Part 132: Prologue: Depth charged.

Volume Ten: Two Hats
Prologue: Depth charged.
June 9, 2022-July 2, 2022

I signed a bunch of youth prospects, right? They should be showing up right around-










Ah, there they are. If and when they break into the first team I'll talk more about them, but we essentially restored our youth system to full capacity in March. Aymen Ayari, a French striker, and Enrique, a Spaniard who came up playing defensive midfield, look like the pick of the litter. Jose Reis, on the other hand, might not have been such a good pickup. He was originally scouted at four star potential, but the Ass Man doesn't think he's close to that big a talent.



World Cup mania kicks off in Qatar! Made possible by over 4,000 dead slaves. Turkey rolls over New Zealand in the first match, capped by a hat trick from star striker Adnan Özpoyraz. He had to come out of the game due to injury, though...



Poor guy. Scored a hat trick, will probably miss the rest of the World Cup. I wonder how England and the US are doing so far.



Goddamnit, England.



Goddamnit, USA.



Taffarel has been on my radar for three years now. He's an excellent attacking right back, and the only reason I haven't signed him is because he's not eligible for a work permit. I don't know who Argentina has at right back on their national team, but I can't believe that this guy hasn't gotten capped yet. Now Marseilles are going to swoop in and take him, and we'll never be able to pry him away at a reasonable price.



La Liga better watch out, another year where Serie A outperforms them in Europe and they'll drop down to third most prestigious league. We'd better watch out, too, Chelsea may have won the Europa League, but England failed to place any team in the semi-finals of the Champions League.



We added the 7th most points to our Euro coefficient, the number used to decide seeding in continental competitions, last year. Unfortunately, we're starting from zero, so we're still extremely far down the list when it comes to seeding. We're going to be at best a third seed when they pull the groups for this year's Champions League, meaning we could end up in a group of death.



Shirra, Todd, O'Hanlon, Dixon, and Argenti all qualify as home grown from our club, while with the addition of Hammatt and Reed we've got plenty of players who came up playing for English FA affiliated clubs. This means we can field a full 25 man roster in continental competitions, and gives us the depth we'll need to absorb injuries and fatigue.




He got a bump in mental stats, but his personality regressed from Model Professional to merely Professional. It's a trade I'm willing to make, but I'll definitely be more cautious when I assign tutors in the future.



Oh yes...




I know, I can't believe they let him go so cheaply. They have an excellent right winger in Anton Leadbitter, but he's getting long in the tooth and Parr still oozes potential. Parr got sick and tired of playing a backup role at Manchester United, so they sold him to us. It's a record transfer on our part, but it's totally worth it. With Parr and Nieddu we've got two players who could play for any team in the world on our right wing.

Shahed Parr
Right Winger


I've been stalking Parr since I was at Tackleford, he came into the Derby youth system a Championship quality player at 16. His development has had some setbacks due to injury, his only real weakness has been minor nagging health issues that have cost him a month here and there, but even so he's going to be a great compliment to Nieddu on the flank. If he can stay healthy he'll become one of the best players in the world. And he's mine. All mine!



Mateo needs better influence chops, he's only at 13 Leadership, but as one of the best players at the club everyone respects him and he's certainly got the right level of determination for the job.



Worth it.



Our youth prospects continue to pay dividends. Alvaro could have had a role with the first team, but wanted £15k a week for his services on a new contract. I'd rather repair the large dent I put in the club's balance sheet by moving him. We're bringing in over £10m in transfer fees from Mejasic, Alvaro, and Matko, that will only increase as I sell off other unneeded pieces.



Hey, Tom Pym is still kicking about. We get a chunk of this thanks to an old clause in his transfer deal.



We finally beat Ghana! USA! USA! USA! I'm surprised anyone can play in the heat, what temperature does the game think it is?



There is no way it was only 89 degrees Fahrenheit during the Qatar summer. Does FM14 think they really built air conditioned stadiums?



Patrice becomes the third Wrexham player to stride the pitch during a World Cup game, following Bastable and Meteor.



PSG offered me £29m for Nieddu. I turned them down, Nieddu is a great player and worth more than that to us. But Nieddu, being the ambitious little twerp that he is, is very upset with me that I didn't let him go. Now that we have Parr we don't absolutely need Nieddu, and if anyone is willing to pay us £40m for him I can definitely find another top quality right winger to replace him.



I reject his transfer list demand, but do put an offer out to clubs that he's available for £40m.




Ikeda will be the first player we send to Serbia in order to get around work permit requirements. He'll spend three years there, but won't actually be eligible to join us until the winter window. He's got all the potential in the world, hopefully he blossoms in Nis. When signing a player you're shipping to another country for work permit reasons, make absolutely sure you appeal the work permit denial. If you don't, the transfer won't be completed and you'll have to go through the bidding process all over again.




We're so close to megabastard-dom.




So very close. Also, wow, that takeover cost Manchester United £400m in value.



Engerlund forever! It's coming home!



I told you this would happen, USA. You could have hired me, and I could have gotten us past the Group stage, but instead you hired some nobody Spaniard and this outcome was foreordained.



Give me the damned job. I'll fix the mess you've made of things.



I clearly deserve it.



Speaking of deserving on the merits, Bastable earned this. I'm so happy we were able to keep him when the big fish started circling 18 months ago.



That's a surprise. El Juez beats out Meteor for the starting spot on the left wing in the fan's team of the year. He didn't play much there, and it's not like Mujkic had anything approaching a bad season.




I wonder how many of these players would have pushed their way into the real life Wrexham best 11. Does our resident Wrexham resident have an opinion?



How are we back in the Community Shield, which pits the winner of the FA Cup against the Winner of the Premier League? Simple, Manchester City won both competitions last year, so second place in the Premier League gets substituted in when that happens. It'll give us a chance to start the season on the right foot, and I'm going to play the match as more than just a final friendly.



It's time to mount a title challenge. Come heavy or not at all.



We signed him on a free transfer two years ago. That's £39m in pure profit.



Nieddu came to us originally after AC Milan released him for nothing, now two years later they paid nearly £40m to bring him back.



Only three more wins and England hoists a second World Cup in three tries. They'll have to get past Brazil in the quarterfinal, though.



That's the second manager who's been fired in a year after I've expressed interest in the job, and for a second time the favorite for the job isn't me. What is wrong with you, USA?



Then hire me already, prats.



Do you want me to beg for the job? Have you that little respect for me?



Arsenal's fifth place finish and lack of Champions League soccer has led to revolt amongst their players. We're able to take the Nieddu transfer haul and spend a portion of it on their very good right winger.

Matty Collett
Right Winger


Neither Collett nor Parr are going to be quite as good as Nieddu was, but combined they give us much more depth and both are capable of improving whereas the preening Italian was at the peak of his potential. We spent £32m on Parr and Collett, so the end result is that we took a slight step back in our first team's firepower while doubling our depth on the right side of the field and pocketed £7m in profit. So long as Collett and Parr are good to very good, we won't miss Nieddu at all.



I'm sure you can convince Collett that living in Wrexham is just as awesome as living in London. I have faith in you.



Jeffries has a two year option I plan on exercising, while “keeper of the future” Novotny and Simoes for sale. That leaves just Bram Aarts, who will get a new deal when his agent stops being a knucklehead.



We're up £2m a year in new sponsorships and the improved training kit deal. With our meteoric rise in reputation, that's an area where we'll see continued revenue growth for the next several years.



Creating shortlists is very useful to keep tabs on players you can't get yet, but want to keep an eye on. There's thousands of players out there, so having all the excellent youth prospects on a shortlist allows the game to remind me when, say, one of them is eligible to sign on a pre-contract.



Damgaard won't be joining us until the winter, we signed him as soon as the six month pre-contract window opened. But he'll add another potential star to our now stuffed youth squad.



Well that's an impressive victory. Maybe it really is coming home.



Mexico also advances into the semis, knocking off Euro champions Denmark in the process. It's the furthest a Mexican team has ever made it in the World Cup despite their long history.




That's a lot of zeros. To be honest, I was a little worried AC Milan would have a liquidity crisis and not be able to complete the Nieddu transfer, which would have left us sitting £24m in the red.



Some of our cast-offs are proving difficult to move.



But not all of them. Jansen didn't develop enough to become a first team option despite playing very well in the Eredivise. With one year left on his contract it was time to cut bait.



Glad to see no one went fat Ronaldo on us:






I've tried everything I can think of to schedule midweek friendlies with MLS teams, but none of them will accept.





We're stuck playing NASL teams, the only one of any repute are the New York Cosmos. At least we can get some beach time in Fort Lauderdale. Pre-season camps are primarily for fitness and team cohesion, but getting some playing time on American soil will help build our reputation there and thus help our merchandising and prestige.



Two years ago I would have accepted this. Now I can just shoo it away. Bastable is far too valuable to us, while Cardozo can certainly fill his shoes and Aarts is only a year away from being a stud in his own right it would be lunacy to sell the best striker in the world for anything less than £80m.



Good run, Woj. You played well all World Cup, and Poland should be proud of you. Now enjoy a week's rest while your teammates are sweating in the New England summer.

Boston, Massachusetts
July 4, 2022

(COACH is talking to assorted MEDIA at BRENDAN BEHANs)

: To sum up, I love this bar. Such a nice, drowsy place. And you can bring your dogs! It's the best place in JP to meet some friends and have a pint.

(COACH's phone begins playing Paparazzi by Duchess, nee Lady, Gaga)

: Hang on, I have to take this... Hello? Ah, Mr. Gulati. Yes. That would be acceptable. I'm glad you've finally seen reason.

(to the table of reporters)

: Gentlemen, I have an announcement to make.