Part 182: Chapter the Second: I need a vacation from my summer vacation.

Chapter the Second: I need a vacation from my summer vacation.
August 1, 2025-September 11, 2025

After all those National Team matches, I need reminding that I have a club to attend to as well. I'm actually looking forward to November, the Wrexham friendlies and season opening combined with the international fixtures means I'll have coached something like 35 matches in the last 10 weeks. If I were a player I'd have an orange status indicator saying “Tired and in need of a long rest.”

As AJ_Impy demanded, Project: Arsenepunked has resulted in a net loss of £181m for the North London club. They currently sit at -£100,000,000. While this is going to hurt them a lot in the future, I'm not sure it'll have the desired effect this season. Arsenal finished only five points back of United last season, and spent £100m in June to bring in three world class players in Bayern's Johann Collin and Santiago Pedrozo, and our Matty Collett. I think they're going to be better this season than last, and they were already very, very good.

The lucre has been shifted, as requested, to Reading, Southampton, and Tackleford, giving them each another £27m to play with.



Ok, I'm not quite done with the National Team. I also have the U20s to manage. Quarterfinals or bust!



City are transfer listing their unhappy players, but unwilling to accept offers for them. Castillo would be a good fit as a backup midfielder to put some steel in our spine, so I can at least play footsie with him to the detriment of his relationship with his club.



We scored so many goals that I had to combine two screenshots to get the recap all in one picture. If this were indicative of Welsh performance against the English back in the middle ages the whole of Great Britain would be speaking a different tongue.



The U20 World Cup is off to a good start, despite lacking two of our brightest young talents in Rodrigo Moctezuma and Paul Barrett we handily see off a squad of mini-Cristiano Ronaldos.



Big spending from Sky Shadowing with the Arsenal largess. Not so much the transfer fee but the whopping £120k/wk wages.



I'm not sure how we managed to keep a clean sheet, but we jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half and Morocco was never in the match. We've qualified for the knockout round with a game in hand, the next match will be as desultory and dull an affair as I can manage in order to conserve our strength.



I'm pretty sure the game is just messing with me at this point. Or someone is stalking American players and knifing them.



Hold onto Jenkins, AJ_Impy. He's got four star potential for Wrexham, and is only 22.



I sent the kids out there with instructions to waste time and take it easy from the start, and we still jumped out to a two-nil lead. We had a pretty easy group, but I'm starting to dream of a deep run after the performances thus far.



We have no business not making the semifinals, all three of the nations we faced in the group stage are superior to the Omani team. Of course, that was true two years ago when a bunch of Hondurans punked us on penalties.

vs Manchester United, August 10, 2025
Community Shield


2025 has been a fallow year for Wrexham, and this is our only chance to change that. Ryan McLeod is now a “wily old” head coach, I wonder what the requirements for that epithet are.

Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Quiboulaz, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal, Taborda, Stringel, Mujkic (c), Thiago.
Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Hammatt, Tounkara, Allan, Damgaard, Parr.

It's the same old story. We show mastery over every aspect of the game but scoring goals. We have fourteen shots to United's one in the first half, but they've been low percentage efforts with only one half-chance apiece. At the hour mark I make a change, moving Stringel up top to replace Thiago and bringing Allan. That proves to be our undoing. Just afterward United hit us on the break with their third shot of the day. It wakes the Devils up, and we can do nothing but gape in response. The match will be described as a tale of two halves, we may have had fourteen shots to their one in the first half, but managed two to their seven in the second.

Man of the Match: Jonathan Quiboulaz




Wrexham 0-1 Man United



Holy moley. Leinard has requested to be transfer listed four times this summer. He keeps demanding to be listed, City lists him, Juve makes an offer, and City rejects it. Last time Juventus was offering £37m. Suffice to say this blows that offer out of the water.



Ok, this is just getting silly.



This offer also gets refused. Patrick Pattison retired at just the right time, and I don't envy his replacement.

Claus Damgaard


You might be wondering why I haven't been more active in the transfer market, given that we're sitting on over £100m. It's because our youth system has been paying dividends, and I'm ready to give some of them shots as backups to the first team. Damgaard is one of the three promoted teenagers, a major talent who got off on the extremely wrong foot with me almost as soon as he put his bags down upon arrival. He's no Mujkic, but he's good enough to start for most midtable teams and play a backup role for us.

David Maloney


Enrique


The other two are defensive midfielders, Scotsman David Maloney and Spaniard Enrique. If one of them develops our days of yearning for a proper midfield water-carrier will finally be over. I'd say Enrique has a leg up in that department as his defensive skills are more developed than Maloney, but he's such a fraidy-cat that even the Cowardly Lion thinks he's a wimp.



That was much, much closer than I'd have liked. Oman dragged us to extra time with the score nil-nil, and after we finally took the lead were able to equalize despite being down a man due to injury. We're into the quarterfinals, something England couldn't accomplish. Next up, Holland.



: My son! They've killed my son!

: Daaaad, I'm fine. Stop embarrassing me in front of the whole team!



I wonder how much of our new 39,500 seat stadium we're going to fill. 28k a game isn't horrible, we rank about 15th in the league in average attendance, but a 40% increase in stadium income would be very welcome.



: Coach, I think there's something wrong with my heel.

(MUJKIC's heel is clearly swollen and damaged)

: Oh fuck.

At Queens Park Rangers, August 16, 2025
Premier League


Well, we won't have our best creative player back until mid-November. Taborda and Parr can handle the job fine, when they're healthy. That could be a problem, seeing as Taborda isn't exactly a brick house and Parr breaks bones punching wet cardboard.

Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Hammatt, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal (c), Taborda, Stringel, Damgaard, Thiago.
Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Quiboulaz, Tounkara, Bailey, Allan, Parr.

Our second winger goes down in as many days when Taborda is injured in the 20th minute. It looks like it might be a bad one. Parr comes in for him and scores our first goal of the season. Then Hammatt gets injured in the 34th minute, another bad looking knock, and at this rate we're going to have six players stretchered off by the time the match ends. QPR apologizes for dinging up our players by scoring an own goal in stoppage time to give us a well earned 2-0 lead.

No one gets hurt in the second half, except for perhaps the ref getting blinded during the break. We have three goals disallowed in the second half, two from Stringel and one from Parr. All three were definitely onside, the ref must have put money on the under. That infelicitous refereeing merely keeps us from a greater margin of victory.

Man of the Match: Steve Reed




QPR 0-2 Wrexham




We have plenty of depth at centerback to cover for the injury to Hammatt, but Taborda is going to have to grit through the next match as only Parr and Damgaard are naturals on the wings, and it's crazy to expect Parr to stay healthy for more than a week at a time. I can play Stringel out wide in an emergency, he's certainly got the attributes for it, but with two weeks off come September I feel comfortable asking Taborda to stick a needle in his ass and play.



Speaking of injury woes, the U20 squad is through to the semifinal after nipping the Dutch despite my having to leave a spot open on our bench due to not having enough healthy players. I'm not sure how we're going to play two more matches (the Semi and then either the Final or the Third Place match) with yet another injury cropping up in this match, but we've achieved my stretch goals for the club despite pervasive poor health.



With Mujkic out for a third of the season we needed someone who could step in and fill the void, especially given how often Parr and Taborda are on the shelf, and given that Damgaard is a 19 year old who was merely supposed to get some seasoning with the senior team this year. But any like-for-like Meteor substitute would be ruinously expensive and give us the problem of not having a place to play one of them when our captain returns from injury.

Mattias Mercado
Attacking Midfielder


Enter four time (and reigning) Ballon d'Or winner Mattias Mercado. He's starting to fade in his old age and his skills are showing a smidgen of decline, but he was incredibly cheap because apparently Real Madrid has zero loyalty to their icons. He can play on both wings, and even though he's got huge wages the low transfer fee and short, two year contract means his contract will never become an albatross. And in the meantime we get to say we signed the best player of a generation.



Attaboy, Meteor. You know you're irreplaceable.




Allan, on the other hand...



You brat. Did you even notice where he's going to play?



I'm flabbergasted. We didn't just squeak by Uruguay, we pasted them like Wrexham pastes relegation bait. We outshot them 23-2, and both of their shots were from long range. The kids are competing to lift the U20 World Cup in three days time, by far the most impressive performance by a bunch of young Americans in soccer and a sign of a bright horizon. It's going to take some doing to get past Argentina in the final, but anything can happen in a single match.




Or not. We're now without a goalkeeper after Appleby pounded his leg so hard in celebration that the resulting charlie horse forced him onto crutches.



We're not at the point yet where we can let players leave on free transfers for nothing, and Petts was never a core part of the team like Shirra or Mujkic or Bailey that I'll keep around for sentimental purposes. Still, he was a loyal servant for six years.

vs Arsenal, August 23, 2025
Premier League


Arsenal may be broke, but they haven't sold off any pieces yet. I've checked their Financial Fair Play status and it doesn't look like they'll earn a continental ban next season, so AJ_Impy might need another crack at destroying them.

Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Quiboulaz, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal (c), Mercado, Stringel, Taborda, Thiago.
Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Tounkara, Bailey, Allan, Damgaard, Parr.

The Turk is everywhere in the early going, but his efforts go unrewarded. Instead Mattias Mercado shows our kids how it's done with a very well taken goal in the 35th minute. Arsenal create chances on the break in the second half, but Minami swats them away like flies. It's looking like a confident, competent 1-0 victory built upon a well taken chance and stern defense into stoppage time, when it becomes a confident, competent 2-0 victory as Laux punctuates the finish with our second goal.

Man of the Match: Matthias Laux




Wrexham 2-0 Arsenal



A decade's absence makes the heart grow fonder?



We played well, and it was a tie game with 35 minutes left. A win would have been super sweet, but I think we can call this an undeniable success.



Bah, you're just bitter because we beat Oman.



Plus, we're the kindest, gentlest kids out there. And that's what really matters.



I'm canceling those September matches. The players are pooped and need a rest.



Losing to Luton Town, AJ_Impy? Oy vey, that's even worse than Wrexham losing to Chesterfield!



Poor Rangers. I don't know that they'll take a single point. And one of us, Real Madrid, or Roma are going to be hard done by getting bounced to the Europa League. Most likely Roma, but any of us could stumble into the Europa League if we're not careful.



A simple enough task, it's unlikely the referees call off three legitimate goals twice in a row.

At Tottenham Hotspur, August 30, 2025
Premier League


Hope springs eternal for Spurs. Maybe this will be the year that they finally escape the twilight zone of not quite mediocrity.

Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Quiboulaz, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal (c), Parr, Stringel, Mercado, Thiago.
Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Tounkara, Maloney, Bailey, Damgaard, Allan.

After 20 minutes I can say that it's official, Thiago is mired in a slump. He hasn't scored in the last two matches, and he misses an absolute sitter here. To make matters worse, Stringel has also gone cold. Between the two of them we're missing a big part of our offensive engine. We keep the clean sheet, in no small part thanks to the brilliance of Kôjirô Minami, but it's less than a month into the season and we've dropped points. This will not do.

Man of the Match: James Loseille




Tottenham 0-0 Wrexham



We're already chasing United.



At least James Loseille, Le Petit Roi, looks ready to make everyone forget about Taffarel.



Turns out our emphasis on youth signings is now producing plenty of players who qualify as having been homegrown at Wrexham, including Loseille and our backup keeper Lajos Kocsis. That allows us to register all of our senior team and several youth squad players for the Champions League. I'm sure the Sun sports section is xenophobically ranting about how we have too many foreigners on the club and how we're what's wrong with soccer today.



I am going to be so happy in just over a month when my international duties are at an end. Hunter Fisher is auditioning for the role of captain, and doesn't make a hash of his first team talk.



We were execrable against South Korea. This is by no means our A team, but if we play like this at the World Cup we're going out in the group stage. Against Hungary, however, we put on an all around better performance and won 1-0.



These were very Jekyll and Hyde friendlies for the US, and the most disappointing takeaway is that 19 year old midfielder Xavier Hughes played poorly in both games. He probably won't be ready for a major role next summer.

USMNT



I'm really, really happy with how we did in the U20 World Cup. We had injuries that kept all but a handful of our best young players from participating in most of the matches, and we still marched straight to the finals. I also can't complain about the senior team's split decision, with a B squad losing to the 36th ranked team and beating the 18th ranked one.

Wrexham


Well, our defense is stout. We're treating good teams like chew toys. When Thiago and String find their stroke, it's going to be a bloodbath. That being said, I don't like United already up two points on us. I believe that we're the finest team in the world, but we may only be first among equals given what the Red Devils pulled off in the league last season.