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As we enter the new year we could see a total makeover of the Senior squad. At this moment, 8 of them (out of 27) have teams interested in their services and I expect Alan Coates will be added to the list.
Dammit Nightingale! You lazy bum. He's off to whomever will pay me the most. Chick Legg is getting dropped and Webb is coming up. This Nightmaregale biz kind of makes me realize I really need to stop being a hardass. These are young men I'm dealing with. Keep Calm and praise you footballers.
We made £20,269 in December. Not what I was hoping for but I should be happy we are turning a profit without having to sell players.
Still "Untouchable" but now up to 85% despite that "stumble" against Dulwich Hamlet. And somehow I didn't win Manager of the Month! I demand a re-count! I came in third! Poppycock!
On 22 December Stephen Lemon moved up from Other to Influential Player. I just wish his performances reflected that. He's not been as impressive as I was hoping.
I finally did it. I dropped Legg and moved up Webb. Hopefully this solves some of our defensive woes.
On 23 December I got an email from my AssMan telling me that Mickey Morris' Current Ability is "Well-suited to Conference National" player. Does that mean he's ready for the Seniors? Depends who leaves this month. I got another email about Morris on the 1st.
O'Shea's tutoring of Barnes is finally taking off with his Determination going from 5 to 7 and his Personality from Low Determination to Fairly Professional. Freakin' sweet!
That dislocated shoulder Dean Rice suffered caused his Bravery to drop 3 points. Damn. I've seen drops of 1 before but never 3! I wonder if he'll ever recover.
Khinda had an interesting jump from 7 to 10 in Concentration, having previously jumped from 5 to 7 in September. Don't understand why. On top of that, he had a generally bad month in training with several drops, including his Acceleration, which he is currently getting trained in.
The offers start rolling in but none are meeting my asking prices. First offer was for Taylor, second for O'Keeffe, and third for Robinson. Of all people it's Robinson who flips his lid and wants a new contract. I make counter-offers but click the "Negotiate Offer" button instead of "Suggest Terms" as I want to stall things out of hope more teams come in with more money. And it's only the first of the month.
I'm doing something slightly different with the selection today. All four players who "Enjoy big matches" get to start: O'Shea, McGregor, Lemon, and Rae. I only have misgivings at Shadow Striker and Target Man as Taylor and McLeish are better there. Also, with an offer out for Taylor I don't want to risk him getting injured. Did I make this selection because I fear Ebbsfleet? Kind of. They are a league above and we are not playing our best.
vs. Ebbsfleet, 2 January 2021
Formation: Diamond (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Ferreira, Nightingale, O'Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Watkins, McGregor, Lemon, Macey, Rae
Subs: Webb, Peers, Barnes, Smith, Sterling, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Taylor, Flitcroft, McLeish, Noulas
Easy as that, we're on the board in the 20th in the typical way: Macey with a low cross to the Target Man and Rae sends it in with confidence. This does not deter Fleet. Lemon's continued botching of chances and giving the ball away so easily deters me from letting him continue past the first 45. I had to let Lemon, Jefcoates, and Watkins know they weren't pulling their wait but it's only the last one who does something about it, knocking in McGregor's cross at 54'. That was good enough, along with switch to the Cudgel at 68', to secure the win, and we're on to the next round.
POM: Eddie Macey 8.0 (1 assist, 6 key passes, 2 chance created)
The Three Amigos managed to get their acts together and finish at worst with a 6.6 so nobody gets fines or more talking to. Still not pleased with Lemon. Seems I picked a lemon.
More offers come in that I negotiate, for Watkins and Taylor, for £100,000 each. U18 AMC David Doran still keeps drawing interest so I really think he has a big future ahead.
For the next round of the League Cup we get to host an old opponent, Merthyr Town, who got promoted into the Conference North.
More offers come in and I negotiate for £100,000 for Watkins and Taylor, £60,000 for Robinson, and I flat out refuse an offer from West Bromwich Albion for O'Keeffe. Hands off my hands!
They're mediocre, we've been playing slightly better than mediocre. I predict a mediocre match.
vs. Hampton & Richmond, 5 January 2021
Formation: Diamond
Starting XI: Webb, Peers, Parker, Smith, Jefcoate, Robinson, Leary, Davies, McLeish, Flitcroft
Subs: Barnes, O'Shea, Noulas, McGregor, Macey
This was a pretty drab match with us not getting our first on-target shot until almost 54' but it was Flitcroft getting it in. He repeats his endeavors in the 73rd and I switch to the Counter. In the next two minutes he almost has his third then fourth but the GK finally had switched on. We see the match our with nary a highlight.
POM: Mark Flitcroft 9.0 (2 goals, 1 key pass)
Peers rated at 6.3 and had a yellow. He was the only player that didn't respond to my "don't let the media praise get to your head" so I addressed him directly, saying he deserved to come off. That fired him up!
I usually don't pay to much attention to other matches, especially ones outside our league, but I noticed that Bradford City beat Oldham in the second round of the FA Cup 1-0. The sole scorer? Our former badass Marcus "Thriller" Thirlwell. Good on ya!
We get our own try at the FA Cup and we get Birmingham. It's not gonna go well for us as their "worst" players is rated 4 stars in Current Ability.
But before we can get to that we have a pre-match press conference. Every question is about us being minnows or the match being too big for us. C'mon, dude! Try something different. Then Birmingham's manager gets his presser and the journos of course said I was trying to play mind games against him. I hate journalists. Those lying liars!
More offers and negotiations happen. Man, this really slows down the game. I'll have to probably start accepting offers in the last week of the month so I don't miss out on the money and realism.
Birmingham is the second largest city in England, to the northwest of London, in the area called the West Midlands. Birmingham FC's stadium is just over 100 miles to the northwest of where we ply our trades. They aren't the biggest team in that area, Aston Villa and West Bromich are. Still, they are going to hammer us into submission.
at Birmingham, 9 January 2021
Formation: Spade (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MC r, MC l, AMR, AMC, AML, ST c)
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Ferreira, Nightingale, O'Shea, Jefcoate, Lemon, Coates, Watkins, Taylor, McGregor, Macey
Subs: Webb, Peers, Parker, Smith, Barnes, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Davies, McLeish, Rae, Flitcroft
My rousing speech about upsets does not float any boats but Ferreira's. Oh boy. Here we go.
Ho boy! I should not have doubted the lads! McGregor overlapped with Jefcoate, he crossed it to the far post, and Watkins had the easiest of times tapping it in. At the 1:18 mark. Huzzah! But then the slowness of O'Shea bites me in the ass though O'Keeffe should have easily dealt with it: Right at 39' their left midfielder dribbles right through our right side, embarrassing Lemon, Ferreira, Nightingale, in quick succession then feeds it to their left striker who makes Gareth look the fool. Then they get us on the restart.
We switch to the Diamond at the half and I have to remove Taylor (6.3), O'Shea (6.2), Nightingale (yellow and 6.3), and Lemon (need a second striker). McLeish almost gets us close from the whistle but can't head Watkin's cross in. Six minutes later Derek knows where the goal is and rockets one into the ceiling of the net while running at a 45 degree angle away from the keeper. Beautiful!
I go Overload at 70' and bring on all the remaining fresh legs I can. It has little effect and in the 75th minute they head in a corner, setting us back even more. Game over, man!
POM: Birmingham's Tom Jones 9.5 (2 goals, 2 assists, 7 key pass, 4 chances created) It's not unusual to lose to Birmingham.
There were a lot a poor performances but I don't get mad, I don't fine. We were up against the wall and getting two goals was better than expected. Conceding five was not what I expected. I gotta sell Nightingale and O'Shea. I do have a word with Macey though, for his 6.2. Oh, and Leary picked up a knock.
(Tom Jones actually recorded a single with my favorite band as part of charity event for the poor in England back in the early 90s. The Gimme Shelter project. Check it out.)
So how much did we make? We made £107,507. I was really expecting more but the stadium was at just a little over a third of capacity. Oh well. At least we're in the black!
My scouts don't bring in a lot of reports and when they do the players tend to be somewhere between "Hell no!" and "Meh" in their quality. Once in a while, they find a gem, i.e. Barnes, Flitcroft, Peers. On 10 January they present this diamond in the rough. The scout who found him is 11 in Judging Abiilty and 12 in Judging Potential; he grades John Burns at 2.0/5.0 stars. I know what 5 stars means! Premier League quality. I'm surprised they only value him at £7,250. I'll send my AssMan for a second opinion. If the 5.0 is confirmed I'll apply my lesson learned from poaching Mark Curran and offer £25,000. (The scout thinks it'll take £88,000 to pry him away from Glenavon.)
What about players leaving? Nobody yet but teams are slowly increasing their offers for Watkins, Robinson, and Taylor. I continue the negotiations.
The scouting report for Braintree comes in and they are not a half-bad team; kind of comparable to us. They might present a challenge. They like to play the counter so I'm def going to use faster central defenders and a Control mentality.
The Team of the Week this time only includes Leary (ML) and Flitcroft (MC r).
The morning before the Braintree match I get the weekly Player Development email. It's about Mickey Morris again, confirming he's now a Conference National League quality player. I have to bring him up soon. Maybe I can sell off McLeish or Rae. Preferably Rae.
Braintree, the little town with a strange name. Currently 8th in the Conference North and on a four-game winning streak. I hope my unusual selection sees us through and we are 4-5 odds to do so.
vs. Braintree, 12 January 2021
Formation: Spade
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Peers, Ferreira, Barnes, Jefcoate, Davies, Roberts, Robinson, Harding, McGregor, Rae
Subs: Webb, Nightingale, Smith, O'Shea, Parker, Lemon, Ferguson, Watkins, Noulas, Macey, Flitcroft, McLeish
Ugh. It takes until 59:59 before we get our second sequence action and luckily it's Robinson crossing to Rae for an easy tap-in. That happened to be our first shot on target too. I was gonna wait until 75' too change to the Cudgel but Glyn Davies at 67' sends in a ludicrous early cross and Robinson, he of a gashed head since 20', jumps up and heads in an even more ludicrous goal. I then go to the Cudgel and 13 minutes later Roberts, not wanting to be out-done, sends in an even more ludicrous shot from 25 yards out into the far upper corner. (The game commentary called the shot "audacious.") It's doesn't take long for the obvious to happen. By obvious I mean you can tell you're about to get FMed because the match engine all of a sudden starts having weird things happen. Like Braintree repeatedly shooting the ball at our goal only to hit our defenders. After the fourth deflection, the ball ends at the feet of a striker who gets it by O'Keeffe. Fucking SI.
POM: Liam Roberts 8.4 (1 goal)
McGregor has one hell of a gash; he'll be out 7 to 11 days. Jesus. With him out, Leary recovering, and Watkins under several bids, I think I'm going to switch to the Club again for a week or so. Ain't used that formation in quite a while.
Oh yes! My AssMan confirms John Burns has a Premier League future. He also thinks the maximum price Glenavon will ask for is £10,000. I offer that and add a 20% sell-on fee. They immediately accept and now it's time to craft a contract offer, but I'm sure first I'll have to make some promises.
On the outgoing players front the offers are getting closer for Watkins. On 13 January Burnley, currently 15th in the EPL, offer £70,000. I counter with £100,000 and they accept. Sweet!
For the 7th round of the FA Trophy, with only 16 clubs still in the running, we travel to either Shepshed (Sheepshed?) or Wealdstone. I was hoping for the former so I can unleash a bunch of horrible puns on ewe. Ha! Later that evening the Shepherds beat the Stoners.
John Burns signs with us on 15 January but won't join us until 28 August, after training camp. I'll have to work him in slowly.
Former Youth Academy graduate DC Ryan Shaw is now with Royston. I got an email about it and he spoke effusively of me and Brixton, even though he never got a start for the senior team. He's been doing alright for them and, no offense, Ryan, but I hope you have another meh day. Royston delivered us our first non-win last year in a match in which we totally dominated but still ended with a 1-1 draw.
vs. Royston, 16 January 2021
Formation: Club (GK, DC r, DC c, DC l, WBR, WBL, MC r, MC c, MC l, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Webb, Parker, Nightingale, O'Shea, Parker, Sterling, Lemon, Coates, Ferguson, Macey, McLeish
Subs: O'Keeffe, Ferreira, Barnes, Smith, Peers, Jefcoate, Harding, Noulas, Roberts, Watkins, Leary, Flitcroft
Oh nice! A Coates corner goes to O'Shea, leaping above the penalty spot, he heads it to McLeish on the edge of the box and he screams it into the upper right. Lovely play there! Later Eddie gets barged over in the far reaches of the box and before I can move my cursor to the "Change" button O'Shea gets the shot and hits the crossbar. Dammit! I should have been paying attention. Doesn't matter; we get a breakaway after a Royston corner and Macey is able to go a little wider, freeing up McLeish at the far post, and he gets his brace. It doesn't take long for McLeish to get his assist so Old Man Macey can get his goal; again on the counter. Again, not much times passes for the combo to work again and I'm resting very comfortably. The goals keep coming culminating at 65' with a Coates free kick directly to Nightingale's noggin for our fifth of the match. I do some tinkering around then to keep everyone fit and that completes the rout.
POM: Derek McLeish 9.6 (2 goals, 2 assists, 5 key passes, 3 chances created)
Poor Ryan Shaw, he managed a 6.1 and got yanked at 71' though he wasn't the worst on Royston.
More offers are coming in and they are inching closer. Matter of fact, in addition to Burnley, I've accepted offers for Watkins of £100k from Crystal Palace, Swansea, Everton, Watford, Bournemouth, and West Brom. Most of those teams are in the Premier League so he's in good hands.
FA Vase Seventh Round match-ups must be decided now. Again, 16 teams are left and we get drawn first so we get to host Berkhamsted, who are two levels below us. More easily said, cakewalk!
Dartford...not one of my favorite teams… One of the teams to deliver us a loss. It's been a while, but still, don't like them. Earlier this season we didn't have the easiest match against them but we did prevail, at home. Hope this goes better. They play at Princes Park Stadium, that is 15 miles almost due east of our field.
at Dartford, 19 January 2021
Formation: Diamond (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, DMC, MR, ML, AMC, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Parker K, Parker J, Smith, Jefcoate, Roberts, Robinson, Leary, Noulas, Rae, Flitcroft
Subs: Barnes, Peers, Harding, Watkins, Macey
It's nice to see someone unexpected get the first goal, especially when it's his first of the year. Today it's the Greek Wonder, Tasos Noulas, who is up front trying to get his AMC-ness up to Accomplished. He's lurking just inside from the arc when Flitcroft spies him and he ekes it into the lower left through traffic. Flitcroft sinks his opportunity when Robinson sends one in from the half-way line and Flitty is off to the races for a one-on-one. Of course my caution about complacency is ignored and we give up one late on a corner kick in which the Dartford player was not marked. One of these days I'll actually look at the Set Pieces screen. Can't believe O'Keeffe can't reliably get clean sheets. That header was mostly on him.
POM: Andy Robinson 9.0 (1 assist, 6 key passes, 4 chances created)
That did not go as planned. I should have used all my subs and taken Rae off so his 6.5 at 65' didn't drop down to a 6.2.
The lower squads had big gaps in their schedules so I set up some away friendlies. The game does a pretty good job of finding opponents who have openings and I usually just pick one at random, so long as we haven't already played them already. For the U23 I picked a team called Arbertillery Bluebirds. That town is in south central Wales so that means in the middle of nowhere. The kiddos get to visit Axminster. British names are so funny.
Add Middlesbrough to the list of suitors desiring Watkins who match the asking price.
In FA Cup news, Arsenal get shoved out on penalties by Blackburn who are 16th in the Championship. Oh that's just too funny. Arsenal ain't doing so well, currently 8th. Out of curiosity I took a look at the EPL table and it's a tight race. Teams in 3rd through 6th place all have 42 points, 7th has 38, and 8th and 9th have 37. Sunderland only have 6 points so they are sure to be demoted.
The scouting report for Margate comes in and I take a look-see at their squad. The have a 17 year-old left winger who looks promising. He has a 20 Determination, a Driven personality, and is on loan from Oxford. His contract expires in less than 6 months but Oxford have an option. He has a 4.5 star rating. I ask my AssMan to take a closer look at David Simmonds.
Norwich and Scottish Premiership club Hearts offer up £100k for Bill Taylor. He too will have his choice of destinations.
My AssMan confirms David Simmonds 4.5-star potential but also him being Inconsistent. His Balance is 5 and his Bravery is 4. Hmm…. I have way too many players with a low Bravery and that Balance really concerns me. If I make an offer Oxford will just trigger his clause and he'll become way too expensive. In other words, I pass on him.
Well, it finally happened. Tommy Watkins is off to play football for Brighton & Hove Albion, the team that bought Ben O'Donnell back in August 2018. In 46 starts and 17 sub-appearances Tommy scored 22 times and had 30 assists for us. We'll make £100,000 off the sell. BHA are in the Championship these days so I'm surprised he chose them over so many Premier teams.
Sheffield United offer the required fee for Taylor. That's four teams now: three in the Championship and one in the Scottish Premier.
Margate suffered our abuse in August at the feet of Dr. Ashley Hibbert. We don't have him, or Watkins, so the burden falls upon Robinson's shoulder. I'm confident in his ability.
vs. Margate, 23 January 2021
Formation: Diamond
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Ferreira, Nightingale, O'Shea, Jefcoate, Coates, Robinson, McGregor, Lemon, Macey, McLeish
Subs: Barnes, Parker K, Harding, Leary, Flitcroft
We get a break in the 8th with an unexplainable penalty and Macey breaks the ice. Robinson does prove he can carry the burden, crossing to McLeish for a perfect Target Man header into the back of the goal. Margate scores the third goal of the match in a very familiar way that has happened to us exactly the same at least twice before: Our leftback is running to my right to chase a ball passing through the big box. He pauses just enough for an enemy to get to it, sending in a freakishly on-target cross that our goalie doesn't try to leap for so they get a goal at the far post. Sports Interactive...It's the same bloody thing. Why is your programming so shitty?
In the next 45 minutes Macey scores but only after Robinson twice point-blank shoots at the GK; thankfully the second bounce went to Macey directly. In the prior 15 minutes Ferreira, Jefcoate, McLeish, and Lemon had been giving up the ball too easily. At 65' I have a conundrum: Ferreira is 6.3, Jefcoate is 6.4, O'Shea is completely gassed but is 7.1, and I only have two defenders on the bench. I pull Jefcoate and Ferreira and hold my breath. At 75' I go to the 4-4-2 Defensive and bring off Lemon for Harding. That doesn't seem to matter as they score again, 1 minute into injury time.
POM: Alan Coates 9.0 (6 key passes, 4 chances created)
I let the men know I was not impressed and they get fired up. Still, some stern words are in order for Ferreira and Jefcoate. I can't believe O'Keeffe can't maintain a clean sheet streak. It's been 4 matches since he had one in the league.
Cardiff is now making offers for Alan Coates. He needs to move on, we're stifling his development.
ToTW only includes Alan Coates (MC r) and Eddie Macey (ST r). Welling's defense swept the back-five positions. Not jealous.
Our weekly Player Development Advice email brings confirmation that Striker Mark Marshall does indeed have League One potential. Good.
I was going to give Bill Taylor one last start but 6 hours before the match he commits his future to Brentford. Go forth and prosper, my favorite angry-faced youth graduate. For his career, he had 69 starts and 3 sub appearances, scoring 28 goals and assisting on 32.
I'm not feeling confident. We're not defending well. Our talented defenders are slow, our fast defenders are not as good at Marking, Tackling, and Positioning. And Gareth. I think I'll still try to start with Attacking and switch to the Cudgel earlier than normal. H & W have lost twice to us this season, both times 5-0. Let us hope that trends continue.
at Havant & Waterlooville, 26 January 2021
Formation: Diamond
Starting XI: O'Keeffe, Peers, Ferreira, Barnes, Parker K, Roberts, Leary, McGregor, Davies, Rae, Flitcroft
Subs: Smith, Sterling, Noulas, Robinson, Macey
So I think this match will be the Rae Tracker. 15:07, hits right post. 34:44, hits right post. Holy shit! 42:22 he actually breaks the offside trap and scores! This was beautifully set up by Roberts, working the Regista role perfectly. Ohhhh fiddlesticks! Flitcroft strains his groin at 61' and has to come off immediately; on goes Macey. At 71' I go to the Cudgel and make my two substitutions and 4 minutes later Macey has to come off for a groin injury too. Oh no. We are Bender Bending Rodriguez-level boned. But somehow we manage to hold on and win.
POM: Glyn Davies 7.8 (5 key passes, 2 chances created)
So how bad is the news on our strikers? Flitcroft, 4 to7 weeks. Macey, 4 to 7 weeks. Hucking fell. Marshall and Morris are graduating. I also might got to a single-striker formation while they adjust.
Also, I think that is 3 matches in a row where the POM wasn't a goal scorer. We really need a hero.
I kinda feel I'm getting FMed with Macey and Flitty getting severely injured right at the end of the transfer window. I'm not really too irked that my hand is being forced to bring up Mark Marshall and M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-R-I-S from the U18s.
Bringing up the M&Ms necessitates a change of tactics. They will be our primary stikers for the foreseeable future (along with John Burns) so I will tailor the striker roles to their strengths and footedness. Marshall is strictly right-footed and is equally adept at Defensive Forward, Advanced Forward, Poacher, and Deep Lying Forward. Morris is primarily a righty but is Reasonable with his left foot. He is most adept as an Advanced Forward. So then Marshall will be my right striker in the DLF role and Morris will be my left striker in the AF role. I'm going to go to the 4-4-2 Standard for a while to settle them in.
So with Bill Taylor gone and Alan Coates soon to be gone I also look at who are the best central midfielders I now have and see what their best roles are. One thing I know is Lemon is supposed to be the best of the rest but he's just not playing well. I think I'll go with Liam Roberts at the right central midfielder in the Ball Winning Midfielder-Defend role and Gary Ferguson as the left central midfielder in the Central Midfielder-Support role. After Taylor and Coates, there aren't any clear best MCs. Hopefully Youth Intake Day will fix that.
Now to deal with the latest Cardiff offer for Alan Coates. It's odd that they are the only team interested. That is keeping his price low, I think. They are playing hardball so we manage to agree on only £10,000 but in return Brixton get 25% of any sell on fee plus we can buy him back for £2.5 million. I just hope that stays in place by the time we are in the Premier League.
Mark Curran, our Irish leftback finally arrives. He'll be thrown right into the fire with the U18s, well as much as sitting the bench for the Seniors.
On Wednesday, 27 January Chick Legg finally does what I've been expecting for a while: He wants first-team football again. I have to give a couple as I still want him as a tutor. Especially if the O'Keeffe situation become untenable AND we get another stellar GK in the Youth Intake. He'll get to start the next match.
So we get knocked out of the FA Cup by Birmingham but we kind of get revenge on them. In the next round they face West Ham and our boy Kemar scored twice in the 3-0 route. Hahahahaha. By the way, they are 4th now and he has 11 goals despite being out for 4 weeks in August and October.
Oh neat! We had a U18 cup match at the City Heights Academy earlier in the morning before our Weymouth match. We were able to fill the house with 500 fans.
Weymouth are the sixth best club in the league but have the second highest Goal Difference. (We are number 1, naturally.) Their striker James Bowman has scored 20 goals (third in the league), has the third highest average (7.45) and the most POM awards (6). This can be a seriously fun match to watch!
at Weymouth, 30 January 2021
Formation: 4-4-2 Standard MM (GK, DR, DC r, DC l, DL, MR, MC r, MC l, MR, ST r, ST l)
Starting XI: Legg, Ferreira, Peers, Barnes, Jefcoate, Robinson, Roberts, Ferguson, McGregor, McLeish, Morris
Subs: Parker, Nightingale, Harding, Lemon, Marshall
It takes 40 minutes for us to get our first shot on target, the 9 prior being off the mark, but Morris' thunder shot is punched over the bar. That was the only action in the first half. Morris is having a mediocre day so I give him an "I have the faith in you" speech and send him back out on fire. Four minutes later he gets his first career goal off a feed by McGregor. Hot stuff! Not hot stuff? Their right centreback sending a pass to a retreating goalie and our lead doubles. Spot-on 67' Morris makes his debut even more memorable with an assist to McLeish. He did get clattered later outside the penalty area and his fitness dropped to 45% so now I fret the last minutes hoping nothing is permanent. The match does not end on a high note though. That knock Morris took caused him to be pulled off the pitch with 4 minutes to go and then Chick Legg proves his trustworthiness is not there, unable to stop a shot he had all day to respond to.
POM: Mickey Morris 8.3 (1 goal, 1 assist, 1 key pass, 1 chance created)
When I saw that red injury tag on Morris I audibly moaned. Just a bruise! Out 1 to 2 days. Phew!
On the 31st I get not one, not two, not three, but four offers for O'Keeffe! They can get bent, I ain't giving him up.
With Tommy Watkins and Bill Taylor gone , they of the 5-stars potential, the players still here will have changing valuations. So some of the below information is...dubious? Robinson replaces Watkins though I don't think he'll be with us too much longer. I didn't move Pope up as it seems Robinson will be better. As for Lemon, he's just not quality so I've dropped him. The rest of the AMCs I'm not so sure about. I like Davies but with a 10 Natural Fitness I'm not sure he'll be able to go for two matches per week for long. Doran kind of gets upgraded as he had a bunch of teams chasing him. Curran is here so Rice gets dropped. Rice might get dropped even more if his Bravery doesn't recover. It's good to see we still have three Premier League-quality players. I had great expectations for Morris when he came in on Youth Intake Day last year and it seems he'll fulfill them.
I was expecting to lose players and we did. Another has an outstanding offer and he'll be gone by the end of 1 February. Everyone seems to wants O'Keeffe but there's no way he's leaving. On the pitch we had a couple of close calls and we lost to a team four rungs above us on the ladder, though we did show well enough for a team way down here. Also, I realized that my starting DCs are way too slow now but nobody offered my money for them so we are stuck with them. We lost two strikers to moderately bad injuries necessitating the elevation of two youths. Lucky for us they are the two youths I believe are our future. And along the way we made a pretty penny. Not a bad month really.
Not noticeable here is the fact that if we were to lose the rest of our matches we'd still finish 11th.
Back in April 2019 I ended the update with an explanation about my Roster Management spreadsheet. I didn't really provide a good explanation though. Things have really changed since then too on my DR front.
So, in the first column we have in green the Seniors, in yellow the U23s, and in orange the U18s. In the first row we have the current league we are in (well, we were in in April 2019) and then were I project us to be. In the second column you can see the players and their current ability: Red (with white text) equals Conference National-level, white is Conference South and below. (Orange is League Two, yellow is League One, green is Championship, and light blue is Premier League.) You can see that Tom Johnstone was considered a League One talent (5.0 in yellow).
As for contract lengths, the black square represents the end of a contract and the player to the left won't be renewed. (I didn't plan to keep Maguire past his initial contract.) When the player's name is underlined it means the player has an option year. When the name is italicized it means he's out of contract but I want to resign him eventually.
As for the players in the chart? Peter Maguire was sold to Cheltenham in January 2020 for £1,500 and now appears to be their second-choice right wingback. Kevin Parker is still with us and is still our second-choice right fullback but I won't be renewing his contract as I have Sean Peers and last year's youth intake DR Pat Lawford is even better and will move up to the Seniors this summer. Johnstone moved on to Brentford at the beginning of the season, late August 2020, for £20,000 and despite being in their U23 squad has made 13 Championship appearances for them already, scoring 1 goal.
Ferreira is no longer considered a DR for us as I've been training him to be a DC. He has a 17 Pace so he fits the new bill of fast centrebacks. So far this year he has started 29 matches, come on in 11 more, tallying up 1 goal and 3 assists. Not really impressive offensively but defensively he's a stud, completing 88% of the tackles he's tried, achieving the same percentage with headers won.
Jordan Nickson was a player I signed after the 2019 Youth Intake to fulfill a DR need even though he was a DMC. He has yet to get Natural at DR, currently Accomplished, despite starting 40 matches and coming on for 21 others, just this season. The previous year it was 35 and 24. The problem is the match engine will start him at DR if I set him there but usually the U18 manager will sub on a proper DR and move Nickson to DMC or MC. I guess this means he doesn't really have that great of a Versatility score. Regardless, I'll keep him around as long as he's cheap and eligible for the U23s.