WSM2006: the hatted frog gets back in the saddle

[FrogMan]

From another life...

Originally Posted by daedalus

I would be quite willing to switch my following to your WSM'06 career. No problem.

Well, as some of you may or may not know, depending on if you read the big FM2006 thread or not, I've gotten back to the game and boy has it got me addicted again. My wife doesn't care much for "billiard balls moving around with crowd noises in the background" (as she puts it) but I just feel like I need to talk about the team. Sometimes brag about it, sometimes explain out loud my thinking, sometimes simply vent about my bad luck. Right now, the bad luck and down times are aplenty as my Luton Town Hatters and their manager, yours truly, are fighting each other in a battle of will.

When I got back to the game, the date was October 2010 and we were going through some rough times, never going much higher than 13th place in the EPL, despite hopes of a respectable finish from the supporters and a safe mid-table finish from the team board. Players started getting restless and it didn't get much better in the following three months. We're now in early February 2011 and I'm feeling like we could maybe salvage something out of this season, but there are some interesting twists, that I'll reveal in the next few posts.

Anyway, I got myself well hooked again, and I feel like sharing with someone. As has happened the last couple times I got back to the game, I just started writing updates for terpkristin, whom I kept informed on the team on and off via AIM. I'm thinking, I wanna write about it, and now I'm writing to one person, why not share it with as many who would care to come read it in here??? So here I am...

I can't say it will be as detailed as my previous dynasty reports, as I don't feel like writing down as much note as I used to write, but I'll at least report on the games and results as they happen, presenting the team and its daily/weekly goings as they happen. Welcome back to my football world.

FM

PS: I'm sure you'll have figured that the title is a reference to the team's name, the Luton Town Hatters GO HATTERS!!!

[FrogMan]

Here's the first post regarding this career that I made in the big FM2006 thread, I think it summarizes well what is going with the Hatters at the moment:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

You guys ever felt like your players were quitting on you, as if they'd lost confidence in you?

I'm just getting back to my WSM2006 career and here's the story. I've been managing Luton Town since the start, so 2005-06. Started out in the Championship, promoted to the EPL in 2008. We had a couple of not so easy seasons in Premiership and we're now in 2010, actually just turned the new year in January 2011. Since the start of the season, we're having a very tough time aligning any kind of streak, or even simply winning games. I didn't bring in too many new players this season, although I did bring in a couple, and I feel that our talent level should at least make us win every once in a while, but we're sitting in 16th place and now many players are showing the "SLT" marker, saying they think the team is underachieving. Sometimes we play well, but I often see them making mistakes that are making me want to pull my hair out. I mean missing out on easy goals, making crazy crosspass at the back, that sort of thing. We often stay in the game, play the other team very tight but then break down with 10 minutes to play. Just happened last night, play ManU very tough, even took the lead 1-0 in the first half only to break down in the 85th minute and end in a 1-1 draw. Guys come out of the game with boosted morale so I'm thinking we'll doo well in our next game, but no, we come out flat and drop a goal early on, unable to put one past their keeper...

I'm wondering if their confidence is not simply very low, is that possible? Or could they really give up on me and hope I'm replaced soon? I mean this has happened in real life, could this happen in the game?

The media and the outside world must be smelling something too since when Manchester City sacked their manager, I was mentionned as the likely replacement. Auxerres also approached me to take over the reign of their team, maybe only a week after the Man City link.

Anyway, up next for us in a the home and home semi-final series for the League Cup, where hopefully we could get all together and put one final big drive to finish a bit higher in league play.

FM

FM

[FrogMan]

here's yesterday's update that I sent to tk regarding the team:

Hey there,

Thought I'd update you on my Hatters during some slower parts of the day

As I was telling you, we struggled through a rough start of the
2010-11 season, our second in the Premiership. Seems like we're most
of the time in the game, but we often end up dropping a stupid goal
late in the game to either get tied, or straight out lose.

Some other times, we're just not in it, even though we succeed at
keeping the scores low, mostly because I have two keepers who've been
playing very solidly, i.e. average form ratings around 7.50 which is
very good.

Anyway, I now have a whole bunch of players with the "SLT" tag next to
their name. Just so you know, this means they have some slight
concern. In most cases here, it reads something like "feel the team
may be underachieving". A couple of them also have a major concern
listed of the type "has lost confidence in his manager". That's not
good news...

We're hovering from 12th to 17th place, a tad lower than the
"comfortable mid-table finish" that my board is looking for and much
lower than the "respectable position" that the supporters are hoping
for (usually means top half of the league).

I didn't bring that many new player in the offseason, although all
that playing happened a while ago and I don't remember everything very
clearly. I brought in Philippe Senderos as a free transfer from
Arsenal, but he's been rock solid in the middle of our defense, so
he's not part of the problem. My left fullback is new and not
performing as well as I'd hoped, but I also doubt he's the biggest
trouble we have. Sometimes I only felt like the players were quitting
on me, if that makes any sense. I'm feeling weird about this, in a
sense that it's kinda great that a game tries to mimicks what happens
very often in real life, but it's not so great that it's happening to
me, heh.

I kind of stripped down my tactics yesterday and got us on a roll. By
stripped dowm, I mean that I cut down the individual instructions a
bit and lowered the creativity slider way down, asking the guys not to
be too fancy and simply play ball. Following that adjustment, we won a
game we were supposed to win in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, against
some League One team, then we won the first leg of the Carling Cup
semi final, 3-0 at Cardiff no less. Gotta say we got a good draw for
that semi final as Cardiff are struggling in the Championship while
the other semi is Middlesbrough (I think) vs Chelsea. Chelsea is up
1-0 after the first leg there.

We then got back to league play and won twice, both times because of
some great goaltending on our side, but still, we were able to hang in
there for the whole 90 minutes... We're up to 15th or 14th place after
these two wins but more importantly, the guys' morale has been boosted
by the wins. The injury rash is almost over although my skipper has
gone back to the DL after coming back from a groin strain that kept
him off for 2 months. He played 15 minutes simply to have him play a
little, then hurt himself for 4 weeks the very next day in training.
He's my rock solid DM who really is a difference maker when in the
game...

The January transfer window is almost over and I didn't have much
budget left, something like 4.5M. I spend 2M of it on somebody you
might recognize, QPR's Scott Donnelly, an up and coming AM RC. Funny
thing is, QPR's manager Mick Harford, a former Hatter assistant
manager, said he okayed the deal because of his good relation with me.
I checked his profile and yep, I'm listed as one of his favourite
personnel. Kinda cool... Donnelly is fairly young (23 I think) and
will be brought along to replace Youssouf Hersi eventually in the AM
spot.

I also brought in a D/M L name Mike Timlin who's listed as a winger in
his profile but has a lot of the qualities I like in an offensive
fullback. Played a strong game in his first appearance and the media
asked me what I thought of him. My positive reply (something like that
I thought it was good and he'd get even better as he learned to play
with us) has him saying he wants to repay the faith I put in him. He's
25 and only cost my something like 1M or so. I also brought in a
youngish AM R/ST to use mostly as a backup striker. Forget his name at
the moment, but he was a sometimes first teamer at Hull, getting
reasonable form ratings and he came cheap (600k or so) and his wages
are only at 5k per weeks. Anything under 10k is a bargain, especially
for a backup that could step in and play first team easily for a
longer stretch of time...

I'm back in the fold, just as addicted as I was before. Can't wait to
play again tonight as the date is January 24 and Canada is just about
to start group play in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. We're in a group with St
Martin and Costa Rica (I think) and the FA and the supporters excpect
us to get out of group play. I think we'll make it. St Martin is
really nothing to worry about although I don't know much about Costa
Rica...

Hope you enjoyed the distraction

[FrogMan]

and here's today's update that brings you more or less to where I am in the game at this moment. Watch for the interesting twist near the bottom of the post...

Hey there,

Time for a quick daily update...

Last evening was mostly Team Canada playing and going through the
January transfer window, worrying about other teams putting bids on
some of my players with minimum transfer clause.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup started with us playing St Martin in our first
game. The Cup is arranged in 4 groups of 3 teams and I was certain
that only the top team in each group would advance to the next round,
the Semi Final in that case, so when we drew 1-1 on a late goal from
St Martin despite dominating them for all of the game, I felt nervous
going into the game against Costa Rica. They had beat St Martin 2-1 a
few days earlier and I didn't want to see us bow out of the Cup
without making it through group stage. We played the Costa Rica game
and dominated them thoroughly, winning it 2-0 or so, but with many
more shots than them. It then hit me, it's not the top team, it's the
top TWO teams out of three in every group that qualify, so we got
through. We then played the British Virgin Islands in quarter final
and destroyed them 4-0. Up next will be USA in Semi Final. The Cup is
played in the States so I'd expect them to have the crowd behind them,
although I'm not so sure the game really takes it into account.
Anyway, this game should be an interesting one. The media even have us
as being able to get away with the win, wow. The other semi final is
Brazil/Mexico...

As for the Hatters, we played one very solid game in the second leg of
the Carling Cup Semi Final that we won 2-0 against Cardiff, putting
the aggregate score at 5-0. The 2-0 score could have been much, much
more as we held them without one shot in the first half but went
defensive when we got our second goal of the game.

Thats was on January 26, so a little less than a week before the
closing of the transfer window. The one player on my team I knew was
being scouted and that had a minimum releas fee clause is left winger
Urby Emanuelson. I acquired him via free transfer in the Summer of
2009, so right before last season. He had moments of brilliance last
season, but also some downers at times. This season, he started pretty
hot, then slowed down a bit, at the same time that my up and coming
left winger of the future, 23yo James Simmonds, started doing some
very interesting stuff and took over the starting role. Urby is valued
at $4.5M but has a minimum fee release clause at $6.5. Sure enough,
two clubs came on the 27th and offered the minimum fee, forcing me to
accept the offer. He signed with Southampton right there, leaving me
with a couple of days to find a possible backup to Simmonds. I had
bought a D/M L a few days before, so if I could find either a good
left winger or fullback, I would be fine and I found one that
interested me very much in Arthur Boka. Not sure if you remember him,
but he was on the Ivory Coast squad back in my other career. I offered
Toulouse a nice offer and they accepted. He was even asking 2.5K less
per week to come to me than what he was earning at Toulouse, but we
got shot down on the 31st with a rejected work permit request, so
we'll stay put for now. Fabrice Fernandes will serve as Simmonds'
backup and I could also keep on playing my two previous left fullback
in the back and move up the new D/M L so he plays on wing in case of
injury.

Right before the second leg of the Carling cup semi final, I got some
interesting twist that happened. Paris St-Germain approached me to
take over their team. I found the offer interesting, plenty of
transfer money, lots of room under a high salary budget. At the
moment, I decided to ask for a delay so I could think about it. They
allowed me to delay one week and got back to me after that week and
that's where I signed off yesterday. Take a look at this screenshot to
see the message they sent me. Interesting and almost tempting to say
the least. They are currently still alive in the UEFA Cup and in 10th
place in the Ligue 1. To compare, my current wage budget at Luton is
at 480k and I think I'm up to total wages of 495k or so, always
running over. 110202psg2.jpg & 110202psg3.jpg present you the two
extreme I can go with their offers. "2" is with the highest wage
budget/lowest transfer and "3" is the other way around.

As I said, this is where I saved my game and stopped playing. I'm kind
of torn on this, should I take the offer and bail out of a team that I
feel doesn't want to play for me or do I try and get the Hatters over
the hump and bring them to European competition again???

Well, so much for a "quick" update huh? I guess I could make it
another go at dynasty writing. I just need to talk about my team, and
well, the wife doesn't care much about billiard balls running around on
the computer screen...

I don't have all my team information with me, I will fill that out more or less over the next few days, sorry for leaving you in a fog for now.

Now, with as little information as you have, dear readers, what would you do in that situation? You go to Paris or you stay at Kenilworth Road, home of the Hatters???

As I said, I'm torn...

FM

[gi]

Go to Paris....

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by gi

Go to Paris....

and could you expand your thinking?

Have you managed in France or is it the humongous, at least compared to what I have now, transfer and wage budgets that would sway you?

I tell you, it is tempting... On the other hand, it would feel so good to bring back on track the Hatters but is it feasible now, or is it too late???

FM

[FrogMan]

oh, and by "go to Paris" you really mean the city, or the club, right? not the slut, right?

There was this cartoon in the local newspaper about Jose Theodore wanting to get things back with his current girlfriend and the cartoon was saying something along the lines of "let's go to Paris.... the city you know"

FM

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Well, as some of you may or may not know, depending on if you read the big FM2006 thread or not, I've gotten back to the game and boy has it got me addicted again. My wife doesn't care much for "billiard balls moving around with crowd noises in the background" (as she puts it) but I just feel like I need to talk about the team. Sometimes brag about it, sometimes explain out loud my thinking, sometimes simply vent about my bad luck. Right now, the bad luck and down times are aplenty as my Luton Town Hatters and their manager, yours truly, are fighting each other in a battle of will.

This is quite funny. My son asks me to turn the game on each night and get mad at me if I run a quick game. We have to watch the whole match. He gets excited if we score, or any shot. If I am doing anything else during the game, getting a drink, snack, etc., he calls out updates to me.

"Blue team has the ball. We're going to score! We score!"

The best part is when we actually do score, because his next line is:

"We just scored again!"

[MalcPow]

I'd go to PSG. It seems like things are languishing a little with the Hatters, and it might be the best thing for everybody to mix things up. With that kind of transfer money, you could really make that team your own. I haven't played much in the French leagues, but there would be some nice rivalries for you with Lyon and more importantly, Marseilles, which has taken on Real-Barca levels of intensity. It might be a good change of pace, but it might also mean you're leaving the leagues you know and the games will mean less to you. But that's a lot of money to spend.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by MalcPow

I'd go to PSG. It seems like things are languishing a little with the Hatters, and it might be the best thing for everybody to mix things up. With that kind of transfer money, you could really make that team your own. I haven't played much in the French leagues, but there would be some nice rivalries for you with Lyon and more importantly, Marseilles, which has taken on Real-Barca levels of intensity. It might be a good change of pace, but it might also mean you're leaving the leagues you know and the games will mean less to you. But that's a lot of money to spend.

Valid points you bring here. Indeed it would be a lot of money to spend and especially lots of wage budget, which I usually have a hard time staying under

One thing though, the day is now February 2nd and it strikes me just now, the darn transfer window has closed. This means I won't have the transfer money available right now, but would spend it to make this team my own for NEXT season. That's kind of a bummer.

Finally, Luton has always been my home, I can't deny that. These kids I brought here are all my own. We built the stadium in two consecutive upgrades, from a measly 9750 seats to 14500 to now 21500 seats. Still, it remains a smallish stadium for an EPL team, and I'm thinking it might be capped at that size. The $500k weekly wage budget I have now might be close to the max I will have for many seasons to come...

Again, I'm torn on this. Isn't this a testament to how gripping this game is? I mean, the first time I got sacked at Luton in FM2005, I was down in real life for a whole week, before catching on at QPR and now this decision has me pondering pros and cons of a move to frigging Paris... Kudos to the SI team...

FM

[twothree]

I would stay with the Hatters for another season. Just to see if you receive any more offers like that from other teams.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

This is quite funny. My son asks me to turn the game on each night and get mad at me if I run a quick game. We have to watch the whole match. He gets excited if we score, or any shot. If I am doing anything else during the game, getting a drink, snack, etc., he calls out updates to me.

"Blue team has the ball. We're going to score! We score!"

The best part is when we actually do score, because his next line is:

"We just scored again!"

My 9yo son will also sometimes come close to me and take a look at the computer, asking me if I'm still coaching "the Luton" as he calls them.

He doesn't stay long usually, and couldn't understand when I first got sacked the first time. I had to explain to him that "in real life sports" coaches sometimes get fired when their team doesn't deliver wins. Talk about games giving out real life lessons

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by twothree

I would stay with the Hatters for another season. Just to see if you receive any more offers like that from other teams.

That's my other very possible option. I have now received formal offers from Auxerre and PSG and have been linked to openings at two EPL clubs, both of which I denied any interest in the press. My reputation is at national now and I would think I could get a job at another high prestige club, or maybe not...

The challenge of seeing if we could turn the season around is also very interesting, especially if we earn a spot in European Competition by winning the Carling Cup. I'm looking back and now realize I've not told about the shocker in the other semi final of the Cup. It involved Chelsea and Blackburn. Leg one was at Blackburn and Chelsea came out of it ahead 1-0. Iwas sure they'd hold it and seal it at home only to get the email that we've been drawn to play Blackburn in the Carling Cup final. Blackburn were able to go play Chelsea on their pitch and beat them 2-1 there, making it 2-2 on aggregate goals. I can only assume that the away goal rule was in effect since they only played extra time and didn't go to penaltie kicks. I found it odd but oh well. So we're now set to play Blackburn, currently 6th in EPL, for a chance at winning the Carling Cup and a berth in the UEFA Cup next season...

FM

[gi]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

and could you expand your thinking?

Have you managed in France or is it the humongous, at least compared to what I have now, transfer and wage budgets that would sway you?

I tell you, it is tempting... On the other hand, it would feel so good to bring back on track the Hatters but is it feasible now, or is it too late???

FM

Sorry, too many emergencies to expand at the time. I just think this job is making a very compelling offer. Since you're on the fence, you feel the same way. Or like previous posters said, you could give it some more time and wait for a better job opportunity.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by gi

Sorry, too many emergencies to expand at the time. I just think this job is making a very compelling offer. Since you're on the fence, you feel the same way. Or like previous posters said, you could give it some more time and wait for a better job opportunity.

I agree with you on this, it is a very compelling offer, and the reason I'm so torn on it. As a comparison, the offer from Auxerre was for some $15M of transfer money, which was still not bad, but they were expecting me to cut down wages in the process, something I always have a hard time with...

FM

[Butter]

Depends on how you look at this dynasty, I would say... if you feel you're playing a Luton Town career, then stick with the Hatters until the bitter end (which may be sooner rather than later, but if you do get sacked you can always catch on somewhere else). If you feel you're playing a managerial career, then go with the Paris SG offer. Paris was once the elite French side until Lyon came along and dominated... then Paris has just sort of languished in anonymity for the last few years. It would be fun to build Paris into the powerhouse of French football again. Plus, you live in Quebec, you're supposed to like all that French-y stuff. (Kidding, only kidding!)

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Depends on how you look at this dynasty, I would say... if you feel you're playing a Luton Town career, then stick with the Hatters until the bitter end (which may be sooner rather than later, but if you do get sacked you can always catch on somewhere else). If you feel you're playing a managerial career, then go with the Paris SG offer. Paris was once the elite French side until Lyon came along and dominated... then Paris has just sort of languished in anonymity for the last few years. It would be fun to build Paris into the powerhouse of French football again.

That post got me thinking and well, I'm a very loyal person, sometimes to my own demise and I will probably stay with Luton until they kick me out...

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Plus, you live in Quebec, you're supposed to like all that French-y stuff. (Kidding, only kidding!)

oh my friend, you couldn't be further from the truth (I know you're kidding ). Yeah, French is my native tongue, but it kind of stops there. I'm North American first and foremost and do most of my stuff in English more than in French... Going to PSG would have the prestige effect, for sure, but might as have been Real Madrid, Inter, AC Milan, or any other very big club in Europe...

FM

[FrogMan]

February 2, 2011
As was said, as I got to my desk, I had the offer from PSG to deal with. Still debating it, I decided to ask for a second delay to make a decision. I'm thinking, if they really want me there, they'll wait me out, and if not, well I'll ride my loyalty to Luton and will stay on ship until it sinks. PSG aggreed to the delay and they will get in touch in a week...

I'm Superman today as I will have to manage two games on two continents. One in Luton, as we play Millwall in the 4th round of the FA Cup and another one with Canada in the Semi Final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, where we'll play USA at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Millwall game was more of the same for the Hatters, a frustrating game that we should have won rather easily, but that we couldn't pu away. We outshot them 12 to 6, 5 to 3 on target and won possession with 57% but we just couldn't get the killshot and we end up drawing them 1-1. We will have to do a replay on their pitch in a couple of weeks.

Here's the lineup I used for that game, so you can start learning names and such.

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Slt	Niki Mäenpää	GK	Very Good	7-7-7-9-7	100%	15 (1)	-	7.31
DR	Slt	Kevin Foley	D/WB/M R	Very Good	7-9-7-7-7	100%	19	1	7.32
DL		Michael Timlin	D L, M LC	Very Good	7	100%	1	-	7.00
DC	Slt	Curtis Davies	SW, D C	Superb	8-8-8-5-8	100%	26	2	7.15
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Good	6-8-8-5-8	100%	29 (1)	-	7.23
DMC		Keith Keane	D/WB R, DM, M RC	Very Good	7-8-8-7-7	100%	13 (8)	1	6.90
MR		Simon Feindouno	AM RC, F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	8 (8)	-	6.56
ML	Slt	James Simmonds	AM L	Very Good	6-9-8-8-7	100%	10 (9)	3	7.05
AMC	Slt	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Very Good	7-7-8-8-7	100%	23 (5)	4	7.21
FC	Slt	Arjan Wisse	AM L, ST	Very Good	8-6-7-9-7	100%	29 (2)	12	7.03
FC	Wnt	Rey Volpato	AM LC, F C	Very Good	8-9-8-7-7	100%	24 (1)	11	7.20
S1		Oswaldo Sánchez	GK	Okay	5-7-6-7-7	94%	3	-	6.33
S2	Yel	Edmílson	SW, D C, DM	Very Good	7-6-6-8-7	100%	8 (3)	1	7.00
S3	Slt	Grégory Bettiol	AM RC, ST	Very Good	6-7-7-7-7	99%	6 (14)	2	6.55
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Okay	7-6-6-6-7	94%	2 (11)	-	6.62
S5	Slt	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM RLC, ST	Okay	6-7-8-7-5	100%	19 (6)	4	6.84
-	Inj	Giannis Taralidis	DM	Very Good	6-7-7-7-7	52%	11 (2)	2	7.15
-		Lesley Fellinga	D L	Very Good	6-7-8-8-7	98%	22	-	6.91
-	Inj	Zac Barrett	GK	Very Good	7-6-8-8-8	68%	12	-	7.67
-		Adam Green	D/WB L	Good	6-7-7-5-7	100%	8	-	6.75
-	Cup	Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Very Good	7	100%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-	Cup	Shane Paul	AM R, ST	Very Good	6	100%	0 (1)	-	6.00
-	Cup	Cédric Fernandez	DM	Okay	-	100%	-	-	-

We lost right fullback Kevin Foley to a gashed head in the game and that's a shame. He's our outfielder with the best form average so far this season and it really shows when is on the right side of our defense. Even more disturbing is the fact that we lost one half of our goalkeeping tandem as Niki Mäenpää had to leave the pitch in the 45th minute due to a hip injury. I send him to a specialist and he will miss 2 to 3 months. I usually alternated between him and Zac Barett, but Barrett missed this game being at home with a virus, so oldie coach/player Oswaldo Sanchez came in between the pipes. At 37, he gave up one goal, but it was more of a breakdown in defense than his fault. I usually keep him on the bench as I think his experience could have a steadying effect. Barrett should be back soon, but I might have to bring Richard Wright up from the reserves for a game or two...

note: as I used to do when I was at Ivory Coast, I'll use a different color for reporting about Canada. From now on, everything Canada wil be in red.

The Canada-USA game was one of big anticipation. Ahead of the game, the media thought we had a chance to win it if we could get up to a good start.

Here's our lineup for the game:

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Asmir Begovic	GK	Superb	8-8-6-8-7	100%	5 (1)	-	6.50
DR		Jeff Kiebbe	D RC	Very Good	6-8	89%	1	-	8.00
DL		Michaël Klukowski	D LC, M L	Good	6-7-7-8-8	96%	8	-	7.00
DC		Kevin McKenna	D C	Very Good	6-7-6-8-8	99%	9 (1)	-	7.40
DC	Yel	Marco Reda	D C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-8	98%	6	-	7.67
DMC		Patrice Bernier	DM	Very Good	7-8-7-7-8	96%	2 (2)	-	7.00
MR		Jonathan de Guzman	AM RLC, F C	Okay	5-6-8-7-7	95%	5 (1)	1	7.17
ML	Bid	Josh Simpson	D/AM L	Very Good	6-8-7-8-9	94%	1 (3)	-	7.75
AMC		Jacob Lensky	AM RC	Very Good	-	93%	-	-	-
FC		Iain Hume	AM R, F C	Poor	6-8-7-6	96%	3	2	7.00
FC		Oliver Occean	ST	Superb	6-8-7-9-10	94%	5	4	8.00
S1		Srdjan Djekanovic	GK	Okay	6-8-8-6-7	94%	-	-	-
S2		Atiba Hutchinson	M C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	97%	6 (2)	-	7.00
S3		Chris Pozniak	DM	Okay	7-7-7-6-7	95%	-	-	-
S4		Jim Brennan	D/WB/M L	Okay	-	94%	-	-	-
S5	Wnt	Jaime Peters	AM RL	Superb	8-6-7-8-7	95%	3 (4)	-	7.14
S6		Milad Rahmati	ST	Okay	-	98%	-	-	-
S7	Bid	Will Johnson	ST	Superb	6-6-7-7-8	98%	0 (4)	1	7.00
-	Inj	Julian De Guzman	WB L, DM, M LC	Very Good	6-6-7-7-6	81%	5	-	6.60
-		Ali Gerba	F C	Okay	7-7-8-10-7	91%	3	3	8.33
-	Inj	Paul Stalteri	D/WB RL	Very Good	6-6-6-7-8	79%	9	-	7.11
-		Roberto Giacomi	GK	Okay	7-8-8-6-7	94%	1	-	6.00

Here are the lineups for both team, side by side, as I think it could interest you:


Leading up to this game, both teams had played Costa Rica and British Virgin Islands as mutual opponents. Canada beat Costa Rica 2-0 and British Virgin Islands 4-0 while USA beat British Virgin Islands 3-0 but only drew 1-1 with Costa Rica...

I thought my monitor was crapping out as the pitch showed up kind of whiteish, until I realized it was because the temperature was -5C and we were playing with a winter ball, a red one. Cool, well, cold too

0-0 at the half, we completely undid USA's game plan in the second half, thanks to substitute striker Will Johnson, who score twice coming off the bench. Oliver Occean also had a goal in the game that ended 3-1. Eddie Johnson scored the lone USA goal. In the other semi final, Brazil won 1-0 over Mexico, but it was not easy. They lost three players in the process. we will play them in the final.

FM

[FrogMan]

as I see that Antmeister is reading the thread, I'll say thank you man for you freeware list. I found Screenshot Captor on your freeware page. I downloaded it and set it up last night and will be using it to document my playing without taking notes. It works like a charm and I'll most likely end up donating something to the dude, thanks!

FM

[FrogMan]

also forgot to mention that while the CONCACAF semi final was played at Arrowhead Stadium, we were the designated home team. It was crazy funny to hear the crowd boo the Americans every time they touched the ball

FM

[FrogMan]

Okay, time for a bit of roster roundup

you can click the thumbnails to see the player profiles...

Team Overview: Goalkeepers

Zac Barrett, 22yo
As crazy as this sounds, this young fellow was on the squad when I took over control of the team back in 2005. It's been pretty neat seeing him develop and he's played pretty well this season, alternating at times with Niki Mäenpää.

Niki Mäenpää, 26yo
As you just read above, Niki just got injured and will miss significant time. Prior to that, he's had some very good games for us after signing with us on a free transfer in July of 2010. IIRC, when I signed him, he'd just been released by his former team and was being courted by three or four other club.

Oswaldo Sanchez, 37yo
Oswaldo was brought in as a free transfer in July of 2010 from rival EPL club Tottenham. Is with the team as mentor for the other younger keepers and serves double duty as a coach/player.

Richard Wright, 33yo
Richard was brought in for a fee of $2.4M in August of 2009 from Everton. While he saw his fair share of action last season, he was never able to establish himself as a clearcut starter and his shaky performances at times forced me to try my luck with Mäenpää this past offseason. He currently plays with the reserves but has not complained about a lack of first team play yet.

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Centrebacks

Philippe Senderos, 25yo
Big Phil had fallen out of favor at Arsenal and they didn't offer him a contract when he got inside his six last months so we signed him on a free transfer on July 1st, 2010. He's been a rock for our defense ever since stepping on the field for us, very impressive play from him. He wins many headers in the middle and can move the ball well.

Curtis Davies, 25yo
Don't know if you know, but Curtis was a Hatters before moving to West Brom and he'd always been on my shortlist. When the team board unlocked some transfer money last January, the time was right to bring him back home and I spent a big $7.25M to do so. Big money for us here. He had a shaky start for us last season but he's havign a strong season next to Senderos this year and with both of them at 25 years of age, it gives us a center of defense that could be together for a long time. funny thing for those of you who know him in real life, as of now, he's still uncapped at the international level but he's being touted as a future star for England. In the game, Sierra Leone was quicker than England and capped him at an early age and he now plays for them...

Edmílson, 34yo
He came to the team as a free transfer out of Barcelona on July 1st, 2008 and he's been a solid ficture for us since that day. He can play as much in the middle of the defense or as a defensive midfielder. His age has relegated him to more of a backup/change of pace player, but he can still step in if needed.

Spyros Vallas, 29yo
Markus Heikkinen, 32yo
Geri Çipi, 34yo
These three are perfect examples of players that can plug a hole in case of injury but just don't cut it in day to day EPL action. Heikkinen was on the team when I took over and Vallas was brought in as one of my first transfer. Both of them played wquite well as a tandem when the club was in the Championship but they needed to be replaced and will not see regular playing time, unless an injury happens. Çipi was brought in from Crystal Palace for a small fee of $60k in August of 2009. He played well that year, seeing mostly spot duty but he remains only a backup.

FM

[FrogMan]

Some more action before I get to the rest of the lineup...

February 5, 2011
Another double header for Superfrogman as I will manage my Luton side against Liverpool on one side of the big pond and Canada against Brazil in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

First, prior to the Luton game, here's what the league table looks like, as we're about to enter the final third of the season:

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Chelsea	25	19	5	1	54	17	+37	62
2nd	Arsenal	25	18	6	1	51	19	+32	60
3rd	Man Utd	25	16	5	4	36	18	+18	53
4th	Liverpool	25	13	6	6	43	27	+16	45
5th	Blackburn	24	11	8	5	31	26	+5	41
6th	Middlesbrough	25	10	9	6	37	25	+12	39
7th	Aston Villa	25	10	6	9	31	29	+2	36
8th	Bolton	25	11	3	11	32	34	-2	36
9th	Tottenham	25	9	8	8	28	23	+5	35
10th	Sunderland	25	8	8	9	32	34	-2	32
11th	Man City	25	9	5	11	28	33	-5	32
12th	Everton	25	8	6	11	26	31	-5	30
13th	Newcastle	24	7	6	11	25	37	-12	27
14th	Birmingham	25	7	5	13	35	39	-4	26
15th	Luton	24	8	2	14	24	35	-11	26
16th	Leicester	25	7	3	15	28	44	-16	24
17th	Southampton	25	4	9	12	17	36	-19	21
18th	Stoke	25	4	8	13	18	34	-16	20
19th	Crystal Palace	24	3	10	11	20	37	-17	19
20th	Wolves	25	4	6	15	18	36	-18	18

As you can see, we're not having the best season in league play. 10th place is still only 6 points away so all hope is not lost...

Here's our lineup for the game:

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Richard Wright	GK	Superb	7-6-7-8-7	96%	1	-	6.00
DR	Slt	Ibrahim Tall	D RC	Good	6-8-7-7-7	100%	10 (2)	-	7.00
DL		Michael Timlin	D L, M LC	Very Good	7-8	97%	2	-	7.50
DC	Slt	Curtis Davies	SW, D C	Good	8-8-5-8-7	99%	27	2	7.15
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Good	8-8-5-8-7	97%	30 (1)	-	7.23
DMC		Keith Keane	D/WB R, DM, M RC	Okay	8-8-7-7-7	96%	14 (8)	1	6.91
MR		Simon Feindouno	AM RC, F C	Good	7-7-7-7-7	95%	9 (8)	-	6.59
ML	Slt	James Simmonds	AM L	Good	9-8-8-7-7	96%	11 (9)	3	7.05
AMC	Slt	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Very Good	7-8-8-7-7	96%	24 (5)	4	7.21
FC	Slt	Arjan Wisse	AM L, ST	Good	6-7-9-7-6	96%	30 (2)	12	7.00
FC	Wnt	Rey Volpato	AM LC, F C	Very Good	9-8-7-7-7	95%	25 (1)	12	7.19
S1		Oswaldo Sánchez	GK	Okay	7-6-7-7-7	88%	3 (1)	-	6.50
S2	Yel	Edmílson	SW, D C, DM	Very Good	7-6-6-8-7	100%	8 (3)	1	7.00
S3	Slt	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM RLC, ST	Okay	6-7-8-7-5	100%	19 (6)	4	6.84
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Okay	6-6-6-7-6	95%	2 (12)	-	6.57
S5		Shane Paul	AM R, ST	Good	6	100%	0 (1)	-	6.00
-	Inj	Niki Mäenpää	GK	Poor	7-7-9-7-6	84%	16 (1)	-	7.24
-	Inj	Giannis Taralidis	DM	Good	6-7-7-7-7	49%	11 (2)	2	7.15
-		Lesley Fellinga	D L	Superb	7-8-8-7-8	96%	22	-	6.91
-	Slt	Zac Barrett	GK	Good	7-6-8-8-8	81%	12	-	7.67
-	Inj	Kevin Foley	D/WB/M R	Good	9-7-7-7-6	84%	20	1	7.25
-		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Very Good	7	100%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-	Slt	Grégory Bettiol	AM RC, ST	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	100%	6 (15)	2	6.52

As you can see, some changes had to be made because of the two most recent injuries... I decided to go with Wright ahead of Sanchez in goals as he's in better match fitness than the old man...

This was another game typical of what we do this season. We lost it 1-2, only 1-2, yet we got dominated early on and never were able to get back on track... I stay positive and sympathize with the team through all this... Shane Paul scored on his debut for us.

Again, we lost two to injuries in this game. First, Kevin Foley's backup, Ibrahim Tall will miss 5 days to 2 weeks with a facial injury and star striker, Italian Rey Volpato will miss a week to 3 weeks while being treated by our physios for a thigh strain that happened in training on match day. I could have opted for the injection but the possible 2 weeks to a month missed time didn't make it worth it to me...

Now on to the CONCACAF Gold Cup final, against Brazil. Funny thing, it's the fourth times in a row that Brazil has made the final, winning it only once in their last three attempts, in 2007. USA won the last edition of the cup in 2009.

Going into this game, a former international from Canada who prefers to remain nameless, maybe because he doesn't know what he's talking about, is saying that he believes Canada can win the game provided the team get out of the blocks quickly and make life as difficult as possible for Brazil. hrm...

Here's our lineup for the game:

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Asmir Begovic	GK	Very Good	8-6-8-7-8	100%	6 (1)	-	6.71
DR	Yel	Paul Stalteri	D/WB RL	Good	6-6-6-7-8	91%	9	-	7.11
DL		Michaël Klukowski	D LC, M L	Superb	7-7-8-8-8	95%	9	-	7.11
DC		Kevin McKenna	D C	Superb	7-6-8-8-7	98%	10 (1)	-	7.36
DC	Yel	Marco Reda	D C	Superb	7-7-8-8-9	96%	7	-	7.86
DMC		Atiba Hutchinson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	6 (3)	-	7.00
MR		Jonathan de Guzman	AM RLC, F C	Superb	6-8-7-7-7	95%	6 (1)	1	7.14
ML	Bid	Josh Simpson	D/AM L	Superb	8-7-8-9-8	94%	2 (3)	-	7.80
AMC		Jacob Lensky	AM RC	Superb	7	92%	1	-	7.00
FC	Bid	Will Johnson	ST	Superb	6-7-7-8-8	98%	0 (5)	3	7.20
FC		Oliver Occean	ST	Very Good	8-7-9-10-9	93%	6	5	8.17
S1		Srdjan Djekanovic	GK	Okay	6-8-8-6-7	94%	-	-	-
S2		Jeff Kiebbe	D RC	Superb	6-8-7	90%	2	-	7.50
S3		Patrice Bernier	DM	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	96%	3 (2)	-	7.00
S4		Jim Brennan	D/WB/M L	Okay	-	94%	-	-	-
S5	Wnt	Jaime Peters	AM RL	Very Good	6-7-8-7-6	99%	3 (5)	-	7.00
S6		Milad Rahmati	ST	Okay	-	97%	-	-	-
S7		Iain Hume	AM R, F C	Okay	6-8-7-6-6	95%	4	2	6.75
-	Inj	Julian De Guzman	WB L, DM, M LC	Very Good	6-6-7-7-6	78%	5	-	6.60
-		Ali Gerba	F C	Okay	7-7-8-10-7	94%	3	3	8.33
-		Roberto Giacomi	GK	Okay	7-8-8-6-7	94%	1	-	6.00
-		Chris Pozniak	DM	Okay	7-7-7-6-7	95%	-	-	-

As you can see, Tottenham's Paul Stalteri is back in the lineup and that can only be a big help for us. Jeff Kiebbe was really struggling in his place in previous games. I also decided to give the start to our star of last game, Will Johnson, ahead of struggling Iain Hume.

We do just what was asked of us and put tons of pressure on them early and after 23 minutes, we're outshooting them 6 to 3, 4 to nothing on target, but it's still 0-0. This changes in the 38th minute when one of our striker is taken down in their penalty area... PENALTY!!!! Atiba Hutchinson buries it for the 1-0 goal. We were controlling the ball well then, although Brazil had started trying longer shots on goal, resulting in plenty of shots off target.

They really put the pressure on us early in the second half and had shot 19, 8 on target by the 65th minute, to our 8 shots, 5 on target by then.

Extra time loomed large in the 70th minute when they were given a penalty kick, but Asmir Begovic STOPPED IT!!! We held on and Begovic collected the clean sheet and the Man of the Match mention in a great 1-0 win for Canada!

Brazil outshot us 22 to 11, 10 to 5 on traget, but we held on, wow!

In the third place final, USA lost 1-3 to Mexico, ouch...

Following the big win, both supporters and the Canadian FA congratulated and thanked me in the media for the great win. That's a good feeling, I'll take congratulations when they come...

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Fullbacks

Kevin Foley, DR, 26yo
Kevin, just like Zac Barrett and Keith Keane, was on the Hatter roster when I took over in 2005. At the young age of 19, he took turns at the right fullback position, sometimes alternating with Keith Keane until we brought in a couple older players while he learned his trade. And learn he did, he is now our most solid fullback and a playmaker out of the back line, able to launch great crosspass that create opportunities for the forwards.

Michael Timlin, DL, 25yo
While the right fullback is taken care of when Foley is healthy, the left fullback has always been a sore spot for us. Michael Timlin was acquired from Norwich only a couple weeks ago and he's the latest that we try in the position. Right now, he's played well there, I hope it will continue although, he's not the perfect defender in that position.

Ibrahim Tall, DR, 29yo
Ibrahim was one of the older player who allowed Kevin Foley time to learn. He was brought in in January 2010, when Foley was still struggling with life in the Premiership. Thing is, Tall also struggled facing the same Premiership attackers, so he's now back to spot duty.

Keith Keane, DR, 24yo
As I said, Keith is another rare original Hatter who's grown a whole lot since my taking over the club. Weird thing, he's more consistant at DM than he can be at the fullback spot. He still make a very valid backup.

Lesley Fellinga, DL 25yo
Lesley was brought in as a free transfer from Aberdeen last July with the hope that he would make our left fullback woe disappear. He can play quite well, but he's also prone to many 6-rated games and that cannot be allowed in the Premiership. A solid offensive fullback, he could step back in if Timlin has problems, or if I have to move him up to his more natural winger position.

Adam Green, DL, 27yo
Adam had a couple loan spells with us in 2005/06 before I made his move definitive in July 2006. Since then, he has alternated with Sol Davis as the starting left fullback. Not a bad player in all, he struggles at times with the level of play given to him by the Premiership wingers. He remains a premier level backup.

Andy O'Brien, DR/DL, 19yo
Andy was once thought a very bright Luton youth squad prospect but his lack of determination has kind of hindered his development and he has stalled at a level that will never make him an EPL fullback. Sad...

Sol Davis, DL, 31yo
Another original Hatter, Sol has always been no more than a hole plugger. Even in my first season at the helm, I had brought in Adam Green for a loan, that tells you something about him. He's not bad, but he's not really reliable...

FM

[FrogMan]

February 6, 2011
Well, funny email in my inbox today, the manager of Fenerbahçe in Turkey has resigned from his position and I'm touted by the media as the hot favourite to take over. Woah, where did that come from??? Do the media know some things I don't with my position at Luton, or did my winning the CONCACAF Gold Cup with Canada seriously impress everyone that they think I need to go on to a bigger European club??? I decline any interest in the position, remaining loyal to the Hatters.

February 9, 2011
We play Millwall on their pitch in an FA Cup round 4 replay but before the game, the PSG board chairman is back with his offer to take over the club. This time, the option to delay until the end of the season is available. It was greyed out the last two times I delayed and I take my chance and ask for them to delay until then.

We have some players injured for the game, and some more who are cup tied. That's the sad thing when you sign players in the January transfer window and you go deep in either of the English cups.

That game turns out to be a crazy goalfest for us. Everything clicked. We were up 5-0 at the half with about all their team rating at 5 and most of ours at 8 and we added two more in the second half.

Take a look at the final ratings for both teams:


I'd never seen players rated at 2 before, that's not good... As you would expect this 7-0 win is a record for Luton. Let's hope a big win like that will boost us for some league success. We will play Preston North End on their pitch in round 5.

Edmílson picked up his 5th yellow in the game and he will miss our next game.

Following the game, I get the news from the PFG chairman that my request for a delay until the end of the season has been rejected. He says he understand my reluctance to leave my current job immediately but his club cannot wait until the end of the season for my decision. I understand their position too, it's not like they want me to replace somebody, they are currently managerless. I officially reject the offer.

The chairman expresses me his disappointment over my decision. He stated that he hoped I would use my management skills to bring success to the club wut respects my wishes and hope that he will have a chance to make me the club's manager in the future. That's interesting, I'll keep an eye on how the new guy does...

FM

[FrogMan]

sort of out of context, the funny thing about the Fenebahçe link is that Turkey is not even a playable league in my football universe.

I'm set with England from League 2 and up, France top 2 levels, Scotland/Holland/MLS top level only all at normal and a bunch of other leagues at basic so I can at least have some league table and team results if I ever get to European competition.

I find it kind of cool that even if I couldn't go manager Fenerbahçe even if I wanted to, I still have to comment on if I'd go there or not, kind of reissuing a loyalty message to the team and the media...

FM

[FrogMan]

February 12, 2011
We play Newcastle in league play, so at least no cup tied players for this one. Injuries are still aplenty although Giannis Taralidis and Kevin Foley are getting closer and closer to being back.

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Slt	Zac Barrett	GK	Very Good	6-8-8-8-8	96%	13	-	7.69
DR		Keith Keane	D/WB R, DM, M RC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-9	95%	16 (8)	1	7.00
DL		Michael Timlin	D L, M LC	Very Good	7-8-6-9	96%	4	-	7.50
DC	Slt	Curtis Davies	SW, D C	Very Good	5-8-7-6-9	96%	29	2	7.17
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Good	5-8-7-7-9	96%	32 (1)	-	7.27
DMC	Slt	Paul Reid	D/M C	Good	7-8-7-7-8	100%	12 (2)	-	6.71
MR		Simon Feindouno	AM RC, F C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-9	95%	11 (8)	1	6.74
ML	Slt	James Simmonds	AM L	Very Good	8-7-7-7-9	95%	13 (9)	3	7.14
AMC	Slt	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Very Good	8-7-7-7-10	95%	26 (5)	7	7.29
FC		Shane Paul	AM R, ST	Very Good	6-7	100%	0 (2)	1	6.50
FC	Slt	Arjan Wisse	AM L, ST	Good	9-7-6-6-10	94%	32 (2)	13	7.06
S1		Oswaldo Sánchez	GK	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	93%	3 (2)	-	6.60
S2		Cédric Fernandez	DM	Good	-	99%	-	-	-
S3	Slt	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM RLC, ST	Very Good	8-7-5-7-7	100%	19 (8)	4	6.85
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	6-7-6-7-7	95%	2 (14)	-	6.63
S5	Slt	Grégory Bettiol	AM RC, ST	Very Good	7-7-7-6-10	93%	7 (15)	4	6.68
-	Inj	Niki Mäenpää	GK	Poor	7-7-9-7-6	76%	16 (1)	-	7.24
-	Inj	Giannis Taralidis	DM	Good	6-7-7-7-7	47%	11 (2)	2	7.15
-	Inj	Ibrahim Tall	D RC	Okay	8-7-7-7-6	71%	11 (2)	-	6.92
-	Inj	Kevin Foley	D/WB/M R	Good	9-7-7-7-6	83%	20	1	7.25
-		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Very Good	7	100%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-	Sus	Edmílson	SW, D C, DM	Very Good	6-6-8-7-9	95%	9 (3)	1	7.17
-	Inj	Rey Volpato	AM LC, F C	Okay	8-7-7-7-7	64%	26 (1)	12	7.19

Another typical game of our season. We took the lead in the 58th minute on a goal from Arjan Wisse, only to give it back 5 minutes later on the kind of crazy, stupid mistake that makes you want to pull your hair out. One of their defenders cleared the ball following a corner kick, crazy long ball over the head of Keith Keane, the last of our defenders, backing to about the edge of our penalty area. He tries a header to our keeper and here's what the line reads on the match report:
"Keith Keaned couldn't find the keeper with his back header"

FUCKING MORON!!! They tie the game on that one and Keane ends it with a rating of 4. Folowing the game, I give him a formal warning for poor performance and I finds it harsh. Dude, you cost us a win, and we cannot let many of these go right now...

All in all, the game was very even with shots about the same on either sides and an even split in possession. Very frustrating result...

Here's the league table after this game:

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Chelsea	26	20	5	1	56	17	+39	65
2nd	Arsenal	27	19	6	2	56	22	+34	63
3rd	Man Utd	26	17	5	4	38	18	+20	56
4th	Liverpool	26	14	6	6	45	28	+17	48
5th	Blackburn	27	12	9	6	35	29	+6	45
6th	Middlesbrough	27	11	9	7	40	31	+9	42
7th	Bolton	27	13	3	11	35	34	+1	42
8th	Aston Villa	27	11	6	10	32	31	+1	39
9th	Tottenham	26	10	8	8	29	23	+6	38
10th	Everton	27	9	6	12	29	33	-4	33
11th	Sunderland	27	8	8	11	33	38	-5	32
12th	Man City	26	9	5	12	29	37	-8	32
13th	Birmingham	26	8	5	13	40	40	0	29
14th	Newcastle	27	7	8	12	27	41	-14	29
15th	Luton	26	8	3	15	26	38	-12	27
16th	Leicester	27	8	3	16	30	47	-17	27
17th	Stoke	26	5	8	13	20	35	-15	23
18th	Southampton	26	4	9	13	17	38	-21	21
19th	Crystal Palace	25	3	10	12	21	39	-18	19
20th	Wolves	26	4	6	16	18	37	-19	18

February 13, 2011
Michael Timlin comes down with the flu. We got already enough players out and I can't afford him contaminating the whole team so I send him for 3 days to a week.

February 14, 2011
Good news can't come without some bad ones, can they? I learn that Giannis Taralidis has resumed full training after missing three weeks with a knee injury. He had been back for about a week after a 2 months out before that. He's really out of shape. The bad news is that Christian Wilhelmsson twisted his ankle in training and he will miss 3 weeks to a month. The roster is getting thinner and thinner...

FM

[FrogMan]

February 16, 2011
We play Crystal Palace in league play at Kenilworth Road.

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Slt	Zac Barrett	GK	Good	8-8-8-8-7	96%	14	-	7.64
DR	Slt	Kevin Foley	D/WB/M R	Good	9-7-7-7-6	94%	20	1	7.25
DL		Lesley Fellinga	D L	Very Good	7-8-8-7-8	100%	22	-	6.91
DC	Slt	Curtis Davies	SW, D C	Superb	8-7-6-9-7	97%	30	2	7.17
DC	Slt	Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Good	8-7-7-9-6	97%	33 (1)	-	7.24
DMC		Edmílson	SW, D C, DM	Very Good	6-6-8-7-9	100%	9 (3)	1	7.17
MR		Simon Feindouno	AM RC, F C	Okay	7-7-7-9-6	98%	12 (8)	1	6.70
ML	Slt	James Simmonds	AM L	Superb	7-7-7-9-7	94%	14 (9)	3	7.13
AMC	Slt	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-10-7	97%	27 (5)	7	7.28
FC		Shane Paul	AM R, ST	Superb	6-7-7	97%	1 (2)	1	6.67
FC	Slt	Arjan Wisse	AM L, ST	Superb	7-6-6-10-7	95%	33 (2)	14	7.06
S1		Oswaldo Sánchez	GK	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	98%	3 (2)	-	6.60
S2		Cédric Fernandez	DM	Very Good	6	99%	0 (1)	-	6.00
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Very Good	7	99%	0 (1)	-	7.00
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	7-6-7-7-7	96%	2 (15)	-	6.65
S5	Slt	Grégory Bettiol	AM RC, ST	Very Good	7-7-7-6-10	99%	7 (15)	4	6.68
-	Slt	Paul Reid	D/M C	Poor	8-7-7-8-6	100%	13 (2)	-	6.67
-	Inj	Niki Mäenpää	GK	Poor	7-7-9-7-6	72%	16 (1)	-	7.24
-	Inj	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM RLC, ST	Good	7-5-7-7-6	81%	19 (9)	4	6.82
-	Inj	Michael Timlin	D L, M LC	Superb	7-8-6-9-7	83%	5	-	7.40
-	Slt	Keith Keane	D/WB R, DM, M RC	Poor	7-7-7-9-4	98%	17 (8)	1	6.88
-	Inj	Rey Volpato	AM LC, F C	Okay	8-7-7-7-7	60%	26 (1)	12	7.19

That was another very even, at times exciting, at other times frustrating game. Arjan Wisse scored two goals thanks to two great cross pass from fullbacks Kevin Foley and Lesley Fellinga. But we let them stay in the game and they drew level in the 94th minute on a fluke cross from a fullback to the near post. You know the kind of goal that gets the "bizarre" tag in the match report. Why do we have to suffer these crazy goals???

Again, shots were not only close, they were the exact same on either side, 5 on target out of 15 shots, and they won possession with 51%. We need to start winning these games soon...

FM

[FrogMan]

February 19, 2011
We play Preston North End in only our 2nd fifth round FA Cup match since 2005.

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Oswaldo Sánchez	GK	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	97%	3 (2)	-	6.60
DR	Slt	Kevin Foley	D/WB/M R	Good	7-7-7-6-7	95%	21	1	7.24
DL		Lesley Fellinga	D L	Very Good	8-8-7-8-7	95%	23	-	6.91
DC	Slt	Curtis Davies	SW, D C	Okay	7-6-9-7-7	96%	31	2	7.16
DC	Slt	Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Good	7-7-9-6-7	97%	34 (1)	-	7.23
DMC		Edmílson	SW, D C, DM	Good	6-8-7-9-7	95%	10 (3)	1	7.15
MR		Simon Feindouno	AM RC, F C	Okay	7-7-9-6-7	96%	13 (8)	1	6.71
ML	Slt	James Simmonds	AM L	Very Good	7-7-9-7-7	94%	15 (9)	3	7.13
AMC	Slt	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	7-7-10-7-6	96%	28 (5)	7	7.24
FC	Slt	Grégory Bettiol	AM RC, ST	Okay	7-7-6-10-6	100%	7 (16)	4	6.65
FC	Slt	Arjan Wisse	AM L, ST	Very Good	6-6-10-7-8	94%	34 (2)	16	7.08
S1	Slt	Zac Barrett	GK	Okay	8-8-8-7-7	96%	15	-	7.60
S2	Slt	Keith Keane	D/WB R, DM, M RC	Poor	7-7-7-9-4	100%	17 (8)	1	6.88
S3	Slt	Marcio Junquiera	AM RLC	Superb	6-9-6-7-8	93%	4 (5)	1	6.56
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	6-7-7-7-7	95%	2 (16)	-	6.67
S5	Bid	Leon Clarke	ST	Very Good	8-7-7-7-10	93%	3	-	6.00
-	Slt	Paul Reid	D/M C	Poor	8-7-7-8-6	100%	13 (2)	-	6.67
-	Inj	Niki Mäenpää	GK	Poor	7-7-9-7-6	68%	16 (1)	-	7.24
-	Inj	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM RLC, ST	Good	7-5-7-7-6	78%	19 (9)	4	6.82
-	Inj	Michael Timlin	D L, M LC	Very Good	7-8-6-9-7	79%	5	-	7.40
-	Cup	Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Very Good	7	99%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-	Cup	Shane Paul	AM R, ST	Okay	6-7-7-6	95%	2 (2)	1	6.50
-	Inj	Rey Volpato	AM LC, F C	Okay	8-7-7-7-7	56%	26 (1)	12	7.19
-	Cup	Cédric Fernandez	DM	Okay	6-6	99%	0 (2)	-	6.00

The Cup tied players are still hurting us, especially with all the injuries we're fighting with.

I'm beginning to think I sound like a broken record, but this one is much of the same, a game where we dominate at times, then drop down. we had them at 2-1 for a long time, then they drew level with about 20 minutes to play and scored a goal very similar to what Crystal Palace scored in our last game. A fluke cross to the far post found it's way in for a bizarre goal, and with it, we're out of the FA Cup, blech.

Not only are we out of the cup but Grégory Bettiol broke his wrist in the game and will miss 3 weeks to a month. Daaamn, when will the crap stop??? Now I'm beginning to feel like I really should have taken the PSG job, don't you think?

February 22, 2011
Zac Barrett and Arjan Wisse have been selected to the EPL Team of the Week.

February 24, 2011
Finally some good news! Rey Volpato is in training following his thigh injury. Volpato is currently the top goal scorer of the Carling Cup, of which we get ready to play the final in three days, with 6 goals.

FM

[FrogMan]

February 27, 2011
We play the Carling Cup final against Blackburn at Wembley. Both teams seems a bit unlikely finalists, each of them having won the Cup only once in the history of their respective clubs.

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Slt	Zac Barrett	GK	Okay	8-8-8-7-7	100%	15	-	7.60
DR	Slt	Kevin Foley	D/WB/M R	Very Good	7-7-6-7-7	100%	22	1	7.23
DL		Lesley Fellinga	D L	Okay	8-7-8-7-6	100%	24	-	6.88
DC	Slt	Curtis Davies	SW, D C	Okay	6-9-7-7-6	100%	32	2	7.13
DC	Slt	Philippe Senderos	D C	Good	7-9-6-7-7	100%	35 (1)	-	7.22
DMC		Edmílson	SW, D C, DM	Okay	8-7-9-7-6	100%	11 (3)	1	7.07
MR		Simon Feindouno	AM RC, F C	Good	7-9-6-7-7	100%	14 (8)	1	6.73
ML	Slt	James Simmonds	AM L	Good	7-9-7-7-7	100%	16 (9)	3	7.12
AMC	Slt	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Okay	7-10-7-6-7	100%	29 (5)	8	7.24
FC	PR	Rey Volpato	AM LC, F C	Very Good	8-7-7-7-7	83%	26 (1)	12	7.19
FC	Slt	Arjan Wisse	AM L, ST	Good	6-10-7-8-7	100%	35 (2)	16	7.08
S1		Oswaldo Sánchez	GK	Okay	8-7-8-6-7	97%	4 (2)	-	6.50
S2		Keith Keane	D/WB R, DM, M RC	Poor	7-7-9-4-6	100%	17 (9)	1	6.85
S3	Slt	Marcio Junquiera	AM RLC	Very Good	6-9-6-7-8	99%	4 (5)	1	6.56
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Good	7-7-7-7-6	96%	2 (17)	-	6.63
S5	Yel	Shane Paul	AM R, ST	Okay	6-7-7-6	100%	2 (2)	1	6.50
-	Slt	Paul Reid	D/M C	Poor	8-7-7-8-6	99%	13 (2)	-	6.67
-	Inj	Niki Mäenpää	GK	Poor	7-7-9-7-6	59%	16 (1)	-	7.24
-	Inj	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM RLC, ST	Good	7-5-7-7-6	68%	19 (9)	4	6.82
-	Bid	Leon Clarke	ST	Poor	7-7-7-10-6	100%	3 (1)	-	6.00
-	Cup	Michael Timlin	D L, M LC	Good	7-8-6-9-7	98%	5	-	7.40
-	Cup	Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Good	7	98%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Grégory Bettiol	AM RC, ST	Good	7-6-10-6-7	77%	8 (16)	5	6.67
-		Cédric Fernandez	DM	Okay	6-6	98%	0 (2)	-	6.00

We go into the game 6-4 favourites and we almost look like we could run away with it after Youssouf Hersi gave us the lead 1-0 after only 7 minutes of play. It went slowly downhill from there. We were still ahead at the half, but only thanks to the heroic play of Zac Barrett who had had to stop 7 shots on target to us putting only one on. They tied the game in the 58th minute although we kept ourselves together after the goal. They attacked more and more as the game went on and the pressure must have been too much because we foul them in the penalty area in the 88th minute but MIRACLE, Zac Barrett stops it! Looking forward to some possible extra time and maybe a surprise win in PK, my heart sinks when the ref points to the penalty spot again 3 minutes later and they bury it, killing our hopes of European competition right then and there...

We didn't really deserve to win it though. They outshot us 18 to 9, 12 to 2 on target, and they won possession with 53% although at times it looked like we barely touched the ball.

FM

[FrogMan]

Back to team roundup, we play a 4-1-2-1-2 wide diamond formation (1DMC, 1AMC) so I give these two a separate position...

Team Overview: Defensive Midfielders

Giannis Taralidis, 29yo
The heart of our midfield, the skipper of the team, Greek God Giannis was brought to Kenilworth road in January 2006, in the middle of my very first season at Kenilworth road. It took him a good year to learn some English and be effective on the pitch but once he got that down, boy was he a difference maker. Every little time he his away from the pitch, we suffer, and him missing a couple of months, then another one after being back only for a week might be one of the main reason why we're having so much trouble playing together. He's about to come back to the team. We'll see if his return will bring back the spark that we need so much to build on and have a strong finish to the season. BTW, his skills are really deflated, given that he's been injured for so long...

Keith Keane,24yo
As I said in the fullback overview, Keith, despite being described as a fullback, seems to play better football in the middle of our defensive midfield. That might be due to his relatively low positioning, which is not as high as many of his other skills.

Cédric Fernandez, 21yo
Cédric just got to the team as a potential backup, groomed to be a replacement to Taralidis. The kid has great skills for a 21yo, and some very nice pace to roam the defensive midfield. Hopefully his previous form ratings were only because he was not playing often...


Paul Reid, 28yo
Paul was brought in to Kenilworth Road as a free transfer gamble out of Cardiff. Gamble since he is a pure MC who doesn't have either the DMC or the AMC position listed next to his name. He can also play DC, but I mainly bought to play midfield and that might have been a mistake, as he struggles. I've played him sometimes as a straight MC with a DMC behind him, but that take a bit of our offense out of the game.

Edmílson, 34yo
While this is not his primary position, Edmílson can help the team out there when needed and late in games be switched down to DC if we need 5 defenders to protect a lead.

Markus Heikkinen, 32yo
Lubos Loucka, 28yo
They have different stories but both play the same deep, deep, deep backup role. You know Heikkinen's story but for Lubos, he came to Kenilworth Road from Sparta Prague for a $1.2M fee on January 30, 2010. He never got it going, and maybe was never given the chance. His playing time is really reduced now so his chance of cutting it are weak at best.

James Watkins, 19yo
Once thought to be a great prospect for us, he too suffered from a lack of determination that undermined his development. He's on a month to month contract, paid some $200 a week...

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Attacking Midfielders

Youssouf Hersi, 28yo
Readers from my old life at Loftus Road might remember Youssouf from his time at Q.P.R. One of my best free signing since taking over control of the Hatters, he was brought in from Dutch side Vitesse in the Summer of 2007. He really is the ignitor of our offense, able to both send great balls to strikers and to score great goals from a distance or from close range. Similar to Taralidis, we suffer when he's off the pitch. We almost lost him to a free transfer last Summer when he kept asking much more than what we could offer him, even when he was out for 4 months with a bad injury. We finally got him signed to a new deal around the beginning of June. His slow start to the season, in part due to him taking part only in our later friendlies, may also be part of the reasons why the team struggled early on.

Scott Donnelly, 23yo
Scott is another of my QPR ties. I saw him grow before my eyes in my previous life and I added him to my shortlist fairly early in this current life. He was acquired in the January transfer window only a month ago and has yet to really show his talent for the team. Gotta say that he was cup tied for many of the games in the stretch of games we just played.

Marcio Junquiera, 26yo
Marcio is kind of a jack of all trades in our midfield, able to play anywhere from left, center, or right. Thing is he's not really excellent in any spot. At one point, he was refusing to sign any contract extention, even after only 8 months with the club, stating that he wanted to absolutely play first team football. He changed idea at one point and has been resigned and kept on the team as a low wage backup.

Simon Feindouno, 25yo
Rey Volpato, 24yo
Grégory Bettiol, 24yo
This group of three is a mix and match of strikers and wingers who can all play the AMC spot if we are really in a bind. They will be presented more in depth when in their respective primary position.

[FrogMan]

March 1st, 2011
The team board is pleased with my work and the team made a profit of $491k last month. Sure glad the stadium improvements are done now as we were bleeding money up until last January...

In preparation to our game against his Birmingham side, Iain Dowie claims to the media that I'm the man to keep Luton up. You hear that, Hatters? Now play accordingly!

I opted for a reply I'd never used before and tell the media that our team was looking to "turn a corner" in the match against Birmingham City, whatever that may mean. Seriously, I think/hope it means we'll start winning from then on because we really need to...

March 2, 2011
We play Birmingham City on their pitch in league play. They too have been underachieving and despite pre-season hopes of a top half finish, they are currently in 15ht place, only one spot ahead of us.

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Slt	Zac Barrett	GK	Very Good	8-8-7-7-8	98%	16	-	7.63
DR	Slt	Kevin Foley	D/WB/M R	Good	7-6-7-7-7	96%	23	1	7.22
DL		Michael Timlin	D L, M LC	Good	7-8-6-9-7	99%	5	-	7.40
DC		Edmílson	SW, D C, DM	Poor	7-9-7-6-7	95%	12 (3)	1	7.07
DC	Slt	Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Good	9-6-7-7-7	96%	36 (1)	-	7.22
DMC	Slt	Giannis Taralidis	DM	Very Good	7-7-6-7-7	87%	11 (2)	2	7.15
MR		Simon Feindouno	AM RC, F C	Very Good	9-6-7-7-7	94%	15 (8)	1	6.74
ML	Slt	James Simmonds	AM L	Good	9-7-7-7-7	94%	17 (9)	3	7.12
AMC	Slt	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Very Good	10-7-6-7-7	96%	30 (5)	9	7.23
FC	PR	Rey Volpato	AM LC, F C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	93%	27 (1)	12	7.18
FC	PR	Arjan Wisse	AM L, ST	Okay	10-7-8-7-6	95%	36 (2)	16	7.05
S1		Oswaldo Sánchez	GK	Okay	8-7-8-6-7	100%	4 (2)	-	6.50
S2		Keith Keane	D/WB R, DM, M RC	Poor	7-9-4-6-7	99%	17 (10)	1	6.85
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Good	7	97%	0 (1)	-	7.00
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Poor	7-7-7-6-5	95%	2 (18)	-	6.55
S5	Yel	Shane Paul	AM R, ST	Very Poor	6-7-7-6-6	100%	2 (3)	1	6.40
-	Inj	Niki Mäenpää	GK	Poor	7-7-9-7-6	55%	16 (1)	-	7.24
-	Slt	Marcio Junquiera	AM RLC	Very Good	6-9-6-7-8	99%	4 (5)	1	6.56
-	Inj	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM RLC, ST	Good	7-5-7-7-6	65%	19 (9)	4	6.82
-	Slt	Curtis Davies	SW, D C	Okay	9-7-7-6-6	96%	33	2	7.09
-	Inj	Grégory Bettiol	AM RC, ST	Good	7-6-10-6-7	73%	8 (16)	5	6.67

Following two ordinary showings, I decided to replace Curtis Davies with Edmílson in our back line. Giannis Taralidis is back in the lineup despite not being completely fit.

Well, I don't know what the guys had for breakfast that morning, but we should try to track it down because it was a beautiful game! Arjan Wisse scored on a Rey Volpato's pass in the 16th minute and we never looked back from there. Our work was made easier when they had a player sent off in the 50th minute and Volpato added to the scoreboard in the 78th minute on a very nice pass from Scott Donnelly in as a sub at right winger. We finally added a third goal 1:24 into added time as one of their defender played a back pass to their keeper but a good 15 feet away from him, straight into their goal

Final Score: Luton 3, Birmingham City 0

For the first time in a long while, other than the FA Cup game against Millwall, we did everything right in this game. We outshot them 23(12) to 10(6) and won possession with 56% and that was all going on before they went to 10 players on the pitch. Rey Volpat gets the man of the match with a rating of 10.

The board is delighted with the win, as they should be and we move up to 13th place. Here's the league table with exactly 10 games to be played for everyone:

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Chelsea	28	21	6	1	59	19	+40	69
2nd	Arsenal	28	19	7	2	58	24	+34	64
3rd	Man Utd	28	18	5	5	41	19	+22	59
4th	Liverpool	28	16	6	6	50	28	+22	54
5th	Blackburn	28	13	9	6	37	29	+8	48
6th	Bolton	28	14	3	11	38	35	+3	45
7th	Middlesbrough	28	11	9	8	40	33	+7	42
8th	Tottenham	28	11	8	9	30	25	+5	41
9th	Aston Villa	28	11	6	11	32	33	-1	39
10th	Man City	28	11	5	12	34	38	-4	38
11th	Everton	28	9	7	12	29	33	-4	34
12th	Sunderland	28	8	8	12	34	41	-7	32
13th	Luton	28	9	4	15	31	40	-9	31
14th	Newcastle	28	7	9	12	28	42	-14	30
15th	Leicester	28	9	3	16	32	47	-15	30
16th	Birmingham	28	8	5	15	40	44	-4	29
17th	Stoke	28	5	9	14	21	38	-17	24
18th	Crystal Palace	28	3	13	12	23	41	-18	22
19th	Southampton	28	4	10	14	17	41	-24	22
20th	Wolves	28	4	6	18	19	43	-24	18

Seven points from 10th place and now nine points out of relegation...

Here's how our position has moved during the season, as you can see, we've been at about the same spot for a long time now...


FM

[FrogMan]

March 5th, 2011
As we get ready to play Arsenal, Arsène Wenger comments to the media that I'm a good manager and deserve every succes with Luton Town. Checking in on his profile, I see that I'm one of his favoured personnel alongside Thierry Henry, among others. I speak in the media of the massive respect I have for him...

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Slt	Zac Barrett	GK	Very Good	8-7-7-8-9	98%	17	-	7.71
DR	Slt	Kevin Foley	D/WB/M R	Very Good	6-7-7-7-8	96%	24	1	7.25
DL		Michael Timlin	D L, M LC	Very Good	8-6-9-7-8	96%	6	-	7.50
DC	Slt	Curtis Davies	SW, D C	Okay	9-7-7-6-6	100%	33	2	7.09
DC	PR	Philippe Senderos	D C	Okay	6-7-7-7-8	94%	37 (1)	-	7.24
DMC	Slt	Giannis Taralidis	DM	Very Good	7-6-7-7-7	91%	12 (2)	2	7.14
MR	PR	Simon Feindouno	AM RC, F C	Superb	6-7-7-7-8	94%	16 (8)	1	6.79
ML	Slt	James Simmonds	AM L	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	93%	18 (9)	3	7.11
AMC	PR	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Okay	7-6-7-7-7	95%	31 (5)	9	7.22
FC	PR	Rey Volpato	AM LC, F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-10	93%	28 (1)	13	7.28
FC	PR	Arjan Wisse	AM L, ST	Superb	7-8-7-6-8	94%	37 (2)	17	7.08
S1		Oswaldo Sánchez	GK	Okay	8-7-8-6-7	100%	4 (2)	-	6.50
S2		Keith Keane	D/WB R, DM, M RC	Good	9-4-6-7-7	100%	17 (11)	1	6.86
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Very Good	7-7	98%	0 (2)	-	7.00
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-7-6-5-7	92%	2 (19)	-	6.57
S5	Yel	Shane Paul	AM R, ST	Poor	6-7-7-6-6	100%	2 (3)	1	6.40
-	Inj	Niki Mäenpää	GK	Okay	7-7-9-7-6	52%	16 (1)	-	7.24
-	Slt	Marcio Junquiera	AM RLC	Very Good	6-9-6-7-8	99%	4 (5)	1	6.56
-	Inj	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM RLC, ST	Okay	7-5-7-7-6	61%	19 (9)	4	6.82
-		Edmílson	SW, D C, DM	Good	9-7-6-7-8	95%	13 (3)	1	7.13
-	Inj	Grégory Bettiol	AM RC, ST	Good	7-6-10-6-7	70%	8 (16)	5	6.67

Kinda weird, Arsenal's keeper in 2011 is a very impressive 20yo kid named John Jones.

We have good and bad times in this game but nothing as bad as what the final score indicates, a 0-3 loss that saw Thierry Henry leave the game after only 5 minutes. They end up outshooting us 18(8) to 8(4) but we had good moments in their half too, we just couldn't build on them...

Final score: Luton 0, Arsenal 3

March 6, 2011
I finish booking the schedule of friendlies for Canada. We will play the following 5 games before the end of the year:
Argentina and USA in September
Mexico in October
Angola and Sint Maarten in November.

FM

[FrogMan]

March 7, 2011
Funny stuff. Paul Reid complained about not getting enough first team time. I reply to him that he doesn't figure in my first team plans and that I will transfer list him, which I do right after answering his complaints. He gets back later in the day with an apology

Rey Volpato was selected in the EPL Team of the Week.

March 9, 2011
Daaa-aaaamn! Giannis Taralidis is injured again. This time, he sprained his ankle in training and will miss between 4 weeks and 2 months. I'm seriously beginning to think he is simply breaking down and will never be back to 100%...

PSG have finally named a new manager. Patrick Abraham has been named. I don't know him and he's got about not history in the game, but he's got a very high reputation...

FM

[FrogMan]

March 12, 2011
We play Man City on their pitch. The game starts with them taking the lead on a penalty in the 17th minute but we're fighting back and not only draw it even but even take the lead before the half is over on goals from Rey Volpato (35') and Curtis Davies (37'). Kevin Foley goofs up in the middle of the second half and his form rating dips to 4 at which time I have to sub him out. We collapse a little later on and give up the equalizer in the 77th minute

Final Score: Luton 2, Manchester City 2

Another very close game, in just about every aspects of it: shots, possession, corner kicks, free kicks.


March 14, 2011
Curtis Davies is selected in the EPL Team of the Week, following his MoM performance against Man City.

League games are played and now with every team having played 30 games, this is what the league table looks like:

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Chelsea	30	22	7	1	63	21	+42	73
2nd	Arsenal	30	21	7	2	64	24	+40	70
3rd	Man Utd	30	19	6	5	43	19	+24	63
4th	Liverpool	30	17	7	6	54	29	+25	58
5th	Blackburn	30	14	9	7	40	31	+9	51
6th	Bolton	30	15	3	12	39	37	+2	48
7th	Tottenham	30	13	8	9	34	25	+9	47
8th	Middlesbrough	30	12	10	8	44	35	+9	46
9th	Aston Villa	30	12	6	12	33	34	-1	42
10th	Man City	30	11	6	13	36	42	-6	39
11th	Newcastle	30	9	9	12	34	43	-9	36
12th	Everton	30	9	8	13	30	37	-7	35
13th	Sunderland	30	9	8	13	36	45	-9	35
14th	Birmingham	30	9	6	15	45	45	0	33
15th	Luton	30	9	5	16	33	45	-12	32
16th	Leicester	30	9	4	17	32	49	-17	31
17th	Stoke	30	5	10	15	22	42	-20	25
18th	Crystal Palace	30	3	13	14	24	44	-20	22
19th	Southampton	30	4	10	16	18	48	-30	22
20th	Wolves	30	4	6	20	19	48	-29	18

March 16, 2011
Christian Wilhelmsson resumes full training following his foot injury.
Same for Grégory Bettiol after an arm injury.


March 19, 2011
We play Middlsebrough at Kenilworth Road. They're in 8th place and come in heavy favorite for the game but we don't care and we manhandle them, not so much in the final score of 2-1 but in every statistical categories: shtos total 23 to 9, on target 12 to 3, corners for 4 to 1. We just kicked their ass and it felt good

Final Score: Luton 2, Middlesbrough 1

Rey Volpato and Arjan Wisse scored our goals and we move up to 14th place with the win. Volpato did spain his wrist and should miss two weeks if treated by our physios, but our next game is only in 14 days, so I let him go see the physios. Same goes for James Simmonds who injured his heel and will also miss two weeks.

FM

[FrogMan]

April 1st, 2011
The board is pleased with my work, there's at least that.

Edmílson agrees to a one year extention to his contract with no increase in wages. Good thing, he is good depth for our defense.


April 2, 2011
We play Chelsea on their pitch. That's another reminder that we're really not up to the top teams in the EPL and we get trounced 0-2. They outshot us 19(13) to 7(4) and we have to concede 5 corners while winning none. The one weird thing though, both their goals came through penalties, so the defense, while a bit overzealous maybe, played it tough.

Final Score: Luton 0, Chelsea 2

We drop back to 14th place with the loss. Rey Volpato was back for the game and got injured again. He will miss another two weeks.


April 4, 2011
gaaah, Michael Timlin suffers a broken shoulder in training. He will be out of commission for 3 weeks to a month.


April 6, 2011
As if on cue, Timlin's backup, Lesley Fellinga strains his wrist in training. I decide to have him get an injection so he can plays in our next game against Wolves.

FM

[FrogMan]

April 10, 2011
We play Wolves at Kenilworth Road. Despite not being 100%, Lesley Fellinga starts at left fullback after getting a course of injection. Christian Wilhelmsson is in for Rey Volpato. Wolves are currently in 20th place and that would normally assure us of a struggle, but no, we play quite well in that one. The statistics don't really say it, but the final score does, and after goals from Youssouf Hersi, Christian Wilhelmsson and Shane Paul, we run away with the win.

Final Score: Luton 3, Wolves 0

Lesley Fellinga will miss one week after playing with injection. I learn that Niki Mäenpää has resumed full training after missing 2 months with a groin injury.


April 11, 2011
Christian Wilhelmsson and Youssouf Hersi were selected to the EPL Team of the Week.


April 12, 2011
Marcio Junquiera complains about a lack of first team play and I reply to him that he's a backup and he will have to be patient. He doesn't like my answer and request to be transfer listed, which I oblige to.


April 16, 2011
We play Stoke at Kenilworth Road. They are currently in 17th place and we're evens favourite to win this game, which kinda scare me since we often stumble when called favourite to win anything. Adam Green gets a rare start at left fullback and Christian Wilhelmsson is again starting for Rey Volpato. That game is a shame to watch. We come out so flat I only want to fast forward. Still, we only lose it by one.

Final Score: Luton 0, Stoke 1

Only two Hatters rated higher than 6, really a pitiful showing and I tell the boys it was an embarassing display. We drop to 15th place with the loss.


April 20, 2011
Giannis Taralidis and Lesley Fellinga resume full training.

FM

[FrogMan]

April 23, 2011
We take on bottom placed Southampton on their pitch. Rey Volpato and Lesley Fellinga are back in the lineup and Cédric Fernandez gets a rare start at the DMC position. Contrary to what you'd expect, we play pretty well against this poor Southampton side. A penalty goal by Youssouf Hersi, before he had to leave the game injured, and a goal in the 70th minute by Rey Volpato led the way for us, combined with a solid defensive showing.

Final Score: Luton 2, Southampton 0

We move up a solid 3 spots to 12th place with that win. Youssouf Hersi suffered a damaged heel in the game and with only three games left in the season, I decide to have him get an injection so he can get through the next game against Everton. Hersi refuses the injection, saying he doesn't want to potentially jeopardise his career or long-term health by proceeding with this form of treatment. He will probably be out for the rest of the season...


April 25, 2011
Simon Feindouno and Youssouf Hersi have been selected to the EPL Team of the Week.

We take on Everton at Kenilworth Road. They are right on our heels, in 13th place. This is as close to must win as it can get right now. You know me thinking and saying something like that almost guarantees that we will come out flat and lose. We do lose it but not really by coming out flat. We won possession with 55% and outshot them 12(5) to 6(5), but they made the best of their chances and score twice to our only goal by James Simmonds.

Final Score: Luton 1, Everton 2

We drop back to 13th place with the loss. Southampton have been officially relegated from the EPL while Leeds and Swansea have both clinched promotion to the EPL from the Championship.

FM

[FrogMan]

April 30, 2011
Players on the reserve squad have started to voice their complaints. Paul Reid and Ibrahim Tall are both unhappy with the lack of first team play. I reply to both of them that they are backups and should be patient. Reid takes it well and even appologies while Tall is looking to move on and wants to be transfer listed. I transfer list him.

We take on Sunderland on their pitch. We're in 13th, they're in 14th place, that's another very important game for us. That turns out to be an odd game. Despite staying always very close to them and ending the game with very similar stats, we let them have their way with our keeper and they score three goals. Maybe it's also due to Niki Mäenpää havign a very ordinary kind of game in his return to first team football though...

Final Score: Luton 0, Sunderland 3

We drop a spot to 14th place with this loss and Chelsea have retained their EPL title. Here's the table with us having only one game left:

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	C	Chelsea		35	25	9	1	70	22	+48	84
2nd		Arsenal		36	22	10	4	70	30	+40	76
3rd		Man Utd		35	21	7	7	49	27	+22	70
4th		Liverpool		36	19	9	8	62	33	+29	66
5th		Blackburn		36	16	12	8	47	36	+11	60
6th		Middlesbrough		36	16	10	10	53	39	+14	58
7th		Tottenham		36	16	10	10	41	29	+12	58
8th		Bolton		36	18	3	15	45	45	0	57
9th		Man City		36	15	6	15	44	46	-2	51
10th		Aston Villa		37	13	8	16	39	46	-7	47
11th		Newcastle		36	12	10	14	45	51	-6	46
12th		Sunderland		35	11	9	15	45	52	-7	42
13th		Everton		35	11	9	15	36	44	-8	42
14th		Luton		37	12	5	20	41	54	-13	41
15th		Birmingham		36	10	9	17	52	58	-6	39
16th		Leicester		37	11	6	20	38	57	-19	39
17th		Stoke		36	6	13	17	24	48	-24	31
18th		Crystal Palace		35	4	17	14	29	48	-19	29
19th		Wolves		37	7	8	22	32	56	-24	29
20th	R	Southampton		37	4	12	21	20	61	-41	24

May 4, 2011
Stoke and Wolves have officially clinched relegation to the Championship.


May 6, 2011
A bit ahead of schedule, Youssouf Hersi is back to full training.

FM

[FrogMan]

May 8, 2011
We play Aston Villa at Kenilworth for this final game of the season. They're only 3 spots ahead of us but they come to our home favourite to win this game. It's a very close game and it takes us a penalty that Scott Donelly buries in the 79th minute to win this game. Zac Barrett gets the man of the match mention with many great saves to keep us in the game.

Final Score: Luton 1, Aston Villa 0

With that win, we finish in 13th place, two spots down from last season. Here's the final league table:

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Chelsea	38	27	10	1	75	25	+50	91
2nd	Arsenal	38	23	10	5	73	32	+41	79
3rd	Man Utd	38	24	7	7	54	27	+27	79
4th	Liverpool	38	20	9	9	65	34	+31	69
5th	Blackburn	38	16	14	8	49	38	+11	62
6th	Middlesbrough	38	16	11	11	53	41	+12	59
7th	Tottenham	38	16	10	12	42	33	+9	58
8th	Bolton	38	18	4	16	45	48	-3	58
9th	Man City	38	15	7	16	45	49	-4	52
10th	Newcastle	38	13	11	14	48	52	-4	50
11th	Everton	38	12	11	15	42	46	-4	47
12th	Aston Villa	38	13	8	17	39	47	-8	47
13th	Luton	38	13	5	20	42	54	-12	44
14th	Sunderland	38	11	10	17	47	56	-9	43
15th	Leicester	38	12	6	20	40	58	-18	42
16th	Birmingham	38	10	10	18	52	59	-7	40
17th	Crystal Palace	38	6	17	15	33	50	-17	35
18th	Stoke	38	7	13	18	26	53	-27	34
19th	Wolves	38	7	8	23	32	59	-27	29
20th	Southampton	38	4	13	21	21	62	-41	25

We're given $9.25M for our final position. As would be expected, the team board is disappointed with the team's performance in the Premiership this season. They were expecting us to achieve a comfortable mid-table position. It was indeed a tough season, now we'll have to start stronger next season.

Here's how our league position moved during the season. Maybe I only want to see something good, but it seems to me that we were doing a bit better later on than earlier in the season...


FM

[FrogMan]

I never got around to posting a team overview for my wingers and strikers and since the season is over now, I'll hold off posting them until the thread for the new season has been created...

May 14, 2011
Chelsea celebrate a double after winning the FA Cup final 2-1 against Bolton.

My assistant manager's contract will run out at the end of June, but I'd like to use some of my unspent transfer money to secure the services of some coach from a top team. Since nobody will sign to be my assistant manager if one is already on board, I decide to terminate his contract early. It only costs me $14k anyway.


May 15, 2011
Lazio's manager Delio Rossi steps down and again, I'm touted by the media as the hot favourite to take over. Once again, I reiterate my commitment to the lads at Kenilworth Road. The team board appreciate the commtiment and say so in the media

Everybody goes home on holiday. They'll come back to the team on June 27th, hopefully after havign replenished their batteries and forgotten the disappointing season we just went through.

Speaking of an assitant manager, I find a couple of coach on the Manchest United staff team that would probably make very interesting assistant to me. The main one is a Dutch named René Meulensteen who's pretty solid in most of the mental aspects of managing a team, as well as very good at man management and excellent at working with youngsters. Here's his profile:


He's currently being paid $11,500 per week to be a coach at Manchester United and says it would take a very large offer for him to even consider aggreeing terms. Hrm, my board allows me to offer him up to $19,500 per week but I try my luck at $16,000. I would have to pay a compensation of $1.3M to ManU if Meulensteen were ever to accept our offer.


May 17, 2011
Oswaldo Sánchez announces that he plans to retire in June 2012.

Newcastle put in a bid for Rey Volpato. He's valued at $11M and they offer some crap offer with some condition making it worth up to $10.615M. Volpato's agent mentions that he would like to have a chance to talk with them so I don't reject the offer first hand but I counter with the minimum fee release clause in Volpato's contract, i.e. $12.5M.

Looks like $16k per week was a large offer to René Meulensteen as he agrees to a deal and becomes my new assistant manager.


May 18, 2011
Chelsea wins the Champions League, easily beating F.C. Internazionale 3-0 in the final.


May 19, 2011
As expected, Newcastle withdraw their bid for Rey Volpato.


May 21, 2011
Bummer, Canada's friendly with Argentina has been cancelled du to a clash with a WC qualifier match for Argentina. Even bigger bummer, I can't arrange another friendly, the date has turned grey.


May 22, 2011
Sheffield United win the Championship playoff and become the third promotee to the EPL for the season.

May 28, 2011
Funny news, a club name Sp. Covila has offered a contract to Markus Heikkinen. It'S a portugues side and the funny thing is that Markus, who's from Finland, complained a few weeks ago that he was beginning to feel homesick.


June 1st, 2011
The team board is please with my work as manager.

FM

[FrogMan]

I will be getting into some roster moves and because of it, it's probably better that I start a new thread.

I'll post the link in here once it's ready...

FM

[FrogMan]

the thread has been started, come on over there:
http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ad.php?t=51211

FM