Our cup match is here. I have some tired. I rest Quintin (Bunjaku), Nijland (Benali), Molhoek (Powell). Beattie is in for Gommans. I begin standard. It’s raining a lot. McKee grabs a yellow Their GK has stopped four shots by the 30. I move to Counter. Dongou collects a yellow post-half. The corner ball bounces around, Dongou finds it, passes to Ilunga who shoots and scores at the 58th I trade Powell for Bunjaku’s left role and put in Stewart. Larbi is tired, so Molhoek goes in for him. Daineche is dinged so I put in Risser for him. Ilunga throws the ball in, Stewart knocked it back to him, he crosses to Benali on an attacking run, and Benali scores in the 88th minute. With both an assist and goal, Ilunga is obviously MOM.
We have a problem. In the EPL, you have to have a certain number of homegrown players on your team. Your match squad, however, does not need a certain amount. However, in the lower leagues, you apparently need six homegrown players in you squad, inclusive of subs. Well, I didn’t realize the squad aspect of the requirement, and I have too many foreigners starting. I have just McKee as a homegrown player. What I have to so is sign an English starter, because what I have right now is one hg starter and all of my subs are forced to be to cover. Now many of my subs are natural – Powell, Beattie could be a starter, Bunjaku, Benali are hg. Other HG are Stewart Davis,Gorman, and backup GK Johnstone. I can hack a squad from them, start Beattie, have Bunjaku and Benali on bench, etc. But that leaves me with four HG subs and just one other – is my other sub Gommans? Risser? You see the problem.
So what I need is to sign a home grown starter. I feel the best chance of that is a wide midfielder or a lights out GK. No GK is available, so it’s a wide middie, to sub in for Larbi or Quintin or both. Luckily, I have two options. When looking for good middies earlier, I kept two guys, still unsigned, on my shortlist. Here they are:
Michael Tonge, 30, M CRL, will sign for cheaper than other option
Paul Anderso, 25, AM/M RL, more expensive but younger
Comparisons – Tonge is better crossing by one and passing by three, 14/14 to 13/11. Anderson is faster 13/16 to 11/10. Tonge 5 better technique and long shots, 3 better dribbling. Anderson has 3 better finishing. Identical stamina. Both right foot. Tonge three better tackling, Anderson thee better anticipation, virtually equal in tw and wr and otb. Tonge’s better mentally and technically, nderson better physically, and is younger.
Tonge it is. I can play him several postions. I make Tonge an offer for 6k a week and two years.
I just got major injection of cash Southampton are making an offer of 475k and 30 of profit for next sale for Joe Gorman. I accept. We draw West Ham in the League Cup. Tonge has joined us
Tonge
