FM2005: a frog in the Premiership

[condors]

yes the end of december begining of january is a real fitness test for alot of teams, that is why you like to have an A team and a B team and hope they are healthy at that time, things will be back to normal in a couple weeks though

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by condors

yes the end of december begining of january is a real fitness test for alot of teams, that is why you like to have an A team and a B team and hope they are healthy at that time, things will be back to normal in a couple weeks though

I remember the time around Christmas and New Year's being tough in lower league, but there always used to be three nights between games, say you play on the 26th, next one is on the 29th, or you play on the 1st, next one is on the 4th. Now, twice in about a week, we get those 2 games in three nights stretch, so ouch...

Hopefully we won't crash and burn and we can keep up with it...

FM

[finketr]

yeah...

in december in january, i have 12 league games, 2 cup games, and a champion's league game or two...

i'll look it up when i get home.

[FrogMan]

January 3, 2010

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Very Good	6-8-8-7-7	100%	22	-	7.18
DR		John Davies	D R	Superb	9-7-7-7-7	99%	5	-	7.00
DL	Unh	Matthew Bates	D LC	Superb	8-8-8-8-7	100%	1	-	7.00
DC	Yel	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	8-8-8-7-7	91%	8 (4)	1	7.17
DC	Yel	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Okay	7-7-7-7-8	92%	19 (1)	-	7.20
DMC		Marc Bircham	DM C	Good	6-8-8-7-7	96%	2 (3)	-	7.00
MR	Unh	Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Good	7-7-7-4-7	91%	3 (1)	-	6.00
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	12 (5)	-	7.24
AMC	Yel	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Very Good	7-7-8-8-7	90%	25	10	7.80
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Okay	7-5-7-7-7	97%	14 (4)	5	7.00
FC	Req	Steve Brooker	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5 (4)	-	6.89
S1	Unh	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	6-7-7-7-7	100%	4 (1)	-	7.00
S2		Keith Keane	D/DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	91%	18	-	7.17
S3		Keigan Parker	S C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	90%	20 (5)	9	7.04
S4	Yel	Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Very Good	8-7-8-7-7	87%	24	-	7.67
S5	Lst	John Oster	AM RL	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	88%	1 (6)	-	6.86
-	Inj	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	50%	17 (5)	3	7.18
-		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	87%	12 (9)	6	7.14
-	Inj	Lennart Rhee	AM R	Good	7-7-7-7-7	69%	5 (4)	-	7.00
-	Sus	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	92%	23 (1)	1	7.08
-		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	90%	15 (1)	-	7.06
-	Inj	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	53%	25	2	7.36
-	Inj	Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	79%	1 (6)	-	7.00

League match #25: we play Manchester United at Loftus Road. They're currently in 4th place and are 2-5 favourites to win this game.

The schedule has simply been crazy since December 22, we played on the 22, 26, 28, 1st, 3rd. Simply insane... Next game is on the 8 for our FA Cup match against Leyton Orient, then it goes to the 15th for our next league match. Being a smallish club for the Premiership level, it's a very rough stretch.

Steve Brooker gets the start. I thought for a long time about startin Jeppe Lund Curth, but he's still too out of shape to play effectively form more than one half with the first team. I'll let him play one more game with the reserves before I think about bringing him up.

I also start Tom Howell at left winger.

Man U show a 4-5-1 formation with the 5 middies on a straight line and up arrows on both wingers and the middie straight in the middle.

The first half, while scoreless, went much better than I could have ever hoped. We got plenty of scoring chances and even though we didn't convert any, we did control the ball a good chunk of the time and we outshot them 9(3) to 5(2) on the half.

In the 71st minute, Igor Biscan is called for a foul as he jumps for a header in our penalty area, NOOOOO!!! PENALTY!!! But woah! the kick goes straight to Kasper Schmeichel's hands, no rebound!

Off that penalty kick, they gain some momentum and even though we're not allowing them any room to manoeuver near our goal. They center a long ball from the left and it's headed in, damn! We're down 0-1...

We're running out of gas until a foul is called against them in the 84th minute, and Youssouf Hersi goes to take the free kick. He plays it forward, near the penalty spot to Keigan Parker's head. Parker nods it on to Steve Brooker who's standing right on the penalty spot and he drives it home for the equalizer!!!

Final Score: 1-1

Man they gotta be pissed at us. we've drawn twice with them this season We outshot them 11(5) to 9(5). Kasper Schmeichel is our best player and the only to be rated higher than 7, at 8.

I'm very happy with the draw, even though it means we drop to 10th place in the standings, bleh. Sometimes you gotta take what's given to you.

Following the game, I've got a couple of very big news waiting for me.

First, César Augusto Fawcett has rejected the offer from Rangers and has agreed to our offer! He's automatically granted a conditional work permit and is all set to join our club on a free transfer on July 1st, 2011. As I said before, he a 26yo Colombian D/DM L who's desribed as a full back. His reputation is continental and he's accumulated 53 caps and 5 goals for the national team of Colombia. He's been playing with Rangers for a few seasons now, so he's used to European football and speaks a fluent English, as well as Spanish and Danish. Turning 27 in August, he's still not old. I usually wait until the player is on the team to post his profile, but I'll probably start posting the good ones in advance, just so you know why I get all exited. You can see his profile by clicking on the following thumbnail.



As you can see, I think he's got it all to be a pretty good left full back for us, with good all around physical skills, good marking/tackling/positioning, even some long shot skill to try one every now and then... I'm very excited by this signing, about as much as I was when Fábio Rochemback finally got his work permit last offseason.

I said two good news, right? The other one had this title to the email message: "Chairman calls for higher profile" I guess Bill Power got very excited following our draw with Man U, so much so that he tell sme he would like to rais the club's profile by bringing a high-profile player. SWEEEEEET!!! Power added that a top signing could really pur Q.P.R. on the map and create a sense of excitement around Loftus Road. He also added should I fine the right player, the board is willing to allow me to exceed the current transfer budget, providing the amount concerned doesn't put the club's overall finances into the red, a bit as he did when I signed Youssouf Hersi.

WEEHEE!!! SHOW ME THE MONEY! SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!

I immediately have names popping up in my head, names of players I had shortlisted. Jefferson, the Brazilian keeper with the funny nickname is one (speaking of funny nickname, he thinks that Fred, just Fred, is a good player, Fred being another Brazilian player on his team ) and another is another Colombian, 24yo Freddy Guarin, now playing with Werder Bremen. One thing I'm unsure about Guarin isn't really his talent, but mostly that I may have bigger holes to fill. Werder Bremen plays the exact same formation we're playing and Guarin plays the same role with them that Rochemback plays with us. Yeah, Guarin is probably better than Rochemback, but there are definitely bigger upgrades to make on the team...

Speaking of holes, I'm thinking right winger and keeper. These are the two I could want to fill. Any idea from you my readers? I don't want names, simply where you think I could improve, where you think the bigger holes are on my team. I say I don't want names, it's simply that it's one thing I don't do, go to FM sites and look at who everybody else has picked up and who's a good FM player. I like finding my own players and maybe sometimes hearing after the fact that some of my readers have had the player in question play well for them too (i.e Guarin for Desnudo, Keigan Parker for mrkilla) but I don't really like hearing about a good player beforehand. Now, you've been warned

Oh, and one more thing, we have $23.7M in the bank account, and while I don't intend to use all of it, I'm now more experienced and I know this is a one player thing, so I may end up spending more than the $6.4M I spent on Hersi

Among other news, John Oster is now happy with his role and is prepared to wait for a first-team opportunity at Q.P.R if necessary. The forward revealed that I had convinced him that he has the ability to force his way into the first-team if he remains patient and continues to work hard. Ahh, what a couple of first-team starts can do to your ego...

Also, Damarcus Beasly signed a new contract with Portsmouth, effective on July 1st. He is currently with Tottenham. I think he would have been a solid right winger for us and I'm a bit pissed I missed it...

FM

[SirFozzie]

I'd look for a top keeper.

[condors]

i like your new left fullback, but for a new player i would target a right winger first, also a right back could be usefull not sure how happy you are with your current youth players.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

I'd look for a top keeper.

That's indeed a possibility. I'm definitely not sure if Kasper Schmeichel is the answer for us in front of the nets.

Originally Posted by condors

i like your new left fullback, but for a new player i would target a right winger first, also a right back could be usefull not sure how happy you are with your current youth players.

I like Fawcett also, there was some good reasons why I really wanted to buy him from Rangers earlier in the season... As for high profile player, I'm thinking that a right winger would be bigger than a right fullback. I'm not sure any of my right fullbacks is the longterm answer for us, but I think I could probably find one as a Bosman type signing. I'm thinking that an explosive right winger would be a bigger signing than a right fullback. I think I'm kind of set on the left side as Marcus Kelly has proven that he can play on at the Premiership level, but nobody has stepped up on the right side. Matt Cross is still not ready, don't know if he'll ever be. He's got 11/12 on most of his technical skills at 20 years of age. While he'll probably develop some more, he'll always be impaired by his fairly low pace (8) at the winger position. Lennart Rhee, whom I briefly thought could make a difference for us, simply doesn't have the stamina and usually has to be replaced not much later than at halftime, so I'm not so sure about him either...

Keep the ideas coming...

FM

[Desnudo]

You read my mind Froggy. In my new Genoa (Serie B) game, I have Fawcett coming in on a free from Colombian side, Junior, during the first season winter window.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Quincy Owusu Abeyie

How is Quincy developing? At the start of the game his finishing is so insanely mediocre as to be near comical. Hellish speed and dribbling skill (true to real life), though.

Originally Posted by FrogMan

César Augusto Fawcett

Nice ratings. He should make a heck of a fullback for you.

I'd also go with a right winger. Unless you can find a good, YOUNG central defender to come in. The current crew is doing well at the moment but improvement is always possible. I'm with you on Guarin. He's talented but you have other better improvements to make at the moment with Rochemback doing the job.

Just a thought, though, don't hesitate if you run into a talented right winger who's more of a scorer (high finishing and off the ball) than a prototype winger. Ljungberg of Arsenal is like that and I've found that he does well with being arrowed toward the AMC slot. (Personally, given the way the engine works, I would not do the same on the left side.)

[FrogMan]

January 8, 2011

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Unh	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	6-7-7-7-7	100%	4 (1)	-	7.00
DR		Keith Keane	D/DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	18	-	7.17
DL		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	99%	15 (1)	-	7.06
DC	Yel	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	98%	9 (4)	1	7.15
DC	Yel	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	98%	20 (1)	-	7.19
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	100%	23 (1)	1	7.08
MR	Yel	Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	98%	24 (1)	-	7.64
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	98%	13 (5)	-	7.22
AMC	Yel	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	7-8-8-7-7	95%	26	10	7.77
FC	Unh	Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	85%	2	1	7.50
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	20 (6)	9	7.04
S1		Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	100%	23	-	7.22
S2		Andrew Johnson	S C	Good	5-7-7-7-7	98%	15 (4)	5	7.00
S3		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	98%	12 (9)	6	7.14
S4	Lst	John Oster	AM RL	Poor	7-7-7-7-7	98%	1 (7)	-	6.88
S5		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	96%	3 (3)	-	7.00
-	Unh	Matthew Bates	D LC	Good	8-8-8-7-7	96%	2	-	7.00
-	Inj	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	44%	17 (5)	3	7.18
-		John Davies	D R	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	6	-	7.00
-	Inj	Lennart Rhee	AM R	Good	7-7-7-7-7	70%	5 (4)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	47%	25	2	7.36
-		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	1 (6)	-	7.00

FA Cup round 3: we play Leyton Orient on their pitch. They're currently 17th in League Two and we're 1-3 favourite to win this game.

Scott Donelly suffered a gashed leg while playing with the reserves on January 5, so I swing Marcus Kelly over to the right side and start Tom Howell on the left wing. Jeppe Lund Curth also starts but I keep two strikers since I'll probably have to replace him. He's not yet match fit.

I also give the start to Paul Davies in the nets.

Our next match is only in a week, the crush of early January is somewhat over..

They show a 4-3-2-1 formation, sort pyramid shaped.

Jeppe Lund Curth shows why he's nice to have on the field when he scores in the 3rd minute, capping a play that involved Youssouf Hersi and Marcus Kelly.

While we dominate the first half, we don't add to our lead until the 43rd minute, when David Marek Rozehnal launches a long pass to Keigan Parker who heads it over to Hersi who shakes and bakes his way to the keeper, whom he beats easily.

The half ends with us ahead 2-0. We're outshooting them 11(5) to nothing. They did have some good possession numbers on our end of the field, but they never got close.

We improved our possession numbers in the second half, but we had only one shot, and no goals. Neither did they score though...

Final Score: 2-0

We outshot them 12(6) to 1(0) on the game.

Tom Howell is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9. He completed 33 of 35 passes, 6 of them key passes.

Igor Biscan and Youssouf Hersi also had ratings of 8.

Had a good laugh at the end of the game, as I put in Kasper Schmeichel in Keigan Parker's place in the 86th minute by mistake He didn't do so bad, getting a rating of 7 for 6 minutes of play...

We're given $90k for the win and we're through to round 4.

Igor Biscan has reached the limit of 5 yellow cards and is banned for one competitive match.

Looking at Jeppe Lund Curth's profile, I see he is shocked that I don't treat him as a first team regular because I sent him with the reserves following his 8 month leg injury...


FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

You read my mind Froggy. In my new Genoa (Serie B) game, I have Fawcett coming in on a free from Colombian side, Junior, during the first season winter window.

wow, in 2004-05? He's what, 20yo? Cool

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

How is Quincy developing? At the start of the game his finishing is so insanely mediocre as to be near comical. Hellish speed and dribbling skill (true to real life), though.

He's developed pretty nicely for the years. Your question forced me to take a another look at him and frankly, he could be a nice kid for us, you'll probbaly see me offer him a contract soon For now, here's his player profile...




He's got a lot of what you want in a striker, a bit like Igor Nadal Lázaro and Jeppe Lund Curth...

Originally Posted by daedalus

I'd also go with a right winger. Unless you can find a good, YOUNG central defender to come in. The current crew is doing well at the moment but improvement is always possible. I'm with you on Guarin. He's talented but you have other better improvements to make at the moment with Rochemback doing the job.

Just a thought, though, don't hesitate if you run into a talented right winger who's more of a scorer (high finishing and off the ball) than a prototype winger. Ljungberg of Arsenal is like that and I've found that he does well with being arrowed toward the AMC slot. (Personally, given the way the engine works, I would not do the same on the left side.)

Thanks for the idea with the right winger, I might try that. About what to get, yeah a young centreback would be nice, but dang they're hard to come by and I like to have experience at the centreback position. Young AND experienced doesn't happen very often...

FM

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

He's developed pretty nicely for the years. Your question forced me to take a another look at him and frankly, he could be a nice kid for us, you'll probbaly see me offer him a contract soon

Huh. Quincy can actually finish now. His starting finishing ratings were pretty horrific.

Considering the location of the news site and the player involved, I thought this news bit right after reading this thread was fitting (if rather disturbing for a Gunners fan, given that we just finally got rid of Pennant): hxxp://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Soccer/2005/04/25/1012206-ap.html .

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Thanks for the idea with the right winger, I might try that. About what to get, yeah a young centreback would be nice, but dang they're hard to come by and I like to have experience at the centreback position. Young AND experienced doesn't happen very often...

Perhaps. But I find the best time to blood a young centreback is when I have a veteran alongside him.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Huh. Quincy can actually finish now. His starting finishing ratings were pretty horrific.

he indeed can, at least at a respectable level, and with good off the ball presence and good passing and creativity, with the fact that he's still only 24, it makes him a nice semi-aged prospect...

Originally Posted by daedalus

Considering the location of the news site and the player involved, I thought this news bit right after reading this thread was fitting (if rather disturbing for a Gunners fan, given that we just finally got rid of Pennant): hxxp://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Soccer/2005/04/25/1012206-ap.html .

It's indeed interesting that the newsbit was on a Canadian sports site Very fitting too. I sometimes feel weird reading these kind of news, knowing I am now what, 5-6 years in the future. Maybe Quincy will grow to be a bum and in real life 2010 will not even be playing anymore, who know...

Originally Posted by daedalus

Perhaps. But I find the best time to blood a young centreback is when I have a veteran alongside him.

Agreed again, but in the situation I'm in, I'd fear that a new young centreback would probably not be seen as high profile enough for my chairman, unless I find the right one. Remember that he'll approve the spending if he thinks the player can be beneficial to the team. I don't know how tight he can be with that though...

I keep centreback in my "needed" list, as many other things

FM

[FrogMan]

January 10, 2011
The draw for round 4 of the FA Cup happens. We'll play either Stockport (24th in the Championship) or Lincoln (22nd in League One) at Loftus Road. They bored themselves to a 0-0 draw two days ago at Stockport. Replay to be played at Lincoln.

January 12, 2011
I've put in some feeler bids for a few players, more news as it happens...

I got my eyes on Fulham's keeper Espen Johnsen without putting in a bid though. He has a minimum release fe at $8.8M and is a 31yo ambitious keeper who's been keeping Fulham at the top of the table almost by himself with numerous great performances...

FM

[FrogMan]

January 15, 2011

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	100%	23 (1)	-	7.21
DR		John Davies	D R	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	6	-	7.00
DL		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	100%	16 (1)	-	7.06
DC		Keith Keane	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	100%	19	-	7.16
DC	Yel	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	100%	21 (1)	-	7.18
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	99%	24 (1)	1	7.08
MR	Yel	Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	25 (1)	-	7.62
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-8-7-9	99%	14 (5)	-	7.32
AMC	Yel	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	99%	27	11	7.78
FC	Unh	Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	97%	1	1	7.00
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	21 (6)	9	7.04
S1	Unh	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5 (1)	-	7.00
S2		Andrew Johnson	S C	Very Good	5-7-7-7-7	100%	15 (4)	5	7.00
S3	Lst	Lennart Rhee	AM R	Good	7-7-7-7-7	93%	5 (4)	-	7.00
S4	Lst	John Oster	AM RL	Poor	7-7-7-7-7	100%	1 (7)	-	6.88
S5		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	1 (6)	-	7.00
-	Sus	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	100%	10 (4)	1	7.21
-	Inj	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	38%	25	2	7.36
-		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	3 (4)	-	7.00
-	Lst	Nigel Quashie	M C	Very Poor	7-7-9-7-7	100%	7 (1)	1	7.50
-	Unh	Matthew Bates	D LC	Very Good	8-8-8-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
-		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	100%	12 (10)	6	7.14
-	Inj	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	35%	17 (5)	3	7.18

League match #25: we play Wigan on their pitch. They're currently 16th and 6-4 favourites to win this game.

Igor Biscan is suspended for this match and since Danny Shittu is still injured, Keith Keane fills in at centreback.

Jeppe Lund Curth is back in as starting striker, now for good. He's teamed up with Keigan Parker.

They get us on a break very early on, in the 2nd minute to be exact, and they score through the middle. It wasn't even on Keith Keane's side, as they went by David Marek Rozehnal. Everybody's at 5 after that goal.

Fábio Rochemback gets a second yellow and he sent off. Again, it happens after he got furious with the decision of a referee. He's gonna get a warning after the game. They score after moving the ball at will following the ensuing free kick. GRRR!

Jeppe Lund Curth brings us back in the game only 3 minutes later after bending a fabulous strike. Youssouf Hersi had fed him a lovely ball to get him in position...

We almost tie it before the end of the almost, but Keigan Parker puts it over the bar from short range. He's not as effective this season as he was last season...

The half ends with us down 1-2, even though we're outshooting them 7(5) to 6(2). We're very much into it, despite being a man short. Kasper Schmeichel never recovered from the early goal and is still rated at 5 and Keith Keane is rated at 6.

The second half is very frustrating. We put pressure, a lot of pressure, especially given the fact we got only 10 men on the pitch, but we can't convert anything...

Final Score: 1-2

We outshot them 12(9) to 12(6), a frustrating loss... Schmeichel got hot in the second half and ends the game with a rating of 9. Rozehnal, Kelly, Hersi and Curth all get rated at 8, but Keigan Parker and Fábio Rochemback got rated at 6.

Marcus Kelly has collected a fifth yellow and will be banned for one match.

Fábio Rochemback is banned for having been sent off. I'm so pissed off that his absence from that game has possibly cost us at least a draw that I dock him a week of wage.

We're in 10th place following the loss...

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Arsenal	25	13	9	3	41	22	+19	48
2nd	Liverpool	22	13	8	1	37	10	+27	47
3rd	Chelsea	24	13	6	5	42	21	+21	45
4th	Bolton	25	11	9	5	43	28	+15	42
5th	Man Utd	24	10	11	3	32	20	+12	41
6th	Blackburn	25	10	11	4	29	20	+9	41
7th	Fulham	25	12	5	8	37	31	+6	41
8th	Man City	25	11	4	10	40	37	+3	37
9th	Aston Villa	24	9	9	6	34	25	+9	36
10th	Q.P.R.	25	9	8	8	37	39	-2	35
11th	West Brom	25	8	8	9	28	29	-1	32
12th	Newcastle	25	7	9	9	32	30	+2	30
13th	Middlesbrough	24	8	6	10	28	32	-4	30
14th	Birmingham	24	8	5	11	28	35	-7	29
15th	Everton	25	6	10	9	26	33	-7	28
16th	Wigan	25	6	9	10	28	35	-7	27
17th	Portsmouth	25	4	11	10	16	31	-15	23
18th	Tottenham	24	5	8	11	19	35	-16	23
19th	Gillingham	24	5	4	15	17	35	-18	19
20th	Southampton	25	1	2	22	14	60	-46	5

We don't play again until January 29, this will give us plenty of time to shop for a player... Which I went to do right following the match. Grab some chips, a drink and read along

Here are the first two very interesting ones I've spotted.

The first is Daniël de Ridder, a 26yo F RC currently playing with Ajax. Despite his forward position, he's described as a winger and plays the right wing spot in Ajax's 4-4-2. He's valued at $11.5M and we've already been rejected at $9M. I put in a bid for $13M

The other is Biagio Pagano, 27yo Italian AM RLC currently playing with Sampdoria. Now valued at $11M, we've offered $10.5M, which was his value a few days ago. I think we're out of this one, as Juventus just offered $44M for him

One thing I need to tell you before I go on further is my wage limit. While we're still about $160k per week under our wage budget, the team board limit my spending to $48k per week to any one player, when they feel the player is worthy. This may restrict the kind of players I'd be able to bring in...


FM

[FrogMan]

January 16, 2011
Fábio Rochemback feels the fine for his dismissal in our last match was unfair. Maybe it was, maybe I should have started with a warning, but dang it felt good. I'm the boss, deal with it

Our bid for Biagio Pagano is rejected, as I expected following the bid from Juventus...

I went back to take a look at Quincy Owusu Abeyie (see profile above). Hrm, some things I don't understand, unrelated to his skills. The kid suffered a torn hamstring, and with 2 months still to go on his rehab, a Sheff Utd signs him for a three months loan... Anyway, the kid wants $22.5k per week without a signing fee. Would be a very affordable, could even allow us to let go of Keigan Parker. I offer him $20k per week with a signing fee of $60k effective July 1st without any compensation paid to Arsenal. Woah! When I switch him from "first team" status to "rotationnal", a request for a $700k signing fee appears out of nowhere... hrm... I up my signing fee offer to $340k on a contract as a rotational player. He's currently earning $4,400 per week with Arsenal Reserves.

I try a crazy bid for Christopher Eagles, currently playing with Arsenal on a squad rotation. He's valued at $15M, I offer them that...

There's also Stephen Pearson, a 28yo AM RLC Scot currently playing for Rangers. He's described as a tenacious midfielder and is valued at $9M. I offer them that.

Tottenham puts in a bid for Espen Johnsen. They're offering to pay $7.8M for the Fulham goalkeeper.


FM

[FrogMan]

January 17, 2011
Jeppe Lund Curth and Youssouf Hersi are both named on the Premier Division Team of the Week.

Inter puts in a bid for Biagio Pagano, offering Sampdoria $35M for their winger, thus further making our $11M look even more foolish

Marc Bircham is called up for the North American Gold Cup 2011. Group play will be played from January 21 to 26, and the final is on February 5.

Our bid for Daniël de Ridder is rejected. I up it to $15.5M. He'd be amazing with u.

I spot a winger on Wigan's roster, Romeo Castelen. He's a 27yo AM R valued at $7M. I shortlist him but don't put in a bid yet.

Another winger on a Premiership team is Oleg Husyev, with Aston Villa, a 27yo AM RC valued at $12.5M. I offer them that. That bid will be shot down before the day is over.

Another fellow who's worth mentionning is Mourad Meghni, a 26yo Frenchman playing with Bologna in Italy. He's an AM RC who's described as a flamboyant winger. Valued at $8.8M, I offer them that. He also has a minimum release fee of $13M, but I don't see being worth that much.

January 19, 2011
Our bid for Stephen Pearson is rejected. I offer them $13M.

I've placed many bids left and right, but with the deadline approaching, I fear we'd have to strike a deal soon, in case we run into problems trying to sign our perfect player...

I decide to make a crazy bid on a winger from Roma, Koç Okan. He's a 28yo AM R valued at $21.5M. I offer them $18M and Scott Donelly as part exchange...

We hear from Quincy Owusu Abeyie. He rejects our first contract offer stating that he feel the basic wage was unacceptable and that he wants to be considered a more important part of the team. He still would like to proceed with further negotiations. Hrm, no $700k signing fee appears this time around... I up my contract offer to his demand and make it a first-team contract. I even add a $70k signing fee.

Our bid for Christopher Eagles is rejected. I offer them $13M plus Matt Cross as part exchange. That bid will also be rejected before the day is over.

Later in the day, I learn our bid for Stephen Pearson has been accepted, but oh crap. He wants $95k per week!!! My board won't allow more than $48k, and even if they did, I probably would never have gone to $95k. I offer him that, $48k, plus a $2M signing fee, but for 3 years instead of 2 as he first requested...

Our bid for Mourad Meghni is rejected. I up it to $10M.

I change my bid for Daniël de Ridder to $16.5M with a deadline of tomorrow.

Stockport beat Lincoln 3-2 in round 3 of the FA Cup and we'll play them in Round 4 at Loftus Road on January 22, which is a nice date since it will clean the suspension. They're currently 24th in the Championship.

I find a youngster on Chelsea's reserves squad. Luca Maioli is only 21yo, and AM/F RC valued at $11.5M. I offer them $12M. He's also listed as available for loan, even though he claims to be too good to be loaned out.

FM

[FrogMan]

January 20, 2011
Injury blow to Fábio Rochemback! He suffered a calf strain in training and will miss 2 weeks. My physios recommend we send him see a specialist, which I do, luckily the diagnosis remains the same, out 2 weeks.

Our bid for Mourad Meghni is rejected, I let it go.

The good news is that our bid for Daniël de Ridder is accepted! He's the one I've been wanting the most since I started looking for players, but dang, his agent says they don't believe Q.P.R. have the resources to meet his demands, and as thus, don't make any demand... Hrm... I offer him a crazy contract:
$48k per week as a key player
+ $9.6k per goal
+ $9.6k per assist
+ a $20.5M minimum release fee clause
+ 20% yearly wage rise
+ $2M signing fee
for a 3 year deal... Not much more I can offer...

January 21, 2011
Matt Cross resumes full training and the specialist that treated him is optimistic that he's recovered fully from his injury.

Crappy news as I just see that Lennart Rhee, who was slated to start at right wing, given that Matt Cross still is not ready and Marcus Kelly is suspended, received a red card in a match with the Reserves. I had sent him down to regain some match fitness.

Our bid for Koç Okan has been rejected, not gonna try further...

Biagio Pagano signs with Juventus.

January 22, 2011
Stephen Pearson snubs us and states that he really doesn't want to leave Celtic Park (I know I said he played with Rangers, my mistake he's with Celtics), despite his manager's decision to accept an offer from Q.P.R. for him. BOOOOO!

Chelsea play hardball for Luca Maioli. I offered them $12M up front, they want $5M up front and another $12M over the next 12 months, plus 10% of the next sale. I'm not so sure about that... I offer them $5M up front and $8M over 12 months, with th 10% still in there...

FM

[FrogMan]

January 22, 2011

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Unh	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5 (1)	-	7.00
DR		John Davies	D R	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	7	-	7.00
DL		Mathew Sadler	D L	Good	7-7-8-7-7	99%	17 (1)	-	7.06
DC		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	100%	10 (4)	1	7.21
DC	Yel	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	100%	22 (1)	-	7.22
DMC		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	96%	1 (7)	-	7.00
MR		Keith Keane	D/DM RC	Good	7-8-7-7-7	100%	20	-	7.15
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-7-9-7	99%	15 (5)	-	7.30
AMC	Yel	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Very Good	8-7-7-8-8	99%	28	11	7.79
FC	Unh	Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	99%	2	2	7.50
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	100%	12 (10)	6	7.14
S1		Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	7-7-8-7-9	100%	24 (1)	-	7.28
S2		Andrew Johnson	S C	Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	15 (5)	5	7.00
S3	Lst	John Oster	AM RL	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	100%	1 (7)	-	6.88
S4	Unh	Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	4-7-7-8-7	94%	4 (2)	1	6.50
S5		Chris Chapman	M LC	Okay	8-9-8-6-7	93%	22 (6)	4	7.50
-	Int	Marc Bircham	DM C	Good	7-7-7-7-7	59%	3 (4)	-	7.00
-	Unf	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	58%	17 (5)	3	7.18
-	Sus	Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Very Good	7-7-7-7-8	99%	26 (1)	-	7.63
-		Keigan Parker	S C	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	99%	22 (6)	9	7.00
-	Sus	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Okay	7-7-6-7-6	59%	25 (1)	1	7.04
-	Inj	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	37%	25	2	7.36

FA Cup round 4: we play Stockport at Loftus Road. They're currently in the bottom of the Championship, in 24th place to be exact. We're 4-7 favourites to win this game.

I put in Keith Keane at right winger and Igor Nadal Lázaro alongside Jeppe Lund Curth. Could be an interesting pairing up front...

It's the Youssouf Hersi show early on, as he scores two in the first 13 minutes. First off with a vicious top corner shot in the 10th minute, and then with a low shot off the post. We're up 2-0 early on.

Only 4 minutes have passed before we add another one. It's Jeppe Lund Curth to Igor Nadal Lázaro. The kid started running too fast for his own feet and the ball got knocked off by a defender. That crazy footrace by Lázaro had opened the defense though and Curth is able to pick up the loose ball to score the 3-0 goal.

3-0 is the score at the half, with us outshooting them 7(5) to 1(0).

We'll add two more goals before the game is over, this time on two long passes. First off in the 72nd minute, when Mathew Sadler plays a beautiful through pass over the head of Lázaro, who scores the 4-0 goal. Then in the 85th minute, Andrew Johnson plays a delicious long ball to Lázaro who scores his second of the game.

Final Score: 5-0

We outshot them 12(8) to 2(0).

Igor Nadal Lázaro is named Man of the Match with a rating of 10. He scored 2 goals while putting 4 shots on target out of 6 and completing 22 of his 24 passes. He had some very nice chances of getting his hat trick around the end of the game.

Tom Howell also received a 10, while Youssouf Hersi received a 9. The four defenders received ratings of 8.

We've been awared $130k for the win and we're through to the 5th round.

Following the game, I realized how stupid I can be... big DOH! for me. I've been searching for a nice right winger, and I've found many, but most of them are either very costly to transfer in, or won't even sign with us. Here come the doh part. I've been searching with filters set at M R *or* AM R and skills at minimum of 15 for pace/dribbling/crossing/stamina. I have now just realized that this filters out any player whom I don't have enough scouting about. DOH! The deadline is a little over a week away and it'll be tough to get scout reports for new players in before the deadline... Oh well, file that under growing pains


FM

[FrogMan]

January 23, 2011
Daniël de Ridder's agent tell us he's not happy with the offer and that he doesn't want to take nogotiations further... That's getting frustrating...

January 24, 2011
The transfer deadline is in exactly one week.

John Davies sprained a wrist and will miss one week.

The draw for the 5th round of the FA Cup happens. There are now 16 teams left in the Cup. We get a good draw, as we will play either Stoke (13th in the Championship) or Tranmere (15th in the Championship), on the winner'S pitch. Their replay is to be played on February 11. I said a good draw, as I don't see any of these two teams as being scary...

January 25, 2011
Chelsea wnt $6.6M up front plus $10.5M over 12 months for Luca Maioli. I break off talks.

Almost desperate, I turn to domestic leagues in my search for a right winger. I find two interesting ones. In fact, one I've already talked about, and another who I've never mentionned before.

The one you've heard about is Romeo Castelen, a 27yo AM R, currently playing with Wigan. He's had good games against us and would fit pretty well on our club. He's currently valued at $7M but has a minimum release clause at $10.5M. I offer them the minimum fee of $10.5M.

The other, unknown player, is Clemens Fritz, a 30yo AM R who's currenttly dominating the Championship with Wolves. Valued at $7.8M, he's averaged a form rating of 8.46 since the beginning of the season, his first in England. In league play, he's collected 13 mentions as Man of the Match in 24 games. He also has a minimum fee release clause, but at $10M. I offer them the minimum fee release clause.


FM

[FrogMan]

January 26, 2011
Nathan Jameson is absent from training, again. I dock him another two weeks of wage.

Chelsea sends in an enquiry about Youssouf Hersi. They want to know how much I'd ask to sell him. Looking at his profile, I go "oooooh shit!" as he's now valued at $11.5M (highest on the team) but has a minimum release fee that comes active at $10,5. Worst of all is that I can't even renegotiate, he wants $81k per week!!! For fun, I tell Chelsea that I'd be looking to get $20M for Hersi, since the enquiry reply lets me say so

Following that enquiry, I go back right back to Chelsea and offer them to loan Luca Maioli for three months. I'd pay 10% of his $30k weekly wage.

January 27, 2011
Nathan Jameson accepts his fine and says he's willing to improve his behaviour, yeah, I've heard that before...

As would be expected, both our bids for Romeo Castelen and Clemens Fritz have been accepted, as they met the respective minimum release fee clauses.

First difference between the two comes one a first look at me offering them contracts, and the comment from my assistant, Bruno Conti. He thinks that Castelen would be a useful member of our first team, while he believes that Fritz would become an essential member of our first team. Oh, that's interesting.

I offer them both a contract, we'll decide later. First with Fritz. He is currenlty being paid $39k by Wolves, but he's willing to make take a $2k weekly pay cut to $37k if we add a $1M signing fee to the 2 year deal. I offer him $37k, cut the signing fee to $500k and make it a 3 year deal.

For Castelen, he's looking to get $29k per week with a signing fee of $700k and a minimum release fee clause at only $12.5M. I'm looking to delay his accetpance of a contract a little as I'd like to agree on a deal with Fritz first. I offer him $25k per week with a signing fee of $300k and I bump his minimum release fee to $18M.

My bid to loan Luca Maioli is accepted by Chelsea. If you remember, I once said he thought he was too good to be loaned out. We'll see if he accepts to come play for us...


FM

[FrogMan]

January 28, 2011
I breathe a sigh of relief as Danny Shittu resumes full training.

I breathe another sigh of relief when Chelsea tell me they will not be following up on their enquiry about Youssouf Hersi. They still have until the 31st to put in a bid and while the money would be kinda nice, Hersi has settled in pretty well and would be hard to replace on such short notice.

Clemens Fritz agrees to term! He said he is very excited at the prospect of playing at a higher level. The $10M deal taking Wolves' Clemens Fritz to Q.P.R. can now be completed.

Now came the big question: is he enough of a high profile player for us to be allowed to spend the money?

Seems so, as Bill Power believes this player would be beneficial for the club and has therefore decided to provide the extra finance neede to finalise the deal.

So who is this Fritz dude??? As I said before, he's a 30yo German right winger (AM R) with great technical skills for a winger as you'll see with all the skills at 18 in his profile below. Two little knocks on him are his age and stamina. (click the thumbnail to see his profile)


He's proven to be a machine for Wolves since getting there, as you can see in his stats sheet for the season:

Statistics	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Sh Tar	Fouls	Fls Ag	Av R
Non Competitive	4	2	0	0	0	0	2.65	76 %	66 %	3	1	6.75
League	24	9	5	13	2	0	2.20	75 %	71 %	26	50	8.46
Cup	4	1	1	1	0	0	3.00	71 %	100 %	3	4	7.75
Continental	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	----
International	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	----
Overall	28	10	6	14	2	0	2.31	75 %	75 %	29	54	8.36

Following the signing, I got two messages from the head office of the club. First off, chairman Bill Power expressed his delight that I have captured the signature of Clemens Fritz. He commented that I am doing an excellent job for the club by signing such a high-profile player...

I then got a message from Q.P.R.'s Commercial Director who noted in his mothly financial update that the purchase of Fritz is likely to cause a sharp increase in revenue from shirt sales, sweeeeeet!


FM

[Desnudo]

Unfortunately, I've discovered that you have to pay back the board if they fund your transfer fee.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Agreed again, but in the situation I'm in, I'd fear that a new young centreback would probably not be seen as high profile enough for my chairman, unless I find the right one. Remember that he'll approve the spending if he thinks the player can be beneficial to the team. I don't know how tight he can be with that though...

Oh, I agree about needing a bigger name in this instance (Chairman asking for a high profile signing). I'm just thinking more along the line of continual upgrades for the future. Sorry.

As an aside, one of my favourite tactic while bringing Rushden up to the top was to keep an eye on the bench of more high profile clubs. They tend to overbuy and end up with unhappy players they need to get rid of. I was able to augment my squad at a cut price. Until I could replace them with better players, of course. Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and the Milan clubs are some of my favourite clubs to keep tabs on. (Chelsea would obviously be included now.) My favourite was being able to snag Andres D'Allesandro from Rangers in CM01/02 for around 1M this way (though that particular buy was for the Arsenal).

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

Unfortunately, I've discovered that you have to pay back the board if they fund your transfer fee.

yeah, I know about that, did a minor sell earlier and nothing increased in my available transfer funds, so I had to assume it all went to pay back what they'd funded. I'm hoping we'll stay up (if we don't I'm gonna be a majorly depressed frog, I tell you that) and when the new transfer budget is announced, they start clean and give me new money... We'll see how this works out...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Oh, I agree about needing a bigger name in this instance (Chairman asking for a high profile signing). I'm just thinking more along the line of continual upgrades for the future. Sorry.

Agreed, and as I said, a killer centreback is high in my priority list.

Originally Posted by daedalus

As an aside, one of my favourite tactic while bringing Rushden up to the top was to keep an eye on the bench of more high profile clubs. They tend to overbuy and end up with unhappy players they need to get rid of. I was able to augment my squad at a cut price. Until I could replace them with better players, of course. Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and the Milan clubs are some of my favourite clubs to keep tabs on. (Chelsea would obviously be included now.) My favourite was being able to snag Andres D'Allesandro from Rangers in CM01/02 for around 1M this way (though that particular buy was for the Arsenal).

Been doing that with regards to possible free signings moving in July. Was going through the rosters of big clubs with the view set to "Contract" and sorted by the "protected" columns, with the "no" on top... you'll soon see what that led to Hey, I'm not gonna spoil everything now, am I?

FM

[FrogMan]

January 29, 2011

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	7-7-8-7-9	100%	24 (1)	-	7.28
DR		Keith Keane	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	21	-	7.14
DL		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-9-7-10	100%	16 (5)	-	7.43
DC		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	100%	11 (4)	1	7.27
DC	Yel	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	8-7-7-8-8	100%	23 (1)	-	7.25
DMC		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	2 (7)	-	7.00
MR		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	-	92%	-	-	-
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	26 (1)	-	7.63
AMC	Yel	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-8-9	99%	29	13	7.83
FC	Unh	Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	100%	3	3	7.33
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	15 (6)	5	7.00
S1	Unh	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	3 (5)	-	7.38
S2		Keigan Parker	S C	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	100%	22 (6)	9	7.00
S3		Chris Chapman	M LC	Superb	8-6-7-7-8	91%	23 (6)	6	7.52
S4		Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	91%	5 (2)	1	6.86
S5		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	100%	18 (1)	-	7.11
-	Unf	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	60%	25	2	7.36
-	Inj	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Okay	7-7-6-7-6	50%	25 (1)	1	7.04
-	Int	Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	97%	7	1	7.57
-	Lst	John Oster	AM RL	Poor	7-7-7-7-7	98%	1 (8)	-	6.89
-		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-6-7-10	99%	13 (10)	8	7.26
-	Inj	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	74%	8	-	7.13

League match #26: we play Middlesbrough on their pitch. They are currently in 13th place and are 5-4 favourites to win this game.

Fábio Rochemback is still injured, Ben Watson is in. Canada has made it to the semi final of the North American Gold Cup, Marc Bircham is not available to be our backup. This leads to a weird bench. I'll have to look into getting some depth in the midfield...

Middlesbrough played on the 26th while we last played on the 22nd. They won in the League Cup semi final on the 26th and will take on Chelsea in the final. Impressive...

This is Clemens Fritz's debut and he shows his stuff early on. In the 11th minute, he picks up the ball near the center circle and passes one, then two opponents before firing a precise shot ans scoring a goal off the post. He scores on his debut, the crowd goes wild!!!

Jeppe Lun Curth plays a corner kick short to Ben Watson only three minutes later. Watson centres it to a crowd of players in the 6yard box and Igor Biscan jumps over the crowd to head it in. I like having this two players offering a short option to the corner kick taker. Sometimes it pulls two defenders away from the crowd and sometimes it's simply a short kick, then booom, centre to the crowd...

The half ends with us ahead 2-0. We're outshooting them 11(8) to 3(0), wow!

Clemens Fritz's condition has dipped to 68% so I take him out, put Matt Cross in.

One of their centrebacks is sent off with a second yellow in the 64 th minute. They go to a 3-1-3-2 formation, everybody in the middle.

Final Score: 2-0

We outshot them 20(12) to 5(0), wow again!

Marcus Kelly is named Man of the Match with a rating of 10. He had 11 runs past opponents. The presence of Fritz on the other wing seems to have opened things up for him on the left side. The back of defenders, Ben Watson, and Fritz all get rated at 8, but Youssouf Hersi has a down game with a rating of 6.

Our chairman just couldn't hide his delight following the win. We move up to 9th after the win.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Liverpool	25	14	9	2	40	14	+26	51
2nd	Chelsea	26	14	7	5	44	22	+22	49
3rd	Arsenal	26	13	9	4	41	23	+18	48
4th	Man Utd	26	12	11	3	36	21	+15	47
5th	Bolton	26	12	9	5	45	28	+17	45
6th	Blackburn	26	10	12	4	30	21	+9	42
7th	Fulham	25	12	5	8	37	31	+6	41
8th	Man City	26	11	5	10	40	37	+3	38
9th	Q.P.R.	26	10	8	8	39	39	0	38
10th	Aston Villa	26	9	10	7	36	29	+7	37
11th	West Brom	25	8	8	9	28	29	-1	32
12th	Newcastle	26	7	10	9	33	31	+2	31
13th	Middlesbrough	26	8	6	12	28	35	-7	30
14th	Everton	26	6	11	9	27	34	-7	29
15th	Birmingham	26	8	5	13	30	40	-10	29
16th	Wigan	26	6	9	11	28	36	-8	27
17th	Tottenham	25	6	8	11	22	36	-14	26
18th	Portsmouth	26	5	11	10	17	31	-14	26
19th	Gillingham	25	5	5	15	17	35	-18	20
20th	Southampton	25	1	2	22	14	60	-46	5

Romeo Castelen agrees to deal with us, but we're out of funds. He was our backup plan in case Fritz got greedy. I don't even ask to delay the transfer and simply cancel it right away.

Canada lose to USA in their semi final of the North American Gold Cup. Bircham played well without excelling.

Luca Maioli accepts to come on loan at Q.P.R. That's nice and will give us even more depth at right wing/AMC. The 21yo Italian has some sweet skills for a young dude, as you can see from his profile below.



FM

[FrogMan]

January 31, 2011
Igor Biscan and Marcus Kelly are both named on the Premier Division Team of the Week.

The transfer deadline is today.

Jeppe Lund Curth is happy with his role. I don't believe he should have ever been pissed off about anything, as he wasn't even fit to play with the first team...

February 1st, 2011
The Team Board is still delighted with my work. I wouldn't expect them to be any other way, with the kind of season we're having, still around mid table... We don't get any mentions in the monthly awards however.

The transfer deadline has passed. I breathe a sigh of relief, I was about certain that Chelsea would put in a bid for Youssouf Hersi. Seemed like the fee stated in his minimum fee release clause would have bee quite affordable for Chelsea.

Aldershot want Justin Wall on a 3 months loan. They want to pay only 90% of his $1650 weekly wage. As a matter of principle, I push that figure to 100%. If a player isn't playing for me, at any level, I don't wanna pay his wage...

February 2, 2011
It's Stevenage's turn to want Justin Wall on loan for 3 months. They are willing to pay 100% of his wage. I accept their offer.


FM

[FrogMan]

February 2, 2011

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	7-8-7-9-7	100%	25 (1)	-	7.27
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	99%	3	-	7.33
DL		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-9-7-10-8	96%	17 (5)	-	7.45
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	88%	25	2	7.36
DC	Yel	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-7-8-8-8	97%	24 (1)	-	7.28
DMC		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-8-8-8	97%	12 (4)	2	7.31
MR		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	8	95%	1	1	8.00
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-7-7-8-10	95%	27 (1)	-	7.71
AMC	Yel	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-8-8-9-6	92%	30	13	7.77
FC		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	94%	4	3	7.25
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-6-7-10	100%	13 (10)	8	7.26
S1	Unh	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	6 (1)	-	7.00
S2		Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	99%	22 (7)	9	7.00
S3		Chris Chapman	M LC	Superb	6-7-7-8-7	96%	0 (8)	-	7.00
S4		Luca Maioli	AM/F RC	Good	-	96%	-	-	-
S5		Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	91%	17 (6)	3	7.17
-	Inj	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Okay	7-7-6-7-6	45%	25 (1)	1	7.04
-		Marc Bircham	DM C	Good	7-7-7-8-7	94%	3 (4)	-	7.00
-		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	100%	18 (1)	-	7.11
-		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	90%	3 (7)	-	7.10
-	Inj	Keith Keane	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	85%	22	-	7.18
-		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	16 (6)	5	7.00
-	Inj	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	73%	8	-	7.13

League match #27: we play Liverpool at Loftus Road. They're currently first in the Premiership and are 1-2 favourites to win this game.

They've kicked our butt this season, winning the 3 times we've played each other: 0-2 in a preseason friendly, 0-3 in league play, 0-2 in the League Cup.

Keith Keane and John Davies are both injured. Craig Crane gets the start at right full back.

Danny Shittu is in despite not being match fit and having a kind of low condition. Centreback isn't the spot where they run around the most. I put Igor Biscan in at DMC, covering for Fábio Rochemback's injury and giving us a good defensive presence in the middle.

Liverpool show the dang 4-2-3-1 formation.

The first half goes scoreless, but we're pretty much in this game. We're winning possession with 58% so far, but they're denying us of any close shots... Igor Biscan and Jeppe Lund Curth both suffered minor injuries in the first half. I pull Biscan and put Chris Chapman in.

Liverpool switch to a 4-5-1 in the second half.

They are playing for the draw, which is very interesting they're in 1st place, playing us, the promotee, out of the Championship playoffs. I'd like to think they respect us

Final Score: 0-0

Dang, we increased our possession number to 65% on the game, split 11-17-30, and we outshot them 12(1) to 7(4), but we couldn't score. The story was they pulled back so much, the only thing they gave us were outside shots...

Marcus Kelly gets rated at 10 for his second game in a row and claims the Man of the Match mention. Kasper Schmeichel and Clemens Fritz both got rated at 8.

Tom Howell, in addition to Biscan and Curth, finished the game with a minor injury.

We move up to 8th with the draw!

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Liverpool	26	14	10	2	40	14	+26	52
2nd	Arsenal	27	14	9	4	44	23	+21	51
3rd	Chelsea	27	14	8	5	45	23	+22	50
4th	Man Utd	27	13	11	3	39	21	+18	50
5th	Bolton	27	13	9	5	47	28	+19	48
6th	Blackburn	26	10	12	4	30	21	+9	42
7th	Fulham	27	12	5	10	37	35	+2	41
8th	Q.P.R.	27	10	9	8	39	39	0	39
9th	Aston Villa	27	9	11	7	37	30	+7	38
10th	Man City	27	11	5	11	40	38	+2	38
11th	West Brom	27	9	8	10	33	33	0	35
12th	Newcastle	27	8	10	9	36	33	+3	34
13th	Wigan	27	7	9	11	32	37	-5	30
14th	Middlesbrough	26	8	6	12	28	35	-7	30
15th	Everton	26	6	11	9	27	34	-7	29
16th	Birmingham	27	8	5	14	31	44	-13	29
17th	Tottenham	26	7	8	11	23	36	-13	29
18th	Portsmouth	27	6	11	10	18	31	-13	29
19th	Gillingham	26	5	5	16	17	37	-20	20
20th	Southampton	27	1	2	24	15	66	-51	5

Tom Howell strained his neck and will miss 5 days.
Igor Biscan suffered a bruised thigh but will only miss 3 days.
Jeppe Lund Curth came out of the game okay.

Stoke won over Tranmere on penalty kicks in their FA Cup 4th round replay. We will play them on their pitch on February 19. Funny thing on that game, as I look at the match overview, I see a player sent off on each side, guess who the ref was? You got it, Rob Styles...

February 3, 2011
Aldershot have withdrawn their loan bid for Justin Wall.

February 5, 2011
Fábio Rochemback resumes full training. The specialist who treated him is optimistic that he's recovered fully from his injury.

FM

[FrogMan]

February 5, 2011

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	8-7-9-7-8	100%	26 (1)	-	7.30
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	4	-	7.25
DL		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	100%	18 (1)	-	7.11
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	93%	26	2	7.35
DC	Yel	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-8-8-8-7	95%	25 (1)	-	7.27
DMC		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	94%	3 (7)	-	7.10
MR		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	8-8	93%	2	1	8.00
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-7-8-10-10	91%	28 (1)	-	7.79
AMC	Yel	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	8-8-9-6-7	92%	31	13	7.74
FC		Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	93%	5	3	7.20
FC		Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	100%	22 (7)	9	7.00
S1	Unh	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	3 (5)	-	7.38
S2		Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	17 (6)	3	7.17
S3		Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	99%	3 (4)	-	7.00
S4	Yel	Chris Chapman	M LC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	93%	23 (6)	6	7.52
S5		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	16 (6)	5	7.00
-		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Very Good	7-8-8-8-7	90%	13 (4)	2	7.29
-		John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	91%	8	-	7.13
-	Inj	Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	9-7-10-8-7	80%	18 (5)	-	7.43
-	Inj	Keith Keane	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	81%	22	-	7.18
-		Luca Maioli	AM/F RC	Okay	7	100%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-6-7-10-7	93%	14 (10)	8	7.25
-	Unf	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Okay	7-7-6-7-6	59%	25 (1)	1	7.04

League match #28: we play Birmingham on their pitch. They're currently in 16th, stuck in a 4 games losing streak, and yet they're evens favourites to win this game. They just lost 1-4 to Wigan.

They show a 4-4-2 formation with heavy push from the wingers as we start the game.

The first half ends scoreless, but dang, they're very accurate with their shots on goal. They're outshooting us 6(6) to 3(1). Kasper Schmeichel is keeping us in the game right now...

The second half also goes scoreless, all thanks to Kasper...

Final Score: 0-0

They outshot us 12(10) to 6(3) on the game. Schmeichel had the game of his career so far, getting a 10 for form and earning a well deserved Man of the Match mention.

Danny Shittu and Marcus Kelly both rated at 8.

We drop back to 9th place with the draw...

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Liverpool	27	15	10	2	41	14	+27	55
2nd	Arsenal	28	15	9	4	47	25	+22	54
3rd	Chelsea	28	15	8	5	48	23	+25	53
4th	Man Utd	27	13	11	3	39	21	+18	50
5th	Bolton	27	13	9	5	47	28	+19	48
6th	Blackburn	26	10	12	4	30	21	+9	42
7th	Fulham	28	12	6	10	39	37	+2	42
8th	Man City	28	12	5	11	41	38	+3	41
9th	Q.P.R.	28	10	10	8	39	39	0	40
10th	Aston Villa	27	9	11	7	37	30	+7	38
11th	West Brom	28	9	9	10	34	34	0	36
12th	Newcastle	28	8	10	10	38	36	+2	34
13th	Wigan	28	7	10	11	34	39	-5	31
14th	Middlesbrough	27	8	6	13	28	36	-8	30
15th	Birmingham	28	8	6	14	31	44	-13	30
16th	Tottenham	27	7	9	11	24	37	-13	30
17th	Everton	26	6	11	9	27	34	-7	29
18th	Portsmouth	27	6	11	10	18	31	-13	29
19th	Gillingham	27	5	5	17	17	40	-23	20
20th	Southampton	28	1	2	25	15	67	-52	5

FM

[FrogMan]

February 6, 2011
Justin Wall agrees to join Stevenage on a three months loan.

But hot damn, look at the news report that was waiting for me:

Curth stuns Q.P.R.
According to London's Evening Standar, Jeppe Lund Curth has stunned Q.P.R. by declaring that he needs to move to a bigger club.

The 26-year-old striker stated that he has ambitions to win trophies and feels he will not achieve this at Q.P.R.

BASTAGE!!! I know he's described as being ambitious in his profile, but holy cow! After waiting 8 whole months for him to come back from his leg injury, he drops that shit bomb on us. ARRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!

First thought is: Can I buy peace? He's earning only $6,000 per week and while I agree that is a bargain and I should pay him more, I'm afraid the team board won't allow me to offer him the $55k per week he wants... I offer him the most I can, which is $48k per week, plus the requested 800k signing fee, but in this first offer, I dropp the minimum fee release clause that he wants to be at only $8.2M... We'll see...

February 7, 2011
Marcus Kelly and Kasper Schmeichel are both named on the English Premier Division Team of the Week.

I decide to prais Schmeichel for his recent performance. He's really picked up his play recently...

Andrew Johnson and Matt Cross were both starters in a friendly with the English U21 squad. AJ had one assist while both rated at 7.

February 8, 2011
Fans applaud my praise for Schmeichel. London's Evening Standard reports that the in-form goalkeeper has been setting the world alight at Loftus Road and fans of the team are loving every minute of his recent performances.

Funny how the team has apparently improved since the beginning of the season. A few well placed signings and now my assistant doesn't believe we have to improve EVERYWHERE, look at his most recent team report (click the thumbnail) and also note how many 5 stars players there are in there now. Use to be only Danny Shittu and Marcus Kelly...


Also funny how he says he doesn't think Igor Nadal Lázaro isn't likely to push Keigan Parker for a starting spot while this is exactly what he's doing right now


FM

[FrogMan]

February 9, 2011
Jeppe Lund Curth rejects our first offer. I offer him $48k with a $1M signing fee and a 25% yearly wage rise. Still no minimum release fee in there though...

Following my praise of him, Kasper Schmeichel was said to be in magnificent form, impressing both pundits and managers for the whole Denmark-Bosnia and Herzegovina friendly. He got a clean sheet and a rating of 8. Jeppe Lund Curth also played, coming in the game in the 60th minute, rating at 7.

February 11, 2011
Curth rejects our latest offer, sigh. Now up to $48k with $800k signing fee, 10%, and a $15M minimum release fee clause.

February 13, 2011
Offer rejected again by Curth. That's my last offer, if he doesn't take it, I'll break off talks. $48k + $1.25M and a $13M minimum release fee...


FM

[FrogMan]

February 13, 2011

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	9-7-8-10-8	100%	27 (1)	-	7.39
DR		Keith Keane	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	98%	22	-	7.18
DL		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	9-7-10-8-7	98%	18 (5)	-	7.43
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-8-7-8	100%	27	2	7.37
DC		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Very Good	8-8-8-7-7	100%	13 (4)	2	7.29
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Okay	7-7-6-7-6	94%	25 (1)	1	7.04
MR		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	8-8-7	100%	3	1	7.67
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-8-10-10-8	100%	29 (1)	-	7.80
AMC	Yel	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	8-9-6-7-7	98%	32	13	7.72
FC	Unh	Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	97%	6	3	7.17
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-6-7-10-7	100%	14 (10)	8	7.25
S1	Unh	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-7-7-8-5	100%	6 (1)	-	7.00
S2		Luca Maioli	AM/F RC	Okay	7-7	100%	0 (1)	-	7.00
S3		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	98%	4 (7)	-	7.09
S4	Yel	Chris Chapman	M LC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	100%	0 (9)	-	7.00
S5		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	97%	16 (7)	5	7.00
-		Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	93%	3 (5)	-	7.00
-		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5	-	7.20
-		Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	7-7-6-7-7	100%	23 (7)	9	7.00
-	Yel	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	8-8-8-7-7	100%	26 (1)	-	7.26
-		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	100%	19 (1)	-	7.10

League Match #29: we play Fulham at Loftus Road. They're currently in 7th place, but only 2 points ahead of us. They're evens favourites to win this game. A win would be huge for us.

Our injuries have subsided and we have a pretty solid lineup going into this game, whil Fulham is in the middle of a streak of 5 games without a win and their overall team morale is kinda low...

This match is on TV and the key mean are presented as bein Youssouf Hersi for us, and Valdo for them.

The prediction from the TV commentator goes as follows: "Fulham has been poor of late and I can see this game fizzling into a bore draw"

After only 90 seconds of play, Fulham loses one of their top players, as Steward Downing has to leave the field, injured.

Jeppe Lund Curth may want to go play elsewhere, but he's sure still dedicated to our cause on the field, as he scores a magical goal in the 12th minute. He picked up a long pass from Danny Shittu on the right wing and brought from just inside midfield to the middle of their penalty area, always on the right, before bending a kick from left to right, the kick finding a way behind the keeper when apparently there was no angle for Curth. At that point, we had shut them out of any shots, on target or not, while shooting 5(3) ourselves.

Curth suffers a minor injury in the 43rd minute. His condition dips to 67% and I pull him out just prior to the end of the half. Andrew Johnson comes in.

The half ends with us ahead 1-0. We're outshooting them 7(5) to 4(0) and winning possession in all sections of the field, totalling 54%.

Marcus Kelly holds up play in the 62nd minute, just enough for Igor Nadal Lázaro and Youssouf Hersi to get into position. He passes the ball to Lázaro who swiftly relays it to Hersi who brings it just inside the penalty area before launching a nice top corner shot, up 2-0!

Fábio Rochemback suffers another minor injury, his condition dips to 60%. Out he goes. Ben Watson comes in.

Igor Nadal Lázaro plays a sweet backpass to Watson in the 78th minute. watson launches a sweet banana shot from 30 yards out. The keeper gets his hand on it but can't quite stop it, up 3-0!

They score a garbage goal in the 83rd minute, on a great center to the far post.

Final score: 3-1

We outshot them 13(9) to 7(2). Wow, they didn't even look like they belonged in the same league as us, great game!

Danny Shittu is named Man of the Match with a rating of 8, but we had 6 other players with ratings of 8.

The TV man has to backtrack a little: "I predicted a draw before the match and to be honest I'm surprised that Q.P.R. have been able to win this one. I still believe the two sides are very similar and this loss will have hurt Fulham."

With the win, and a Manchester City loss (ouch, 0-4 to Newcastle), we move up to 7th!!!

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Liverpool	28	16	10	2	45	14	+31	58
2nd	Chelsea	29	15	9	5	50	25	+25	54
3rd	Arsenal	28	15	9	4	47	25	+22	54
4th	Man Utd	29	14	12	3	41	21	+20	54
5th	Bolton	29	14	9	6	50	29	+21	51
6th	Blackburn	28	10	14	4	30	21	+9	44
7th	Q.P.R.	29	11	10	8	42	40	+2	43
8th	Fulham	29	12	6	11	40	40	0	42
9th	Man City	29	12	5	12	41	42	-1	41
10th	Aston Villa	29	9	12	8	39	33	+6	39
11th	Newcastle	29	9	10	10	42	36	+6	37
12th	West Brom	29	9	9	11	34	36	-2	36
13th	Everton	28	7	12	9	30	36	-6	33
14th	Middlesbrough	28	9	6	13	29	36	-7	33
15th	Portsmouth	29	7	12	10	21	33	-12	33
16th	Wigan	29	7	11	11	34	39	-5	32
17th	Tottenham	27	7	9	11	24	37	-13	30
18th	Birmingham	29	8	6	15	31	48	-17	30
19th	Gillingham	28	5	5	18	17	41	-24	20
20th	Southampton	29	1	2	26	15	70	-55	5

And a sweet message was waiting for me as I got to the clubhouse:

Q.P.R. board's delight at win over rivals
Queens Park Rangers chairman Bill Power could not hide his delight following his team'S 3-1 win over rivals Fulham.

Not many would have predicted that, come the final third of the season, Queens Park Rangers would be sitting in the top half of the table.

Having been favourites for the drop, most pundits had predicted a fight to avoid relegation, but recent performances have been top class and a top half finish is now the least they deserve.

SWEEEEEEEEET!!!

FM

[terpkristin]

Bummer about Curth, though through our conversations, I assumed this was coming.

Will your board approve fundage to keep him there, assuming you can reach a deal?

/tk

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Will your board approve fundage to keep him there, assuming you can reach a deal?

/tk

Nah, even though we're $120k per week under the budget, they're adamant that I don't spend more than $48k per week on any one player, thus making me miss on Curth for now.

There are a few players that I could probably have problems with in the near future. Hersi is looking for $80k+ per week, Kelly around the same figure, AJ is looking for over $60k, and it goes on. Trying to keep this team intact will probably be a challenge at some point... I guess I'll take it one month at a time for now, we'll deal with next season when it rolls around...

FM

[FrogMan]

wanna add though that we survived without Curth for a good part of the first half of the season. Striker is a position at which I think I have a good eye and could be able to find replacements, see Igor Nadal Lázaro for example...

FM

[FrogMan]

hrm, weird, very weird, looks like I never reported that Quincy Owusu Abeyie had agreed to our second offer. I have a printout here with the names of the future transfers in, since I was computing our wages as of July 1st, and his name is part of the 4 future transfers coming in as free transfers on July 1st. That's odd, I'll have to check that to make sure he's indeed agreed to come play for us, but he should have.

If you're following closely, you must know that César Augusto Fawcett was the first Bosman type transfer that will join us on July 1st, Abeyie should be the second. I just said 4 transfers, 2 more to come, still unreported, how's that for a teaser, huh?

One of the two is a big one, at least to me, and could make Jeppe Lund Curth not as necessary as he may think. Okay enough...

FM

[FrogMan]

February 14, 2011
Youssouf Hersi is named on the English Premier Division Team of the Week. It's his 8th time this season. He also was named the Player of the Month in August and November.

Jeppe Lund Curth rejects our last offer, we break off talks. He now wants $69k per week...

February 15, 2011
Fábio Rochemback suffered a damaged elbow in training and will miss one week. What is he made of, paper???

February 16, 2011
I took a look at all the players with unprotected contracts on Premiership squads. Came out with a few interesting finds... First one is Eric Djemba-Djemba, 29yo DM C currently playing with Man U. He says he's not interested in a move to QPR, I make him an offer anyway... He's currently earning $45k per week, I offer him $48k and a $1M signing fee with a minimum release fee set at $12M. He's currently valued at $10.5M. We'll see...

February 19, 2011
Well, true to his words, Djemba-Djemba snubs us. He says he feels a move to Q.P.R. would be a step in the wrong direction. BOOOOOO!!!!


FM

[FrogMan]

February 19, 2011

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Superb	7-8-10-8-7	100%	28 (1)	-	7.38
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5	-	7.20
DL		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-10-8-7-7	98%	19 (5)	-	7.42
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-8-7-8-8	99%	28	2	7.39
DC	Yel	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	8-8-8-7-7	100%	26 (1)	-	7.26
DMC		Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	100%	4 (8)	1	7.17
MR		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	8-8-7-8	98%	4	1	7.75
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	8-10-10-8-8	98%	30 (1)	-	7.81
AMC	Yel	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	9-6-7-7-8	95%	33	14	7.73
FC	Unh	Jeppe Lund Curth	F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	98%	7	4	7.29
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	6-7-10-7-8	98%	15 (10)	8	7.28
S1	Unh	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7-7-8-5-7	100%	5 (5)	-	7.10
S2		Luca Maioli	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7	98%	0 (2)	-	7.00
S3		Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	90%	7 (2)	1	6.89
S4	Yel	Chris Chapman	M LC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	100%	0 (9)	-	7.00
S5		Keigan Parker	S C	Superb	7-7-6-7-7	100%	23 (7)	9	7.00
-		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	99%	14 (4)	2	7.28
-	Inj	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-6-7-6-7	69%	26 (1)	1	7.04
-		Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	100%	3 (5)	-	7.00
-		Mathew Sadler	D L	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	100%	19 (1)	-	7.10
-		Keith Keane	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	98%	23	-	7.17
-		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	16 (8)	5	7.00

FA Cup round 5: we play Stoke on their pitch. They're currently struggling, 11th in the Championship. we're 6-4 favourites to win this game.

Our next game is only on March 3. They played on February 15, while we've had 2 more days to rest, having only played on the 13th.

Ben Watson is in for Fábio Rochemback.

In the 10th minute, Youssouf Hersi wins the header on an incoming goal kick from their keeper. He forwards it to Igor Nadal Lázaro. It's a footrace and Lázaro is the first to the bal. He converts it for the 1-0 goal.

Only 5 minutes later, a throw in from Craig Crane to Ben Watson is converted in a half shot/half centre to the 6 yard box where Lázaro scores a lucky goal, his second of the game and tenth on the season.

We'll add a third one before the end of the half, when Youssouf Hersi bends a free kick from just outside of the area for his 15th of the season.

The half ends with us ahead 3-0. We're outshooting them 8(7) to 4(0). Lázaro suffered a minor injury and is replaced by Keigan Parker.

David Marek Rozehnal plays a nice long pass to Keigan Parker in the 68th minute. Alone with the keeper, Parker doesn't miss this one, his 10th of the season.

In the 84th minute, Jeppe Lund Curth needs the physio on the field. Evne though he's not marked with a green cross mark that would indicate a minor injury, his condition has dipped to 41%, but we don'T have any subs left.

Final Score: 4-0

We outshot them 14(9) to 5(1), a dominating win.

Marcus Kelly is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9. Youssouf Hersi and Igor Nadal Lázaro also both got rated at 8.

We're awarded $260k for the win and we're through to round 6, aka quarter final round

David Marek Rozehnal has received his 5th yellow card and will be banned for a match.

Jeppe Lund Curth's condition is only at 50% following the match, but as I said, our next match is only on March 5.

FM

[FrogMan]

quick update, Quincy Owusu Abeyie has indeed agreed to a contract with us, effective at the end of his current contract, which ends on June 30, 2011. Sorry for not reporting this.

And it's not a total of 4 players that will be coming in on July 1st, but 5 players, not a new one, just one I had forgotten about. All of this is still to be officially reported in here, so I'll shut up now

Good night.

FM

[finkenst]

grr!

[FrogMan]

what? you were on a tear and wanted to read more???

FM

[SirFozzie]

Yes, Start Posting More.

Now.

NOW!

[FrogMan]

there is more to come, it'll be here when it'll be here, addict!



FM

[condors]

looks at watch

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by condors

looks at watch

, okay, okay, the time is now

*goes off mumbling* bunch of addicts, never satisfied, always more, more, more, gonna give 'em more...



FM

[FrogMan]

February 20, 2011
I did a little round of looking around big teams, including every one of the EPL club, for players who are still not locked beyond June 30, i.e. with unprotected contract. One fellow I found, that I think could give use depth in the midfield, is 33yo DMC Li Tie, who currently plays for Everton. Hailing from the Republic of China, Tie has 124 international caps, making him a very experienced midfielder, and since he's been playing in the EPL for a few seasons, he speaks English and is used to playing in England. He wants 19k per week with a signing fee of $200k for a one year deal, which would suit me. He's currently making $17.5k per week and that's what I offer him, with a $100k signing fee, for a one year contract.

February 21, 2011
The draw for the 6th round of the FA Cup happens today. With 8 teams left, these are the quarter finals and we'll play West Brom at Loftus Road on March 12.

February 22, 2011
I keep looking at players with unprotected contracts, this time on a more European scale. On the Rangers (Scotland) squad, I find this dude, Ross McCormack, a 24yo form ratings machine who's described as a clinical striker. I like that, clinical striker. Looking at his skills, I'd say he's about that, a methodical and lethal finisher with world class skills (read 19 or 20) in finishing, heading, long shots, decisions, creativity, and free kicks and penalties. To that, add above average skills (read 15-16) in passing, aggressivity, composure, concentration, and off the ball movement. He's been not only a form ratings machine, but a goal scoring machine as well, scoring as many as 29 goals with 15 assists in 2007-08. As you can see fromhis stats since 2004-05:

Year	Team	Division	Info	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Av R
2010-11	Rangers			23	7	0	4	7.26
2009-10	Rangers			35	18	7	5	7.54
2008-09	Rangers			31	16	3	3	7.42
2007-08	Rangers			44	29	15	4	7.80
2006-07	Rangers			29 (4)	22	3	0	7.39
2005-06	Rangers			10 (5)	10	1	0	7.40
2004-05	Rangers			6 (4)	3	2	0	7.10

He's currently valued at $9.2M and earning $54k per week at the moment. He seems open to take a pay cut to come play for us, asking for $49k per week with a $260k signing fee. I offer him the most my board would allow me, which is $48k, with a signing fee of $320k, to sort of make up for the missing thousand dollars per week...


FM

[FrogMan]

February 23, 2011
We get a break as Blackburn draw 1-1 with Tottenham. This draw keeps the 6th place Blackburn at only 2 points from us. We play them on our next match, on March 5, on their pitch. Look at how the league table is shaping up after this draw:

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Liverpool	29	17	10	2	49	14	+35	61
2nd	Arsenal	29	16	9	4	49	26	+23	57
3rd	Chelsea	29	15	9	5	50	25	+25	54
4th	Man Utd	29	14	12	3	41	21	+20	54
5th	Bolton	29	14	9	6	50	29	+21	51
6th	Blackburn	29	10	15	4	31	22	+9	45
7th	Q.P.R.	29	11	10	8	42	40	+2	43
8th	Fulham	29	12	6	11	40	40	0	42
9th	Man City	29	12	5	12	41	42	-1	41
10th	Aston Villa	29	9	12	8	39	33	+6	39
11th	Newcastle	29	9	10	10	42	36	+6	37
12th	West Brom	29	9	9	11	34	36	-2	36
13th	Everton	29	8	12	9	31	36	-5	36
14th	Middlesbrough	29	9	6	14	29	37	-8	33
15th	Portsmouth	29	7	12	10	21	33	-12	33
16th	Wigan	29	7	11	11	34	39	-5	32
17th	Tottenham	29	7	10	12	26	40	-14	31
18th	Birmingham	29	8	6	15	31	48	-17	30
19th	Gillingham	29	5	5	19	17	45	-28	20
20th	Southampton	29	1	2	26	15	70	-55	5

February 24, 2011
Li Tie has agreed to terms with us and will join us on July 1st. He is described as a tireless midfielder and as you can see from his player profile (click thumbnail), he's got sound skills to do the job in case anything would happen to Fábio Rochemback.


Also, as you can see from his stats sheet below, he's been playing with Everton since the 2002-03 season, so he's used to play in the Premiership. I think he's a sound addition for depth to our squad.

Year	Team	Division	Info	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Av R
2010-11	Everton	Premier Division		16	0	1	0	6.94
2009-10	Everton	Premier Division		36	6	3	1	7.25
2008-09	Everton	Premier Division		35 (6)	2	2	1	7.07
2007-08	Everton	Premier Division		22 (16)	1	3	0	7.00
2006-07	Everton	Premier Division		17 (10)	2	1	0	7.07
2005-06	Everton	Championship		32 (13)	7	9	4	7.49
2004-05	Everton	Premier Division		6 (21)	0	0	0	6.41
2003-04	Everton			5	0	-	-	-
2002-03	Everton			29	0	-	-	-

February 25, 2011
Ross McCormack has agreed to terms with us!!! He said he is very excited at the prospect of playing at a highe level. As I said before, he is described as a clinical striker and you can see for yourselves the skills I described before by clicking the thumbnail to view his profile.


One thing I forgot to mention is his reputation. He's got a continental reputation, adding to the club's list of high profile/reputation players. His signing with the Queens Park Rangers makes it two Rangers coming to Loftus Road. The first one, if you remember, is left fullback César Augusto Fawcett who, just like McCormack, will join us on July 1st.

I'm pretty excited with this signing. I think he could do great things for us, and could allow me to possibly transfer list Jeppe Lund Curth is I can't sign him back...

Among other news, Luton Town have sacked the manager they had finally hired to replace me, less than a year to the day he took over control of the team. Sadly, they took so long to replace me that they demoted from League One and are now only in 13th place in League Two. How sad

FM

[FrogMan]

Wage check
After the two most recent signings, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at what our team wage would be on July 1st, once the new signees will have come on board, at least the 4 new signees at this point. Here's a list of everybody who's under contract with us. Players with wages in red will not be there in July. Players with wages in blue might be resigned. Players are sorted by the date at which their contracts expire.

Pkd	Inf	Name	Squad Status	Weekly wage	Expires	Prot	Value
-	Ctr	Stuart Kay	Youngster	$200	-	No	-
-	Ctr	Dean Perry	Youngster	$90	-	No	-
-	Yel	Mark Robertson	Youngster	$220	-	No	-
-	Inj	Peter Carter	Youngster	$110	-	No	-
-	Inj	Matt Alexander	Youngster	$90	-	No	-
-	Yth	Paul Ingram	Youngster	$120	-	No	-
-	Ctr	Daniel Howarth	Youngster	$100	-	No	-
-	Inj	Michael McDonald	Youngster	$200	-	No	-
S2		Luca Maioli	-	$3,000	30.4.2011	No	$12M
-	Lst	Lennart Rhee	-	$1,550	8.6.2011	No	$6.4M
DC		Igor Biscan	Rotation	$17,000	30.6.2011	No	$2.2M
-	Lst	Chris Day	First Team	$11,000	30.6.2011	No	$150K
-	Lst	John Oster	Backup	$2,000	30.6.2011	No	$280K
-	Req	Steve Brooker	Not Needed	$10,000	30.6.2011	No	$700K
-		Lee Mansell	Rotation	$1,500	30.6.2011	No	$360K
-		Mathew Sadler	First Team	$7,000	30.6.2011	No	$2.2M
-		Keith Keane	First Team	$18,000	30.6.2011	No	$4.8M
-	Inj	John Boyle	Backup	$400	30.6.2011	No	$400K
-	Lst	Michael Parker	Hot Prospect	$160	30.6.2011	No	$550K
-		Mark Taylor	Youngster	$180	30.6.2011	No	$60K
-	Lst	Craig Birch	Youngster	$180	30.6.2011	No	$24K
-		Fábio Rochemback	Key Player	$26,500	30.6.2012	Yes	$7.8M
FC	Unh	Jeppe Lund Curth	First Team	$6,000	30.6.2012	Yes	$8.4M
-		Marc Bircham	Key Player	$11,000	30.6.2012	Yes	$1.2M
S5		Keigan Parker	Key Player	$25,000	30.6.2012	Yes	$7.4M
-	Lst	Peter Till	Not Needed	$750	30.6.2012	Yes	$1.5M
ML		Marcus Kelly	First Team	$6,000	30.6.2012	Yes	$8M
-	Req	Nathan Jameson	Backup	$9,000	30.6.2012	Yes	$1.65M
-	Unh	Matthew Bates	First Team	$4,200	30.6.2012	Yes	$1.1M
-	Unh	Scott Donnelly	Hot Prospect	$900	30.6.2012	Yes	$3.2M
-	Sus	David Marek Rozehnal	Key Player	$12,000	30.6.2012	Yes	$3.2M
S4	Yel	Chris Chapman	Rotation	$700	30.6.2012	Yes	$4.4M
DL		Tom Howell	First Team	$2,400	30.6.2012	Yes	$7.4M
-		Andrew Johnson	First Team	$2,200	30.6.2012	No	$9.8M
-	Inj	Matt Matthews	Youngster	$180	30.6.2012	Yes	$160K
DR		Craig Crane	First Team	$3,000	30.6.2012	Yes	$3.4M
AMC	Yel	Youssouf Hersi	First Team	$36,000	30.6.2013	Yes	$12M
DC		Danny Shittu	Key Player	$22,500	30.6.2013	Yes	$5M
DMC		Ben Watson	First Team	$30,000	30.6.2013	Yes	$6.6M
GK		Kasper Schmeichel	First Team	$8,600	30.6.2013	Yes	$3.4M
S1	Unh	Paul Davies	First Team	$1,650	30.6.2013	Yes	$1.2M
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	First Team	$18,000	30.6.2013	Yes	$6M
-	Unh	Darren Evans	First Team	$2,200	30.6.2013	Yes	$2.6M
S3		Matt Cross	Key Player	$17,000	30.6.2013	Yes	$7M
-	Inj	Mike Cook	Hot Prospect	$1,100	30.6.2013	Yes	$3.4M
-	Inj	Joe Marshall	Hot Prospect	$440	30.6.2013	Yes	$1.7M
-	Unh	John Davies	First Team	$2,000	30.6.2013	Yes	$4M
-	Inj	Scott Blake	Youngster	$700	30.6.2013	Yes	$3.4M
MR		Clemens Fritz	Key Player	$37,000	30.6.2014	Yes	$8.2M

The wage total for the players currently under contract and that could be with us comes July 1st comes to about $324k. This is including the blue wages but excluding the red wages. This is also without taking into account any yearly wage rise (percentage), it at least gives me a ballpark to work with.

To this figure, I gotta add the wages of the four players already signed and coming to the team on July 1st:
César Augusto Fawcett, $48k
Quincy Owusu Abeyie, $17.5k
Li Tie, $22.5k
Ross McCormack, $48k.
That's $136k for the four of them, bringing us to a total of $460k. Woah, this is getting closer to the wage budget who's currently set to $480k. Gotta rein myself in, I guess...

I think it's obvious now that I'm making these moves with the great hope that we won't suffer a major crash down and drop to the drop zone. Rangers are in the Premiership to stay!!!

FM