kick, Ed Hammatt gets his head on a ball that's ping-ponging through the air after a Bailey corner kick, and Allan gets a goal thanks to poor keeping on a very long range free kick.
Rodrigo Moctezuma is looking a bit tired, so I make a halftime substitution to rest him for the Chelsea match. The second half is a desultory affair as we lower the tempo and take several breathers, but Ali Bouzid shows some initiative and scores from open play by beating three defenders to a rebound despite all of them being closer to the ball than he was.
Man of the Match: James Loseille
Reading 0-4 Wrexham
He's 18... is there any chance I could get away with grounding him from doing anything but soccer-related activities?
vs Chelsea, February 8, 2028
Premier League
We've got a golden opportunity to overtake Arsenal for second place, and to keep pace with Manchester United. All we need to do is beat Chelsea at TRK@TRG (The Red Keep at the Racecourse Ground, naturally). I'm having to dip into our youth team to fill out our bench again, I'd like to take a big lead and be able to give Jose Andres Alvir or Sebastian Marquez more playing time.
In other action, Sky Shadowing and AJ_Impy are playing each other at the same time as this match in an Alumni Throwdown.
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Hammatt, Laux, Loseille, Zouaghi, Shirra, Moctezuma, Allan, Mujkic (c), Stringel.
Subs: Kocsis, Leandro, Quiboulaz, Marquez, Alvir, Damgaard, Lundbye.
AJ_Impy draws first blood against Sky Shadowing, and then draws second blood as well when Shahed Parr scores in the 18th minute at St. Mary's. In Wrexham Mujkic makes a top quality run through the defense in the 21st minute and puts us up 1-0. Southampton gets back in contention thanks to a Reading own goal. Mujkic bags his brace fifteen minutes later to give us a commanding two goal lead over Chelsea, while down south Shahed Parr has to be carted from the pitch as per usual.
Callum Allan comes off at the break, he's struggled with his match fitness since coming back from his broken arm, and is replaced by Jose Andres Alvir. Five minutes into the second half Mujkic earns his hat trick, he's been phenomenal. Over in Southampton David Maloney is the second ex-Dragon to influence the match, scoring an equalizer as Sky Shadowing has watched his team pull back from a two-nil deficit. The Saints earn a draw despite conceding twice in the first twenty minutes, and the cameras catch AJ_Impy muttering darkly while leaving his luxury box. Meanwhile, as time ticks down in Wrexham Jose Andres Alvir scores a goal in his season debut, and Chelsea heads home to London humiliated.
Man of the Match: Meteor Mujkic
Wrexham 4-0 Chelsea
Whoever was planning this takeover kept it quiet, I didn't hear a whisper until the transfer embargo came down.
vs Arsenal, February 12, 2028
FA Cup, Fifth Round
The first match against Arsenal this season was a four-one stomping at the Emirates in September. The second was a Referee special that we each took a point from in Wrexham two weeks ago. Match three against Arsenal is today, and will determine which of us makes the FA Cup quarterfinal. Match four is in two weeks to see who wins the League Cup. At this rate I'm expecting to get drawn against them in the Champions League, just so that we can have the pleasure of playing six times in a single season.
We've got the away leg in our Champions League matchup three days from now, and usually playing Chelsea, Arsenal, and a Champions League opponent in the span of a week would be a wildly hard set of fixtures. We're up against Rangers, though, and we can send a much diluted squad to face them while relying on our best against Arsenal.
Arsenal, on the other hand, is starting a heavily rotated squad. That poor Basque left back may be the same age as Moctezuma, but will have his hands full trying to stop the American wonderkid.
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Tounkara, Laux, Loseille, Zouaghi, Shirra, Moctezuma, Allan, Mujkic (c), Stringel.
Subs: Kocsis, Quiboulaz, Hammatt, Bailey, Brown, Bouzid, Damgaard.
The Gunners are getting pasted after 45. Wrexham has 73% possession, and goals from String and Allan have staked us to a lead. Lino Fiorotto comes on at halftime to try and salvage a draw for Arsenal, but he duffs a chance to pull them within one. Moctezuma has been abusing his Basque opposite all day long, and adds his name to the scoresheet in the 58th minute. Matty Collett gives Arsenal a glimmer of hope with 18 minutes to play, but it's nowhere near enough and before the match is through Ali Bouzid has restored the three goal advantage.
Man of the Match: Callum Allan
Wrexham 4-1 Arsenal
Both Norwich and Tackleford are still in the draw, but we didn't get either of them. They could make it to the semifinal, though. Tackleford faces Nottingham Forest while Norwich goes up against Leeds, and both of those clubs are beatable. We get to take on Brentford, and I'm relieved we didn't draw Manchester United away for the third time.
At Rangers, February 15, 2028
Champions League, Knockout Round Away Tie
It's 201.5 miles as the crow flies from Wrexham to Glasgow. 252 miles by car from the Racecourse to Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow. That's about the same distance as Boston to New York City or New York City to Washington DC, yet it's considered a long trip by British standards. Y'all got a small country, Brits. Rangers have all of one two-star player, they'd be relegation bait in the Premiership, so almost all our starters will be sleeping in and watching the match from Wrexham.
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Kocsis, Leandro, Sadula, Hammatt, Quiboulaz, Lewis, Bailey (c), Lundbye, Bouzid, Damgaard, Yilmaz.
Subs: Minami, Mattuschka, Spyropoulos, Brown, Palma, Mujkic, Stringel.
Rangers are being outclassed in the first 20 minutes by a starting lineup featuring three youth squad players. Leandro picks up an away goal in the 18th minute and seven minutes later Lundbye scores the first in his six week old Wrexham career. Barring a wild defensive collapse over the remaining 155 minutes we're going to the quarterfinals.
Rangers are able to strike back with a goal from the ageless John Baxter, who returned to his homeland to finish his career in Scotland, but you know what Ali Bouzid does and it's right back to a two goal lead. In the second half the same pattern repeats, as another Rangers goal is quickly pegged back, this time by Antonis Spyropoulos scoring his first goal for the club. Ibrox stadium empties upset Glaswegians onto the streets, and there will much moaning in the pubs about losing four-two to a bunch of teenagers.
Man of the Match: Ed Hammatt.
Rangers 2-4 Wrexham
vs Southampton, February 19, 2028
Premier League
There have been 21 tilts between Southampton and Wrexham since I began my reign. Southampton have taken eight points, winning our first ever match in August of 2019 and the first leg of our recent Capital One Cup semifinal. Those two matches comprise the sum total of the Saints success against us in the past decade. That's bad news for Southampton fans, who see their team sitting four points behind Chelsea for the final Champions League spot.
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Tounkara, Laux, Loseille, Zouaghi, Shirra, Moctezuma, Allan, Mujkic (c), Stringel.
Subs: Kocsis, Quiboulaz, Hammatt, Lewis, Bailey, Damgaard, Bouzid.
Southampton's defense holds out for the entire first half, only to capitulate twice in four minutes when the play resumes. We tack on one more in the opening ten minutes of the second half to wrap things up, and Wrexham moves above Arsenal and into second position on the table, seven points back of Manchester United with two games in hand and a date in April at Old Trafford.
Man of the Match: Rodrigo Moctezuma
Wrexham 3-0 Southampton
We have £16.8m in our bank account right now. The club has spent almost £50m more than it's earned since the start of the season, and last month alone saw it lose an eight figure sum. At the same time somewhere between £50-70m will be paid out at the end of the year based upon final league position and the depth of Wrexham's Champions League run. If I pull off the triple the organization might realize a slight profit for the year.
vs Brentford, February 22, 2028
Premier League
When I heard Brentford was being bought, I did some checking around. You'd be amazed at who owns which clubs. Only 11 of the 20 Premier League squads are owned by Englishmen, though the number of domestically owned clubs jumps to fifteen when you add Scots (Arsenal) and Welsh club presidents (Wrexham, Swansea, and West Ham). It's a far cry from Spain, though, where there are only three foreign owners, and also a far cry from France in the other direction, where only five clubs are owned by Frenchmen.
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Hammatt, Quiboulaz, Loseille, Bailey (c), Shirra, Moctezuma, Allan, Damgaard, Stringel.
Subs: Kocsis, Leandro, Tounkara, Lewis, Bouzid, Mujkic, Lundbye.
An error by Quiboulaz gives the ball away deep in our own territory and allows Brentford to surprise us in the 22nd minute. We struggle to create chances as our visitors proceed to park the team bus in front of the net, but Ed Hammatt is able to equalize five minutes into the second half and Isaac Stringel strikes two minutes later to undo all of Brentford's hard work. We have chances to put the game away, but it takes a stone-wall Minami to keep us ahead until Claus Damgaard can finally cash in on one of them in the 83rd minute.
Man of the Match: James Loseille
Wrexham 3-1 Brentford
Allan went down in stoppage time of the Brentford match, and will now miss the League Cup final. The team's attackers have been snakebit this year, with Allan, Bale, Rickard, Thiago, Stringel, and Bouzid combining to miss over a year of action between them.
You're kidding, right? Why the hell is a World Cup qualifier being held on March 1st? And why are you calling up Minami, anyways? You've already clinched one of the top two spots in your group. This is why no one takes you seriously, AFC.
Minami might end up missing our League Cup because of this, and might end up missing our FA Cup quarterfinal as well. He's definitely missing the Welsh Derby with Swansea.
vs Arsenal, February 27, 2028
League Cup, Final
Minami hasn't left for India yet, so he's between the sticks. Our players are as rested as they're going to get, and the only ones missing from our starting 11 are Thiago and Allan.
Arsenal didn't learn their lesson from the FA Cup match, and have four of their regular starters on the bench. That includes both Lino Fiorotto and Matty Collett.
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Hammatt, Laux, Loseille, Zouaghi, Shirra, Moctezuma, Bouzid, Mujkic (c), Stringel.
Subs: Kocsis, Quiboulaz, Tounkara, Bailey, Alvir, Damgaard, Lundbye.
Stringel has a goal called back for offside in the 26th minute, but I have no clue what the assistant referee was looking at, String is clearly further from the net than #17 Santiago Pedrozo when Shirra made the pass:
Five minutes later we get a quickfire double as first Moctezuma scores via a killer ball from Bouzid, and then repays the favor by delivering a perfect cross to Bouzid at the near post. We're less than an hour from claiming our next trophy.
Collett and Fiorotto come on for Arsenal and enliven their attack, but the question is whether they can make up for the hole their teammates dug in the first half. We have another goal called back, but this one at least is legitimate as Hammatt was a couple paces offside when Mujkic struck the ball. Moctezuma strikes again with 20 minutes remaining for his second goal of the game, and all 90,000 in attendance at Wembley can hear the fat lady singing.
Man of the Match: Rodrigo Moctezuma
Wrexham 3-0 Arsenal
All that's left is the triple.
Oh boy. The Europa League. What an honor. Maybe I should throw the rest of the season and try to finish outside of the top four while taking a dive in the Champions League as well so that we can participate in it.
We have been obliterating our opponents over the last two updates. In fourteen matches we've scored 53 goals and allowed 6. We've won all but one of them, and the only reason we didn't sweep is thanks to a referee gifting Arsenal a draw. It's our best run of form all season, at just the right time.
Our bombardment of all comers along with three United draws means that we can retake the top of the table by winning our two games in hand. We're also in commanding position against Rangers in the Champions League, and have an FA Cup quarterfinal against the same Brentford team that we slapped around earlier this month. The triple awaits, all we need do is walk up and grab it.
