Year by year: Maidenhead Magpies (FM 2006 Dynasty)

[Izulde]

I've never had much success in FM 2006. I'll struggle for a season or so before I give up, vowing to try it again. Now, it's time to try it again. As usual I'll start out unemployed and this time I'll run all English and all Irish leagues. Yes, my computer can run more, but I prefer to keep it minimal as possible to ensure a faster running game.

Luckily enough, Maidenhead in Conference South has an opening at the start of the game. I apply and they immediately accept me with an offer for $8,000 a year for three years. I negotiate them to $10,000 a year for one year and sign on. My thinking behind this is that I don't want to screw myself out of a liveable wage by working for peanuts if the team is doing well.

As it turns out, when I look over the squad, we don't have much chance of doing well. Our guys are pretty awful all in all and as you can expect, it's anticipated that we're expected to battle against the drop.

The first thing I do is to bring in a flurry of new players after scanning the transfer market and sending my lone scout out to the UK and Ireland 1 month at a time to look at positions of need.

In terms of tactics, though I prefer the 4-3-3 or even the 3-4-3, the repeated tips I keep hearing are to stick with the basic 4-4-2, so in this case, I do, with the two wingers sliding up to help with the attack, counterattack on, and in the only change I make to the basic setup, short passing. My reasoning behind this is that short passes are easier to control, especially for a sucky team as ours. I also put an emphasis on strength and aerobics in training.

At the start of the league season (we got clobbered in all our friendlies), we've still got some of our original guys on the team but after about a month we've got the lineup that will be our squad for most of the season:

GK Danny Knowles
DL Robby Courtnage*
DC Magnus Okuonghae
DC Kyle Lapham
DR Jason Cousins*
ML Stephen Hughes*
MC Gordon Brett
MC Mark McGowan
MR Robert Traynor*
FC Paul Forsyth
FC Craig Maskell

*-denotes original Maidenhead member

Forsyth and Maskell form a beautiful team up front and display excellent teamwork that lead us to several wins. Knowles is terrific in goal and our backline shuts down the opposition often. In terms of midfield, our wingers Hughes and Traynor play out of their minds (and ratings) and it's really Hughes who was the best player on our team throughout the entire season. Cousins is the team captain and I notice throughout the year that we play better when he's in than when someone else is the captain. That's what being 35 and having the highest influence on the team will get you.

We're fighting for a promotion playoff spot and it's in the second half of the season when several things happen. One, Danny Knowles gets hurt and is out two weeks. Two, Kyle Lapham, the guy who was the best defender we had, rips apart his calf and is done for the year. Three, I realize Maskell's lost so much of his speed that he's no longer an effective starter or even team member.

Now I'd been wanting to upgrade over Knowles because he'd been declining in production the last few games anyway and I'd been searching for a striker to replace Maskell with, as the man's 37 and isn't likely to be much for the playing world any longer. So I bring in Danish keeper Tonny Nielsen and pay out the nose for Gareth Williams, a young striker I'd been in love with for some time. And by paying out the nose, I mean $75,000 a year salary. This leads us to the lineup that we have for the rest of the year. Oh yes, I forgot to mention. We also brought in Nicky Ioannou, a significant upgrade over the hardworking Courtnage.

GK Tonny Nielsen
DL Nicky Ioannou
DC Magnus Okuonghae
DC Dominic White*
DR Jason Cousins*
ML Stephen Hughes*
MC Gordon Brett
MC Mark McGowan
MR Robert Traynor*
FC Paul Forsyth
FC Gareth Williams

*-original Maidenhead member

Nielsen turns out to be everything advertised and without his better goalkeeping, I don't think we'd have stayed up like we did in the battle for a promotion playoff spot. Ioannou is talented, but prone to being jaded and needing to take a rest every other game. White is a guy I loved even though his ratings didn't suggest him as being all that great and he rewarded me by playing well whenever he came in, either as a starter or a sub throughout the year. The truth is though, he's better as a backup for now. Gareth Williams lived up to his billing, as he and Paul Forsyth played even better together than Forsyth had with Maskell, solving the problem of scoring we'd been having ever since Maskell lost his step and $35,000 a year man Danny Crow didn't live up to his billing or debut success (more on him later). The problem? Gareth is injury-prone, seriously injury prone.

With this lineup, we make the promotion playoffs as the second place team and go up against Eastleigh in the semi-finals. We tie the first leg at Eastleigh 0-0 and win the second leg at home 2-0 to advance to the championship against Eastbourne Boro. Boro did me the huge, huge, huge favour of knocking out Weston-Super-Mare in the other semifinal, the one team that scared me when I looked at the bracket, as Weston kicked our butts every time we played them.

A tense and exciting game ends in 1-1 draw even after extra time. It goes to penalty kicks and I'm freaking out because Danny Crow and Jason Cousins are the only two decent PKers we have. In fact, those are the only two that score, but it's enough, as Tonny Nielsen comes through in the clutch and we win 2-0 to advance to English Conference National!!!!!! *does cartwheels and somersaults of glee*

I know for a lot of people they'd be like, "So what? I've done that all the time. It's not that hard." But for me, this is as huge an accomplishment as winning that first title with the Minnesota Timberwolves in TPB 2005, because it's something I've never accomplished before, ever.

I think this sweet, sweet screenshot says it all.



Here's the stats for our main guys at the end of the year. There's other guys on the reserves who played significant time in the senior squad, but I'll get to them when I do a position by position synopsis either below or in the next post.



Obviously there's a lot more story than just what I've written here. Some other notes: We.. oh cool! I just looked at the transfers screen and realized it lists every transfer in and out and their dates! That's one of the coolest tracking things ever! Rather than have to write it all out, I'll just post the screens.

Transfers In:



Transfers Out:



Jamie Cook was a player with a really high value for some reason, though I honestly liked Stephen Hughes better than him. Since we had no transfer budget to start off and he wasn't going to start for me anyway, I transfer listed him and Morecambe snatched him up. He did okay up there in Conference National, but nothing overly spectacular or anything.

And yes, I did transfer Danny Knowles out after I brought Tonny Nielsen in. The pure and simple fact of the matter is I had to do it in order to go back below my wage budget.

Now you're probably wondering who Matt Farrell is and why I paid $8,000 for him when he wasn't even a surefire starter for us. Let me put it to you this way: He's 16. Yep, a youth player already showing that he can play extremely well and play a vital role for our team. He consistently pushes McGowan for a starting spot, actually and may even take it over by the start of next year. Matt's also the highest valued player on our team right now at $22K.

...Oh crap. He's not. I just checked the screens and Paul Forsyth is our new most valuable player at $65k! Holy cow! Not bad for a guy who I brought in on a free transfer and who started off being valued at $3k after joining us.

Man, that's a $62k leap in a single year!

I was going to go into a position by position breakdown now, but I think I need to go and savour this suddenly valuable player I now have.

Do you guys have any advice for me as I move up to Conference National? Obviously, I know I need to build on the team I've got here, and that's going to be my answer in the interview question, but I'll take a closer look at that in my positions report next post.

Oh and just for the fun of it, here's a list of the players who have me as their favoured personnel after our promotion playoff run

Jason Cousins*
Dominic White*
Mark McGowan
Paul Forsyth
Rob Courtnage*
Wes Goggin
Craig Maskell

[Blade6119]

CONGRATS IZULDE!!! The first title is always exciting, and they get more and more exciting as you move up!@

[Izulde]

Thanks, Blade! It really made my night and weekend, I can tell you that much.

Okay, so here we go to a position by position breakdown. I'm only going to list the main guys and key reserves, otherwise this would take too long.

Goalkeeper

Tonny Nielsen 22 years old (Denmark)

The good news? He was clutch down the stretch for us and he's young. I also love his 6'9" height. He's got excellent aerial ability and makes good decisions, not to mention a high influence, but the problem with him is that much like Danny Knowles last year, he's got all red arrows from training and nothing else. Not entirely sure how or if I'm ever going to get a goalie that shows green arrows, but we'll see. My guess is I'll stick with him for the short term, then look to upgrade yet again.

We have no backup goalies worth mentioning, so I may try to snag one since I found out last night in the General Discussions forum that we actually have Reserves and a schedule for them once we get to Conference National. Hee hee that makes me so giddy!

Defenders (End of season starters listed first)

DR Jason Cousins 35 years old (England)

What can I say about our team captain? He loves me, but the man's 35 and his skills aren't the best any more. In fact, he's most valuable for his influence, free kicking, and penalty kicking skills. That he's been able to hold on this long is a testament to his remarkable fitness and strength. I'm tore on whether or not to start him as we go up in level, but he's signed for another year and will continue to serve as our captain whenever he's on the field.

D/M LR Nicky Iannou 19 years old (Cyprus)

Yes, he gets jaded a lot and yes, his stamina and strength are sorely lacking, but he's 19 years old and is still one of the better defenders we have. While a natural MR, he's accomplished at all four positions I've listed and I find the utility players to be extremely valuable, so much so that I'm loathe to sign anyone who can only play one position unless they're exceptionally talented. I like Nicky quite a lot, but I may try and upgrade the DL position some more, so that I can put him in a reserve role and he can gradually earn his way to a starting role again, especially since he's right-footed.

DC Dominic White 21 years old (England)

I have a lot of man-love for this kid because he plays better than his ratings and improved considerably as the season wore on. He's also got a lot of flair in his playing style and is becoming pretty influential. While we don't utilize a marking system, if we did, he'd be a great one for the role. I really don't want to see him being a starter again at the beginning of next season if I can help it, though, so we'll see if an upgrade can be found here. Yes, all signs are pointing to a versatile backline guy who can start somewhere.

D/DM/M C Magnus Okuonghae 20 years old (Nigeria)

With a work rate of 19, bravery and determination of 18, plus excellent physical skills, teamwork, and good heading and tackling skills at 11 each, it's no surprise that this kid was the stalwart in the middle after Lapham went down with an injury. I've slid him up to midfield a few times when injuries or fatigue concerns required me to do so and he performed well there too, though his natural position is DC. While his positioning and decision-making are both terrible at 1 and he needs to improve in a lot of other areas, I believe he'll bust his butt in practice and continue to grow. I won't move him out of the starting lineup. He's there to lock down the backline for at least the next season in my book.

DL Rob Courtnage 23 years old (England)

He took the loss of his starting job to Ioannou really hard at the end of the year. He's got good composure and bravery, works well with his teammates and is another strong work ethic guy. Unfortunately he's just not talented enough to be a starter at the next level. While I'd be comfortable with him as a sub, my guess is he'll probably end up moving down to the reserves where he can start and be called up as needed. His being left-footed is a bonus.

DRC Kyle Lapham 20 years old (England)

Originally splitting time between DR, where he's a natural, and DC, where he's accomplished, he played a lot better than his ratings indicate and was without question our top defender until that devastating injury took him out. He's still out for another 1-3 months, so it's not for sure that he'll be fully fit and ready by the start of next season. While I'd originally planned to have him replace Cousins at DR in the lineup, with that kind of layoff I'm not so certain anymore.

Reserves:
There's only one guy in the reserves who doesn't completely suck, but he's best suited as a midfielder, so I'll talk about him there.

U18s
There's nobody worth signing at any position, period, end of story. So I'm not even going to take a look here anymore.

Synopsis: Defenders
[
b]Magnus Okuonghae[/b] has one DC spot locked down. The rest of the backline is really open for grabs, depending on who I get in the U24 Expiring Contract Market. Hey, that'll be my new original acronymn! U24 ECM! Other FM/WWSM dynasty writers, feel free to borrow that acronymn if you want. I think if I can upgrade the other starters on the backline, we'll have really solid depth here at all the slots.

Midfielders

AM L/R, M R/C, ST Robert Traynor 22 years old (England)

The light bulb really started to come on in practice towards the end of the season last year and he improved his game immensely. While his natural role is AMR, we don't use that in our current formation and while his rating suggest he'd be a pretty good striker, when I've put him in that role, he hasn't done as well as it should suggest. So with that in mind, I'll probably keep him primarily as MR. Will he stay the starter? With the improvement he's shown and the physical gifts he has, I'm leaning towards yes at the moment, but I'm always on the hunt for more in the U24 ECM.

MLC Stephen Hughes 22 years old (England)

A natural at both ML and MC, he was without a doubt the single best player on the entire team last year and has a nice all-around game. Like Traynor, he experienced a light bulb effect in practice towards the end of the season. He works hard and is perhaps even better a physical talent than Traynor. I'm not certain whether he'll line up at ML or MC, but what is for sure is that he's going to stay in the starting 11, probably at ML, since he's left footed. He's earned it.

AM/M RC Mark McGowan 24 years old (Ireland)

While a natural at MR, McGowan spent most of the year as a starter at MC and did okay, even occasionally there. Unlike Hughes and Traynor, he kept dropping in training throughout the year, making his starting spot a priority upgrade, favoured personnel being me or not.

MC Gordon Brett 31 years old (Ireland)

I love this guy. Yes, he only plays one position, but he plays it well and actually improved in practice as the season went on. Probably our best all-around centre midfielder, my initial hunch is have to have him stay starting at MC, as we need a veteran presence on the field. All young kids is a recipe for disaster, in my opinion.

WB/M LR Wes Goggin 24 years old (England)

While his overall ratings may not be great, I love his versatility in that both ML and MR are natural positions for him and he's determined, a hard worker, and a team player, not to mention determined and naturally fit, with good stamina and decent physical attributes all around (for this level anyway). While I don't see him breaking into the starting MR role and the ML is Hughes' to lose, I definitely see him as staying on either as a critical sub or one of the very first reserves we call up. Plus I love the name. Wes Goggin. What a great name.

M/D LRC Matthew Farrell 16 years old (England)

My little wunderkind. He's natural at MC but he can play all six positions. Yes, all six. 5'6" is his height right now but I'm sure he'll add on an inch or two. 19 acceleration with good dribbling, teamwork and work rate. I love, love, love this kid. He's still not ready to be a starter, but he's one of my most valuable subs and frequently spells the midfielders, especially Brett.

Reserves

MRC John Butt 23 years old (Ireland)

He's the most frustrating player on the team. Looking at his ratings, you'd he'd be the best midfielder we have, but he hasn't played like it with the opportunities he's been given and furthermore, he's embroiled in a contract dispute with us. Chances are, he won't be resigning as we've been battling about this for months. A real shame and a real testament to his name.

Synopsis: Midfielders

Stephen Hughes and Gordon Brett will provide continuity on the left side of the midfield, and Robert Traynor may stay there too. But without question, we need to get a new MC to replace McGowan, who's being transfer listed immediately while he still has some value. Depth at the MC position would help, too.

Strikers

AML/ST Paul Forsyth 25 years old (Ireland)

Plays on the left side of our 4-4-2 and uses that left foot to his advantage. That $65k value makes him awfully tempting to transfer list, as he'll never be that valuable again most likely. On the other hand, he's the most technically gifted player on our team, left footed, and signed for just $7k for another year. Also, he becomes the team captain when Cousins is out. I'll probably keep and start him to begin the year, but if a contract fight starts coming up to where I'd have to overpay him to keep him, he may be out the door, team leader or not.

ST Gareth Williams 23 years old (Wales)

Despite being injury-prone, he's actually the best striker we have on our team and worth the $75k per year we pay him. In just 13 games last year, he had 8 goals and 3 assists. While not having the greatest work rate in the world, he's been improving on it and has also been amping up his physical attributes in practice, which should hopefully help the injury prone thing. He'll stay a fixture on the right side, without question.

ST/AMC Danny Crow 20 years old (Ireland)

Originally thought to be the heir apparent to Maskell, he simply hasn't panned out. After a brilliant debut in which he scored 2 goals, he's been largely absent on the field and looks lost in practice too. I'm sorry, but I don't pay guys at this level $35k a year to sit their butts on the bench. While our third striker, he's immediately getting transfer listed. I won't abide his being in our uniform another minute.

ST/AMC Craig Maskell 38 years old (England)

In the beginning, he and Forsyth made a dynamite duo and won us a ton of games. But as the season wore on, he lost speed and agility to where he simply just wasn't much use anymore. He's actually a better scout than my current guy, who unfortunately is signed through 2010, which means I'd have to pay the old geezer $8,000 to let him go and truth be told, he did find us some quality guys. Maskell's contract runs for another year, so I'll let him run through it before I pull the switch. Yes, I've decided I will make Craig my future scout. He's been too big a part of our success to let him just walk away.

Reserves

We have a couple old guys and one young guy down there that we transferred in, all in the Maskell replacement quest. None of them panned out and I don't expect them to. Another young guy is an original Maidenhead player but much like the rest of his teammates on the reserves, I don't expect him to see the senior team unless it's an emergency.

Synopsis: Strikers

With Danny Crow no doubt on his way out and Craig Maskell simply a scout-in-waiting, it's urgent that we locate a third striker from somewhere. The temptation to sell Paul Forsyth is high, but I'll resist it. Players no doubt notice when guys who love their manager and who led the team to a promotion get sold off. Besides, the club's finances are okay, so we should be fine.

Projected Championship National Lineup:
GK Tonny Nielsen (provided I don't get someone better in the U24 ECM)
DL ?
DC Magnus Okuonghae
DC ?
DR ?
ML Stephen Hughes
MC Gordon Brett
MC ?
MR ?
FC Paul Forsyth (unless I bring in someone better...)
FC Gareth Williams

Next post will detail offseason changes and preliminary lineup for the league season, as well as our projected situation in Conference National. Note: As this is a year by year dynasty, the post after that will then be a recap of the season.

[Blade6119]

It might be your training regimes...i got mine of the net and they do wonderfully...the ones that come with the game are very average

[Izulde]

Thanks, I'll have to try hunting then.

We have an absolutely brutal friendly season and get massacred by higher division clubs except one team we manage to tie. The crowning insult though, is a 3-2 loss to Eastbourne Boro where we blow a 2-0 halftime lead in our last friendly.

Kidderminister and Aldershot are the co-favourites for promotion, and we're listed at 40-1. Yeah, relegation battle we're trying to avoid.

In:
DWML Liam Cockerill
ST Chris McPhee

Out:
Danny Crow
Lee Newman
Brian Conner
Gareth Williams

Yep, that's right, Gareth's gone. His $75k/year salary is just too much and puts us way over wage budget. McPhee has been erratic, but it looks like he'll settle in fine. Cockerill is just fantastic at DL and is a real value signing.

While I'm still hunting for players, here's our opening lineup as of league play:

GK Tonny Nielsen
DL Liam Cockerill
DC Magnus Okuonghae
DC Kyle Lapham
DR Jason Cousins*
ML Stephen Hughes*
MC Gordon Brett
MC Matthew Farrell
MR Robert Traynor*
FC Paul Forsyth
FC Chris McPhee

We really do play better with Cousins in and Forsyth stubbornly continues to be our best striker in spite of my attempts to dislodge him by his ratings. Is the team good enough to avoid relegation? Probably not, but we'll see what happens.

You guys'll find out next post how we did!

[Izulde]

We're halfway through the season right now. It's January 1st, 2007 and what a crazy, crazy year it's been.

So far, we're still in both the FA Cup *and* the FA Trophy, in the third and second rounds respectively. The most shocking victory of the year has come in the FA Cup, when, despite a terrible draw in the first round against League One side Walsall, we came out on top 2-1 to go through. Chances are we won't make it past the third round though, as we face Championship side Sheffield Wednesday.

Sadly, I can't say that our league play has been nearly as breathtaking as our cup runs so far. We've had trouble maintaining a consistent lineup due to some guys getting fatigued more often with the newly intense schedule of games and the big killer so far this year: Injuries.

We've had a lot of two and three week injuries happen to a lot of our starters which is a major reason why we're struggling to find lineup consistency right now. Our pitiful reserves team, which hasn't won a game so far this year, signals just how weak our depth is, particularly at striker. But then there's the two big injuries that struck, one extremely early in the year, the other in late November.

The first is none other than youngster defender/midfielder phenom Matt Farrell, who, immediately after signing a steal of a deal for us that pays him the paltry sum of $3,000 a year through 2010, breaks his pelvis and is gone five to seven months. It'll be almost the end of the season before he's back to full strength.

The other one, and the biggest one is keeper Tonny Nielsen. He tore some ligaments during a game and we not only lost the game as we had to put one of our defenders in a goal, but we lost him for 6 to 10 months. The sad part? We've been playing with a grey name goalie for the entire month of December. Yes, the grey name is better than our backup goalies in the reserves. That's how thin we are. Thankfully at the time of Tonny's injury, I already had someone ready to come in with the new January transfer window.

And yet, we reeled off a critical three game league winning streak, thanks to some solid defense and my very first loaned player, a 19 year old striker by the name of Nicky Maynard, who leaves us on the 19th. How critical to our success has he been since being loaned in?

Consider the following: 12 starts, 4 subs, 14 goals, 3 assists, 5 Man of the Match awards. Yes, that's right. Out of 16 games he's played in for us, he's been Man of the Match 5 times. He also has two hat tricks to his credit. I only hope Chris McPhee is back from his injury by the time Manyard goes or we'll be in serious trouble.

Here's a look at how we're doing by position.

Goalie:

Tonny Nielsen started off horrible in league play. He looked extremely uncomfortable and lost out there and his struggles meant that we as a team had a hard time adjusting to National play. But then it started to click with him how to perform at this level and he was looking more like the keeper hero of our late promotion season before his injury. Unfortunately for him, I just transfer-listed him because he's making $40k a year and I don't pay backups that kind of money.

Darren Howard was our grey name goalie. I gave some thought to signing him to be our backup, but forgot to before he disappeared when our new guy transferred in. Yeah he was pretty bad, but he got better as time wore on. I wouldn't have minded having him around to be our Reserves man. Oh well.

GK Richard Martin 19 years old (England)
The new transfer. I like that he doesn't rush out, but his 20 tendency to punch has me worried. Goalies who punch seem to allow a lot of rebound goals from my limited experience. Overall, I'd have to say he looks like he'll be a bit better than Tonny, and at $14k a year, he's worth his salary, especially if he can keep his starting job.

Defenders

Liam Cockerill has been somewhat streaky at DL. He'll have games where he's absolutely brilliant and then games where he completely stinks up the joint. In the latter, he's usually replaced by Nicky Ioannou (more on him later) at halftime. Overall though, he's been a huge ugrade over Robert Courtnage from last year and I'm very happy to have him on the team, especially since Courtnage has looked overmatched when he's had to play.

Magnus Okuonghae is right up there with Kyle Lapham as the leader of our defense, with just .01 difference btween them in terms of average rating, Okuonghae with the lesser of the two at 7.21. I really can't ask for much more out of Magnus than I've gotten out of him. He's just been extremely solid. Occasionally he's played midfield but he no longer looks as comfortable there as he used to be. He's become firmly entrenched as a DC, and I'm thrilled to have him there. Magnus is also one of two players on our team to get their first taste of international experience this year, as he got called up for a couple Nigerian U21 games. That kind of recognition makes me happy, because it tells me I'm doing the right thing in keeping him.

Kyle Lapham alternates between DC and DR, depending on where he's needed on the line. In my best of all possible lineups, he's on DR, replacing Jason Cousins, but he's played DC a lot, too this year, both because of injuries and because of Magnus's call-ups or fatigue, etc. While statistically speaking Lapham's our best defender, he's shown some unfortunate mental lapses, including a couple of own goals that have affected his confidence from time to time. He's still a solid player, though, and a key component to our team.

Jason Cousins lost his DR starting job to Lapham in my ideal lineup during our early season struggles after he got beat quite a bit and I realized we did just fine with Paul Forsyth as our team captain. His reduced load has helped him play a lot better as the season's gone on, probably because it helps preserve his 36 year old legs. Interestingly enough, he's one of two guys on the team who I call Cup Warriors, where their level of play in the FA matches has superseded their league play significantly. Needless to say, he's gotten the start at DR in all the Cup and Trophy matches. He'll be retiring at the end of the year and oddly enough, I'm going to miss the old man. He's an original Magpie and been a big, big part of how we got here today. I may sign him as a Coach because he works very well with youngsters, as well as our assistant manager in fact, and could take over some of the coaching duties. In fact, I think I will.

Dominic White continues to be one of my favourite players, even though his ratings and performance don't necessarily support the absurd manlove I have for him. He fluidly switches between starting and subbing and always busts his butt when he plays. Yes, occasionally he'll get beat by more talented strikers, but I don't think there's anyone who plays as hard and as dedicatedly as he does. He'll remain a part of the team for as long as I'm here.

There are some other guys who have gotten some spot duty, but most of them aren't worth mentioning. The few that are will be mentioned under midfielders, their main position.

Now for the new guy.

DRC Sekani Simpson 22 years old (England)
On the face of it, he'll provide at bare minimum critical depth on the backline and supplant Jason Cousins even though DC is his natural position. Whether or not he replaces Dominic White in my ideal Cousins-less back four remains to be seen. He'll get a few starts at least to prove what he can do, but I'm of the opinion that his versatility makes his $12k per year salary worthwhile even if he is a sub. Hell, Robert Courtnage is making $12 a year, but then Courtnage won't be back next year either.

Midfielders

Stephen Hughes was our best player last season and he's continued that this year, with the highest average rating on the team at 7.61. Like last year, he also tops us in assists with 14 at the halfway mark. Want more evidence that he's arguably the most valuable player on the team? Check out his three English Conference National Team of the Week awards, the highest on the team. I've gotten a lot of teams calling me throughout the year giving me offers for him even though he's not transfer listed. Naturally, I've refused them all.

MC Steven Hogg 21 years old (England)
He transferred in shortly after the start of the season and has held down one of the MC spots all season long. His contract's $35k a year and watching him play, you really wonder if he's worth that much money, but then when you take him out, you realize just how valuable he is. One of those guys that has an extremely polished all-around game but doesn't seem like he performs as well as his abilities suggest he should. Still, he's young yet and he's quietly been playing pretty damn well, all things considered. I'd just like to see him score more, as his finishing is 10.

Matt Farrell is still out another 2 to 4 months. Before he got hurt, he proved that he's more than capable of playing in this league, especially after he came back from his first injury and got back to training hardcore. Yep, that's right, he's becoming an injury concern. Still worth $30k in value though. I'm not sure what his role will be when he comes back. Steven Hogg isn't about to relinquish his starting spot anytime soon and the new transfer guy may well have locked down the other place by the time he returns. I could try him out at MR, I suppose, or he could just be a supersub. It'll be a while before we find out anyway.

Robert Traynor lost his MR starting job to Nicky Ioannou fairly early in the season, but then got it back after Nicky started looking nervous starting in National play. He's been okay, but not exceptional and will lose his job again, I'm sure. That's actually what I'm hoping for, that I can find someone who's a better MR than him so I can have him as our third striker, but only time will tell if that happens or not. In any case, he's definitely not as good as he was last year against lower competition.

Gordon Brett once upon a time was viewed as our best center midfielder. Not anymore, thanks to Steven Hogg. What's puzzling about Brett is that despite the fact that he's 32 years old, he's a workout warrior who keeps improving, but the same token, he doesn't show that improvement on the pitch. He's one of our players with an expiring contract and wants $9k a year, a $3k/yr increase. To be honest, I'm not sure he'll be worth it. Yes, his veteran leadership would be important, but I don't see him as anything more than a single-note sub and doesn't have the influence to be a captain. So this may be the last year he'll be in a Maidenhead uniform.

Nicky Ioannou has really taken off this year and improved his game. While he occasionally spells Liam Cockerill at DL, he's solidifed himself as one of our top wingmen subs along with Wes Goggin. He's the other Cup Warrior on the team and has developed a knack for consistently making clutch plays and clutch goals in the second half, especially in trophy play. In fact, he's got a 7.57 average Cup rating, the highest on the team except for Nicky Maynard. Further sign of his development: He got called up to the Cyprus national team and played in a game. True, his performance was only average and Cyprus is a tiny country, but getting an international cap is a high point in a player's career. I used to be concerned about him. No more. He's no longer prone to jadedness or moodiness and he's come to really like playing for us.

Wes Goggin, much like Robert Traynor, has seen his performance go down against this higher level of competition. He's still a decent sub, but I'm not quite so certain he's worth the $16k a year. I've resigned him for one more year, because his versatility is extremely important to my team scheme, but unless he takes a jump a la Nicky Ioannou, I don't see him with the team beyond next season.

Mark McGowan has seen occasional play with the senior team but has been largely relegated to the reserves this season. Interestingly enough, he performs a lot better in league play than in cup play. His league rating is higher than Gordon Brett's, so maybe he deserves another look. Certainly he's shown flashes of ability that Brett hasn't this season.

Nathan Stamp is an original Magpie, 22 years old and one of those guys who performs better than his ratings or his average numbers indicate. He's gotten quite a bit of spot duty with the seniors this year and shows glimmers of turning out to be a decent player. A natural MR, he also can play DR. Unfortunately for him, he's below the other MR we have right now, a position we have a glut of players at and isn't good enough playing at DR to crack our rotation there.

Like with the backline, there's other players who have made appearances, but aren't really worthy of mention. Therefore, on to the new guy!

DMC Nathan Ireland 19 years old (England)
An English guy with the last name of Ireland. That's so great! This kid reminds me a lot of Nicky Ioannou in a lot of ways, looking at his ratings and is getting a look at MC due largely to the fact of his having a pace of 4. Slow guys in the backline scare me because they leave the goal open. Slow guys in the midfield can be covered for at least. If he was faster, I'd be a lot more happy with him, but here's to hoping he can break out like Nicky did.

Strikers

Paul Forsyth is still the man on our team. He already has 20 goals at the halfway point and the team's highest value at $70k. I stupidly signed him to a one year deal earlier in the season at $14k and should have locked him down to a multiyear deal like what I did with Matt Farrell. Oh well, so it goes. Paul's not only been the team leader in scoring, he also has looked more and more like a true lockerroom leader too. He'll probably stay a Maidenhead man forever if I can help it. His story is just too great. Out of football for a while and we pick him off the scrap heap.. and he turns into our first bona fide star.

Chris McPhee is injured at the moment and hasn't looked as sharp as I'd hoped, though losing his starting job to loanee Nicky Maynard before his injury certainly hasn't helped matters. Sure he's scored some goals, but he's looked really out of place when he's been on. Here's to hoping he snaps back to form after recovering from his injury and regaining his starting job when Maynard leaves in a couple weeks.

ST Nicky Maynard 20 years old (England)
I've already talked about how he singlehandedly saved this team after Tonny Nielsen went down, so let me just add one more thing to show just how special a player he is. Among the many teams with publicly declared interest in him are three Premier League sides, including the 9th and 10th teams in the table. That's how gifted this Crewe youngster is. We're going to miss him terribly when he leaves on the 19th this month and despite my offer to sign him, he has no interest in moving to us permanently. His career is one that I'll definitely follow from here on out. He may be the single greatest player to ever put on a Maidenhead uniform by the time all is said and done.

Craig Maskell may be 38 years old, but the old man can still play and has scored a few goals. Granted, I hate having to put him in there, but he's done well enough when I've been forced to move him up to the senior squad. He has no interest in being a scout for now, so I've signed him on as a Player/Coach for the time being.

Stafford Palmer is 20 years old and was a transfer last season who disappointed considerably. This year he's got a bit of time on the senior squad here and there and has shown signs of development, so there may be hope for him yet. One to keep an eye on at any rate to see if his progress continues.

Standard disclaimer of other guys with time not worth mentioning.

Team Synopsis:
We're over wage budget by $18k, but I'll try and sell Tonny Nielsen to somebody, even if it's for a song so we can get under wage budget. In the meantime, I'm going to spend this month searching for either a third striker or, hopefully, one that's good enough to start opposite Paul Forsyth. It's my fault for not doing my homework on this sooner, but with all the injuries and whatnot and the enjoyment of Nicky Maynard's godly play, I simply neglected to. This may end up biting me in the arse.

As of right now, we're 16th in the table, with two games in hand over most of the other teams thanks to our FA runs. We've 27 points, 10 points away from the dreaded drop zone and have a -1 goal differential, the best among the lower-half teams. Our record is 6 wins, 8 losses, and 9 draws.

Time to gear up for the second half of my second season. Here's to hoping we stay out of drop contention.

[Izulde]

Just a bump to let people know this is still alive; I just haven't been able to hook up my desktop yet since I got home. Once I do, I'll be able to return to this.

[Blade6119]

Looking forward to it...every izulde dynasty draws me in

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Just a bump to let people know this is still alive; I just haven't been able to hook up my desktop yet since I got home. Once I do, I'll be able to return to this.

I forced myself to shelf my Russian game on my laptop because it simply went too slow.

I can't wait until this weekend when I'll go home and play on my desktop for a while.