Part 78: Chapter the Fifth: The mysterious Mateo Mujkic.

Chapter the Fifth: The mysterious Mateo Mujkic.
November 25, 2018-January 1, 2018

Australia hasn't crapped out of the ASEAN Cup, so Mujkic is still off in Vietnam feasting on bahn mi, pho, and national teams that would be lucky to stay up in the regional conferences where we started this LP. That means we need our other players to step up in his absence. It would be perfect if Harrison went on a goal scoring tear right now, or if Gorman finally played up to his sky high potential.



I've looked over Australia's team and Bastable seems pretty awesome. I might very well try to bring him in next summer, especially if Pym and Harrison never really get going. He's got 17 Dribbling, 16 Finishing, 16 Technique, 16 Off the Ball, and 15 Pace, his only poor stats that I can see are his middling Acceleration (11) and Bravery (10). Since he's a regular for Australia he'd probably get a work permit, and it's almost assured he'd want to come to us instead of staying in Qatar. Especially if he's in debt, they don't treat debtors very well.



If this is a sign that Harrison is finally getting into gear we might be able to do OK even without Mujkic.




That makes four Greek teams that want me to interview for their job. We haven't gotten any interview offers from top division teams in the big four leagues, but a Ligue Un club in France and Liga Zon Sagres one in Portugal have come knocking. I'm not going to pay much attention to them unless it's one of the clubs from the big four leagues, and if that happens you'll hear about it.



It's Thanksgiving! One of my very favorite holidays. I highly recommend observing it to all non-American/Canadian readers. But ignore all the shopping idiocy that comes along with it, that's really Christmas spreading it's Cthulu-esque money tentacles as far across the calendar as it can.



Third place, not bad. Coach of the Month awards are based solely on win ratio, whereas Coach of the Year takes expectations into account as well as results. Thus it's entirely possible to see other coaches with Coach of the Month all season while the manager of a team that was picked to finish dead last earns the yearly award for dragging his squad to a top half finish.



I'll likely stay at "very secure" unless we make a deep FA Cup run or do unexpectedly well in the league.

At Wolverhampton Wanderers, December 1, 2018
Championship


Wolves are another team trading on past glory. In real life they did a double drop from the Premier League to League One from 2011 to present, but are stomping their way through League One at the moment. In-game they did the same, only to get promptly relegated to League One again. They earned promotion once more the year after that, but are struggling to stay up after one year of mid-table security in the Championship.




The last of the four opposition instructions has to do with marking. Once again, this primer is a good source for more information on the topic. You can set players to be Always or Never marked tightly, or leave the instructions unspecified, at which point your own player and team instructions will take over. Marking players tightly gives them less opportunity to find a seam in your defense and create space from which they can do damage, whereas marking players less tightly allows your defenders to focus more on maintaining the shape of the formation to protect from being caught out of position. It shares some similarities to the closing down instruction, but whereas closing down handles how to treat a player with the ball, marking deals with how to handle an opposing player when the rest of their team has possession.

The “Always” setting works best when you have an opponent that you want to keep the ball away from, such as creative midfielders and wingers with high passing, creativity, and crossing stats. It's also useful if you have a dominating centerback who's seven feet tall and can outjump a kangaroo, they can stick right by the opponent's striker and keep him from receiving any crosses. Tight marking requires defenders who can handle the job without losing track of the man you want shut down. That requires not only a good marking attribute, but also good concentration to avoid lapses which leave the man not only unmarked but your player out of position. Acceleration and pace are also useful so that your man can stick with the opposing player when they make runs.

The “Never” setting is best for when your opponents can blaze past you, it does no good to stick by your opponent if they're easily able to leave you in a cloud of dust when a pass is made to open space. It's also better for players who have high Anticipation and Off the Ball attributes, as those players are especially good at getting into space even against competent markers, and you're better off not breaking your formation to try and keep them locked down. Lastly, you can also set it on your opposition's least dangerous player, allowing your team to pay more attention to bigger threats while hopefully leading to the other team giving him the ball a lot and him not being able to do anything with it.

In this match one of the players we're locking down their striker, Daniel Novak. Novak has a world class Off the Ball attribute, and above average speed. But he's very short, meaning if our defenders stick to him he'll never have a chance to win aerial battles and his mediocre anticipation means he won't often get a jump on our defenders.

Next season I'll cover instructions for our players, but those are decidedly more straightforward. I wouldn't be setting opposition instructions now if it weren't for having a good tactical coach who can help me with it.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Lewis, Garuti, Simpson (c), Holland, Bailey, Coulson, Gorman.
Subs: Love, Peters, Poole, Tedesco, Shirra, Rainey, Pym.

Novak breaks away in the 15th minute and but Holland catches up to him and attacks the ball from the side with a hard tackle in the penalty area. The ref gives the penalty, but not the card, which causes Giuseppe Garuti to curse him out. That draws a card. Higgs saves the penalty, which is I think the first time we've had a keeper save a penalty outside of a PK shootout. Five minutes later Harrison has the announcers drooling, scoring a goal they fall over themselves to call “pure inspiration.” The goal deserves the praise, he ran onto it like a starving wolf onto a lost lamb, and fired it on the first touch past the diving keeper to pong off both the far post and the crossbar. The pass to set up the goal was a perfectly weighted ball from Bailey, who gets just his third assist of the season in his 13th match.

Holland is involved in another altercation just two minutes after Harrison's goal, injuring Wolves left winger. Still no cards except for the one to Garuti, this ref is letting us get away with near murder. Wolves equalize from a corner after the half, but Harrison hits back ten minutes later with his second goal. He appears well and truly back, and just at the moment we needed him most. We can't stop Wolves from earning another equalizer from a corner, and we walk away from the match with a point. It's good to see Harrison return to form, and just as pleasing to see Bailey deliver both assists. Our instructions for Novak worked well, holding him to a 6.5 rating.

In the postmatch screen I notice that the ref is being heavily questioned about his decision to give a penalty, but I don't get a chance to put him on blast as there is no press conference. Higgs once again saves us a point, he's now +2 this season.

Man of the Match: Billy the Kid




Wolves 2-2 Wrexham



Joy, Mujkic has two to four additional games now that Australia is done stomping on the likes of Laos.



Translation key:

Miquel Merino = Juan Mata (still being awesome for Chelsea)
Fran Abarzuza = Sergio Ramos
Matias Mercado = Erik Lamela (Clearly an alternate universe since he was great at Tottenham in 2013-2014 and then bought up for £44m by Real Madrid in 2014)
Joaquin Morales = Lionel Messi
Ante Rezic = Luka Modric
Cristian Reartes = Lucas Romero (In real life a 19 year old defensive midfielder for Argentina's Velez)

Four of those players are on Real Madrid. Real Madrid are playing a galacticos game right now, and it's gotten them an easy Champion's League knockout round berth in a group that includes Napoli and Arsenal, and top spot in La Liga. Meanwhile, Barcelona must have finally had those tax evasion problems catch up to them, they're in 9th place. They're below Osasuna!



I can live with that draw. But someone's going home angry from the Arsenal/Man U match.




That's two whiny players.



Those two in the team of the week brings back fond memories.

vs. Wigan Athletic, December 4, 2018
Championship


We beat the Latics way back when we played them in the Capital One Cup as a League Two team. Surely we can beat them now that we're in the same league as them?

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Peters, Lewis, Poole, Garuti, Simpson (c), Djurovic, Tedesco, Rainey, Gorman, Harrison.
Subs: Love, Mejasic, Vaillant, Troelsen, Shirra, Coulson, Pym.

The ref is handing out cards like candy, only ten fouls between two teams in first half and yet there's 4 yellow cards. Wigan scored in the third minute, but we came right back to take a hold of the game. Poole tied the game for us and Harrison gave us the lead. Due to the strict refereeing I warn Peters and Simpson to watch their step in the second half to avoid a second card. Upon hearing my warning Simpson makes a beeline to the nearest Wigan player and commits a terrible, stupid foul that should never have been a yellow but thanks to this prissy ref results in his ejection. Thus we're forced to play a man down for the final 40 minutes of the game. Wigan beats us around for the next forty minutes, the game ends with an intense flurry of chances that Wigan can't quite put away. We escape with the win, but it was an incredibly close run thing thanks to Simpson getting himself ejected.




Wrexham 2-1 Wigan




I warned you to be careful not ten minutes before you picked up that yellow card!




Simpson knows what he did. It does bring our total to three whiners on the season.

At Chesterfield, December 8, 2018
Championship


If we don't win, we're leaving points on the table. Chesterfield is the worst team in the league on talent. So, we'll probably botch this.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Vaillant, Garuti, Troelsen, Bailey, Shirra, Coulson, Gorman, Harrison (c).
Subs: Love, Mejasic, Lewis, Holland, Tedesco, Rainey, Pym.

Harrison misses an early chance to put us on top, but he atones after Bailey wins a ball at midfield, gets it to him, and he sends it ahead to a flying Gorman. Gorman's shot is a thing of beauty, beating the keeper towards the far post, rattling off the woodwork and into the net. Bailey and Harrison combine less than five minutes later for another lovely bit of one touch play that springs Coulson, and Coulson seizes the opportunity, staying on his feet despite a hard challenge from Chesterfield's left back in the penalty area and pummeling the ball home. Our horrific defense on set pieces undoes all of our fine work, though, and we let Chesterfield pull even in the 38th minute.

We retake the lead after the half on a corner kick where Gorman gathers the clearance and passes it smoothly to the waiting Coulson who doesn't miss his opportunity to bag a brace of goals. It's only a one goal lead, but the third goal deflates Chesterfield. We put an exclamation point on our dominance when Stewart Lewis is free in front of the net after a throw in near the Chesterfield byline, he socks home the dagger and we walk away with a dominant victory. None of our men are player of the match, though, that honor going to the Chesterfield centerback who scored their two goals.




Chesterfield 2-4 Wrexham



Seriously, if someone can recommend good tactics to defend corners, I'm all ears. This has been a persistent problem.



Last January I pointed out how few yellow cards we had.



That's not the case anymore. Since we've become more confident as an attacking team I've been increasing how much we hassle opposing players. This leads to us winning balls in advantageous parts of the field, but has also caused us to leap up the list of most carded teams. We're really playing English football now. Run up and down the field for 90 minutes knocking the ball across and snapping someones leg off at the knee with a tackle. I should be the English manager, I'd be beloved. The Prodigal Yank they'd call me.



Four! Four whiny players! Ah-ha-ha-ha.




(As an aside to the audience) Actually, I'm starting to dream big. Back to back to back promotions. But it's unwise to promise what I might not be able to deliver.



Stop taunting me with this information.



It's been a while since Coulson was in a team of the week. His contract is up at the end of the year, so this is the end of his run with us. He's been a part of every season since we were in the Skrill Premier.



I wish I had some sense of how these elections were likely to turn out.



And now we're lacking someone who's comfortable at left wing.

At Sheffield United, December 15, 2018
Championship


Sheffield United is not to be confused with local nemesis Sheffield Wednesday. United was formed late in the 19th century, and were early giants of English Football, winning four FA Cups and the top division title before 1925. Their glory is mostly in their past. They've made a single cameo for a season in the Premier League in 2006-2007, and also made it to the semifinals in the real life 2014 FA Cup, so the dream of future glory is still alive. They're in 9th place this season, so they won't be as easy to boss around as Chesterfield.

Also, their famous team song is allegedly “The Greasy Chip Butty Song.” It has it's own Wikipedia page. With references.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Vaillant, Todd, Lewis, Garuti, Simpson (c), Holland, Djurovic, Coulson, Pym, Harrison.
Subs: Love, Peters, Poole, Troelsen, Bailey, Rainey, Shirra.

Pym looks awkward playing left wing, but he and Harrison are the only ones who can play the role with any type of grace. He misses on our first real chance late in the first half. Sheffield haven't been that much better, but they were able to take the lead in the waning moments before half-time, so we're down one. I swap Harrison and Pym in the left wing and striker positions, hoping that will help both of them. It doesn't, with Harrison missing an easy goal of his own in the 73rd minute. It's grating that we can't come away with points given that Sheffield failed to cash their chips in front of our net as well. I realize I'm being greedy, we're five games through our Mujkic-less run, and we've only lost one. If you had offered me three wins and a draw from all nine games without Mateo, I'd have taken that deal immediately.




Sheffield United 1-0 Wrexham



I've been regularly disappointed with Gorman. He has pretty good stats, but his performance has never lived up to expectation. Part of the reason is my playing him out of position, he's an attacking central midfielder and not a natural on the wings, but the other half I now realize is because he's left footed and I keep playing him on the right wing opposite Mujkic. He's been very good in Meteor's absence, and having him stricken with the flu was likely the difference between victory and defeat last game.



I've been getting these questions every month or so for about two years now. It's why I'm so determined to keep renegotiating his contract, if he were still on his original we would have saved a moderate amount on wages but he would have been snapped up by this point.



The downside of having African players is that they leave your team for up to a month in January every two years for the Cup of Nations. While this is an inconvenience many of them will be back well before the February final as Africa has a whole host of excellent teams and your players probably won't win it.



It's also a very prestigious international trophy, standing behind just the European Championships and the Copa America of South America, so having your players called up is much different than Australia using a sledgehammer to kill flies. It's been held twice since the game started, with Cote d'Ivoire and Angola winning.



NO! NOOOOOOOOOOO!

The Asian Cup is the Asian equivalent of the Euro Championships. I don't have the option of pulling him from the national team. Australia should be contenders for the trophy, along with Iran, Qatar, Japan, and South Korea. This is the pits. He'll miss an additional four to six games, and his only appearance over the course of almost three months will be the January 5th FA Cup match with Leyton Orient. At least the continental championship is only contested once every four years, so this won't be a yearly affair.



You picked the wrong time to come to me about this, Higgs. The conversation is exactly the same as the Todd conversation, one weakness of Football Manager is that they don't have a ton of flavor text options, so you find yourself repeating conversations. It's a niggling gripe, but you'll understand it after saying the same damn thing in every team pep talk over the course of hundreds of matches.

This makes five complaining players on the season, for those of you keeping track at home.



Wrexham Training Facilities
8am, December 22, 2018

(COACH turns on the lights to the yoga room and sees MUJKIC on a mat in downward facing dog)

: Oh, g'day coach! Just thought I'd get in early so I could have the place to myself. I like to get some alone time to be able to focus on my forms, y'know?

: Buh. Huh. Uh, How?

(MUJKIC moves from downward facing dog to a standing forward bend)

: It's no problem in the dark, yeh? It's all about my mind being one with my body and all that. I'm really glad you had us all start doing this. Not gonna lie, I thought it was for galahs at first but it's great. Anyways, could you shut off the light on your way out? The sun's coming up and I like watching the light come through the windows.

: Oh. Uh, yeah. OK.

(COACH turns on his heel and walks out)

I have no idea why Mujkic is back at the club. The ASEAN Cup isn't over yet, the ridiculous two game final doesn't even start until tomorrow. My guess is that the ASEAN Cup is set to use Australia's B team, but given that their B team is terrible a lot of their best players get stuck on it. When their coach selected the team for the Asian Cup it removed Mujkic from the ASEAN roster. Since it's not intended to work like that Mujkic just reappeared in Wrexham, fit and ready to play.



Nope, Mujkic is still listed as selected for Australia's next match. Maybe he exists in two places at once? I'll see what happens in Australia's next game. This has the potential to get annoying. I once had a player go on international duty for Argentina's B team. He didn't come back for three months due to a bug. I had to manually take control of the Argentina team by adding a human manager in order to free him from limbo.

vs. Birmingham City, December 22, 2018
Championship


I decided to roll right on through to the new year rather than having a four match update. This will take us just past the halfway point of the season. We've got four holiday season matches, the first of which is Birmingham here. And Mujkic is back! I'm so excited I set us on the attack.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack.
Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Lewis, Garuti, Troelsen, Shirra, Djurovic, Coulson, Mujkic!, Harrison (c).
Subs: Love, Mejasic, Vaillant, Simpson, Tedesco, Gorman, Pym.

Birmingham are in fine fettle, and drag us up and down the pitch the first half. It's less than ten minutes before it's obvious that attacking is futile at the moment and I switch us to our counter strategy. Only Birmingham's fecklessness keeps it nil-nil, but we are able to escape into the locker room so that I can tell them to stop playing as if they're hungover, or if they are hungover to suck it up. But our continuing poor play requires a triple substitution at the hour mark, changing our entire right flank. Any chance we had of stealing the three points vanishes with Scott Shirra's outline descending into the locker room early after he picks up his second yellow card of the day in the 83rd minute. We're able to scratch out the draw, but in truth deserved nothing.




Wrexham 0-0 Birmingham




You need to nip this type of behavior in the bud. Shirra's 18 now, and has played in 9 games for us. He's held his own, which is a good sign. But the last thing you want is a young player getting comfortable with earning a lot of cautions, it's hard to break bad habits once they're entrenched.



If you're wondering how I've found so many players, that ought to clear things up. And I have another eleven scouts doing the same thing. A strong scouting department is the foundation of a growing lower level team.



Wrexham Head Coaches Office
7pm, December 23, 2018

(COACH is clicking through cat photos on his laptablet, the latest computer craze that combines a tablet computer with the fabric in the lap of a pair of pants, when ASS MAN PAUL WILLIAMS pokes his head through the doorway)

: Hey boss, I'm heading out. Just thought I'd drop off the latest international update about Mateo's performance in the Thailand versus Australia match.

(COACHES head swivels up abruptly, tearing his eyes away from his lap where a SON OF MARU vinegifsnapr showing the feline attempting to sit in ever smaller boxes while the caption “IF IT FITS I SITS” repeats constantly)

: Mujkic? He played in Thailand today?!

: (Slightly confused) Uh, yeah. It was the first match of that stupid home and away final they have.

: (Glassy eyed) Uh. Ok. Thanks... Thanks for keeping me updated. Merry Christmas.

: (Cheerily) You too boss!

(Camera pulls back through the doorframe, showing COACH sitting dazedly, fade to black)

I think I might be hallucinating that Mujkic is on the team. Maybe that's why we had such a hard time against Birmingham, we only fielded 10 men and everyone is so confident in me they just went along with it. I could have had a psychotic break with reality and no one's brought it to my attention.



Higgs complaining reminded me that his contract is up at the end of the year. And that the Rangers of Glasgow are interested in him. Scotland counts as a foreign country when it comes to signing pre-contracts, if we'd gotten to the new year Rangers could have signed him without paying us anything. I gave him a two year extension at £5,250 a week.

vs. Sunderland, December 26, 2018
Championship


This match doesn't have nearly the drama it would have if their old coach hadn't jumped ship. Instead it's just us playing another team that's climbed towards the top of the league. I'm leaving Mujkic out of the team today. If he's real we play again before Australia's final game with Thailand on New Years day and he'll be better rested. If he isn't we won't be playing with 10 men.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack.
Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Poole, Mejasic, Simpson (c), Bailey, Tedesco, Rainey, Gorman, Pym.
Subs: Love, Garuti, Vaillant, Holland, Djurovic, Coulson, Harrison.

We're the better team in the first half, but it's Sunderland who holds the lead thanks to a free kick that we just don't wall off. Our worst performer is Tom Pym, who also incurred a minor injury just as the half closed. But everyone has been disappointing, there's not a single bright spot, and we've been kept from crushing Sunderland under our heel due to multiple small breakdowns. When Pym misses yet another easy opportunity less than five minutes into the second half I yank him for Harrison, and ten minutes later I yank Rainey and Tedesco for ineffectiveness as well. So it's Coulson on the receiving end of a Gorman cross, and he hits the ball on the bounce for a narrow angle shot that raps off the far post and into the goal. Tie game. Simpson has to be helped off the field with ten minutes to play, and our position is put in doubt as I had already used all three substitutions, leaving us with ten men and the missing one not being a possibly spectral Meteor. Even depleted we can keep Sunderland from stealing the point from us, however, and the curtain is drawn on a match we were unlucky not to win.




Wrexham 1-1 Sunderland



Our 19 year old Keeper of the Future would be best served by getting some playing time. But I'm puzzled to see Leeds asking for him, I don't know why they'd want him. I guess I'll give it a shot, the worst that happens is that he sits on Leeds bench instead of mine, and that they pay for his salary.



Simpson and Holland both have one year extensions I can trigger, and I probably will just so I could sell them rather than have them leave on a free. Poole's out. Coulson's out. Baker's out. Walsh can retire to a life of breaking his foot every time he stubs his toe. Johnson probably gets an extension, as does Walley. That just leaves Bailey... who I'll probably end up extending to avoid the potential of a riot.



The Racecourse Grounds Locker Room
2:30pm, December 29, 2018

(COACH strides into the locker room, looking visibly discombobulated)

: Has anyone seen or heard from Mujkic? The game starts in half an hour!

: What are you talking about? Mateo's in Australia. He's been there for a month. You've been complaining about it ever since.

: Are you alright coach?

: (A long moment passes while COACH looks owlishly at BAILEY and HARRISON) Yeah. Yeah. Just. Haha. A joke. About how long he's been gone. (The COACH exhales heavily) Whew. Thank goodness he gets back after new years, if even just for a few days.

: No, I was talking to him via SkypeSpring the other night, his coach didn't want all the players who played outside of Australia having to take two really long flights in ten days, so he just rolled one callup into the next. He says he might not be back here until mid-February.

(Zoom in on COACH's eyes, one twitches uncontrollably)

: Wonderful... I'll... be right back.

(COACH marches purposefully towards his office, once he's gone LEWIS peaks around his locker)

: So, how mad do you think he'll be when he finds out we drank his emergency scotch?

vs. Fulham, December 29, 2018
Championship


Way to rub it in, match prediction. I'm back to being extremely pissed at all things Australian. This is what I get for signing a wunderkind from a nation that can't even kill a few emus.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Attack
Starting 11: Higgs, Peters, Lewis, Vaillant, Garuti, Troelsen, Shirra, Djurovic, Coulson, Gorman, Harrison (c).
Subs: Love, Mejasic, Poole, Simpson, Tedesco Rainey, Pym.

Gorman puts us ahead from a corner that bounces directly from the head of a defender to his feet. Fulham match that with an excellent volleyed goal struck from outside the penalty area to tie the game late in the first half. Harrison unfortunately appears to be back to his habit of missing easy chances, but at the same time Fulham is wasting a lot of chances to make us pay for defensive miscues making us pay. I give the order to pull Coulson, who's been subpar to this point, but just seconds prior to coming off he lobs a soft cross with perfect timing to the feet of Harrison near the penalty spot. This time Harrison doesn't miss. It proves to be the final word.

Man of the Match: Ryan Gorman




Wrexham 2-1 Fulham



He's just piling up the trophies now. It's a pity we'll never get to see them because Australia has decided to nationalize their soccer players like the old USSR.



These goals are works of art. I've uploaded both Harrison's runner up and Coulson's winner to Youtube for your viewing enjoyment.



Coulson's a limited player, but he has the capacity to score some amazing goals.

At Bristol City , January, 2019
Championship


Bristol are just ahead of us on the table. We beat them for our first win in a match we didn't really deserve to take all the points from, so they'll be smarting to return the favor to us. We're playing remarkably well, however, so no reason to go le grand autobus. I am going to be rotating players, though. We have our FA Cup match in four days and a deep cup run would do club finances a world of good, and mean that I have to consider selling fewer players.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Siegrist, Todd, Poole, Garuti, Holland (c), Bailey, Tedesco, Rainey, Coulson, Pym.
Subs: Love, Mejasic, Vaillant, Simpson, Shirra, Gorman, Harrison.

Conceding within the first five minutes was not in my gameplan. Stymieing them for the next half hour was, however, and when Poole knocks in a Bailey corner kick it gets us right back into it despite being pressed hard the entire match. Bristol City continue to whack away at our defense, and if they had some better finishing they'd have retaken the the lead. Nevertheless, the next goal comes against the run of play, the fruit of a lovely team effort after a throw-in deep in Bristol City territory between Bailey, Rainey, and Coulson. We can't hold the lead, and Bristol avoid humiliation at home when they score in the closing minutes. Given how much they dominated the game they have to be kicking themselves after this result, whereas I'm perfectly fine with earning a draw.

Man of the Match: Michael Coulson




Bristol City 2-2 Wrexham



Australia outscored their opponents 27-4 during the nine game tournament. Really didn't need your first team, guys. Though they're probably very well acquainted going into the Asian Cup, so maybe that was their coaches plan all along. They play Iran, Qatar, and Thailand in their Asian Cup starting group, the last game is on January 21st and I'm hoping they don't advance. I am damn sure never letting Mujkic play in friendlies for them.



Speaking of Mujkic, I've decided that I must have actually been hallucinating about his return, it's just that I've returned to untouchable status and everyone is too afraid of spooking me and ending the spell of brilliant madness that engulfs our small town in northern Wales.



I considered bringing this up for a vote, but chose not to as there's no option to let me push for promotion. It would be extremely unwise to spend even more in seeking a mere top half finish. Besides, I don't need more players right now. I need the players I have to keep improving like they have been for the last four months.



If you told me at the start of the prior update that I'd have to play eight of nine games without Mujkic, I'd have said that our best possible result would be to win three, lose three, and draw three. Instead we won four, drew four, and lost just one. We've lost only three of our last eighteen matches. Getting through the next month, especially advancing in the FA Cup, will still be hard without the Meteor. But I think we can do it, and I think the team is starting to believe we can do it. I'm going to push as hard as possible for the promised land. We may fall short this year. If we do we'll be eminently well placed to crash through the gates next year.