Wigan and the EPL - A short stay?

[Eaglesfan27]

June 4, 2011 -

Craig King played for the England U21 squad against Slovakia in the Euro U21 Championship Qualifier. Craig will be disappointed with his performance as he earned a 6 despite playing the entire match. At least his side won 2-0.



The following are European Championship Qualifying results:

Zdeneck Grygera played very well for the Czech Republic as they beat Andorra 2-0.


Stewart Downing assisted on a goal by Rooney in a 2-2 England tie with Slovakia. Eagles and Brown also played well for England.


Darren Fletcher and James McFadden played well for Scotland, but Romania beat them 3-1.

Damien Duff scored a goal and had an assist for Ireland in their 3-0 win over Luxembourg.

[Eaglesfan27]

June 7, 2011 -

Chelsea's Adriano has won the European Golden Boot Award as he was the top striker in all of Europe with his 30 goals.

Mateja Kezman of FC Bayern came in 2nd, and Ruben of R.C. Deportivo de La Coruna came in 3rd.


Fabrizio Castori has been hired as the new manager of Lazio

Strasbourg beat Lille 3-2 to win the French Cup.


Ernesto Marino came to my office today and told me that he wants to have regular first team football if he is going to stay at Manchester United.

[Eaglesfan27]

June 8, 2011 -

Mr. Quieroz believes that Alan curran hasn't done anything of note in our youth system and should be let go. I agree with his judgement.

Mr. Quieroz believes that Nick Ellis is a keeper who doesn't have any future potential for us. I'm not sure about this one, but I choose to go with his judgement. He certainly doesn't look like a superstar in waiting.


Craig Alexander has quit Stalybridge and become the new manager of Harrogate Town. Craig is only 38, but appears to have had some success at Stalybridge. Hopefully, he can do a good job at Harrogate.



Craig King had an assist for the England U21 team in their 4-0 win over Azerbaijan.

[Eaglesfan27]

June 8, 2011 -

England beat Azerbaijan 3-0 in their European Championship Qualifying match. Stewart Downing was dominating and had a 10 for form and had 2 assists. Unfortunately neither of them were to Rooney or smith who were just average. Eagles also played ok for England, as did Wes Brown.

[Eaglesfan27]

June 12, 2011 -

Bradford City have made an offer to loan our Manu for 3 months. I want the keeper to continue to get experience so I agree.

Swansea has asked to borrow Alfonso. I agree.


The European Club Rankings were announced today...

Manchester United moved up 2 spaces to 1st place in the rankings for next year!!!!

The most improved club in all of Europe was Ferencvaros which moved from 229 to 112th in the table.


The top 10 (This is based on the last 5 seasons of performance)


1. Manchester United 137.585. We had a 43.509 last year.

2. Arsenal 136.585. They had a 32.509 last year.

3. Barcelona 125.961. They had a 31.788 last year.

4. Valencia 118.961. They had a 35.788 last year.

5. Roma 109.661. They had a 25.798 last year.

6. Liverpool 104.585. They had a 28.509 last year.

7. Inter 100.661. They had a 27.798 last year.

8. Milan 98.661. They had a 30.998 last year.

9. Juventus 97.661. They had a 19.798 last year.

10 Aston Villa 94.289. They had a 42.509 last year.

I don't understand these numbers that well, but I know we did well last year. We had the #1 score for last season.

[Eaglesfan27]

6 of my players have been called up for the Confederations Cup match.

Downing, Eagles, Rooney, Ferdinand, and Smith have been called up for England.

Tim Howard has been called up for the USA.


The Board has announced that they plan on enlarging the stadium by about 16,000 seats. It is estimated that the expansion will take about 3 months to complete. Our capacity will be temporarily reduced as part of the south stand will be closed during the renevotation.


The board have announced that my transfer budget for the upcoming season will be 26.5 million dollars. I will also be allowed to keep all additional revenue that I generate through the selling of players.



A surprise! Eric Djemba Djemba was selected as the Player of the Year by supporters!

Our club's academy has promoted the following players to our U18 squad for assessment:


Keith McDermott - a 16 year old midfielder who doesn't appear to have too much potential to my eye.

John Cooke - a 16 year old striker with some potential, but very raw.

Anthony Morris - a 17 year old striker with some potential, but also very raw.

Nicky Gray - a 15 year old midfielder who looks worthless to me.

Stephen Wright - a 17 year old midfielder with a glimmer of potential.

Andy Johnson - a 15 year old left fullback who has just the slightest bit of potential.

Darren Lawson - a 16 year old centreback with a bit of potential.

Alan Fowler - an 18 year old midfielder who doesn't look like he will stick around long.

Gary Walker - a 17 year old striker with some potential, particularly good finishing, but lacks footspeed.

John Gray - a 17 year old midfielder with plenty of potential. we'll keep an eye on him.

Mark Lambert - an 18 year old right winger with the most potential. He is very raw, but he has a chance to develop into a good player.



We were just given 24.5 million dollars for EPL TV rights for the upcoming season.



The board is very pleased with my performance as maanger. They expect me to build upon last season's success and win the Premier Division this year.

Stewart Downing's average form of 8.93 for the season is a new record for the team.


OOC Note: So ends my first season as manager of Manchester United. I'll be starting a thread for the new season either later tonight or tomorrow. I've got to think quite a bit about what I want to do with the 26.5 million. I'm leaning towards just getting another defender and perhaps a right winger, but I'm also considering a new keeper. Either way, they will be moderately priced players, probably in the 10 million dollar range.

[daedalus]

I'd consider "upgrading" from Howard, if and only IF it was a significant upgrade, which probably limits you to chasing the likes of Casillas or Cech with an exchange deal along with cash.

I don't remember what formation you went with when you switched club. Do you have defensive midfielder in front of your defenders? Is that Dj-Dj's role? If not, perhaps that's a possibility for helping your defenders? It looks like you have plenty of offensive talent and enough defensive ones to list you for the moment, what about just going young with your budget?

[weinstein7]

If nothing else, it seems like you certainly need a quality keeper as a back-up to Howard.

[Eaglesfan27]

I think Barthez is good enough as a back-up. He could start for a few games without too much problem. I'm just not sure if Howard is good enough to start every day for me. I've been thinking about it, and I won't give up on Howard just for the sake of giving up on him. It will have to be a clear upgrade. I've always liked Casillas, although he is getting up there in age. In any case, I'm only going to get rid of Howard if there is a clear upgrade, and I agree that with only 26 million dollars this would involve an exchange (maybe Howard.)

I'm going to sleep on this decision, and start my new season tomorrow.

[Barkeep49]

I have to say that the unintentional accuracy of this particular thread will be missed by me when the new season begins.

[SunDancer]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I think Barthez is good enough as a back-up. He could start for a few games without too much problem. I'm just not sure if Howard is good enough to start every day for me. I've been thinking about it, and I won't give up on Howard just for the sake of giving up on him. It will have to be a clear upgrade. I've always liked Casillas, although he is getting up there in age. In any case, I'm only going to get rid of Howard if there is a clear upgrade, and I agree that with only 26 million dollars this would involve an exchange (maybe Howard.)

I'm going to sleep on this decision, and start my new season tomorrow.

Sleep on it...

Worldclas Goalkeepers are a tough find....When you do have them, they are very, very pricey. Any regenerated goalkeepers with the potential, or rising? Since your going into 2011-2012, the regenerated players are likely going to be taking over.

[condors]

maybe take a look at the under 21 teams and see if you can find a keeper, defender, and a right winger. (i shortlist the entire England under 21 team so i know if any become available on the cheap)

[Kevin]

Just chirping in that this is one of the best dynasties in a long time.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Just chirping in that this is one of the best dynasties in a long time.

Wow. Thank you for that very nice compliment.


Thanks to everyone who is reading this. I'm really enjoying writing/playing it.

I also think that when people ask questions, add comments, etc. it really adds to the dynasty as it might cause me to explain something better, or make me think about new things.

Anyway, I'm over the disappointment of the USA loss today and thinking of a good title for next season and plan on starting the thread soon.

[Eaglesfan27]

I thought it might be useful to post a link to the new thread in case anyone somehow missed it:

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/f...ad.php?t=37396

[SunDancer]

Great season EF.
I look foward to riding the rails. Your club just seems to come up an inch short in the three competitions, the FA Cup, UEFA Cup, and Premier League. Must be how the Philadelphia Eagles feel. But you got to be proud of the turnaround. Going from 5th to 2nd, from the UEFA Cup to Champions League Group State, I think you done well in rightening the ship.

If you stayed at Wigan, do you feel you could of done better then they did? I would presume writing dynasties really adds a "history" that you can look over and think about, and really brings a sense of reality. Hopefully mine will be as good.

Anyways, time for the new season.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by SunDancer

Great season EF.
I look foward to riding the rails. Your club just seems to come up an inch short in the three competitions, the FA Cup, UEFA Cup, and Premier League. Must be how the Philadelphia Eagles feel. But you got to be proud of the turnaround. Going from 5th to 2nd, from the UEFA Cup to Champions League Group State, I think you done well in rightening the ship.

If you stayed at Wigan, do you feel you could of done better then they did? I would presume writing dynasties really adds a "history" that you can look over and think about, and really brings a sense of reality. Hopefully mine will be as good.

Anyways, time for the new season.

You had to go there with the Eagles?

I think I could have done better at Wigan, but I'm not sure that it would have been much better. I think I probably could have avoided relegation, but I'll never know. I think the manager really under-utilized Fabrice Begeorgi. He isn't good enough, or I would acquire him for Manchester United. But, he was good enough to play for them more. Oh well, I'll have to hope they can right the ship and get back up here on their own.

I definitely get a deepened sense of history and wondering what if as I write these threads and play the game.

[Christomir]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Nov. 9, 2010 -

...I reply, "I'm glad that he is afraid of my team. I consider Jose a friend, and I think he is a very good manager with a very good team. To top it off, he is a good guy. However, we plan on beating them."

LOL! If you knew what kind of person Mourinho was in real life, you would have never said something like that



As you can see, I am still catching up, but am making some progress. In fact, in order to read yours, I have frozen my own dynasty report at the point of just after the initial team roster (not sure if it's correct to say "initial", when I speak about the year 2028...LOL)

[Christomir]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

1. I'm not sure whether the League Cup or FA cup is more prestigious. Hopefully someone else can answer that. The Community Shield is a prestigious friendly match that is televised that matches two of the top teams from the EPL each year. I think it might match the League Cup winner versus the Division winner, but I'm not sure.

If someone has answered it later or you have found out the facts yourself, excuse my useless post:

Of course the FA Cup is more prestigious! In fact, it is the oldest soccer competition in the world!

The Community Shield is not a friendly match - it's an official one-game competition (a Super Cup, which almost every nation has; and there is a European Super Cup as well, as I am sure you have already found out by winning the Champions League later in this dynasty, hence qualifying to play in Monaco against the winner of the UEFA Cup) It matches the EPL champion against the FA Cup winner from the previous season. That means it's not necessarily two teams from the EPL - if a lower league team happens to win the FA Cup (which is highly unlikely, but theoretically possible - I'm not sure about England, but I know it has happened quite a few times in the French Cup), then it will be only one team from the EPL

[Christomir]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

1. FA Cup is a ton more prestigeous (it's the oldest knockout soccer competion in the world). The Community Shield pits the EPL winner vs the FA Cup winner. (Substitute 2nd place EPL or League Cup winner if they do the double)

Oops, there you go - someone had answered it before me and now I sound like I was trying to be a smartass.:oLOL Plus it was a more complete answer than mine, yet stated in much less words.

Oh well, at least there was one thing that I was able to contribute - I am still quite sure the FA Cup is not just the oldest knockout soccer competion in the world - it's the oldest, fullstop.

[Eaglesfan27]

Hey, I'm glad people are still reading the previous years. Please ask any questions, and I'll try to answer them if I can

By the way, I plan on continuing my dynasty this weekend as I have a 4 day weekend (if not sooner.)