Part 57: Cyfrinachol Wrecsam: Ystadegau Tîm a Rhagolygon, yn ôl-weithredol 2016-2017

Epilogue: Cyfrinachol Wrecsam: Ystadegau Tîm a Rhagolygon, yn ôl-weithredol 2016-2017
May 1, 2017

If I didn't butcher the Welsh language too much, the above means “Wrexham Confidential: Team Statistics and Prospects, 2016-2017.” Basically, a look at our players and how they did over the last season.




Justin Bailey lead the way in appearances for us this season, racking up 51 across all competitions. He had an amazing 27 assists, and was at his best in cup games where he averaged almost one a game. He was certainly our best player.

William Harrison, Gary Tench, Matthew Poole, Stewart Lewis, and Luke Reid were all excellent for us, each averaging over a 7 rating. Poole, Stewart, and Reid, along with Chris Todd, combined to give us twenty goals from our centerbacks, which is about a quarter of our goals and pretty amazing.

Our top goalscorers were Harrison, with 18, Coulson, with 14, Price, with 11 (the majority of which came in the second half of the season when we most needed them in our title hunt), and Spilsbury with 11. Price was fourth in League Two in minutes per goal, while Coulson was ninth and Harrison was fourteenth.

Next up are our under 25 players on the senior team, first their original information from when they were signed, and then their current attributes. As you can see, many of them have improved substantially since joining the club, which is how we keep improving year over year.

Justin Bailey




The game just doesn't understand how good Bailey is. He really is like his video game namesake (I love the idea of his parent's naming him Justin because of how much they enjoyed Metroid) He's rated as just 2.5 stars, and under the hood he has the lowest Current Ability and Potential Ability scores on the first team. But the distribution of his scores are as perfect as they could be for his role. One thing that you should know is that players can continue to improve even after their CA score matches their PA score, it's just that instead of adding attributes, some attributes will decline and be shifted over to the ones that are being trained. So by training Bailey as an advanced playmaker, we're focusing on all those attributes that are important to his role, meaning that he's getting the absolute most out of his ability. I'm curious to see how he does in League One, given that he had the fifth highest average rating in League Two I think it's entirely possible that he's still pretty good in League One.

Michael Coulson




Agent Coulson wasn't as good this year as he was in previous season, but he was still pretty darned good. He scored 14 goals and added five assists, to go with six man of the match awards. He didn't play very well in cup competitions, though, averaging just a 6.67 rating compared to his 7.14 rating in league matches. That 7.14 rating, btw, was enough to tie him with Bailey for fifth best in the league.

Danny Higgs




Danny Higgs is improving steadily, while Al-Beloushi is currently a better goalkeeper I expect Higgs will surpass him within the next year or so. He's also cheaper than Al-Beloushi, and while Al-Beloushi isn't old I'm always a sucker for potential over proven ability. Higgs sealed his job on the team during the stretch around New Years where the team gave up virtually no goals. He finished the season with a 6.67 rating, but he had 12 shutouts in 26 league games.

William Harrison




Billy the Kid has really blossomed. After a 6.9 rating with 11 goals and 4 assists in 32 games last season, he had a 7.11 rating with 18 goals and 9 assists this season in the same number of games. The only downside is that his injury robbed him of a tick of his pace, he's down from 18 pace to 17, but that still makes him lightning fast. The improvement in his first touch, anticipation, and composure have allowed him to become a more consistent threat on the counter attack.

Stewart Lewis




Lewis got off to a tough start, by November I thought he'd turn out to be a bust. He proved me wrong by being our most consistent centerback for the rest of the season. Because of his development I'm tempted to sell the mercurial Luke Reid, who has several teams circling about him and who's going to earn more than twice as much as Lewis next season.

Mateo Mujkic




After settling into the club, Mujkic really began to show why he's rated so highly. From about December on he helped create ten goals, and was excellent in cup competitions, with five assists in ten appearances. He's also continuing to get better, which was a concern of mine considering how far above League Two his skills were. The last thing I want is for his talent to be stifled by the lack of equivalent talent to test himself against.

Matthew Poole




Poole made me not miss Stuart Martin one bit. While he cooled off from his incredibly hot start, he contributed eight goals, good enough to tie him for fifth on the team. He also was incredibly level headed, not drawing a single yellow card in any competitive match and only committing 11 fouls. He was also sublime in cup competitions, earning a 7.44 rating with four goals across ten fixtures. Poole has shown a lot of development as a player, adding two points over the last two seasons to almost every single key attribute.

Tony Price




I tried to sell Price during the January window because I had mostly considered him an attacking mid center, a position we weren't using. Once he was forced into the lineup by injuries to our wingers, though, he showed me why he should be kept around. He singlehandedly won us the league with his performances in the Southend and Bury games down the stretch, and averaged a 7.2 in his last 15 games while scoring seven times. He only put in one poor performance during that stretch, making him one of the most consistent players on the team. His stats have blossomed since his signing, adding 36 points in less than two years.

Stuart Simpson




The Captain will never be a star player, but he's become a rock solid anchor to our team. Having to play all but three of our final 19 games without him made winning the league much more difficult, as Kadhim and especially Jenkins were not up to the task. This is probably as good as it gets for Simpson, I'm likely to start working him out of the mix in the coming years as he's near the limits of his talent. His injury has been a bit of a setback, but even without it he would be close to the end. Hopefully he can make it to the Championship with us, he's an able successor to former captain Alan Tierney.

Sam Smissen




Sam Smissen and the next player on the list have both been quite impressive in their first season with the club. Smissen was second on the team in appearances behind Bailey, and was very solid at left back. In less than a year he's added 15 attribute points, at his current rate of improvement he might be with us until we're in the Premier League.

Gary Tench




The Tenchman was even better than Smissen, and the former Manchester City youth prospect has equally settled into his role at right back. He earned an excellent 7.09 rating in the league, the second best of any fullback, and has excelled at both the offensive and defensive aspects of the position. He and Smissen are earning £1,650 combined, making them not only huge contributors to the team but economical ones at that.

Daniel Thomas




I'm not sure what to do about Thomas. On the one hand he's still a liability defensively, though nowhere near the disaster he was when I first took over the team three years ago. Yet despite improving most facets of his game he's still got only one real weapon, his speed. He's one of the fastest players on the team, tied with Harrison, and in just 20 games this season he earned 3 player of the match awards and a quite decent 6.82 rating. His contract is up at the end of June, so his future is largely going to be determined by how much money he wants.

Chris Todd




Our other wonderboy. He's played pretty well for a 17 year old, but has clearly been the worst of our four first team centerbacks. Still, his attributes have climbed by 58 points in just over two years with the club. And did I mention he's still only 17? Currently he's on specialized training for his jumping reach, once it gets to something reasonable he'll need some technique training. Between himself, Poole, and Lewis, and the steadily improving 18 year old Anthony Curran, we've got an excellent young core of players to build our defense around. It's to the point where other centerbacks in our organization, such as 19 year old Gary Petit, are going to need to be out on loan in order to get playing time.

From there we move onto a look at our youth players, included below is a rough ranking of the players we've brought in since I took the helm who aren't first team regulars yet.

Centerback:



Anthony Curran and Gary Petit are the two names here, both might be suitable as backups at the present. Petit got into a couple of games before going on loan and played well, Curran did less well in his two cameos with the senior team.

Fullback:



Ioan Peters is nearly ready to challenge for a job on the first team. He's done reasonably well in his four matches, and if Daniel Thomas isn't re-signed will end up taking over one of the backup roles. Elgan Ratcliffe is out of contract at the end of June, I don't think it's worth offering him a pro-contract and thus he'll likely leave the club.

Midfielder:



Eoin McCarthy is the only player remotely ready for a lot of first team time. Sinclair got the most appearances with the first team, largely because Holt was too often injured when the opportunity arose to give a youth player time on the pitch. The best prospect of the bunch is 17 year old Carl Walley, but he's still a long way off from fighting for even a bench spot.

Striker and Winger:





The attacking positions see a lot of overlap, with most of the strikers being able to also play on a wing. The sole dedicated wide player, Rainey, has potential but didn't make an impression during the minutes he was given. Each of Read, Upson, and Morgan have scored while playing for the main team, while the spun glass man Walsh is rapidly becoming an afterthought given that he's already turned 20 and been surpassed by at least three other youth players.

We don't have any youth goalkeepers worth mentioning, it's something I've been on the lookout for but have yet to find. We could also use more depth at midfield, and at the wide positions. Of the prospects listed, I think Read, Upson, and Walley are the best prospects, but all of them have the potential to be useful.

We're in good shape, our youth team is the envy of anything below a Championship side and our young players are all improving, some at breakneck pace. We're fiscally sound, and we're as well placed as any club to keep climbing the ladder to fame, glory, and world class WAGs.

BOARD VOTE RESULTS

Vote 1, Wage Cap:
B had a majority, so our wage budget for the coming year will be 42,000 pounds a week

Vote 2, Transfer Budget:
No option gained a majority, so the results will be averaged and 90,000 pounds added to the transfer budget.

Vote 3, Funds from Transfers Available:
Option B had a majority, 80% of income from transfers will be available for future transfers.

Vote 4, Mujkic Contract:
Option C had a majority, Mujkic may be offered a contract as great as needed to get him to sign, so long as it does not exceed the current wage cap.

Vote 5, Manager's Contract:
The average of the suggestions comes out to 4.6 years at 1,075 pounds a week, with a 7.5% annual raise and a 25% promotion raise. I will endeavor to get this as exact as possible, though I may round the years up to five exactly.