Part 21: Chapter the Sixth: Enter the dragon.

Chapter the Sixth: Enter the dragon.
October 25, 2014-November 25, 2014

As I mentioned in the last update, we played a game the day after I came on board as manager.

At Salisbury City, October 25, 2014
Skrill Premier


Since I'm lacking a coaching staff and familiarity with the players this should be a learning experience for everyone. I've instituted a 4-5-1, but the team isn't anywhere close to well versed in it, so if we get points here I'll consider it an auspicious beginning. After a first half that sees us hit them on the break twice I'm forced to weather a strong Salisbury push in the second where they come close to tying it up several times. Still, we win the match, and my first game as coach of Wrexham couldn't have gone better. We're now ten back of the playoff pace, and are tied with Tackleford City on points.

Salisbury City 1-2 Wrexham

Seeing as our 10 loan players are earning £5,645/wk, or about 18% of our wage budget, I send six of them home early, including one guy that was getting £1,400/wk all on his own and was our highest paid player. This will save us nearly 20,000 pounds, a not inconsiderable sum for a team of our size.



I also negotiate to keep four players for another 3 months, and in two of those negotiations I'm able to get their teams to pay all of their wages, freeing up another £1,045/wk.



I ended up sacking the entire staff, none of them were worth keeping. It cost us ~£28,000, which eats into our balance sheet, but none of them were useful and they would have cost us more in the long run while preventing us from bringing in new coaches and staff.



We're unable to afford coaches for the first team at the moment as the board says they can't find the money in the budget. We need a total of four more general coaches, another fitness coach, and another goalkeeping coach. For now our Ass Man will be stretched incredibly thin.



The U18 team is fully staffed, however. In retrospect I should have waited until we had a youth team worth training.



Everyone gets assigned to their new training, except the soon to depart loan players.



We also have 3 scouts now, half of what we had at Tackleford but all reasonably competent.



New in FM2014 is the ability to create detailed instructions for each individual player within a tactic. This allows you to create one set of instructions for your awesome Pirlo-esque midfield distributor and another for when your much less technically adept and creative backup is in to prevent the backup from trying to play the same way and giving away the ball constantly. So now I can have different instructions for my wingbacks compared to my fullbacks, tailored to their specific talents. This will either make us more awesome if I actually know what I'm doing tactically, or really screw us up if I don't.



We now have 3 tactics being prepared, two variants of a 4-5-1, one for attack and one for defense, and a base 4-4-2 in case things are going to shit in a match and I need to change things up. We're behind just about everyone else in the league when it comes to match preparation, so that's going to be a major focus for the next few months.




It's a good sign when my first team meeting has a positive impact on all of the players. Gaining their confidence is huge, and their belief in their manager is very important in bringing out their best performance.



Crap. Extending two of the loans is impossible because the end date of the original loan is past the short term loan cutoff at the end of November.



And no one is interested in our unwanted players. Which is just as well, considering that until January we're going to be shorthanded in a few areas due to the loans ending. I feel like I was given a false bill of goods when I signed on here.



What?!



Why didn't you just stay with the club then, you nitwit!



We're able to renew one loan. Joy.



Woah, a press conference ahead of our FA Cup match against Worcester. Haven't seen many of those yet. What should I say about this board? Hmm...



One of our loaners gives us a nice present, a Goal of the Month award.

vs. Worcester, November 1, 2014
FA Cup, First Round


I tell the boys to, in the immortal words of 'Arry Redknapp, go out there and just fucking run about a bit. Get us a victory and we're one step closer to facing off against a big team and bring in hundreds of thousands of pounds in match day revenue. It works, we lead one-nil at the half and seal the victory with Alan Tierney's first goal of the season off of a corner after the restart, a sign that my set piece tactics will continue to pay dividends.

Wrexham 2-0 Worcester



Prize money is always nice.



Getting drawn against the team that just fired me? Much nicer.




Yeah, that's really not the way to talk to me, kid. I don't care what problems you had with the old manager, if you're giving me trouble I'm going to find a way to make you miserable.

At Macclesfield Town, November 4, 2014
Skrill Premier


Macclesfield hasn't had any luck since I declined their offer to take over the team- they've fallen into last place. This is a game we need to be winning if we want to get into the playoff hunt. Bunel is so close to a goal right from the start, rattling a header off the crossbar on a corner and having a goal called back for offsides on a free kick in the first 20 minutes. Baker misses a one on one opportunity 15 minutes later. Despite not allowing a shot by Macclesfield in the first half we go into the lockers even. It looks like Macclesfield is going to hold on for a draw until the 89th minute, when Nsangou distributes a perfect ball to Holtham, which Holtham delivers to a sprinting Watts. Watts places a perfect pass to Nic Bull, and Bull slots it home to give us the lead. Macclesfield has a man sent off a minute later, and we win our third game in a row.

Macclesfield Town 0-1 Wrexham



What does Welsh sports radio sound like? Welsh with a New York accent?



Tough shit, kid. I told you not to cross me. Plus, you're our only viable backup keeper.



This is what happens when you institute a new tactical policy midseason.



I didn't realize it but one of the players I'm trying to get rid of plays for the Faroe Island's national team. Ptak is blazing fast with a Pace of 19 and Acceleration of 16, but he can't do much else. He's also one of our more expensive players and is already 24, making him unlikely to improve.

At Worcester, November 8, 2014
Skrill Premier


So I know I said in the last update that I shouldn't play Sumner and Thomas together. The problem is that Thomas is our only real left back, thus he's going to play a great deal with wingers who view the concept of defense as anathema to their flamboyant ways. Hopefully this doesn't come back to hurt us too much. Nsangou is proving to be very good at the sweeper-keeper role, setting up Thomas's delivery of a killer through ball to Cannon that results a goal two minutes into the game. Tierney adds his second goal in the last two games on a corner in the time it takes to watch an episode of Scrubs. Worcester is able to deny us a clean sheet in the second half, but we keep our lead and the three points.

Worcester 1-2 Wrexham



The first decision to be made by the board is which team we're linked with. Our options are Blackpool (currently 21st in the Championship), Brighton and Hove Albion (15th in the Championship), Norwich City (6th in the Championship, relegated from the Premier League last year), and Charlton (5th in League One after relegation last year). Regardless of the link we'll earn an annual fee of roughly 33,000 pounds and get to host a yearly friendly where we are able to keep all the proceeds. I recommend the Canaries of Norwich City, but the choice is ultimately yours.



I was all excited when I saw so many Tackleford players in the Team of the Week. Then I remembered I got fired from Tackleford.



It's kind of neat that we actually have a reason to be off during the international breaks. Poor Neill Simon, he'd have actually gotten to start a game if we had to play while Nsangou was away.



Ah crud, Watts has been really good so far as our left winger. We've got a lot of depth up there, though, so I'm not panicked about him being out for 5 weeks.

vs. Southport, November 15, 2014
Skrill Premier


Tierney remains on fire, with yet another goal off a corner. On this one he wasn't even marked. Tom “the Cannon” Cannon doubles our joy shortly after Tierney's header, and we take a firm lead into the second half. Southport fail to strike lucky on their opportunities and we have another clean sheet and another victory.

Wrexham 2-0 Southport



This Wales.co.uk journalist is a dick. “Wily and not to be trusted” means that he'll twist your words in the worst possible way. “Unfriendly” means he's got motivation to do it.

vs. Hednesford, November 22, 2014
FA Trophy, First Round


We've got our first FA Trophy match, and it's an enjoyable 90 minutes for the fans in the stands as we boss the entire game. A penalty gives us the lead just before the first whistle, while a very pretty piece of passing and an excellent effort by the Cannon sees us double that lead. Late in the game Sumner pounces on a ball ping ponging through the penalty area after a corner to treble it. It's a confident performance, and we seem unstoppable.

Wrexham 3-0 Hednesford



You'd expect a 38 year old man to be more mature. I'm looking forward to when I have the stature to actually enforce my will upon these brats, as it is I'm just some random American who never even played professional soccer.



We have too many forwards as is, getting rid of Hughes would help us rebalance the squad.



Woah, this ref hands out a ton of cards. I'll be setting our tackling to soft to make sure we don't end up a man down.

vs. Farnborough, November 25, 2014
Skrill Premier


One reason we've been doing so well is because we're playing the worst teams in the division. Our strongest opposition has been Worcester, a team that was just promoted and is hanging around the mid-table. But it's important to take care of business against the minnows, especially when you're at home, and playing against minnows may lead you to play your B team to save your legs for upcoming important matches can lead to unfortunate results. I try to rest players here, and if you look at just the stats you'd assume that it worked and we won this game by a multiple goal margin. Of course, even when it seems like everything is going according to plan, you can still get tripped up by bad luck.

Wrexham 1-1 Farnborough



I can't complain about 13 points from five games. We haven't seen a meteoric rise in the standings, only going from 13th to 9th, but we've shaved five points off the gap between us and the playoffs and four points from the gap between us and table topping Morcambe. Our next match, the one I was resting our players for, is against Tackleford City in the FA Cup. I cannot express in words how much I desire to win that game. Voting for our Parent club will be open until Thursday the 19th at 5pm. The choices are Brighton and Hove, Blackpool, Charlton, and Norwich.