When They Kick At Your Front Door:
A BRIXTON FC Story

YOUTH INTAKE DAY 2018

Reasons to be cheerful, part 1

It’s that time of year now that spring is in the air and we get new gits with loads and loads of Flair. With apologies to Spitting Image.

We got one amazing player who’s ready to contribute but none of the others are anywhere near first team material right now.

Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 1

1. Kemar Kirkpatrick: My AssMan has the audacity to claim he is going to be better than Ben O’Donnell. Poppycock! That’s ridiculi, beyond ridiculous. Oh my. Can play with both feet, but stronger on the right. He’s 193cm (6’4”) which is crazy for a 15-year-old. Not any Mentals below 9. No Physicals below 11 except Strength. Already “very well-suited to League Two football.” I have hit the jackpot!

2. Gary Leary: Already a Natural at MR and ML, and Competent at AMR. (And left-footed!) Should be my wing sub once we get to Conference South, where substitute numbers actually matter. (Big assumption there.)

3. Bill Taylor: Looks like a good Core player with great Teamwork and Work Rate already.

4. Ashley Hibbert: Can play a lot of positions on the right side and up front. And I get to make some Simpsons jokes!

5. Caribbean players: Aside from Kemar, we have another player born in Jamaica and a player born in Tobago. This fits my Brixton theme very well as it’s home to many Afro-Caribbean people.

6. Seven players who just might be rated at 5 stars on Potential Ability.

7. Everyone has a 9 or better Natural Fitness.

8. Eleven players have Determination in the double-digits.

9. Nine players have a good Personality.

10. Good spread of positions with none being over- or under-represented. (This one time in FM14, I got three GKs and four STs in one youth intake. /Hannigan)

Bonus: How I ended up with an Angolan kid is anyone’s bet. He has great physicals except Strength and Stamina. However, with a Marking of 2 and a Positioning of 1 he’ll never make it as a Fullback.

I’m not going to show all the cards, just the ones of the players I think might actually be with us for the full term of their first contract.

Kemar Kirkpatrick (ST, AMC)
Like I said, Brixton has hit the jackpot. There is nothing not to like except he will probably outgrow us before we are high enough in the pyramid to appease him.

Andy Robinson (AMR, MR)
He’s going to be better than Robbie Jones but whether he’s going to be better than Pearson is up for debate. I wish his Determination was better but I’m glad about his Corners starting so high.

Dean Rice (DL, WBL)
Good left fullbacks are hard to find. I have a plethora of them. Jefcoate and The Real Slim Shadi are real good and I think Dean Rice will eventually be nearly as good. This will help me sell off Jefcoate once Rice’s Determination gets Tutored up.

Mitchell Nightingale (DC)
He’s slow, he’s short but he has a lot of good defensive skills. I think I’ll be able to get him up to starter quality eventually.

Bill Taylor (MC, DMC, AMC)
I haven’t instituted my drive to make my central midfielders into what I call Core: being Natural at DMC, MC, and AMC. Bill Taylor will easily be able to become such a player. He has a weird spread of Attributes, not really being good at attack and being pretty crap with defense.

Tasos Noulas (DMC)
Now here’s a player who too can be a Core player but with much better defensive skills than Bill Taylor. He speaks Greek so maybe in the future if he’s still around he can be Mentor for any Greek players I manage to sign.

Ashley Hibbert (MR, AMR, AML, ST)
I’m liking him more than Andy Robinson not just for all the positions he can play but also his high Determination, Flair, Natural Fitness, and Pace.

Youth Candidate Match

Nothing much happens until 40’ when Carey (DM) pushes Noulas (DM) to the ground during a free kick and Bill Taylor (MC) scores easily from the spot. McNulty (ST) has a chance at 50’ but sends the ball wide right from inside the 18-yard box. At 83’ Noulas tries an effort from 25 yards out but just misses the upper left corner. That’s it. Nothing else happened. I was really hoping Kemar would impress but he only managed a 6.7.

Scouting

I don’t have the budget to scout many teams and I don’t think any youths are going to want to come to Brixton anyway. Therefore, I’ll only scout four teams that are nearby: AFC Croydon, Bromley, Croydon, and Dulwich Hamlet. By mid-month all my scouting requests are processed. There are some wonderful kids out there but none of them are willing to sign. Those that are willing to sign are not going to be better than what we already have.