Part 44: Prologue: Out with the old, in with the new.

Volume 4: Raised Expectations
Prologue: Out with the old, in with the new.
June 9, 2016-July 2, 2016

The thing I have the hardest time with in Football Manager is showing any sort of loyalty to my players. “Oh, you were great for us last season Stuart Martin, here's the door!” “Hey, Ibrahima Bah, thanks for getting us promoted from the Conference National! Hope you don't mind if I relentlessly shop you around to any willing buyers.” The game takes note of this lack of loyalty, it means players will be less willing to trust their position on the team, which generally doesn't help. But we were a mediocre League Two team last year, so changes must be made if we're going to earn promotion.

Still, we have players that are going into their third season under my guidance, and they're important players to the team. Bailey, Simpson, and Thomas have all played the last three full seasons with Wrexham, and they form a core which we can build around.



Evans is out, he was not that good for us and thus I have zero interest in extending his loan.




I've ditched the 4-2-3-1 for now, and created two more 4-5-1 variants, one based around an attacking style of play and one for parking the bus. This will allow us to change our style of play more fluidly depending upon our opponent. If your players only ever train a single play mentality (Attacking, Counter, Control, etc.) then when you ask them to change it up they're going to be awkward. It's best to have a tactic that uses your base mentality (in our case Counter) that you use most often, as well as an additional defensive and offensive style of play. If they're all based around the same formation the players will pick it up even more quickly and will start with at least some familiarity with the style.



Don-Duncan, McGuinness, and Martin take off, our youth signings come in.

Carl Walley
Central Midfielder


Walley is quick, determined, and raw. He was also born in the year 2000, which makes me feel incredibly old. 2016 isn't that far off, guys, and there's going to be 16 year olds who were born in a year that didn't start in a 1. Some of them are already 14.

Michael Upson
Striker


Upson suffers from vertigo. It's the only sense I can make of a 1 in balance. We're equal opportunity employers, so we're happy to help him work through it because he's got a whole lot of potential. I'm not sure he'll amount to something, he loses his footing in a stiff breeze, but the goal with prospects is that you get a ton of them and a few eventually pan out.

Adrian Read
Striker


Read is the best player we signed in March. I'm not sure how Histon got him, England is well picked over by the big clubs when it comes to the youth academies and even a late bloomer like Read is likely to find his way to a league club's academy. Their gain becomes our gain, though. Read is pacey and has a solid first touch and dribbling skills, as he improves on the mental and technical sides of the games he could definitely become a very good player in short order.




World Cup Qualifiers for 2018 are ongoing, and the US is making it hard for themselves again by drawing with Canada. I'd say this is the game's latent anti-Americanism showing itself, but we did draw with Canada in the first stage of qualifiers last time around too. A goalless draw at home against Honduras isn't as bad, but it's still really bad. The US is very lucky that CONCACAF is a joke conference and only Mexico is real competition.



Wales is making a good showing of itself in the Euro Championships, holding off a strong Ukrainian side.



Luke Reid was a different man in the second half of last season. He went from being error prone and one of my worst signings ever to being my first choice centerback. When I tried to sell him in the January window (which is about the time he started playing well, coincidence?) I lowered my asking price to zero. It stayed at zero when I took him off the transfer list a few weeks later, and I forgot about it until several teams started asking if they could have him. No harm done in this case, but you should try to remember to reset the asking price if you have a disloyal player who will get his head turned by bigger clubs making offers for him.



Impatient agents are the worst. I hate them so, so much. I hate all agents, but impatient agents are less willing to haggle, which means if you start with too low an offer they'll quickly threaten to pull out of talks while still demanding the moon and the stars.




Color me very surprised. Wales made the knockout round of the Euros! They did lose their all-world winger, Shaun Davies, to a twisted ankle, though. It's not that likely they'll make it to the quarter-finals, but this is still an amazing accomplishment for a nation of 3.5 million people. Even better, England hasn't locked up their trip to the knockout round yet.



Britain is one of the best placed third teams, and gets into the next round by the skin of their teeth. More on the Euro's as they develop.



Our local businesses provide us with £80,000 in sponsorship money a year, the lion's share of which comes from our jersey sponsorship.



It's no surprise that Justin Bailey won the fan's hearts, he was our little cheat code on corner kicks with all the assists he served up.



That's £5,000 less than last season. Which one of you guys is getting kickbacks from the TV contract?



The raises amount to about £1,000/wk total. A third of that goes to players who we're selling, like Cooper and Clarke.

At Tackleford City, June 24, 2016
Friendly


To keep the rivalry with Tackleford fresh in everyone's mind despite being a league apart this season I schedule our first friendly against the Yorkshire bastards. This may be only a friendly, but I desperately want a result. As I haven't sold O'Hanlon, Clarke, Cooper, or Bah yet I bring them to the match as subs, we may end up having to keep one or more of them if buyers don't materialize in the next two months.

Formation: 4-5-1 Defense
Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Thomas, Reid, Poole, Ashton, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Coulson, Franks, Harrison.
Subs: Higgs, Peters, Ratcliffe, Petit, Todd, Holt, O'Hanlon, Clarke, Cooper, Price, Morgan, Bah.

Our defense plays well for the entire game. Tackleford is able to score on a Callum Williams header in the 20th minute off a free kick, but they cannot score from open play. We're not their equal physically or technically, however, and our counter attacks repeatedly break down when Coulson, Harrison, or Franks have their pockets picked by the Tackleford defenders. We equalize in the second half when Harrison makes our one chance of the day count on a breakaway where he blazes past both the defenders and the keeper before tapping the finish home. Our subs and their subs fight the rest of the game to a draw, and I'm pleased with the player's performance.



I expected to lose this game, coming out with a draw after going behind to a team that's likely better than anything we'll face in the league this year is a good sign of things to come.




Tackleford 1-1 Wrexham



Those jerks at Tackleford has wounded one of ours! Where's our ultras to defend our honor? Thomas will be healthy by the start of training camp, but this does mean I'll be using youth fullbacks in the Newport County match coming up in a few days.



First cut for the upcoming training camp are made. I'll have to bump some youth players for any incoming signings, such as Smisson, but it should be another fun time at Camp Wekilledahobo.



McGuinness's replacement is signed. He's better than McGuinness, but I doubt he'll steal much starting time from Kadhim.




£30,000 for O'Hanlon is quite nice. There's always someone willing to sign pacey players with no technical skills. Swindon Town swooped in for Aidan Cooper, and I somehow missed getting a screenshot of that. He sold for £75,000, bringing us to just over £200,000 from selling players this transfer window. Not bad, considering that we didn't pay a dime to bring in any of the players we've sold.



The Cinderella story is over. Hold your heads high, Wales, you did better than anyone ever expected. And imagine how jealous the Scottish are about your success!



I was really hoping England would crash out in the group stage. The schadenfreude coming from Cardiff would have been felt in Dover.



Daniel Clarke's replacement. He's quite good and will challenge Bailey for starting time. Remember that agent fees come from the transfer budget, they're a reason why I like to have a decent amount on hand even if I'm not actually buying players.

At Newport Co., June 29, 2016
Friendly


Newport are another of the six Welsh team playing in the English leagues. They're currently in the Skrill Premier, and should serve as good practice for our younger players.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Al-Beloushi, Peters, Reid, Ashton, Kadhim, Simpson, Bailey, Coulson, Franks, Harrison.
Subs: Higgs, Ratcliffe, Rigby, Petit, Todd, Cobb, Holt, Rainey, McCarthy, Price, Read, Morgan.

Things immediately go wrong, we allow a goal at the fifth minute, and never seem comfortable in the first half, giving up several more chances. I holler at the players during the break, and keep the first team on until we finally equalize in the 61st minute on a Harrison goal. As time wends down it looks like the subs won't be able to break through to give us the win, but two minutes into stoppage time Tony Price cuts in from wide, unmarked, and has all day to take the shot that gives us the victory. It's a lucky win against an opponent we should have had no difficulty with.

Man of the Match: Tony Price




Newport Co. 1-2 Wrexham




It's June 30th, which means it's now one year until most of the team's contracts expire. Since we're going to be bucking for promotion, I want to wait before offering new contracts to anyone- and I want to be careful about any promotion escalator clauses I give out as they'll rapidly make reasonably priced players overpaid.



The board did this on their own, I guess that's why I wasn't able to request it.



Daniel Brown is a new scout, a replacement for the one who's contract expired. I wonder if he's actually doing any work or just faffing about on the SA boards with his LP of Appeals Court Manager 2014.



Wigan just got relegated from the Premier League. I predict we're going to receive a rapid exit from the Capital One Cup. The only silver lining is that we're at home.



This all seems correct, except for saying that we have a large team. If anything we're a bit on the lean side. But calling us promotion contenders is a huge step up from where we were last season, predicted to finish 22nd and just barely avoiding relegation. Richard Cobb, Sam Smisson, and Neil Jenkins have arrived just in time to join the training camp rosters.

Sam Smisson
Left Back


Smisson has the potential to be our left back for several years to come. Good work rate, stamina, and pace means that he'll be able to run up and down the field all day long, and he's a good match for the more stalwart Ashton, giving us offensive and defensive options at left back.

Neil Jenkins
Defensive Midfielder


Jenkins is a more creative defensive midfielder than Kadhim, and is a step up on McGuinness. He'll be a useful depth option in case of injuries or ineffectiveness, but he's going to have to show me something before I start penciling him in as a starter.

Richard Cobb
Central Midfielder


Cobb is the best of the three, and the highest paid at £1,300 a week. He has poor physical stats, but very good mental stats and is easily the most apt passer on the team. He seldom makes a poor decision, has good creativity, and is rarely caught off guard. He's able to play both central midfield and defensive midfield, but given his lack of pace I'd prefer to keep him in the middle of the field with someone behind him to pick up quick players who run past him. He'll challenge Bailey for the starting 11 job.



We obviously need to start selling more jerseys. Maybe we should start stealing designs from the University of Oregon?





That Norwich link has been pretty useless. This is the second season Ferguson has refused to come to us on loan.



Summer camp! I'm sure there won't be any repercussions from the accidental killing of that old man last year!