Part 20: Interlude: Wales is OK!
Interlude: Wales is OK!October 24, 2014
We're hired! I manage to negotiate a two year contract at £44,500 a year for myself, so we're now earning more than we had been at Tackleford. Moreover, the contract size in comparison to the team's bank account means we've got a longer leash than we might otherwise have, in stark contrast to the situation in our last job.
It's Wrexham's 150th anniversary, so we should make sure it's memorable. For good reasons, not because I destroyed the team or something.
In time we can hopefully show those wannabes at Swansea and Cardiff City what a true Welsh powerhouse looks like.
Wrexham is in decent, but not great, financial shape. We're losing money at the moment, and I'll be looking to clear some salary space in the upcoming transfer window to improve our budget outlook. We've got over £100,000 in the bank, meaning I should be able to release some staff and bring in replacements.
Wrexham is carrying 60k in loan debt, but that's not going to be a burden. More interestingly, there's going to be a board election on April 4, 2015. I'm not sure exactly what that's going to do, I've never played a team run by a fan trust before, but I'm guessing it might change our board of directors and possibly our Chairman. That would be too bad, I've peaked under the hood at our current Chairman's stats, and he's as good as we could hope for. We also have snazzy uniforms, sponsored by Glyndwr University.
Glyndwr University are also our landlords, owning the Racecourse Grounds. The stadium is in good shape, which is far more than could be said for the old Fig Pole in Tackleford, although like our old stomping grounds the field has already been turned to shit before the end of autumn. It's reasonably large, too, which means we shouldn't have to worry about expansion for a few years. We're only drawing an average of 3,300 fans a game right now, about 40% the amount Tackleford was bringing to the stands.
Wrexham has two affiliates in the Welsh Premier League, Airbus UK and Cefn Druids. They don't cost us anything except a yearly friendly, so I keep the links for now. I also ask the board to find us a parent club, as it certainly can't hurt and if we get it done before the January transfer window closes we might be able to add a couple good loaners for the second half of the season.
Thankfully none of these guys are under contract for longer than next June. Depending on how much mutual termination will cost, I'll probably replace the team physio and the scouts, and I might just sack the lot of them. The first order of business is hiring an Ass Man, however, as we currently do not have one, and without one it's difficult to make a full evaluation of the team.
You also may note that we have a lot of Directors, which comes from being a Fan Trust. I'm happy to use the “Nickname” feature to rename any of them into Goons. That way when one of those directors talks shit to the media about one of our players, I'll know who to blame.
Wrexham's former manager was fired after a poor run of form, but he did beat Tackleford after I'd been sacked, so he couldn't have been all bad. The club is still alive in all three competitions, but sadly Wrexham no longer competes for the Welsh Cup due to UEFA not allowing English league teams to gain Europa League qualification through winning the cup.
We're 11 points back of a playoff spot, and making the playoffs is my goal for this season. If we get promoted to League Two I'll be very happy, but I'm not expecting it and neither is the board.
We have one youth player, Wayne Hennesey, that might amount to something, assuming he stays out of his families blood feud with the Couvoisier clan. We'll have to rebuild our youth team from scratch, which is frustrating considering how we left Tackleford with a jewel of a youth system a few updates ago.
None of these guys are staying, the only question is how quickly I can offload them.
Because we have a Director of Football, we can use him to try and sell off players we don't want rather than having to offer them to teams multiple times ourselves. He'll make offers starting at 100% of their assessed value, and work his way down to the minimum I set. The guys set as listed for nothing are worth less than five figures, and the only guy who might bring back more than pocket change is Derek Murray, who was noted as being a pain in the ass to deal with at my initial press conference.
We have some decent players according to my new Ass Man, Chris Turley. Most of them are on fairly short deals, and the team has no-one near as good as Duchamps, but the team seems to stack up pretty well overall compared to other Skrill Premier sides. The players in blue are loaners, the one concern I have is that all of those loans are due to end before Christmas. It'll free up a bunch of money, we're paying ~£500/wk for each of them, but a few of them are amongst our best players. I'll be trying to extend the Bunel loan, for example.
Goalkeepers
Charlie Nsangou
Sweeper Keeper
Charlie is our 20 year old keeper and possibly the best player on the team. He's been capped by Cameroon at the U-20 level, and he should be pretty solid, although I would like his aerial ability to be higher and I'm concerned about his eccentricity stat. Eccentricity is a goalkeepers likelihood to do something weird, and it's a double edged sword. They might make a save no one else could have because they were playing a hunch, or they could get robbed by the opposing striker because they didn't pick the ball up when they had a chance. Eccentricity is one of the key stats for a sweeper-keeper and if Nsangou had better creativity and physical stats I'd be tempted to play him as a one. Sweeper-keepers are a form of goalie that take a much more active part in distributing the ball and they commonly play well off the goal line. We'll see how Charlie does as he develops.
Neill Senior
Goalkeeper
“Double L” Senior is our other keeper, and at 21 he's already decent. This means he's a perfectly good keeper for our level and should anything happen to Nsangou, or if Nsangou becomes unplayable due to repeated mistakes, Senior will be able to step in without missing a beat.
Defenders
Raymond Wright
Right Wingback
Wright is a very offensive-minded back, which makes him most suited for the wingback role. Wingbacks are crosses between Fullbacks and Wingers, and thus they need to be fast, have the ability to dribble, pass, and cross the ball, all while having the work rate and stamina to get back to fulfill their defensive duties. Given that I have several players who are best as wingbacks, I'll very likely be creating a tactic that will utilize them most efficaciously. His high throw in score means that he'll be in the Sam Edwards role, although he won't be able to create the types of opportunities that Edwards did.
Alan Tierney
Centerback
Tierney is our aging captain, and has solid technical and mental skills that are undercut by his lack of speed. He'll be playing as a limited defender, and I'm going to try not to have him play in situations where we use a higher than average defensive line as he does not have the speed to get back and defend against any player with even moderate pace.
Damian King
Centerback
The other half of our centerback pairing, he has many of the same attributes as Tierney. We desperately need faster centerbacks, as both King and Tierney are almost ready for the glue factory. We have some loaner defenders that pair well with them, but as I noted all of those loans will end by the first week of December.
Luke Holtham
Right Fullback
Holtham is a more traditional fullback, and his tackling score is the highest we've had so far. He's got low stamina, which means we won't be able to use him as much as I'd like, but his ability to also play centerback makes him very useful.
Daniel Thomas
Wingback
Daniel Thomas is another wingback, and he's got world-class speed and Premier League acceleration. That's about all he has, other than decent stamina and an acceptable work rate. We won't be using him when we need strong defense, he's designed to run all day. Being able to play both sides of the field is very useful for squad rotation.
Midfielders
Justin Bailey
Central Midfielder
This kid is pretty good for our level, and will be taking our corners. He'll also be playing as our attack minded midfielder for the most part, with a creativity and flair of 13 he'll be the one I'm looking to when we're setting up attacking moves. I have to wonder what else is in his character makeup that makes him only “Fairly Determined”- with a Determination of 17 I'd have expected his personality to be “Resolute.”
Stuart Simpson
Defensive Midfielder
This is our midfield anchor. I'd prefer it if he were quicker and could mark better than a 10 year old, but he should be good at closing down opposition players and winning the ball from them. Simpson will feature as a ball-winning midfielder either in the second midfielder or the defensive midfielder position. We won't get to see him for a couple weeks as he's recovering from a gashed leg currently.
Ryan Watts
Winger
Watts is temperamental, which means that we have to try and keep him happy or he'll be a cancer in the locker room. Still, he's going to be useful as one of our attacking wide midfielders, even though he's going to be worthless on defense. I need to remember not to play Watts and Thomas at the same time as they both can't defend and the other team will have a field day on our left side.
Mike Sumner
Winger
Another offensive minded player with little defensive value. He'll be a rotation option, and I don't expect much for him. Like Watts, I need to not play him on the same side as Thomas. Well, what I really need a better left back that can actually defend. But it's beyond the transfer window, so we're going to have to suck it up.
Conor O'Hanlon
Central Midfielder
I'll say this for Wrexham's prior manager, they compiled a fair amount of team speed considering the division they play in. Unfortunately that means that most of their players have egregious weaknesses in other areas. In O'Hanlon's case it's that he can't actually make use of his speed to run with the ball (Dribbling of 1, Technique of 5, dim diolch!) and it means he's going to have to improve quickly to be a useful part of the team.
Forwards
Nic Bull
Striker/Winger
This kid has potential, but he's already 23. He might be a late bloomer, and the fact that my Ass Man thinks he could be a good Championship player means he's going to get lots of chances to develop. I expect for him to drive me crazy by proceeding to prove me wrong. His mental skills are a significant weakness, I'm going to match him up with either Cannon or Hughes to be tutored in an effort to improve them.
Tom Cannon
Striker
Nothing much to say other than it makes me feel old to see players in their decline phase when they're younger than I am by over half a year. Cannon's physical stats will continue to drop over the course of the season, but hopefully he can stave off father time until his contract is up.
Darren Baker
Striker/Winger
Baker has one thing going for him, he's fast. I have no clue why my Ass Man thinks he'd make a good false nine, he doesn't have the stats for it, but he'll definitely get some time on the right wing. His inability to finish is the first thing we need to rectify, and he'll get time on the training field to develop that.
Jordan Hughes
Striker
Hughes is ready for the glue factory. He doesn't have the speed or quickness to create space, and his technical skills aren't nearly good enough to make up for the lack of physical ability. He's likely to get buried on the depth chart, or I'll see if some other team will take him in January given our surfeit of strikers.
Danny Hopkins
Striker
A pretty well rounded player, with no real strengths other than good anticipation and positioning. Given our weakness in the midfield and that we have too many forwards to give them all playing time Hopkins will likely see time at central midfield and a training regimen to get him comfortable in the position.
What's abundantly clear at the moment is that we have a significant lack of non-loaner defenders and defensive/central midfielders. We'll get by fine for the time being, and I'm actually pretty pleased with some of the talent on the team, but our current centerback pairing would lose a race to a three legged turtle and a couple injuries could really hurt our ability to play defense. So we'll need some luck to get to the start of the new year, when we can start really changing the roster up.
That's the state of the team at present, our next match actually came before all this was written up because I needed to wait until my Ass Man came on board before I could actually write about the players. How did we do? You'll have to wait to find out.
We won.