Part 94: Chapter the Fifth: Soar you mighty Dragons.
Chapter the Fifth: Soar you mighty Dragons.December 4, 2019-January 1, 2020
December is going to be a pretty rough stretch of games, Chelsea and Arsenal are almost sure losses while Reading and Stoke are both solid teams having good seasons. Add in another trip to Old Trafford for the League Cup and there could be a lot of red on our dance card by the time the new year rolls in.
We're going to have to play defensively even in our own stadium, Chelsea is one of the megabastardiest clubs out there.
vs. Chelsea, December 7, 2019
Premier League
Our only advantage against third place Chelsea is that we're at home. They're one of the biggest megabastards in the world, owned by Russian megabillionaire
Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Hurst, Lewis, Todd, Durand, Matko, Mair, Djurovic, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Bastable.
Subs: Love, Mejasic, Vaillant, Troelsen, Bailey, Petts, Harrison.
Ten minutes into the game and we're not being overwhelmed. Chelsea creates the first good chance shortly thereafter, but despite some wonderful dribbling to get into a dangerous position, the German winger Florian Meyer can't put his shot on target. So it's still scoreless when Daniel Matko fires a low corner to the near post, where a late arriving Stuart Mair controls the ball on his knee and volleys it past Chelsea's keeper. We've got a lead, on Mair's first ever goal for the club! Chelsea almost hit back immediately, when a long throw-in rattles around the crowded penalty area for several seconds before it can be cleared. Another chance is stymied when Todd is able to interpose himself between the ball and goal before the attacking Chelsea player can control the ball and get a shot off. They finally equalize after ten minutes of furious pressure when a Suarez shot bounces off Sinclair Lewis at the near post and takes an unlucky hop into the net. It's officially an own goal for Lewis, but he was really a victim of fate.
The first half is seen out without further scoring, and I'm ecstatic that we're hanging with Chelsea. But I did have to shuffle the squad before the half, when Daniel Matko went down injured. Mateo Mujkic also picked up a minor injury, but he stays in as I don't have someone who can adequately replace him. I shifted Djurovic to right wide midfielder, and Justin Bailey is now playing in a Premier League matchup against Chelsea. He's come a long way since playing non-conference football.
Bailey proves he's still got it when we retake the lead just minutes after the restart. Shirra finds him on an indirect free kick, and Bailey smoothly moves the ball on to an unmarked Bastable. This time Chelsea can't muster an intense response, and we continue to have the better of them until the 68th minute, when we patiently and expertly break down the Chelsea defense and Bastable shows great work rate by leaping to his feet after being tackled just outside the penalty area to get on the end of a Shirra feed and put the ball in the net for a three-one lead. I'm not convinced that we'll prevent Chelsea from scoring twice in the final 25 or so minutes of play, but at minimum the goal seals a draw against one of the best teams in football.
Chelsea peg back immediately in bizarre fashion, and once again Stewart Lewis is the victim. He challenges for a just outside the keeper box, and prevents the Chelsea winger from getting possession in a very dangerous spot. Unfortunately for him the ball bounces off him, and spins into the near post, out of the reach of the keeper. He redeems himself however, when Chelsea's best chance to score all day arrives. Suarez nods a header from 5 yards out that's just kept out by the post, and the rebound falls to him with a wide open net and no Wrexham player in front of him. It's only a last second inch-perfect tackle by Lewis that prevents Chelsea from knotting the game up, and when the final whistle blows the stands erupt in celebration.
Man of the Match: Rocky Bastable
Wrexham 3-2 Chelsea
The butchers bill for our win against Chelsea is dear. For now Mejasic will have to play left midfielder while Djurovic plays right. Petts and Harrison will have to play on the wings if we are in the 4-5-1.
He says he's fine, but I change my mind after our conversation and send him on vacation as we have only one game in the next two weeks. We desperately need him to stay fit and awesome, he's been everything I could have imagined thus far and has more than repaid his four million pound transfer fee. He'll miss the Stoke match but be back in time for us to go get knocked around by Manchester United again.
I can't believe Arsenal got bought out. And not by an overseas mogul either, the new president and his cronies are all English. Probably some London City flash with a boatload of bonus cash, they must have figured it was either buy Arsenal or re-create the mountain of cocaine scene from Scarface.
By all rights we'll be advancing in the FA Cup. Rotherham is in League One while Luton has moved up to League Two. We ought to handle either of them without breaking a sweat.
This moves up the game a couple days, putting it closer to our sally to Stoke than our rendezvous with Reading.
Flamengo wins the Brasileiro once again, that makes them champions in three out of the last four seasons. More importantly for us we now have a working knowledge of Brazilian players.
Shirra makes a team of the week that's stuffed with players from Everton, Swansea, Man City, and Man United. And a Chelsea player, because we beat them despite relatively good performances on their part.
At Stoke City, December 14, 2019
Premier League
Stoke City are performing above all expectations this year, finding themselves in fourth place nearly halfway through the season. They're not that good, but then on most days we aren't the type of team to be beating Chelsea either. We're also hurt by the injuries on our wing, I've had to pull Dinko Mejasic up to the left midfielder position from left back, and Djurovic is playing right midfielder today.
Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Hurst, Lewis, Todd, Durand (c), Djurovic, Mair, Bailey, Mejasic, Shirra, Harrison.
Subs: Love, Vaillant, Johansen, Troelsen, Petts, Youssouf, De Blasio.
Our counterattack is in full bloom, but a brilliant, sprawling save against Harrison keeps us off the board, and Stoke scores a goal off of a corner kick just afterwards. Near the hour mark William Harrison takes a crack that he has difficulty running off, and I bring in the youngster Cosimo De Blasio for his first blooding. As the clock winds down we can't find a goal, and are defeated despite playing quite well. The credit is all to the Stoke defense, where three of the four backs had ratings above a seven and the man of the match should have gone to their keeper. After the game I tell the team that their performance had many positives, they deserve being lauded for their effort despite the result.
Stoke 1-0 Wrexham
Welcome back, Rock. Hope you're feeling rested, because I don't plan to give you much time off for the rest of the season.
Wigan's got seven points through 16 games. The final straw was a loss to Crystal Palace, who were previously winless. There's almost no way they don't get relegated.
At Manchester United, December 17, 2019
Capital One Cup, Quarterfinal
The silver lining is that we're unlikely to be crushed as badly as we were when last we ventured into Old Trafford. I kind of wish we were playing FM 2015, as Man U is going to get seriously nerfed after they finish seventh in real life this year. The game clearly forgot to program in that Sir Alex Ferguson is a literal wizard.
Starting Formation: 5-4-1 Defense
Starting 11: Higgs, Hurst, Lewis, Todd, Johansen, Durand, Djurovic, Mair, Petts, Mejasic, Bastable.
Subs: Love, Youssouf, Vaillant, Troelsen, Shirra, Harley, Harrison.
I'd rather not dwell on this performance. We fall behind before all the fans have even taken their seats on a free kick goal, and it's all downhill from there. It's 3-0 in the 83rd minute before Dejan Djurovic can score a consolation goal. The only silver lining is that we were much better than the first time we played United, but that still leaves us a long way from actually playing well against them. The loss knocks us out of the Capital One Cup, which is a real pity as other than Man U I felt that we could defeat any other team still left in the draw and earn a Europa League berth by winning it.
Man U 3-1 Wrexham
Mair picked up five yellow cards in all competitions before we hit the midway point of the season, meaning he'll be suspended one game. Other than the occasional unwise challenge he's become exactly what I dreamed of when I found him playing for that no name Scottish squad back in Volume I, Chapter XI.
The headhunting offers I'm getting are pretty weak, as a three time straight Manager of the Year recipient I'm rather surprised that I'm not in the running for a plum job from a big club fallen on hard times. You hear, Liverpool?
We'll treat them the way Manchester United treated us.
Another game where we have to focus on defensive preparation. It'll be nice when we're the megabastards who can just boss any team we face. Although that isn't quite so true in the Premier League, as you only have to look at Sunderland in real life this year to see that anyone in the league can beat anyone else. They might be in a desperate fight to avoid relegation, but they took four points from Manchester City this year and just destroyed Chelsea's title aspirations by winning on Chelsea's home turf.
At least we'll have Mujkic back, despite an unspectacular start to his Premier League career he's still our best option on the left side.
vs. Reading, December 21, 2019
Premier League
Reading is currently an above average Premier League squad, but as is so often a case a few false steps could easily imperil their chance of staying up in future seasons. There's only seven or eight teams guaranteed to remain in the Premier League from year to year, and Reading isn't one of them.
Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Hurst, Todd, Lewis, Mejasic, Djurovic, Troelsen, Petts, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Bastable.
Subs: Love, Durand, Vaillant, Simpson, Bailey, Youssouf, Harrison.
Any worries I had about a slump setting in after the Stoke and Man United games are dispelled after Djurovic makes himself space before scoring four minutes in, and then launching a cross that Bastable leaps high in the air to head in at the ten minute mark. Dejan caps the game of his life with a second assist that is the mirror image of the first, except this time it's Shirra on the end of the cross. It's three-nil just 32 minutes into the game, and we cruise to victory. The most telling stat for the game is shots on target, Reading manage just one compared to our eleven.
Man of the Match: Dejan Djurovic
Wrexham 3-0 Reading
Thompson can play wide on both sides of the field, him being healthy again, adding desperately needed depth at those positions. But Djurovic has been so awesome on the right wing these past few games that I plan on giving him more playing time there despite it not being his natural position. This also allows me to get more playing time for Petts and Bailey, who would otherwise spend most of their time as backups behind Djurovic.
Walley is never going to play for us at this rate. Expect me to sell him for a six figure sum next summer or this January.
We're playing Arsenal in just over a week. I'm hoping that the takeover turmoil allows us to snatch a result despite the game being played in North London.
I did not expect to see us having multiple team of the week players less than five months after our first Premier League game. We're well ahead of schedule.
Meanwhile, the Southampton saga continues. If I were a Southampton supporter I'd be right infuriated about the distraction the takeover was causing the team. It hasn't really hurt the team, they were predicted to finish mid-table and that's exactly where they are right now, but it can't possibly be helping.
At Cardiff City, December 26, 2019
Premier League
It's the battle for the Cwp part two! What makes this more fun is that Cardiff City literally stole our colors. The club's nickname is the Bluebirds, but their insane Malaysian owner switched them up completely because he likes the color red and thought it would sell more jerseys in Asia.
Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Hurst, Lewis, Todd, Durand, Djurovic, Mair, Bailey, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Bastable.
Subs: Love, Mejasic, Johansen, Simpson, Petts, Thompson, Harrison.
Cardiff have a huge advantage in possession early, but we keep them from doing anything with it. Mair hits the post from a corner, but we recycle possession and Djurovic gets on the end of a Meteor cross to put us ahead. Djurovic is in great form, he's now cored three goals and notched two assists these past three games. Bastable has a chance to double our joy, but can't score this time.
A hush falls over the stadium when Stewart Lewis goes down in a heap in the 60th minute and clutches his arm, following a scrum over the ball on during one of our corners. It frankly should have been called a penalty. Mujkic shortly thereafter finds himself in acres of space, but fires the ball directly into the Cardiff keeper, leaving me with my head in my hands. We're playing with fire by not converting our chances with just a one goal lead. I pull the ineffective Bastable for Harrison, hoping fresh legs will give us the insurance goal. It doesn't pay off, but we turn out to not need it. We take a 1-0 victory in a game where Cardiff had plenty of time with the ball and didn't do anything with it. Just as importantly, Mateo Mujkic has his first excellent game of the season, he's been decidedly mediocre with just two assists and no goals in sixteen league games.
Man of the Match: Mateo Mujkic
Cardiff 0-1 Wrexham
This injury could really hurt us. Johansen has shown nothing this season, and Vaillant doesn't have the class to play much at this level of competition. That leaves Todd as the only other centerback that I can trust, and Lewis has been a good deal more consistent than Todd. I might have to do some shopping when the winter transfer window opens in five days.
“Fortunate to win” my well formed glutes. Someone seems to be mistaking possession for success.The real surprise in the Cardiff game was that we only scored one goal, not that they couldn't beat us.
Someone in Wales is losing their job, but it sure ain't me! I'm surprised that the Everton coach is on the hot seat, at present they're in 6th place on the table, which is pretty normal for them.
At Arsenal, December 28, 2019
Premier League
We're going to get pasted in this game regardless of who I send out, so I'm using it so rest players for our New Years Day game at Everton. In baseball there's a concept called the “house money” lineup. Generally a weekend series between teams will span three or four games from Thursday or Friday to Sunday. The Sunday game is usually a 1pm start, and is termed a “get away” day as the teams will be boarding chartered aircraft to get to their next opponent right after the game. An away team that's won the first two or three games of the series will often start a whole bunch of their reserve/bench players to reduce the wear and tear on their starters, essentially giving them an off day. So it should come as no surprise that our lineup for this match is comprised largely of youth players and backups.
Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Youssouf, Vaillant, Johansen, Durand, Thompson, Simpson (c), Petts, Mejasic, Argenti, Harrison.
Subs: Love, Hurst, O'Hanlon, Troelseon, Dixon, Rouissi, De Blasio.
I'm quite pleased with our performance in the first half. Mejasic has the first clearcut chance, Arsenal has a goal disallowed, and we're all tied up at halftime. The drenching rain doesn't hurt, it's turned the pitch into a bog and is keeping Arsenal from taking advantage of the large gap in technical skills between the teams. Each side has just five shots, and we have had more on target and better chances.
Normalcy reasserts itself after the half. Arsenal is awarded a penalty right after the second half begins, and that's it for our chances of a win. They add another goal from open play with 20 minutes remaining, and wear us down on their way to a comfortable victory. The players are dejected despite a performance they shouldn't be too depressed about, it's a good thing that most of them will either be on the bench or not in the match day squad in four days time against Everton.
Arsenal 4-1 Wrexham
MLS is clearly getting big-time, Italian soccer websites are now covering them. Or FM just hasn't fixed the “who covers what” list in the media section of the database. Anyways, Montreal is a damned dynasty now, I think this is their fourth championship in five years.
The people of jolly old England can't get enough of us getting our heads handed to us by Manchester United.
Lazio Lazio Vaffanculo! Go goosestep your way to another shitty mid-table finish, you fascist fucksticks.
At Everton, January 1, 2019
Premier League
This is our third and likely final game against Everton this season, barring a FA Cup matchup. We've each won once, them in Premier League play and us in the League Cup. I'd very much like a win here, but taking out a team that are currently in sixth is not an easy task.
Starting Formation: 4-4-1-1 Counter
Starting 11: Higgs, Hurst, Vaillant, Todd, Mejasic, Djurovic, Mair, Bailey, Mujkic (c), Shirra, Bastable.
Subs: Love, Durand, Johansen, Troelsen, Petts, Thompson, Harrison.
It's all Everton in the first half, and have already had one goal called off before their dominance culminating in a goal a half hour into the match. We hit back immediately from a free kick when Todd is played onside by the Everton keeper and finds himself with the ball and only open space between him and the net. We squander an opportunity in the 44th minute when Shirra misses the target from an admittedly tight angle. That means Everton retakes the lead when a defensive breakdown allows Everton to score again before five minutes have passed in the second half.
Everton looks to have pulled ahead with a third goal shortly thereafter, but it too is waved off, leaving us just one behind. I swap Bailey out for Petts with just fifteen minutes left in the game, and am rewarded by the sub delivering a perfect ball to Shirra when we equalize less than two minutes after he was brought on. Neither side can get a winning goal, and the strange draw drought of 2019 is left behind on the first day of 2020, as we draw for the first time in 39 matches.
Everton 2-2 Wrexham
We're in amazing shape. We're midtable in the Premier League, and have an easy third round game in the FA Cup coming up in a few days week. We've had some injury problems, Lewis being out for a month could really hurt us, but we've largely overcome them. We're just over halfway through the season, and it would take a massive collapse for us to fall back into a relegation fight. More importantly, we're a young team that's still improving, and thus we should be even better in the second half of the season. I think we should finish in the top ten, and we might even make a challenge for a Europa League spot, assuming the Cup positions are won by teams qualifying for the Champion's League. I'm dreaming of European Football next season.
BOARD VOTE(Commandingly) I've requested this meeting because we're in massively better shape than even I could have anticipated this season. I have a single request, and that is for additional funds to bring in reinforcements and solidify our squad. I believe that with some additional players, specifically a wide midfielder or winger, a fullback, and a centerback, we could challenge for a Europa League birth next season. We currently have £565,000 in the transfer budget and are £5,000/wk under the wage budget cap. We have a balance of £10,300,000, which should double by the end of the season, and if we finish at our current league position we would receive £12,400,000 more in prize money.
VOTE 1: Wage/Transfer Money
A) (Reservedly) While you're certainly right about being in excellent shape, and while we are as close to a Champion's League berth as we are to the relegation zone, we feel it's prudent for the club to first build a strong financial position before spending significantly more on transfers and salaries. At the same time, we certainly don't want to see the team slide down the table due to injuries, so a modest sum will be made available. (Transfer/Wage Budget increased by £2,000,000)
B) (Agreeably) We certainly agree with you that the season has been a smashing success, if you feel that this would help us improve on what's already a great year we can absolutely free up some more cash. (Transfer/Wage Budget increased by £7,000,000)
C) (Covetously) It's time to push the boat out! It's time for clubs like Dinamo Rapid Serbsk to know the face of terror, and that face is Wrexham! (Transfer/Wage Budget increased by £13,000,000)
VOTING CLOSES AT 9PM ON APRIL 24, OR AFTER THERE HAS BEEN 11 VOTES
I really want to get playing again
