Part 68: Chapter the Ninth: Daedalus is our daddy.
Chapter the Ninth: Daedalus is our daddy.March 11, 2018-April 2, 2018
Eleven games left, and we're six points up on our closest competitors for the second automatic promotion spot. Winning the league isn't out of the question, but finishing second would be a gigantic achievement for a club of our stature.
And there goes a third of our Upson income. The transfer kitty currently sits at £1,700,000, you're going to see me be much more aggressive when it comes to buying youth prospects this time around.
It's time to go shopping! Our youth prospects are actually pretty good this season, with Lloyd Eden, Graham Graham (aka “Double G” aka “Crackers”), Rickey Kemp, and Stuart Cassidy all looking like they could have pro careers. I'm only going to show off the very best of the youth I bring in, as several of my signings will end up being sale bait and never cracking our starting 11. Still, if even one of the dozen or so players I have my eye on turns into another Upson it will be worthwhile.
vs. Portsmouth, March 13, 2018
League One
Another month of playing like we have all season and we should earn promotion without a sweat. Portsmouth are decent, though, and we're due for a loss at some point.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Tench, Poole, Lewis, Smissen, Harper, Simpson (c), Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison.
Subs: Taylor, Peters, Todd, Price, Rainey, Coulson.
Harrison sends the fans into jubilation after four minutes with a goal, but he was correctly whistled for offsides. It's Portsmouth that gets on the board with a brace of goals before the thirty minute marker, they're killing us with their counter attack. Gorman continues his recent stretch of good performances by halving the lead in the 36th minute, but we perform poorly in the second half where we miss more easy chances. It's our first loss of 2018, and with both Bournemouth and Sunderland losing we don't miss a step on the table.
Wrexham 1-2 Portsmouth
The first of several youth signings.
We're about to get promoted! Can't you wait two damned months?!
I'll naturally be looking to bring in better players anyways, hopefully I can keep Mujkic happy for longer than I managed with Todd.
We're not famous enough to snipe the big club's youth yet, and by the time we are I'll be too busy with finding Eastern European wunderkinds to bother.
Yep, more youth.
Argh. This was definitely the best young player I'd found, and he decided to stay with York City in friggin League Two instead of coming to us. Poor choice, kid!
And it would cost us at least £600,000 to get him now, instead of the £60,000 we'd have had to pay if he'd just signed with us. Enjoy mediocrity, kid! At least, until some Premier League team comes along and pays the piper for you.
That makes Doug Harley here our final signing. With the youth intakes I signed we've added nine players to the U18 side for a grand total of £47,000 in transfer fees. Not a bad haul at all. Missing out on Mirfin hurts, though. He was easily the best player we could have signed on the cheap.
Our first postponement of the year. This will make for a very crowded schedule at the back end of this month.
And we've got a game scheduled for then, too.
Mujkic, Harrison, and Todd are all pulled from their international teams. Note to international coaches, if you want my players play your international friendlies when I'm not in the middle of a thick slate of games, you assholes.
Getting promoted just got a lot harder. Tom Taylor, this is your moment to shine. And yes, I know you haven't gotten into a single match so far this year. So make the most of these six weeks.
At Port Vale, March 24, 2018
League One
Port Vale has had a successful year in League One, sitting right about mid-table. I'm sure they'd like to claim our scalp and keep us from moving up to the Championship.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Taylor, Peters, Todd, Curran, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison.
Subs: Rogers, Tench, Lewis, Harper, Shirra, Rainey, Coulson.
Harrison puts another into the back of the net early, but yet again he's flagged for offsides. It throws him off for the rest of the game, he misses two more clear cut chances before I pull him in the second half. Taylor gets hurt at the half hour mark, but can run it off, we're in deep trouble if it's anything that will make him miss more than a few days. Ioan Peters also gets crunched just before the whistle, and that could also get messy with Daniel Thomas already in the trainer's room. The game ends nil-nil, and we drop two very easy points thanks to Harrison's poor display.
Port Vale 0-0 Wrexham
Lovely. This means Jonathan Rogers, our 16 year old youth keeper, will be our netminder for our most important game in months.
At Blackpool, March 27, 2018
League One
No, it's even worse. Rogers is on international duty and I forgot to call him back. So our brand new youth signing Ian Ritchie will get to play keeper, with fellow youth Graham Graham providing backup. We're going to need a miracle to keep our four point lead on the second automatic promotion spot.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Defense
Starting 11: Ritchie, Tench, Lewis, Poole, Smissen, Harper, Simpson (c), Holland, Coulson, Mujkic, Harrison.
Subs: Graham, Peters, Todd, Price, Gorman, Rainey, Baker.
Harrison is injured in a challenge that leads to a Blackpool corner, which they convert on. We can't do anything against them, they're bossing the entire field, and we have just one shot through 41 minutes when I switch us over to the counter from our defensive huddle. It works to perfection, Coulson equalizes in the 45th minute and we go into the lockers all square. But Blackpool won't be denied, scoring a double salvo ten minutes after the second half kicks off. Mateo Mujkic is able to bring us back to within a shout, but after Simpson is hurt in the 75th minute we can't get anything on target and slump to our second loss in three games after having not fallen in league play for the previous n games.
Blackpool 3-2 Wrexham
None of the injuries from the Blackpool game result in missed time, thank goodness. But I'm becoming concerned about our ability to hold onto second place.
Price, Thomas, and Taylor are all out at the end of the season, while I'll renegotiate the staff contracts in June.
vs. Millwall, March 31, 2018
League One
Taylor still isn't fully back, so Ritchie is once again between the pipes. Millwall are much easier meat than our most recent opponents, however, so this should be a good chance to pick up three points.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack.
Starting 11: Ritchie, Peters, Todd, Lewis, Smissen, Harper, Shirra, Bailey, Gorman, Mujkic, Harrison (c).
Subs: Taylor, Tench, Curran, Holland, Price, Rainey, Coulson.
Millwall takes the game to us, they have four shots to our none after fifteen minutes, and we're still looking for our first by the end of the half. We're extremely lucky to be tied. I scream at the players, but we still don't show any life until I sub off the ice cold Harrison and poorly performing Mujkic for Coulson and Rainey. Gareth Rainey makes the most of his appearance, scoring 7 minutes after coming on. It's only our third shot of the day. It's still enough. We did not deserve the three points from this match, but our defense was solid and we got what we needed. Blackpool drew, so we're back to three points up on them while remaining just two behind Sunderland with a game in hand.
Man of the Match: Sam Smissen.
Wrexham 1-0 Millwall
Tackleford has woken up just as we've been slipping, so we're now 20 points up on them.
If all goes to plan we're not going to be competing for the League Trophy next year. How sad for us.
Teenagers, amirite?
He's probably in his room crying to The Cure albums and writing on his Angelfire site about how mean his coach is. That's what kids these days do, right?
At Hartlepool, April 2, 2018
League One
The scheduling Gods are cruel, giving us just one day off between matches. Thanks to the Blackpool postponement we're not going to have much rest even after the upcoming match. Getting anything from this fixture is vital. A single point would keep us ahead of Blackpool, and only one back of Sunderland, with six games remaining to play. A loss means that Blackpool could match us on points if they win, although we have a solid goal differential advantage. We're pretty worn out at the moment due to fixture congestion, but Hartlepool will be as well. Whoever planned this Monday game should be given the old cattle prod.
Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Taylor, Tench, Curran, Poole, Smissen, Simpson (c), Holland, Price, Rainey, Mujkic, Harrison.
Subs: Ritchie, Peters, Todd, Harper, Holt, Coulson, Read.
Harrison is flagged for his third offside's goal in the last four games, but this time he has a legitimate complaint with the ref:
It's not the only thing to go wrong for us in the first half, but Hartlepool can't find the goal. I scorch the paint in the visiting locker room, exhorting the team to show some pride. They clearly don't listen, allowing Hartlepool to take the lead in the 54th minute. Harrison misses an easy equalizer, and I yank him to give Read a shot at showing me he deserves more time. Hartlepool adds another goal, and Read shows clear signs of being a whinging mule when he skies an easy chance of his own. From there it just gets ugly. Hartlepool makes it four-nil in the 81st minute, and then adds another in the 84th to complete the humiliation. Tom Taylor was especially awful for us, failing to make simple saves on goals that Higgs would never have conceded. We are well and truly in a funk.
Hartlepool 4-0 Wrexham
Yes, this is exactly what I want to deal with right now. Yes, I am being sarcastic.
I wouldn't have been yelling at you if you hadn't been less effective than a three-legged cow on the pitch. Do your goddamned job, Holland.
Still untouchable, even with the recent wobble.
We might be flailing, but so are our closest competitors. Sunderland lost again, leaving us two back with a game in hand. Blackpool lost as well, leaving us three points up on them. Mansfield has pushed their way into contention for automatic promotion, we're two points up on them with a game in hand. We could still watch ourselves get forced into the roulette wheel of the promotion playoffs, or we could win the league. It's going to come down to the wire thanks to the wretched month we just had, but we put ourselves in position to weather this type of storm and can still claim the title given that Sunderland chose the exact same time to fall apart.
Board VotesWe're coming up on the end of the season, and we have some votes to take. For the purpose of setting the budget I am going to presume that we earn promotion. If we do not get promoted, I will reduce the amounts in our wage budgets accordingly, and vote #4 will be canceled.
We're in very strong shape financially. We've got over £1.6m in the bank, and if we do sell Todd in the offseason we're going to be swimming in cash. We've also got several sponsor deals coming up for renewal, all of which should bring us much more cash than we earned when they were first negotiated.
Our expenditures are up moderately from the previous year, largely due to
Our turnover is up year over year, the sale of Upson easily matched what we had previously earned from deep FA Cup runs. It can be expected that our income will only increase in a higher division thanks to much better TV revenue, greater fan support, and increased ticket prices.
VOTE 1: Wage Budget
(Smoothly) Our current wage cap puts us at £42k/wk and £2.2m/yr, which if we were using all of it would place us in 13th amongst League One teams. If we were in the Championship, however, you can see that same wage cap would have us at less than half the salary of the cheapest club in the division.
I would like to see the wage cap raised so that we can at offer contracts that are competitive with at least the lower spending Championship clubs, either at £100k/wk and £5.2m/yr, or at £150k/wk and £7.8m/year.
A) You haven't even used the budget we gave you so far! You can have a little more, but that's it. (£50k/wk, £2.6m/year)
B) You're right that we'll have to spend more, but we're concerned about ramping up salaries too quickly. (£100k/wk, £5.2m/yr)
C) We need to spend money to make money, but we're still just a small club from northern Wales and can't compete with the big London clubs. (£150k/wk, £7.8m/year)
VOTE 2: Chris Todd
(Stannis Baratheon-esque-ly) Chris Todd is being a prat and agitating for a move to another club. He's still one of the best young players we have, and we have him under contract for two more years. I do not want to sell him, I don't want to set an example that malingering will get players transfer listed. Obviously, everyone has a price, if we're blown over by an offer we should accept it. Tottenham offered us £5.25m for him in January.
A) That's right, show him who's the boss. (Don't sell Todd for less than £10m)
B) We agree that we should only accept bids that help the team, but we think it might be time to sell if we can get the right amount of cash. (Accept offers above £5.5m for Todd)
C) If he doesn't want to be here we don't want him to be here. Get paid, get out. (Sell Todd for less than or equal to £5.5m)
VOTE 3: Mateo Mujkic
(Smartly) I would like to extend Mateo Mujkic again, and up his release clause. I'm asking permission to go outside the team's wage structure to do so. If you haven't noticed, he's been one of our very best players this year, with 13 goals and 10 assists in 34 matches.
A) He's already going to be making almost £5,000 a week next year, and we're comfortable with the £10m minimum release clause. (No special dispensation to re-up Mujkic)
B) We agree that he's important, but remember that he's just one player. (Can spend up to £7,500 wk on Mujkic)
C) We want top dollar for that kid, make sure we get it. (No wage structure for Mujkic)
VOTE 4: Scouting Range
(Assertively) We're no longer slumming it in the lower leagues. It's time to start acting like it. I would like our scouting range expanded, so that we can look to bring players from across Europe to Wrexham, rather than relying on finding talent from solely the U.K. and Ireland. If you vote yes, I will be bringing on five new scouts to spearhead our hunt for continental talent.
A) Absolutely not. You want people who speak Spanish, Italian, and French to come to this club? Disgusting. (No change in scouting range, no new scouts)
B) Of course. Now that we're in the big time we need to start using every bit of talent we can get our hands on. EuRail passes and new laptops for everyone! (Allowed to scout European countries, may hire up to five new scouts)
Voting will be open until the posting of the next update.