FM2005: a frog in Europe

[FrogMan]

August 12, 2012
I take my courage with both hands and go ask Bill Power and the Team Board if they could expand the stadium. Guess what, they concur that Loftus Road needs to be improved if the club is to fulfil its full potential. WEEHEE!!! They assure me that there are plans afoot to expand the stadium. Now, when they'll do it is the big question...

Huhoh, I see that Tom Howell is being scouted by Bolton. He's currently valued at $22M but has a minimum release fee at $15.5M. He wants $76k per week to renegotiate, but with a signing fee of $2.2M The one good thing is he'd be okay with a minimum release fee at $37M. The board now allow me to offer up to only $57k per week, down from the previous $68k they were allowing before. On a weird move, I release Keigan Parker and Marc Bircham on free transfers to lower our wage bill and we'll see what we'll do with Howell...

August 13, 2012
I can now offer up to $59k per week to Howell, weepdooda! Julian Hudson recommends we offer him up to $47k per week. He's currently earning $28k and that would be a reasonable increase. I offer him that, $47k per week with his required signing fee of $2.2M.

Southampton, Blackburn, and Birmingham are now scouting Kasper Schmeichel. I start spotting alternatives for the keeper position, since I'll probably let him go if an offer comes. Remember, he's got a minimum release fee set at $4.8M with a current value at $6.8M.

Oh big surprise, Tottenham will not follow up their enquiry about Fawcett.

August 14, 2012
See how I was right about Schmeichel and an offer being imminent. Blackburn offer the minimum release fee of $4.8M. They set a deadline of August 21. This offer has to be accepted as it meets an active release clause. I will accept it later, but before the deadline. It has happened before that I was able to simply not answer and the buyer simply let it go, but I view that as a bug and I don't want to cheat, so I will definitely accept this offer, simply not now.

About Schmeichel, on top of him wanting big money that I'm not ready to pay, I wasn't too impress with the way he played in the EURO Vase earlier this season and look at this report from Julian:

Hudson files report on Schmeichel
Julian Hudson reckons Kasper Schmeichel is a useful member of our squad.

Schmeichel has been producing some fairly mediocre displays this season and Hudson admits that he is at a loss to predict how the player's form will continue.

Hudson is not overly impressed with the goalkeeper's approach to the game and believes you should carefully consider what part the player has in your future plans.

Woah, so many red flags in there: useful but not an essential member of the squad... at a lost to predict how his form will contine... not impressed with his approach to the game... I think letting him go will not that big of a bad deal. Now finding a replacement might be a bit harder with only $7.9M to work with (remaining transfer budget $3.1M + money from the Schmeichel sale $4.8M = $7.9)...

August 15, 2012
Another frigging gameday injury, as if we needed anymore injuries anyway. Youssouf Hersi strained his groing this morning and you know what a groin injury means, right? Said to be missing 2 weeks, this is extended to 4 big frigging weeks after he's sent to physiotherapy.

I don't know what's in the works, or if the releases of Parker and Bircham have just finally registered, but I'm now able to offer contracts up to $74k per week to most players I take a look at. Wage budget is still at $750k and our wage total is still at $913k. By "what's in the works" I almost hoped we had received news that the stadium renovation had started, but no, they have not...

Tom Howell rejects our contract offer but he's willing to negotiate. Woah, he now wants $85k per week. I can go up to $74k for him, but I won't. I offer him $55k per week with a $2.2M signing fee and I lower his minimum release fee clause to $30M.


FM

[FrogMan]

August 15, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Bid	Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Good	8-5-7-6-7	100%	8	-	6.88
DR		Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Very Poor	7-8-7-8-7	96%	1	-	7.00
DL		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	-	-	-
DC	PR	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	97%	7	1	7.29
DC		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	99%	4	-	7.25
DMC		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	94%	6 (2)	1	7.38
MR		Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	7-7-9-7-7	92%	6 (1)	-	7.57
ML	PR	Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Poor	7-7-10-10-6	93%	7 (1)	-	7.88
AMC		Kim Källström	AM C	Good	7-8-7	94%	0 (1)	-	7.00
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Very Poor	7-7-8-7-5	92%	4	1	6.50
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Good	7-7-7-8-7	95%	2 (4)	3	7.17
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Okay	7-7	100%	-	-	-
S2		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Good	7-8-7-7-7	94%	5 (1)	-	7.33
S3		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	90%	0 (5)	-	7.40
S4	Wnt	Tom Howell	D/DM L	Good	7-7-7-7-7	96%	4 (3)	-	7.14
S5	Req	Justin Wall	F LC	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	52%	2 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-6	68%	7	2	7.43
-	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	6-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (1)	-	6.00
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Very Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Inj	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	59%	5	-	7.80
-		David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Very Good	6-7-8-7-7	96%	4	-	7.25
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-6-7-10-7	67%	6	2	7.33
-	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	81%	2	-	7.00

League Match #2: we play Bolton at Loftus Road. It's Bruno Conti's team. They finished 12th last season and lost 0-1 to Newcastle. They are 5-4 favourites to win this game.

Scott Morgan and Kim Källstrom are set for their first starts as Rangers.

John Davies is not showing up as injured anymore but he is not ready to play again.

This is possibly Kasper Schmeichel's last match as a Ranger.

They have a few players unavailable: Geremi is injured, a MC is also injured and a their starting right winger is on international duty.

In the 16th minute, Kim Källström's nice through pass for Quincy Owusu Abeyie leaves Abeyie all alone, past the line of defenders. Alone with the keeper, he doesn't miss his chance and scores the 1-0 goal.

DAMMIT!!! Igor Nadal Lázaro has to leave the pitch, injured, in the 30th minute. Justin Wall comes in.

Huhoh, Scott Morgan's eagerness in his first match with us, combined to his aggressiveness, cause him to upend a striker in our penalty area. PENALTY!!! They score. Tied 1-1. At this point in the game, the kid has won 3 of the 4 tackles he went for. Gotta hope he keeps winning tackles and doesn't get called for too many penalties, but I'd rather have an overeager kid like that than a Darren Evans-like kind of player that lets strikers and midfielders roam at will in our area...

The half ends with teams tied 1-1. We're outshooting them 9(4) to 7(2). Marcus Kelly suffered a minor injury toward the end of the half. I replace him with Tom Howell.

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGG!!!! Stephen Pearson also has suffers a minor injury in the 53rd minute. I replace him with Clemens Fritz.

Final Score: 1-1

An ugly, ugly second half and we're lucky to hang on for a draw. We still outshot them on the game, but only 11(5) to 10(4), meaning we got one shot in the second half...

Players are dropping like flies, the latest being Igor Nadal Lázaro with a back strain. I get an unexptected piece of good luck as I learn that his initial prognosis of 3 weeks off his reduced to 2 weeks after I send him to physiotherapy. Kelly and Pearson came out of the game okay.


FM

[FrogMan]

August 17, 2012
Tom Howell rejects our latest offer. I decide to break off talks, if somebody comes in with a $15.5M bid, then so be it, we'll go shopping. I only hope it won't happen on the last day before the deadline or it could mean that we'll go through the first half of the season with Chris Chapman as the main backup to Marcus Kelly...

August 18, 2012
Southampton enquire about Schmeichel. Since they enquire, I don't feel I have to tell them about the minimum release fee clause, so I tell them I want his current value.

Speaking of Schmeichel, I decide to accept the bid from Blackburn, only out of fairness. I immediately recall Paul Davies from his loan at Burton. He's having a good start to the season over there, averaging form ratings of 7.75 over 4 games.


FM

[FrogMan]

August 19, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Bid	Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Very Good	5-7-6-7-7	100%	9	-	6.89
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	2	-	7.00
DL		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	94%	1	-	7.00
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Very Good	7-7-8-7-7	98%	8	1	7.25
DC		Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Poor	8-7-8-7-7	96%	2	-	7.00
DMC		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	7 (2)	1	7.33
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Good	7-8-7-7-7	100%	5 (1)	-	7.33
MR		Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Very Good	7-9-7-7-7	95%	7 (1)	-	7.50
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Okay	7-10-10-6-8	97%	8 (1)	-	7.89
AMC		Kim Källström	AM C	Very Good	7-8-7-7	94%	1 (1)	-	7.00
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Very Poor	7-8-7-5-7	93%	5	2	6.60
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Okay	7-7-7-5	99%	-	-	-
S2	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	6-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (1)	-	6.00
S3		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	92%	0 (6)	-	7.33
S4	Wnt	Tom Howell	D/DM L	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	97%	4 (4)	-	7.13
S5	Req	Justin Wall	F LC	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	91%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	47%	2 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-6	63%	7	2	7.43
-		James Collins	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	97%	5	-	7.20
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Very Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Inj	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	55%	5	-	7.80
-		David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Very Good	6-7-8-7-7	100%	4	-	7.25
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	65%	3 (4)	3	7.14
-	Lst	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Very Poor	7-8-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-6-7-10-7	72%	6	2	7.33

League Match #3: we play Birmingham on their pitch. They finished 5th last season and have won their two games so far this season. They are evens favourites to win this game.

The lack of healthy strikers on our squad forces me to change our tactic a bit. We go with a 4-2-2-1-1 formation. Andrew Johnson is back from his injury but his condition is too low for him to be effective in a game.

Schmeichel is starting, but I again think it will be his last match with us.

This game is on TV and key men are presented as Robert Earnshaw, a striker, for them, and Ahmed Yahiaoui for us.

Skysports.com's prediction: I believe Birmingham have enough quality to see off Q.P.R.

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

Only three minutes were needed for our opponents to score this time. They came right back through the middle following a goal kick from Schmeichel.

They add another one in the 33rd minute on a free kick from just outside our penalty area. Schmeichel rates at 5 following that second goal and I pull him out. Wayne Alexander, low positioning and low anticipation and all, comes in...

The half ends with us down 0-2. They are outshooting us 5(3) to 3(2), so it's not so one sided...

In the 51st minute, the ref looks over to his assistant on a Zuiverloon tackle inside our box... NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! PENALTY!!! Alexander can't do anything against the very precise kick and we go down 0-3. At this point, Quincy Owusu Abeyie, our sole striker, is rating at only 5. OUT! Justin Wall comes in.

Final Score: 0-3

While we kept it close in the first half, it all came crashing down in the second half. They outshot us 11(6) to 3(2) on the game... Another ugly game.

Wayne Alexander rated at 6, after going as high as 8 at one point.

August 20, 2012
Southampton offer $6.8M for Schmeichel. I can not accept this offer fast enough... Looking at Schmeichel's profile, I see he is currently considering an offer from Blackburn. I only hope that Southampton's contract offer will come soon enough so that he can at least look at it before he accepts a deal with Blackburn.


FM

[FrogMan]

August 22, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Wayne Alexander	GK	Okay	7-7-7-5-6	100%	0 (1)	-	6.00
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Good	7-7-7-7-7	93%	3	-	7.00
DL		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	4 (4)	-	7.13
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	96%	9	1	7.22
DC		David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Very Good	6-7-8-7-7	100%	4	-	7.25
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Okay	8-7-7-7-7	93%	6 (1)	-	7.29
DMC		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Good	7-7-7-7-7	92%	8 (2)	1	7.30
MR		Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Good	9-7-7-7-7	91%	8 (1)	-	7.44
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Poor	10-10-6-8-7	92%	9 (1)	-	7.80
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-6-7-10-7	90%	6	2	7.33
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Very Poor	8-7-5-7-5	93%	6	2	6.33
S1	Bid	Kasper Schmeichel	GK	Very Poor	7-6-7-7-5	100%	10	-	6.70
S2		Scott Morgan	D LC	Good	7-7-8-7-7	92%	2	-	7.00
S3	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	6-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (1)	-	6.00
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Good	7-8-7-7-7	93%	0 (7)	-	7.29
S5		Chris Chapman	M LC	Good	8-8-7-7-9	71%	0 (2)	-	7.00
S6		James Collins	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	5	-	7.20
S7	Req	Justin Wall	F LC	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	84%	0 (2)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	44%	2 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-6	60%	7	2	7.43
-	Ine	Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Very Poor	7-8-7-7-7	95%	3	-	7.00
-	Ine	Kim Källström	AM C	Good	7-8-7-7-7	93%	2 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Very Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Inj	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	51%	5	-	7.80
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	61%	3 (4)	3	7.14
-	Ine	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Very Poor	7-8-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-8-6-8	71%	3	-	7.33

EURO Vase Final, Leg 2: we play Braga on their pitch in Portugal. I feel all weird as we are 4-6 favourites to win this game, and on the road no less!!!

We're up 3-1 on aggregate goals, but they have a away goal on us.

Wayne Alexander gets the start even though Kasper Schmeichel still has not agreed to terms with anybody. I see that he is now considering contracts from both Blackburn AND Southampton. We'll see how Alexander does...

A big win today could be a great morale booster.

We go with a 4-2-2-2 formation for this game. Scott Morgan is showing up as eligible for this game, this is weird, as both Källstrom and Zuiverloon are clearly marked as ineligible. I'll keep him on the bench as I give the start to Tom Howell.

They show a 4-4-2 formation with heavy push from the wingers to start the game. I try something to counter that: I set the two DMCs with outward arrows.

NOT AGAIN?!? The referee looks to his assistant right after David Marek Rozehnal jumped to head a ball away. RETIRE IF YOU CAN'T MAKE UP YOUR MIND ON A FRIGGIN PENALTY CALL!!! and yep, here's the call... PENALTY!!! Another very precise striker, just inside the right post and Alexander can't do a thing. Down 0-1, still up 3-2 on aggregate.

In the 30th minute, Marcus Kelly's fight for a head ball with an opposing midfielder causes the midfielder to misdirect his header toward a defender and Quincy Owusu Abeyie intercepts the ball. He runs clear of the last defender and buries it to tie the game 1-1. We're up 4-2 on aggregate and tie them on away goals, 1-1.

The move the ball swiftly four minutes later, crossed from the left wing all the way to the right wing and centered back into our penalty area. Alexander got a hand to the kick but it goes in anyway. Down 1-2 on the game but still up 4-3 on aggregate.

Tom Howell gets a free kick from just outside their area in the 37th minute. He kicks it hard through the wall and the ball is deflected. The keeper cannot adjust to the deflection and the ball goes in. Tied 2-2 on the game, up 5-3 on aggregate.

The half ends on that score and they are outshooting us 6(2) to 3(2). We're still playing some very ugly football. Good thing we came into this game with a two goal lead.

We shut them down in the second half, the way we used to do it. At least a little less ugly...

Final Score: 2-2 (5-3 on aggregate)

We outshot them 13(8) to 8(2) on the game, meaning we outshot them 10(6) to 2(0) in the second half, now we're talking!!!

John Davies, Tom Howell, Stephen Pearson, and Fábio Rochemback end the game rated at 8 but Wayne Alexander rates at 5 (ouch!) and Andrew Johnson rates at 6, putting only 1 of his 5 shots on target.

WE HAVE WON OUR FIRST EUROPEAN COMPETITION!!!
This is the news clip I can read when I get to the clubhouse:

Q.P.R. fans thank Gougeon
Queens Park Rangers fans are absolutely delighted after Steve Gougeon and his team lifted the EURO Vase.

A spokeperson for the supporters' club declared that Steve Gougeon was a credit to the team and his profession.

In a statement released to the press, the Q.P.R. board have also stated that they are pleased with winning the competition.

... a credit to the team and his profession. I like that

We've been awarded $180k for the win and while we don't get any confirmation, I think we're qualified for the EURO Cup.

Once the celebrations have calmed down, I learn another bad injury news. David Marek Rozehnal suffered a groin strain and he'll be out for 2 weeks while attending physiotherapy.

One thing is becoming clearer and clearer though: we need to sign a keeper, and fast...

Looking throuhg my shortlist, I see a 33yo experienced keeper from Colombia named Robinson Zapata. Currenlty playing for Central in Argentina, he's also part of the Colombia national team. He's got some reasonable wage requests, and while I'd have to pay Central a $2.4M compensation, we could afford it, even before getting any news from Schmeichel signing anywhere else. Julian Hudson recommends we offer him a contract up to $26.5k per wekk. I decide to offer him what he wants, which is $35k per week with a $420k signing fee for a 3 year deal.

I also see that Stephen Pearson is being scouted by Everton. He has a minimum release fee of $15.5M and if they ever want to pay that much for him, I would not fret about it...


FM

[FrogMan]

August 24, 2012
The transfer deadline is in one week.

Man City manager Arsène Wenger tells me in the build-up to our Premier Division clash on Saturday that he truly hopes the best team win. He also commented that I am a good manager and I deserve every success with the Rs.

Looks like good old Arsène got over my blunder of a few months ago, hehe. Marcus Kelly and Clemens Fritz both believe the team cannot fail to perform whilst under my guidance and Danny Shittu is pleased to see I'm getting the praise I deserve.

I decide to prais my friend Arsène Wenger.

August 25, 2012
WEEHEE!!!! Kasper Schmeichel has agreed to a deal with Southampton and he's set to move to them righ away. The weehee is because we get $6.8M for the transfer instead of the $4.8M that Blackburn had offered. This money now gives us $9.9M to shop for a new keeper...

ANOTHER WEEHEE!!! The draw for the 1st round of the EURO Cup happens!!! Q.P.R. have been seeded for this round but I still don't know what that means. I see a list of "seeded teams" and "unseeded teams" on the draw page, can only assume a seeded team plays a unseeded team in every matchup. We're drawn to play a team from Moldova named Nistru Otaci. They are a professional side playing in a smallish home stadium (5000 cpacity, 3000 seated) ranked 241st in Europe. Leg 1 will be played on September 13 on their pitch and leg 2 at Loftus Road on September 27. Remember that the winner of this Round 1 matchup is through to Group play and assured of 4 more matches.

This is a day of draws, as the draw for the second round of the League Cup also happens today. We will play League Two Barrow on their pitch on September 18.

I turn the heat on in my search for a replacement to Kasper Schmeichel by putting in two bids.

First, I offer $9.4M to Cruzeiro for Jefferson. He is valued at $8M but he's already turned down a couple of their contract offers. I set a deadline of today for a response to this offer.

Second, I offer the max I can under my transfer budget, $9.8M for Schalke 04's Igor Akinfeev (remember him?). He is valued at $8.6M so I won't hold my breath. I also set a deadline of today for a response to this offer.

Seeing these two dudes and thinking I'm oh so close to getting a pretty good keeper, I decide to go back to Bill Power and ask him for more transfer monies. The board politely remind me that they have yet to see a return from the money spent this season. Yeah, is if you are going to see a big return with $4.6M... Oh well...


FM

[FrogMan]

and with that I'm all caught up on what's been played so far...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Have you tried possibly increasing the number of Physios you have in your employ?

I forgot to check how many physios we have exactly, but it's either 5 or 6. I'll look into adding two with obscure reputation, should scare the players into trying not to get injured

Originally Posted by daedalus

You'll have to fill me in.

At least the kids are doing okies nowadays.

Fill you in on what? Patsy? Andrew? the kids as a whole? all of the above?

Kids are indeed doing very well. Matty's eating like an ogre, I tell ya, cut something so he can grab it and in there it goes, left hand, right hand, doesn't matter

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Kevin

I like your evaluation system. I'm always looking for different ones to help with my own. I know next to nothing about football and struggle on things like player evaluation and tactics. One item that I don't know is placement of midfilders in a 4-4-2 formation. Should the DMs be in the middle and the AMs on the flanks?

Thanks. It's almost certainly flawed in some way since I don't take into account all of the skills, but I try to pick up some skills that are important to some positions...

About your question, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. If you play a straight 4-4-2 (4 defenders on a line and 4 midfielders on a line) I'm not sure it matters if you play a DM RC in the middle or on the right, it's not the DM that makes a difference, more his skill set. For example, let's say a DM RC has less stamina & crossing, but good heading and passing, I'd be more tempted to play him in the middle than on the side. Take another DM RC with good dribbling, crossing, and stamina and you have a player who could play better on the wing than the first one...

FM

[Havok]

i've fallen in love with my 5-3-2 formation. I have both my fullbacks with arrows way up. My middle midfielder with an arrow way up, and my 2 forwards with they're arrows out. I also have counter attacking on.

Counter attacking is fun with a 20 acc/20 pace forward! I heart Brian West

[finkenst]

Originally Posted by Havok

i've fallen in love with my 5-3-2 formation. I have both my fullbacks with arrows way up. My middle midfielder with an arrow way up, and my 2 forwards with they're arrows out. I also have counter attacking on.

Counter attacking is fun with a 20 acc/20 pace forward! I heart Brian West

ah.. the 5-3-2 attacking i believe.

I had to play that formation in a game last night due to injuries to the starting midfielders...

[Havok]

Originally Posted by finkenst

ah.. the 5-3-2 attacking i believe.

I had to play that formation in a game last night due to injuries to the starting midfielders...

errrr... it was working great for about 8 games. Then it all fell apart on me

So i gave the 4-4-2 diamond formation a try and and it seems much more consistant. I still like the 5-3-2 and will use sometimes, but i don't think i can build a team around it unfortunely.

[finkenst]

Originally Posted by Havok

errrr... it was working great for about 8 games. Then it all fell apart on me

So i gave the 4-4-2 diamond formation a try and and it seems much more consistant. I still like the 5-3-2 and will use sometimes, but i don't think i can build a team around it unfortunely.

yeah... i prefer the 4-1-2-1-2 wide diamond formation.

[FrogMan]

August 25, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Req	Paul Davies	GK	Poor	-	100%	-	-	-
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	94%	4	-	7.25
DL		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	94%	2 (1)	-	7.00
DC		Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Very Poor	7-8-7-7-7	100%	3	-	7.00
DC		James Collins	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	5	-	7.20
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	93%	7 (1)	-	7.38
MR	Wnt	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	92%	9 (1)	-	7.50
ML	PR	Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Very Good	10-6-8-7-7	92%	10 (1)	-	7.73
AMC		Kim Källström	AM C	Good	7-8-7-7-7	99%	2 (1)	-	7.00
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	6-7-10-7-6	91%	7	2	7.14
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	7-5-7-5-7	93%	7	3	6.43
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Very Good	7-7-5-6-5	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
S2	PR	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	95%	10	1	7.20
S3	PR	Clemens Fritz	AM R	Very Good	8-7-7-7-7	92%	0 (8)	-	7.25
S4		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	94%	5 (4)	1	7.22
S5		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	92%	9 (2)	1	7.27
-	Inj	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	51%	2 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-6	57%	7	2	7.43
-	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Okay	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Inj	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	58%	5	-	7.80
-	Inj	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	59%	5	-	7.20
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	57%	3 (4)	3	7.14
-		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-8-6-8	89%	3	-	7.33
-	Req	Justin Wall	F LC	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	92%	0 (2)	-	7.00

League Match #4: we play Manchester City on their pitch. They finished 10th last season but are struggling mightilty this season, even more than us. They have 1 draw and 3 losses to show for their start of the season, to our 1 draw and 2 losses. They are evens favourites to win this game.

They have a centreback who is suspended and their top scoring striker, Jack Tuyp is injured. He scored 24 and 22 goals in the last two seasons...

We go with a 4-1-2-1-2 without any strikers on our bench. We'll go 4-2-2-2 or 4-1-2-2-1 if we need to sub one out.

Tom Howell is not scouted by anyone anymore.

Paul Davies starts in the nets. That's his 1st league start since the 2010-11 season and he had one Cup start last season. The Alexander experience is sort of over...

They show a 4-4-2 formation with heavt push by the wingers.

They score first, in the 13th minute, on a corner kick. They didn't even head it straight in but instead kicked it to the penalty spot and we let them move the ball around in our area, until they kicked it in. On the replay, I see it took a deflection on Fábio Rochemback. Down 0-1.

Another corner leads to their second goal in the 24th minute. This time, it's headed straight in. Down 0-2.

That's the halftime score, but it doesn't really represent the game as a whole so far. Yeah, they're outshooting us 6(4) to 4(2) but it could have gone the other way with a bit of luck. Marcus Kelly's condition has dipped to 77% after only 45 minutes. Out he goes, replaced by Tom Howell.

And that move pays off in the 48th minute, as Tom Howell centers the ball to Stephen Pearson. Pearson heads it on to Andrew Johnson who scores on a precise top corner strike! Still down, but 1-2 now.

Howell is again at the start of a scoring sequence in the 52nd minute, when his long throw in along the sideline is picked up by Quincy Owusu Abeyie who nods it to Kim Källstrom who moves into the area. He's brought down from behind!!! PENALTY!!! James Collins scores with a precise strike and like that, we're back in the game, tied 2-2!!!

Howell creates another scoring chance in the 67th minute, when he centers a nice ball for Andrew Johnson on the edge of the 6 yard box. AJ is there with their keeper, taking position, HE IS PUSHED BY THE KEEPER!!! PENALTY!!! Collins scores a second and we're ahead 3-2!!!

Clemens Fritz gets the ball in the middle in the 76th minute. He is met by a great rush from their keeper, closing the angles. His shot is stopped, but Andrew Johnson gets to the rebound and scores his second of the game. Up 4-2!

Final Score: 4-2

From what looked like an early catastrophe, we recovered and won it big time! We outshot them 13(8) to 12(5) on the game. An amazing second half!

James Collins is named Man of the Match with 2 goals. Morgan, Zuiverloon, Källstrom, Rochemback, and Howell all rated at 8.

Bill Power could not hide his delight over that win. It's a huge morale booster and we'll need it. We play Arsenal in 4 days.

My bids for Akinfeev and Jefferson were both rejected, back to the drawing board...


FM

[FrogMan]

August 26, 2012
Igor Biscan resumes full training after completing his Physiotherapy treatments. The specialist who treated him is optimistic that he's recovered fully from his injury.

Robinson Zapata has rejected the offer from Central and has agreed to terms with us! He made it known that featuring in European competition was a contributory factor to his final decision. Looks like we'll have to wait for a decision on his work permit though, as there are no "accept" button on the message. He has 50 caps with the Colombian National Team, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem...

August 27, 2012
Both centrebacks, Gianni Zuiverloon and James Collins, are selected to the EPL Team of the Week.

Indeed, the Zapata transfer is delayed until he gets a work permit. A decision is expected for August 28.

This is sort of a good thing, since I'm not entirely sold on Zapata. I keep on searching and find a 30yo keeper from Czech Republic, named Jan Lastuvka. Currently playing with Turkish side Galatasaray, his contract is unprotected, but it only ends in June 2013, meaning we'd have to pay a compensation if we sign him. Said compensation is kind of affordable, since it's set to his current value of $8.4M, and we have $9.9M in transfer budget. There could be a showstopper here though, he wants $99k per week and my team board only allow me to offer him $76k per week. Julian Hudson believes he'd be a good signing and would become an essential part of our first squad. hmmmm... I offer him this:
$76k per week (down from $99k)
+ $2.2M signing fee (up from $1.1M)
+ $10k per clean sheet (up from $3k)
+ $4k per appearance (wasn't asking for one)
+ $14M minimum release fee (down from $16.5M)

That's kind of a crazy offer, but we'll see...

Tom Howell is now being scouted by Manchester City while Stephen Pearson isn't anymore.

August 28, 2012
Robinson Zapata is granted a conditional British work permit. Half goofup, half wanted, I click on the "delay" button. I say half goofup, because this will push the transfer after the transfer deadline and it my cancel it. I say half wanted because I'd like to think that Lastuvka will sign with us, but nothing is more uncertain... Anyway, the move is delayed one week...

August 29, 2012
It's time to register players for the EURO Cup. I can add/swap up to 25 players at this point. The list of who's in is below, but here are the moves:
IN
Kim Källström
Gianni Zuiverloon
Scott Morgan
Anthony Vanden Borre
Justin Wall

OUT
Scott Donnelly
Chris Chapman
Ben Watson
David Marek Rozehnal

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
In		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	93%	3 (1)	-	7.25
In	Req	Justin Wall	F LC	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	96%	0 (2)	-	7.00
In	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
In		Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	94%	3 (1)	-	7.25
In		Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	97%	4	-	7.25
In		Wayne Alexander	GK	Good	7-7-5-6-5	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
In	Inj	Jason Wilson	S C	Good	7-7-6-7-7	22%	0 (1)	-	7.00
In		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-8-6-8	95%	3	-	7.33
In	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	96%	5	-	7.20
In		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-10-7-6-8	94%	8	4	7.25
In		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	96%	5 (5)	1	7.30
In	Inj	Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	52%	3 (4)	3	7.14
In	Req	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7	100%	1	-	7.00
In	PR	Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	0 (9)	-	7.22
In	Wnt	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	84%	5	-	7.80
In	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Okay	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
In	Wnt	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	95%	10 (1)	-	7.45
In	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	5-7-5-7-7	94%	8	3	6.50
In	PR	Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	6-8-7-7-7	97%	11 (1)	-	7.67
In		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	97%	6	2	7.50
In		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	97%	9 (3)	1	7.25
In		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	94%	8 (1)	-	7.44
In	PR	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	10	1	7.20
In	Inj	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-6	52%	7	2	7.43
In	Lmp	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	78%	2 (1)	-	7.00
Out		Chris Chapman	M LC	Good	8-8-7-7-9	99%	0 (2)	-	7.00
Out	Inj	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	54%	5	-	7.20
Out		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Good	7-7-7-7-8	98%	1	-	7.00
Out	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-	Yth	Joe Lamb	D/DM R	Poor	7	92%	-	-	-
-	Yth	Steven Berry	S C	Very Poor	7	98%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Stephen Lyons	D/DM C	Very Poor	6-7-7-7-7	94%	-	-	-
-		Richard Beattie	F LC	Very Poor	6-8	86%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Dave Turner	S C	Very Poor	7-7-8-7-7	93%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Andy Henry	D L	Very Poor	7	90%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Dean Matthews	D L	Very Poor	-	16%	-	-	-
-	Yth	Matthew John	AM C	Very Poor	7	79%	-	-	-
-	Yth	David Young	M C	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-8	92%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Gary Singh	SW/D LC	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-9	93%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	James Henry	M L	Very Poor	7-7-6-7	91%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Paul King	D RLC	Very Poor	7-7	76%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Craig Pearce	D/DM R	Good	7-7-7-7-7	56%	-	-	-
-	Yth	Mark Evans	D C	Very Good	7-7-6-6-7	93%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Adam Bates	S C	Okay	7-7-7-8-8	97%	-	-	-
-		Kevin Talbot	M R	Okay	7-7-6-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-		Robert Davenport	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-6-7-8	94%	-	-	-
-		Ian Morrell	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	92%	-	-	-
-		Jason Campbell	S C	Very Good	7-7-9-7-10	91%	-	-	-
-		Peter Carter	M L	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	95%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Peter Young	AM RLC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	61%	-	-	-
-		Scott Blake	M C	Good	6-6-7-8	94%	-	-	-
-		Joe Marshall	GK	Very Good	8-8-7-6-8	100%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Mike Cook	M C	Superb	-	33%	-	-	-
-	Lst	Matt Cross	AM/F RC	Very Poor	7-8-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Darren Evans	D C	Very Poor	-	25%	-	-	-

I decide to declare my interest for Arsenal Reserves keeper Joe Joyce. Birmingham just bid $7.2M for the 24yo GK. He is not completely scouted but I decide to take a chance and I offer them $8M for him.

I see that Q.P.R. fans were disappointed with the sale of influential keeper Kasper Schmeichel. Influential? Ahh, okay

Man City are now scouting César Augusto Fawcett.
Tottenham are now scouting Stephen Pearson.
Arsenal are now scouting Ahmed Yahiaoui.

That last one has me a bit more worried. He has a minimum release fee set at a comfortable $20.5M though. Looks like other teams in the league are beginning to realize that there are good player hiding at Loftus Road


FM

[FrogMan]

August 29, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Req	Paul Davies	GK	Superb	7	100%	1	-	7.00
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	96%	5	-	7.20
DL		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	93%	3 (1)	-	7.25
DC	PR	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	10	1	7.20
DC		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	97%	6	2	7.50
DMC	Wnt	Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	97%	9 (3)	1	7.25
MR	Wnt	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	95%	10 (1)	-	7.45
ML	PR	Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	6-8-7-7-7	97%	11 (1)	-	7.67
AMC		Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	94%	3 (1)	-	7.25
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-10-7-6-8	94%	8	4	7.25
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	5-7-5-7-7	94%	8	3	6.50
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Good	7-7-5-6-5	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
S2		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	94%	8 (1)	-	7.44
S3	PR	Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	0 (9)	-	7.22
S4		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	96%	5 (5)	1	7.30
S5	Req	Justin Wall	F LC	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	96%	0 (2)	-	7.00
-	Lmp	Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	78%	2 (1)	-	7.00
-		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-8-6-8	95%	3	-	7.33
-	Wnt	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	84%	5	-	7.80
-	Inj	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-6	52%	7	2	7.43
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Okay	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Inj	Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	52%	3 (4)	3	7.14
-	Inj	David Marek Rozehnal	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	54%	5	-	7.20
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-		Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	97%	4	-	7.25

League Match #5: we play Arsenal at Loftus Road. They finished 4th last season and are having a strong start to this season, with 3 wins and a draw in 4 games. They are 1-2 favourites to win this game.

Craig Crane and César Augusto Fawcett are not injured anymore, but their conditions are not good enough to make a comeback against Arsenal.

Reyes is injured for Arsenal.

Paul Davies is our starting goalkeeper again today.

They show their wide 4-2-3-1 formation to start the game.

Only 1:43 into the game, Ahmed Yahiaoui backs into a striker in our penalty... PENALTY!!! Paul Davies SAVES IT and runs to get the rebound, WOAH!!! But what's with all the penalties this season, some kind of league memo or what?

In the 10th minute, Stephen Pearson jiggles his way past the fullback on his wing and finds Kim Källström in the middle. Källström gets past a defender and into the area and strikes gold to the goalkeeper's right for his 1st ever goal with Q.P.R. Pearson's great vision made that goal! Up 1-0!

The half ends on that score and we're even outshooting them, if only slightly, 5(5) to 4(3). We're giving them a run for their money.

The second sees no goals being scored despite us puuting tons of pressure on their defensive backfield.

Final Score: 1-0

We outshot them 13(9) to 8(3) on the game, a great win!

They keeper is named Man of the Match. I still hate wonderkeepers, but I can live with them when we still manage to win...

On our side, Paul Davies, John Davies, Scott Morgan, Stephen Pearson, Marcus Kelly, and Kim Källström all rated at 8.

We're on the move, up to 10th after 5 games!

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	5	4	1	0	9	2	+7	13
2nd	Everton	5	3	2	0	9	4	+5	11
3rd	Arsenal	5	3	1	1	8	3	+5	10
4th	Birmingham	5	3	1	1	8	4	+4	10
5th	Newcastle	5	3	0	2	8	3	+5	9
6th	Blackburn	5	2	3	0	8	5	+3	9
7th	Liverpool	5	2	2	1	6	4	+2	8
8th	Chelsea	4	2	1	1	6	3	+3	7
9th	Aston Villa	4	2	1	1	9	7	+2	7
10th	Q.P.R.	5	2	1	2	6	8	-2	7
11th	Tottenham	5	1	3	1	8	8	0	6
12th	Bolton	5	1	3	1	5	5	0	6
13th	Portsmouth	5	1	3	1	5	5	0	6
14th	West Brom	5	1	2	2	5	8	-3	5
15th	Middlesbrough	5	1	2	2	3	7	-4	5
16th	Southampton	5	0	3	2	6	9	-3	3
17th	Fulham	5	0	3	2	5	8	-3	3
18th	Wigan	5	0	2	3	5	10	-5	2
19th	Man City	5	0	1	4	4	12	-8	1
20th	Crystal Palace	5	0	1	4	2	10	-8	1

Bill Power was delighted about the over our rivals. I gotta say, I don't know what it is with us and big teams/big games, but we gotta have a bunch of money players on this team because we've win more games against tough teams that against weaker teams, or so it seems...

The crowd of 26,146 is a new record high for us. It's four short of a sellot crowd, now we're talking!!! Our average on the season is at 24,774 but is still only the 18th in the league. Can't wait to see how many seats they'll add when they upgrade it...


FM

[FrogMan]

August 30, 2012
Nothing to report about today, except that I didn't see it go by. I hate it when, in the crunch of transfer deadline time, I click "continue" and boom, we're up to two days later... In the meantime, Joy Joyce signed with Birmingham...

August 31, 2012
The transfer deadline is today.

I put in a bid for 36yo Shay Givens of Newcastle. I offer them the most I can, $9.8M.

I'm getting worried that Jan Lastuvka will never get back to me regarding our contract offer or that if he does, it'll be after the deadline has passed. Looking to upgrade the offer, I see he's now looking for only $83k per week, much closer to our offer of $76k per week. I upgrade our offer to:
$76k per week
+ $3M signing fee
+ $10k per clean sheet
+ $5k per appearance
+ $16.5M minimum release fee.

I then learn that our bid for Shay Givens has been rejected.

but
BUT
BUT!!!

Lastuvka rejected the offer from Galatasaray, saying he feels he'S deserving a better basic salary...

AND!!!

Lastuvka set for Q.P.R.!!! WEEHEE!

He made it known that he is really optimistic of rising to the challenge of playing at a higher level!

I make real sure I'm clicking on the right one, and I click "ACCEPT"

The minute the deal is confirmed, fans are excited and Q.P.R.'s commercial director immediately notes in his monthly financlial update that the purchase of Lastuvka, who's got a reputation at the continental level, is likely to cause sharp increase in revenue from shirt sales. Gotta love that

And who is this new keeper? As I said, he is a 30yo Czech, in fact he just turned 30, in last July. Basically, he's got everything you'd want in a keeper, and he isn't a wacko (read eccentric). With is lowest keeper skill at 16, about decent positioning, despite low anticipation, he should be a welcomed addition to our squad. You can see his profile by clicking the following thumbnail.


While I'm into signing people, I offer contract and sign two more physios for our squad, both with cool names: Bonaventure Kalou from Ivory Coast, and a welsh named Robert Page. Page has got to be a cross between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, just has to be

But the day is not over yet and at 22:45, I get a bid from Newcastle on Anthony Vanden Borre, out of nowhere, for the exact amount of his minimum release fee of $9.4M. Since I'm a bit convinced the min release fee is kind of bugged, I've decided to discipline myself at accepting offers that meet a clause like that and not simply avoid responding, in hope that they go away, so I accept it, my heart broken. Last I checked, he still wanted $99k per week to renegotiate with us and he's still 2 months away from coming back, still recuperating from his surgery.

Time is 23:00 and I get the news that Vanden Borre as already agreed to a deal with Newcastle and is set to move... He revealed that he is really relishing the prospect of playing ofr and improving the fortunes of such a popular club

but, BUT, BUT!!!

Major soap opera twist here! The deal falls through!!! Apparently, Newcastle can't affor the fee!!! WEEHEE!!!
Vanden Borre stays with us, ginger ale for everyone!!!
(I was on daddy duty that evening, no beer for me, sorry )

September 1st, 2012
The transfer deadline passes without us losing any more players. The Lastuvka transfer even left us with $1.4M available in our transfer budget. I'll see if we can snap a youngster or two from a lower league team...

The Board are still delighted with my work and now the fans are said to be delighted about the purchase of Jan Lastuvka. They have forgotten about Kasper Schmeichel

Igor Nadal Lázaro resumes full training following his physiotherapy course. The specialist who treated him is optimistic that he's recovered fully from his injury.

Scott Morgan's strong start this season pays off and he wins the EPL Young Player of the Month award. He had ratings of 7, 7, 8, and 8 in his first 4 league matches. Could he be the heir apparent to Tom Howell? I'd love to think so

Kim Källström was in magnificent form, impressing both pundits in manager for the whole with Sweden, as they won 4-0 over San Marino.


FM

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

but
BUT
BUT!!!

Lastuvka rejected the offer from Galatasaray, saying he feels he'S deserving a better basic salary...

AND!!!

Lastuvka set for Q.P.R.!!! WEEHEE!

He made it known that he is really optimistic of rising to the challenge of playing at a higher level!

I make real sure I'm clicking on the right one, and I click "ACCEPT"

The minute the deal is confirmed, fans are excited and Q.P.R.'s commercial director immediately notes in his monthly financlial update that the purchase of Lastuvka, who's got a reputation at the continental level, is likely to cause sharp increase in revenue from shirt sales. Gotta love that

And who is this new keeper? As I said, he is a 30yo Czech, in fact he just turned 30, in last July. Basically, he's got everything you'd want in a keeper, and he isn't a wacko (read eccentric). With is lowest keeper skill at 16, about decent positioning, despite low anticipation, he should be a welcomed addition to our squad. You can see his profile by clicking the following thumbnail.


FM

I hope it turns out ok for you, he looks like a good if spotty goalie. But way too eccentric for my tastes

[Tellistto]

To be honest, FM, I'm not real sure that the value of the release cause is even checked by the player, only that it's there. Every single time a player wants a Minimum Fee Release Clause when I want to sign them, I jack it as high as I want to and never hear a peep out of them about it. I could, of course, be wrong yet again, but it's my experience that the value of the clause makes no impact whatsoever on the players decision.


Tell

[finkenst]

fm, i'm glad you posted this:

Originally Posted by fm

I see that Q.P.R. fans were disappointed with the sale of influential keeper Kasper Schmeichel. Influential? Ahh, okay [img]../../%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif[/img]

as i was istting here asking myself: where did schmeichel go?

[SirFozzie]

August 25, 2012
WEEHEE!!!! Kasper Schmeichel has agreed to a deal with Southampton and he's set to move to them righ away. The weehee is because we get $6.8M for the transfer instead of the $4.8M that Blackburn had offered. This money now gives us $9.9M to shop for a new keeper...

[finkenst]

sirfozzie,

yeah, i just couldn't rfecall when i'd seen that.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

I hope it turns out ok for you, he looks like a good if spotty goalie. But way too eccentric for my tastes

Not sure I follow you there. What do you mean by "a good if spotty goalie"? and then, 4 in eccentricity is high for you??? When I look and I see all orange numbers everywhere but a white 4 in that column of keeper skill, in my head "way too eccentric" isn't what comes up

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

To be honest, FM, I'm not real sure that the value of the release cause is even checked by the player, only that it's there. Every single time a player wants a Minimum Fee Release Clause when I want to sign them, I jack it as high as I want to and never hear a peep out of them about it. I could, of course, be wrong yet again, but it's my experience that the value of the clause makes no impact whatsoever on the players decision.


Tell

ahh, maybe, then maybe not. I'm just too naive with FM I still think it's really mimicking real life, with tiny players, not dots with numbers, running around on the field

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by finkenst

as i was istting here asking myself: where did schmeichel go?

Glad Foz brought you back to FrogLand. I guess you were probably asking yourself: "Why in the world is he starting a keeper he's not started in over two seasons or that other one with atrocious positioning and anticipation?"

FM

[finkenst]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

ahh, maybe, then maybe not. I'm just too naive with FM I still think it's really mimicking real life, with tiny players, not dots with numbers, running around on the field

FM

I've had a situation where I've accepted a transfer offer and the play to be transferred refused to sign a contract with that team...

right now, i'm overplaying fabio rochemback (he's a great DMC, btw) to try to get him to come back around so I can extend his contract.

I've also discovered/realized that sometimes it's best to let $5-8m players leave on free transfers after their contract expires...

i also hear from TK that Chelsea is purchasing Inter striker Adriano for $50m or so. I think I paid a similar for him in game.

-tim

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Not sure I follow you there. What do you mean by "a good if spotty goalie"? and then, 4 in eccentricity is high for you??? When I look and I see all orange numbers everywhere but a white 4 in that column of keeper skill, in my head "way too eccentric" isn't what comes up

FM

I don't know about eccentricity, my concern would lie with the poor agility and anticipation. However, he has great technical stats to make up for it, so it may not be a problem.

And he's, wait for it...wait for it...slow!!!

[FrogMan]

September 3, 2012
Ben Watson has disappointed supporters at the club by publicly announcing his intention to see out his contract and move under the Bosman ruling at the end of the season. He probably has many family members in the area and they're all supporters of the club, because other than the fact that he's been with us for a long time, he's never done much to make a name for himself at the club...

Scott Morgan is selected for the EPL team of the Week. Well deserved!

September 5, 2012
Many World Cup qualifiers are played today...
César Augusto Fawcett was in magnificent form, impressiong pundit and managers for the whole game in his return to action with Colombia. They drew 1-1 with Argentina.

Ahmed Yahiaoui looked in fine form for France as he sliced the opposition's defense with 2 assists in France's 4-0 win over Kazakhstan.

Same for Stephen Pearson, who also sliced the opposition's defense with 2 assists in Scotland's 7-1 win over San Marino.

Gianni Zuiverloon scored a goal for Holland as they won 4-0 over Israel.

Igor Biscan looked in good shape in his own return to action with croatia. He score Croatia's lone goal in a 1-2 loss to Serbie and Montenegro.

Kim Källström was also in good form, scoring one goal for Sweden in a 4-1 win over Malta.

Newly acquired Jan Lastuvka collected a clean sheet for Czech Republic in a 1-0 win over Luxembourg.

September 6, 2012
Kim Källström twisted his knee in training and will miss one week.

September 7, 2012
David Marek Rozehnal resumes full training following physiotherapy. The specialist who treated him is optimistic that he's recovered fully from his injury.

AAAAARRRGGG!!!! Ahmed Yahiaoui sprained a wrist in training and will miss one week. What are those two new physios for if we still keep on getting injured!?!?!?

Norwich agrees to a transfer fee of $3.2M to get Kevin Joyce, the infamous Kevin Joyce. Brighton fans are pissed off about it

Quincy Owusu Abeyie reuqests to be transfer listed. I reject his request and will keep him in the starting lineup until he is happy again...

September 8, 2012
Danny Shittu played well for the whole game for Nigeria, creating a goal in a 3-1 win of Cameroon.

September 9, 2012
Youssouf Hersi resumes full training following his physiotherapy course. The specialist who threated him is optimistic that he's recovered fully from his injury.


FM

[Havok]

You got alot of Int players there. Im currently playing as Wigan in my second season, and i have 4 Scotland under 21 players it was 5 but David Clarkson moved up to the National team at only 19.

I did a search when i first started of the UK and i just kept finding all these young, talented, and cheap Scotland players. Im also trying to get Ross McCormack but he doesn't want to play for a EPL team. I guess i gotta wait till im in the Premiership to get him

[FrogMan]

September 9, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Jan Lastuvka	GK	Superb	7	100%	-	-	-
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	100%	6	-	7.33
DL		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	100%	4 (1)	-	7.40
DC		Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	97%	4	-	7.25
DC		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-9-7-7-7	95%	7	2	7.43
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	100%	8 (2)	-	7.40
MR		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	100%	12 (1)	-	7.69
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	97%	5 (6)	1	7.27
AMC		Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	7-8-7-8-9	94%	11 (1)	-	7.50
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	10-7-6-8-7	100%	9	4	7.22
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	7-5-7-7-7	100%	9	3	6.56
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Very Good	7-7-5-6-5	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
S2		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	91%	2 (1)	-	7.00
S3		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (10)	-	7.20
S4		Chris Chapman	M LC	Very Good	8-7-7-9-8	100%	7	-	7.86
S5		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	95%	3 (4)	3	7.14
-		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-8-6-8	100%	3	-	7.33
-		César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-8-7-8	92%	5	-	7.80
-	Unf	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-6	62%	7	2	7.43
-	Inj	Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	7-8-8-8-8	72%	4 (1)	1	7.40
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Int	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	87%	11	1	7.18
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-	Inj	Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-10	75%	10 (3)	1	7.23

League Match #6: we play Crystal Palace at Loftus Road. They're currently 19th, having just promoted from the Championship through the playoffs. They have 1 draw and 4 losses on the season. We're evens favourites to win this game.

Stephen Pearson goes in at AMC, Marcus Kelly on the right wing and Tom Howell on the left wing.

Jan Lastuvka is set for his debut.
Danny Shittu is away on international duty.
I'm giving a rest to César Augusto Fawcett.

This game is on TV and key men are presented as Stephen Pearson for us and Kevin Amankwaah, the right wingback in their 5-3-2, for them.

Skysports.com's prediction: Q.P.R. are struggling at hom at the moment. I fancy Crystal Palace to just about win this one.

No respect, I tell you, we get no respect from the media!!!

DAMN! The injury bug bites again in the 9th minute as Marcus Kelly has to leave the field, injured. Clemens Fritz comes in. It's a bit early for him to come in the game...

The half ends scoreless and despite us outshooting them 7(3) to nothing, we're not getting close enough to get quality shots... We are winning possession with 62% though.

AAAARRRRGGGG!!!!! I HATE WONDERKEEPERS!!!

Final Score: 0-0

We finish the game outshooting them 14(7) to nothing and got some quality chances in the second half but just couldn't convert.

They keeper is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9.

Jan Lastuvka gets a 7 in his debut, just like everybody else on the team.

Marcus Kelly suffered a strained neck and will miss 5 days.

Looking at my squad screen right after the game, and seeing the "Ine" tag next to Lastuvka, it hits me: he won't be eligible to any EURO Cup matches until after the next selection date, which is after the Group stage... Huhoh... Paging Paul Davies, paging Paul Davies...


FM

[FrogMan]

September 10, 2012
Somebody tell me why I hired two extra physio... Gianni Zuiverloon suffered a broken jaw in training today. He will miss 3 weeks...

September 12, 2012
My scout reports on our EURO Cup opponents, Nistru Otaci from Moldova. He believes their team is mediocre and that they lack pace in attack

September 13, 2012
Newcastle seem to have given a specific order to one of their scouts to write reports on our players. Four of them are being scouted at the moment: César Augusto Fawcett, Stephen Pearson, John Davies, and Anthony Vanden Borre.

GRRRRR!!! Another frigging gameday injury... Now it's Chris Chapman who goes down for 6 days with a thigh strain. That is not good, with Marcus Kelly down for next game... Let's hope that Moldovan team really is as bad as my scout says they are...

FM

[FrogMan]

September 13, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Req	Paul Davies	GK	Good	7-8	100%	2	-	7.50
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	7-8-8-6-8	100%	3	-	7.33
DL	Wnt	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-8-7-8	97%	5	-	7.80
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	97%	11	1	7.18
DC		Scott Morgan	D LC	Good	7-7-8-8-7	93%	5 (1)	-	7.33
DMC		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	95%	2 (1)	-	7.00
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	95%	9 (2)	-	7.36
MR	Wnt	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Very Good	8-7-8-9-7	95%	12 (1)	-	7.46
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	95%	6 (6)	1	7.25
FC		Andrew Johnson	S C	Very Good	7-6-8-7-7	95%	10	4	7.20
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Okay	5-7-7-7-7	95%	10	3	6.60
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Very Good	7-7-5-6-5	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
S2		James Collins	D C	Very Good	9-7-7-7-7	97%	8	2	7.38
S3		Peter Young	AM RLC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	82%	-	-	-
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	91%	0 (11)	-	7.18
S5		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-6	85%	7	2	7.43
S6		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	94%	3 (5)	3	7.13
S7	Req	Justin Wall	F LC	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-8	82%	0 (2)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Chris Chapman	M LC	Very Good	7-7-9-8-7	85%	0 (3)	-	7.00
-	Wnt	John Davies	D R	Very Good	7-8-7-8-7	99%	7	-	7.29
-	Inj	Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Okay	7-7-7-8-6	81%	13 (1)	-	7.57
-	Inj	Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	7-8-8-8-8	68%	4 (1)	1	7.40
-	Ine	Jan Lastuvka	GK	Very Good	7-7	100%	1	-	7.00
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Ine	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-	Inj	Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-10	70%	10 (3)	1	7.23
-	Inj	Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Very Good	7-7-8-8-7	55%	5	-	7.20

EURO Cup Round 1, leg 1: We play Nistru Otaci on their pitch, in Moldova. We 1-3 favourites to win this game, on the road no less!

Our injury situation doesn't seem to be getting better. I have a hard time picking 18 players (starting 11 + 7 subs) out of my 25 eligible players...

Scott Morgan starts at centreback. I want to see him in the middle and why not give him a shot against an attack that is supposedly not very pacey...

We go with a 4-2-2-2, allowing Stephen Pearson to start on the right wing. Igor Biscan starts at DMC.

Quincy Owusu Abeyie scores a sensational goal in the 14th minute. He took the ball from about the centerline and dribbled, almost unchallenged to their penalty spot before launching a bullet for the 1-0 goal.

A nice combination between Andrew Johnson, Stephen Pearson, and Abeyie ends with Abeyie's second goal of the game, 5th goal of the season. His shot was deflected by a defender. Up 2-0.

The half ends on that score. We are outshooting them 7(4) to 1(0). They're not very, very good... Pearson is out, Peter Young is in. Abeyie is out, Igor Nadal Lázaro is in.

We add a 3rd and final goal in the 48th minute when a corner kick from Fábio Rochemback to a crowd in front of the goal is headed in by Andrew Johnson.

Final Score: 3-0

We outshot them 9(6) to 6(1) on the game. They tried shooting from about any angle at the end of the game.

Tom Howell is named Man of the Match with a rating of 10. He completed 50 fo hif 56 passes, 7 of them key passes, but wait! He had 6 runs past opponents, before Desnudo says anything, I'll say it: they must have been VERY slow for Tom to run past so many of them

Rochemback got rated at 9 while Crane, Pearson, and Abeyie all got rated at 8.

Even better: NO INJURIES!!!!


FM

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Not sure I follow you there. What do you mean by "a good if spotty goalie"? and then, 4 in eccentricity is high for you??? When I look and I see all orange numbers everywhere but a white 4 in that column of keeper skill, in my head "way too eccentric" isn't what comes up

FM

Good meaning.. he has good stats.. except for that Eccentricity rating.

Now, I may be wrong here, but that 4 in there, means to me, that he has all the talent in the world (his other stats), but he doesn't always put it together correctly. So he's going to have streaks where he's the best keeper in the world. Then he's going to stink up the joint every now and then.

I had a wonderful keeper in a past game with eccentricity 2 or 3. When he was on.. the other team wasn't scoring. PERIOD. when he was off, he was going to allow four goals on five shots, so we better score a ton.

[Desnudo]

You've got it reversed SirFozzie. Low eccentricity means a lower likelihood of the keeper making random mental mistakes.

[FrogMan]

I see it as Desnudo, low number for eccentricity means to me, less eccentric, more level in his approach to the game...

I think that Marc V also was seeing it that way, based on his posts in my thread about positioning for a keeper...

FM

[SirFozzie]

actually, it doesn't mean anything like we thought it did.

Eccentricity (absolute-GK)
How likely he is to do non-goalkeeping things and the unexpected from a goalkeeper.
- one name: Barthez. However, its best not to have a keeper with high eccentricity, though it can be funny and they do sometimes come out with extremley good things, e.g. dribble around 2 players then clear the ball....

[FrogMan]

September 18, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Jan Lastuvka	GK	Very Good	7-7	100%	1	-	7.00
DR	Wnt	John Davies	D R	Very Good	7-8-7-8-7	100%	7	-	7.29
DL	Wnt	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	8-8-7-8-7	97%	6	-	7.67
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	12	1	7.17
DC		James Collins	D C	Very Good	9-7-7-7-7	100%	8	2	7.38
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	8-8-7-7-9	98%	10 (2)	-	7.50
MR	Wnt	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	7-8-9-7-8	98%	13 (1)	-	7.50
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-7-7-10	96%	7 (6)	1	7.46
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-8-7-6-7	93%	7 (1)	2	7.38
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	98%	11	5	6.73
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	95%	3 (6)	3	7.11
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Very Good	7-7-5-6-5	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
S2		Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	7-8-8-8-8	90%	4 (1)	1	7.40
S3		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Okay	7-7-7-8-6	95%	13 (1)	-	7.57
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	0 (11)	-	7.18
S5		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	6-8-7-7-7	98%	11	5	7.18
-		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	94%	3 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Chris Chapman	M LC	Very Good	7-7-9-8-7	78%	0 (3)	-	7.00
-		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	8-8-6-8-8	94%	4	-	7.50
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	95%	6 (1)	-	7.29
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-10	85%	10 (3)	1	7.23
-	Inj	Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Very Good	7-7-8-8-7	49%	5	-	7.20

League Cup Round 2: we play Barrow on their pitch. Poor dudes are in 23rd place of League Two after finishing in 22nd last season. We are 1-10 favourites to win this game. I don't think I remember us ever being favourites by that much in any game.

And poor Barrow, we got players coming back to the lineup too...

Tom Howell starts on the left wing, resting Marcus Kelly, and we go with our 4-1-2-1-2 formation.

Quincy Owusu Abeyie scores on the 7th minute, following a nice triangle combination of passes that also included Youssouf Hersi and Stephen Pearson. Up 1-0.

Igor Nadal Lázaro is tripped in their penalty area in the 22nd minute. PENALTY!!! James Collins nails it to make it 2-0.

We surprise them with a nice counter in the 25th minute, as Abeyie is deep into our half when he finds Tom Howell who nails a beautiful corner shot. Up 3-0.

Howell centers a beautiful ball in the 40th minute, from the sideline to the far post, where Hersi heads it in. Up 4-0.

That's halftime score and we're outshooting them 11(6) to nothing. I guess the odds were right

In the 71st minute, Jan Lastuvka plays a great long ball for Andrew Johnson who gets on the move and launches a crashing drive of a kick from long range to make it 5-0. Although I never reported about it, it's not the first time I've seen Lastuvka distribute great balls to restart the offense. I like that ability of his.

Final Score: 5-0

We outshot them 20(11) to 1(0).

Tom Howell is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9, but he's one of 4 with ratings of 9. The others are: Pearson, Hersi, and Lázaro.

Davies, Fawcett, Shittu, Collins, Abeyie, and Fritz all got rated at 8.

John Collins suffered a damaged shoulder in the game and will miss one week.

We've been awarded $36k for the win and we're through to round 3.

Back to the clubhouse, I get a report from on of my scouts regarding a certain Kasper Schmeichel. I can't stop laughing as I read that he advises me that the goalkeeper is way below the standard he would expect of a Q.P.R. player. Time will tell if Lastuvka is the answer, but maybe Schmeichel was the reason we never were able to finish higher than 8, despite some great chances...


FM

[FrogMan]

September 19, 2012
For those of you wondering, here's what the staff looks like at Loftus Road...

Job	Name	Team	Nat	Reputation	Weekly wage	Expires
Chairman	Bill Power	-	ENG	Local	-	-
Man Dir	Mark Devlin	-	ENG	Local	-	-
Manager	Steve Gougeon	Senior Squad	CAN	World Class	$38,000	18.6.2013
Asst Mgr	Julian Hudson	Senior Squad	ENG	Continental	$15,000	30.6.2015
Coach	Mark Proctor	Senior Squad	ENG	Local	$2,800	30.6.2015
Coach	Mike Phillips	Senior Squad	USA	Local	$3,200	30.6.2013
Coach	Jeff Morris	Senior Squad	USA	Local	$550	30.6.2014
Coach	Jamie Johnston	Senior Squad	SCO	Obscure	$2,200	30.6.2013
Coach	John Gorman	Senior Squad	SCO	National	$5,000	30.6.2014
Coach	Tom Bell	Senior Squad	SCO	Local	$2,400	30.6.2013
Physio	Robert Page	Senior Squad	WAL	Obscure	$500	30.6.2013
Physio	Karl Nixon	Senior Squad	ENG	Obscure	$1,000	30.6.2014
Physio	Bonaventure Kalou	Senior Squad	CIV	Local	$500	30.6.2014
Physio	Jim Joyce	Senior Squad	ENG	National	$1,000	30.6.2014
Physio	Andy Johnson	Senior Squad	WAL	Local	$550	30.6.2013
Physio	Terry Elliott	Senior Squad	ENG	National	$1,000	30.6.2014
Physio	Peter Cox	Senior Squad	ENG	Obscure	$1,100	30.6.2014
Physio	David Bates	Senior Squad	ENG	Obscure	$1,100	30.6.2014
Scout	Mel Johnson	Senior Squad	ENG	Local	$700	30.6.2013
Scout	Matt Gibson	Senior Squad	ENG	Obscure	$380	30.6.2013
Scout	Mike Fairclough	Senior Squad	ENG	Local	$750	30.6.2013

September 21, 2012
Quincy Owusu Abeyie requests to be transfer listed again. I don't really know what to make of him. He is now a 1st teamer, starting every game in which he isn't injured. More than that, I need him now that Ross McCormack is seriously injured. Anyway, I reject his request.

The draw for the 3rd round of the cup happens and we'll play Coventry on their pitch on October 24. They are currently 20th in the Championship with 2 wins, 2 draws and 5 losses.

FM

[FrogMan]

September 22, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Jan Lastuvka	GK	Superb	7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	8-8-6-8-8	99%	4	-	7.50
DL		César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-8-7-8	96%	7	-	7.71
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	13	1	7.23
DC		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	99%	6 (1)	-	7.29
DMC		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-10	95%	10 (3)	1	7.23
MR		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Okay	7-7-7-8-6	100%	13 (1)	-	7.57
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-10-9	96%	8 (6)	2	7.57
AMC		Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	8-8-8-8-7	95%	4 (2)	2	7.33
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	96%	12	6	6.83
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	95%	4 (6)	3	7.30
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Very Good	7-7-5-6-5	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
S2		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	8-7-7-9-7	96%	11 (2)	-	7.46
S3		Chris Chapman	M LC	Very Good	7-7-9-8-7	93%	0 (3)	-	7.00
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	0 (12)	-	7.25
S5		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	11 (1)	5	7.17
-		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	99%	3 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	81%	9	3	7.44
-	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	8-7-8-7-8	99%	8	-	7.38
-		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	8-7-6-7-9	93%	8 (1)	3	7.56
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Inj	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	8-9-7-8-9	82%	14 (1)	-	7.60
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	21%	-	-	-
-	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-	Inj	Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Very Good	7-7-8-8-7	43%	5	-	7.20

League Match #7: we play West Brom at Loftus Road. They are currently in 15th position and we're 6-4 favourites to win this game.

Stephen Pearson bruised some ribs on September 20 and is one days from being completely healthy.

They last played on September 13th, while we played on the 18th.

We're second on the ball on many occasions to start the game and it hurts us in the 35th minute, as they score from 30yds out. Down 0-1.

Scott Morgan goes up for a header in the area and while doing so, pushes an opponent. PENALTY!!! Jan Lastuvka SAVES IT!!! Marcus Kelly clears the rebound.

The home crowd goes wild in the 44th minute, as Tom Howell launches a cross pass from sideline to sideline to Marcus Kelly who centers it to Quincy Owusu Abeyie in the area. Abeyie finishes it with a precise strike. Tied 1-1.

Teams are tied at the half but they are outshooting us 8(4) to 3(2). We are controlling the ball, but are unable to get it out of our defensive zone...

They score on a free kick over our wall, from just outside our penalty area in the 69th minute. Down 1-2.

HOT DAMN!!! We keep being called for any kind of fouls. Fawcett just received his second yellow and Morgan, Rochemback, and Fritz have received yellows so far in the game, not one for our opponents. They have had 23 free kicks while we only had 11...

In the 88th minute, Tom Howell takes a free from just inside the centerline. He sends the ball forward to Fritz who nods it to Andrew Johnson. AJ finds Kim Källström in the area and Källström goes with a spectacular diving header for his 100th career goal!!! Tied 2-2.

We really put the heat on them for the last 2 minute, plus 2 more of injury time, but we can't gain the lead...

Final Score: 2-2

They still outshot us on the game, 14(6) to 10(5), but we played a much better second half.

Jan Lastuvka is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9. Kim Källström received a rating of 8.

César Augusto Fawcett is banned for one match after being sent off.

We remain in 12th after the draw.


FM

[FrogMan]

September 23, 2012
Anthony Vanden Borre resumes light training. He has started physiotherapy following the successful completion of his surgery. He is expected to be back in full training in about a month. Awww crap, looking at his contract requests, I see that his agent indicates that his client is not interested in renewing his contract at Q.P.R.... He still has 2 years before the end of his current contract, so hopefully he'll change his mind...

September 26, 2012
John Hudson informs me that Quincy Owusu Abeyie was absent from training this morning. What the heck is wrong with the kid? I see he now wants to leave the club, wants to be transfer listed and wants clarification on his role at the club. I changed his status from first team player to a key player a couple days ago. I fine him one week, which fine he accepts without comment.

Scott Blake has revealed that not being part of the first team at Loftus Road is starting to unsettle him. The 21yo midfielder is unhappy that he continually finds himself as an onlooker when the first team play and has said that he will be looking to leave the club if he doesn't break into the first team soon. I take a look at his profile and while he's improved his skills from the time he was a raw 17yo middie, he's not, and probably will never be, first team material at the level we're at now. Sorry Scott...


With the team getting ready for Leg 2 of our EURO Cup series with Nistru Otaci, I am approached by a journalist from The Guardian with this question: Many pundits have backed your team to beat Nistru Otaci convincingly today. Do you share this view?

As much as I want to say to we will kick everybody's butt, from Moldova or from Spain, I restrain myself and reply that I think this game could be tough but I am confident that we have enough quality to overpower Nostru Otaci.

Andrew Johnson is the only player on our squad to react to my comment and he is pleased I have every faith in the players' ability to go out and beat Nistru Otaci.

FM

[FrogMan]

September 27, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Req	Paul Davies	GK	Good	7-8-7	100%	3	-	7.33
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	8-7-8-7-8	100%	8	-	7.38
DL		César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Okay	7-8-7-8-6	97%	8	-	7.50
DC		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	100%	3 (1)	-	7.00
DC		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	95%	7 (1)	-	7.25
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Good	7-7-9-7-7	98%	11 (3)	-	7.43
MR		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Okay	7-7-8-6-7	98%	14 (1)	-	7.53
ML		Chris Chapman	M LC	Very Good	7-7-9-8-7	98%	0 (3)	-	7.00
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	8-7-6-7-9	99%	8 (1)	3	7.56
FC	PR	Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	11 (2)	5	7.15
FC	Req	Justin Wall	F LC	Very Poor	7-7-7-8-7	98%	0 (2)	-	7.00
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Very Good	7-7-5-6-5	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
S2		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-10-7	96%	11 (3)	1	7.21
S3		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-10-9-7	97%	9 (6)	2	7.53
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	94%	0 (13)	-	7.23
S5	Wnt	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	8-9-7-8-9	96%	14 (1)	-	7.60
S6	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Good	7-7-8-8-7	92%	13	7	6.85
S7		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Good	7-7-7-9-7	97%	5 (6)	3	7.27
-	Yel	Danny Shittu	D C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	99%	14	1	7.21
-	Ine	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-		Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	8-8-8-7-8	96%	5 (2)	3	7.43
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Inj	Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Good	7-7-8-8-7	37%	5	-	7.20
-	Ine	Jan Lastuvka	GK	Superb	7-7-7-9	100%	3	-	7.67
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	10%	-	-	-
-	Yel	Craig Crane	D R	Okay	8-6-8-8-6	97%	5	-	7.20
-	Inj	James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	79%	9	3	7.44

EURO Cup Round 1, leg 2: we play Nistru Otaci at Loftus Road. We're 1-6 favourites to win this game. These are big odds in a European match.

We're up 3-0 on aggregate goals after leg 1.

Jan Lastuvka is ineligible again and Paul Davies is again in the nets for us.

César Augusto Fawcett will be suspended for our next league game, so I'll play him today.

Chris Chapman starts on the left wing.

Possibly out of desperation, they show a 4-4-2 with heavy push from the wingers.

Pierluigi Collina, who's gotta be about 65 years old by now, is our referee and he's spraying yellow cards left and right early on. Luckily for us, only Fawcett has had one, but Nistru Otaci have already collected 5 after 15 minutes of play.

We finally create something in the 33rd minute, as Fábio Rochemback kicks one of his trademark strike to power one in and make it 1-0 for us on the game, 4-0 on aggregate goals.

Andrew Johnson heads in a pass from Justin Wall in the 43rd minute. Up 2-0 on the game.

We're up 2-0 at the half, 5-0 on aggregate at that point. We're outshooting them 11(7) to 1(0). ouch...

Ahmed Yahiaoui adds another one from the AMC position, kicking a banana shot past the keeper from 20 yards out.

Final Score: 3-0 (6-0 on aggregate)

We outshot them 20(13) to 1(0).

Chris Chapman is named Man of the Match with a rating of 10, wow. Rochemback and Johnson both got rated at 9 while 6 others were rated at 8.

We've been awarded $110k for the win and we're through to the Group Stage of the EURO Cup, meaning we've been assured of 4 more games in the EURO Cup...

The draw is made for Group play and we end up in Group F, which is composed of:
Germany's Schalke 04, 20th in Europe
England's Q.P.R., 32nd in Europe
Spain's Villareal, 47th in Europe
Turkey's F. Antepspor, 109th in Europe
Scotland's Dundee Utd, 166th in Europe

I think our chances of making top 3 are good.

We've been awarded $800k for playing in the Group Stage.


FM

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

actually, it doesn't mean anything like we thought it did.

Eccentricity (absolute-GK)
How likely he is to do non-goalkeeping things and the unexpected from a goalkeeper.
- one name: Barthez. However, its best not to have a keeper with high eccentricity, though it can be funny and they do sometimes come out with extremley good things, e.g. dribble around 2 players then clear the ball....

The example they give is a positive one, but the ones I generally see are negative. Barthez and Dudek are two well known keepers who are normally excellent, but make random mental mistakes. Stuff like trying to dribble around a player and getting tackled, trying tricky passes that get intercepted, and passing the ball straight to the opposition. Mental errors. You take risks in the other third, not your own.

Give me a consistent, low-risk, keeper any day. Barthez got the boot from Man U precisely because of his eccentric behaviour.

[daedalus]

I would consider putting Abeyie on the transfer list as he requested and just set the price to be something that gives you a solid return (off a free transfer, no less) to restock the front line with. If he stays in the lineup and you don't get a bite at the fairly high pricetag, it's possible that he will just be happy enough to withdraw his request. At worst, you end up with, say, 17 or 20 large to tinker with the roster with. A possible alternative is to list him without waiting for him to request it so that you can remove the tag yourself at a later date.

But I prefer the original method.

[FrogMan]

September 30, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Jan Lastuvka	GK	Superb	7-7-7-9	100%	3	-	7.67
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Very Good	7-8-7-8-8	97%	9	-	7.44
DL		Scott Morgan	D LC	Very Good	8-7-7-7-7	92%	8 (1)	-	7.22
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	14	1	7.21
DC		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	92%	9	3	7.44
DMC		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-7-10-7-8	97%	11 (4)	2	7.27
MR	Wnt	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	9-7-8-9-7	96%	14 (2)	-	7.56
ML		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Very Good	7-7-10-9-7	100%	9 (6)	2	7.53
AMC		Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	8-8-8-7-8	100%	5 (2)	3	7.43
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Good	7-7-8-8-7	98%	13	7	6.85
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-9-7	100%	5 (6)	3	7.27
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Very Good	7-7-5-6-5	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
S2		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-9-7-7-9	94%	12 (3)	1	7.53
S3		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	7-8-6-7-8	93%	15 (1)	-	7.56
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	99%	0 (14)	-	7.21
S5		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	94%	12 (2)	6	7.29
-		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	95%	4 (1)	-	7.20
-		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-6-7-9-7	93%	9 (1)	3	7.50
-	Inj	Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Very Good	7-7-8-8-7	37%	5	-	7.20
-	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Sus	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-8-6-8	94%	9	-	7.56
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	10%	-	-	-
-		Chris Chapman	M LC	Superb	7-9-8-7-10	90%	1 (3)	-	7.75
-		Craig Crane	D R	Okay	8-6-8-8-6	100%	5	-	7.20

League Match #8: we play Portsmouth on their pitch. They're currently in 14th place and are 5-4 favourites to win this game.

César Augusto Fawcett is suspend, Scott Morgan starts in his place.

Tom Howell is in for Marcus Kelly.

John Davies is outplaying Craig Crane at the moment, so he starts.

I keep platooning Kim Källström and Youssouf Hersi at the AMC spot and both have played pretty well so far.

Tom Howell sends a nice ball into space for Igor Nadal Lázaro in the 13th minute. His shot is blocked but the keeper leaves an easy rebound for Quincy Owusu Abeyie to pick up and score the 1-0 goal... We're getting manhandled so far, being outshot 6(2) to 2(2), but ahead where it counts, on the scoreboard.

The half ends with us ahead 1-0, but it's only because Jan Lastuvka is having a heck of a game, since we're being outshot 15(5) to 5(4). We're also lucky they are kicking it about everywhere and from every angle...

Clemens Fritz suffers an injury in the 77th minute, after we've used our three subs, so we'll end the game with 10 men.

Final Score: 1-0

WOAH!!! They outshot us 26(7) to 6(4), but we held on.

Jan Lastuvka is named Man of the Match for his second match in a row, with a rating of 9. Davies, Shittu, and Abeyie all rated at 8.

We move up to 10th with the win, but it was a costly win. Danny Shittu suffered a damaged shoulder and will miss a week while Clemens Fritz had a chest injury and will miss 6 days...

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Everton	9	5	4	0	16	6	+10	19
2nd	Birmingham	9	6	1	2	14	10	+4	19
3rd	Chelsea	9	5	3	1	11	4	+7	18
4th	Arsenal	8	5	2	1	16	7	+9	17
5th	Man Utd	9	5	2	2	11	5	+6	17
6th	Blackburn	9	4	4	1	14	8	+6	16
7th	Bolton	8	4	3	1	13	7	+6	15
8th	Aston Villa	9	4	3	2	15	10	+5	15
9th	Liverpool	8	4	2	2	13	7	+6	14
10th	Q.P.R.	8	3	3	2	9	10	-1	12
11th	Newcastle	8	3	2	3	10	6	+4	11
12th	Tottenham	9	2	5	2	11	11	0	11
13th	Middlesbrough	9	2	4	3	7	11	-4	10
14th	West Brom	8	2	3	3	9	14	-5	9
15th	Portsmouth	9	1	5	3	6	10	-4	8
16th	Fulham	9	1	4	4	8	12	-4	7
17th	Southampton	8	0	4	4	8	17	-9	4
18th	Crystal Palace	8	0	2	6	2	13	-11	2
19th	Man City	9	0	2	7	9	21	-12	2
20th	Wigan	9	0	2	7	6	19	-13	2

FM

[FrogMan]

October 1st, 2012
The Team Board is still delighted with my performance as manager of the club.

Danny Shittu has been selected on the EPL Team of the Week.

My former assistant, Bruno Conti, now with Bolton, came in second for EPL Manager of the Month.

Kim Källström's diving header goal, incidentally his 100th career goal, came in second as EPL Goal of the month.

FM

[FrogMan]

October 3, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Jan Lastuvka	GK	Superb	7-7-7-9-9	100%	4	-	8.00
DR		Craig Crane	D R	Good	8-6-8-8-6	100%	5	-	7.20
DL		César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-8-6-8	98%	9	-	7.56
DC		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	99%	4 (1)	-	7.20
DC		James Collins	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	94%	10	3	7.40
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	9-7-7-9-7	97%	12 (4)	1	7.50
DMC		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	7-10-7-8-7	92%	12 (4)	2	7.25
MR	Wnt	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Superb	7-8-9-7-6	94%	15 (2)	-	7.47
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	8-6-7-8-7	97%	15 (2)	-	7.53
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Superb	7-8-8-7-8	91%	14	8	6.93
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-7-9-7-7	93%	6 (6)	3	7.25
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Very Good	7-7-5-6-5	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
S2		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-6-7-9-7	98%	9 (1)	3	7.50
S3		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-10-9-7-7	94%	10 (6)	2	7.50
S4		Peter Young	AM RLC	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	96%	0 (1)	-	7.00
S5		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	99%	12 (2)	6	7.29
-	Inj	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	82%	15	1	7.27
-	Inj	Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Very Good	7-7-8-8-7	45%	5	-	7.20
-		Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	8-8-7-8-7	95%	6 (2)	3	7.38
-	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Inj	Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	76%	0 (15)	-	7.20
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	12%	-	-	-
-	Unh	John Davies	D R	Superb	8-7-8-8-8	94%	10	-	7.50
-		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	77%	9 (1)	-	7.20

League Match #9: we play Chelsea at Loftus Road. They're currently 3rd and are 4-6 favourites to win this game.

Pretty sure they will come with their usual 4-3-2-1 formation, I set our team in a 4-2-2-2 formation, but with long arrows on the wingers.

César Augusto Fawcett takes the ball forward in the 32nd minute. He plays a nice pass forward to Marcus Kelly on the left wing. Kelly finds Igor Nadal Lázaro unmarked in the area. Lázaro fires a bullet that is deflected by Arjen Robben before going behind Peter Cech!!! Up 1-0!!!

That is the halftime score. They are outshooting us 7(4) to 2(2), but we are ahead. If we can simply hold on, we'll be golden!

We come out with a roar and in the 47th minute, after a long range kick from Fábio Rochemback had been tipped to corner by Cech, Roch's ensuing corner kick is headed straight in by Igor Biscan! UP 2-0!!!

We indeed hold on, not only that, we put some more pressure and get many more chances to score for the rest of the half...

Final Score: 2-0

They outshot us 14(8) to 8(7), but that was a much better second half for us.

Jan Lastuvka gets selected Man of the Match for the third league game in a row with another rating of 9, wow!

Igor Biscan and Fábio Rochemback got rated at 8.

Bill Power could not hide his delight following the team's win over arch rivals Chelsea. The Rs seem to have overcome a slightly disappointing start with this good run of recent form. The sequence of good results has seen the club stride into the top half of the table and many fans are happy with the progress the club have made so far this season.

We're now in 10th position, within one wing (or 3 points) of 6th place.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Arsenal	9	6	2	1	19	7	+12	20
2nd	Man Utd	10	6	2	2	14	6	+8	20
3rd	Birmingham	10	6	2	2	14	10	+4	20
4th	Everton	10	5	4	1	16	7	+9	19
5th	Blackburn	10	5	4	1	16	8	+8	19
6th	Chelsea	10	5	3	2	11	6	+5	18
7th	Liverpool	9	5	2	2	17	8	+9	17
8th	Bolton	9	4	4	1	13	7	+6	16
9th	Aston Villa	10	4	3	3	15	12	+3	15
10th	Q.P.R.	9	4	3	2	11	10	+1	15
11th	Newcastle	9	4	2	3	11	6	+5	14
12th	Tottenham	10	2	5	3	12	14	-2	11
13th	West Brom	9	2	4	3	9	14	-5	10
14th	Middlesbrough	10	2	4	4	7	12	-5	10
15th	Fulham	10	1	5	4	9	13	-4	8
16th	Portsmouth	10	1	5	4	7	14	-7	8
17th	Southampton	9	0	5	4	8	17	-9	5
18th	Wigan	10	1	2	7	7	19	-12	5
19th	Man City	10	0	3	7	10	22	-12	3
20th	Crystal Palace	9	0	2	7	2	16	-14	2

FM

[FrogMan]

October 4, 2012
Gianni Zuiverloon resumes full training after missing three weeks because of a broken jaw.

October 6, 2012
World Cup Qualifiers are played with many Rangers in them, but I didn't write anything down...

October 7, 2012
Julian Hudson informs me that Paul Davies was absent from training today. I give gim a formal warning, which he accepts, saying he is willing to improve his behaviour.

October 8, 2012
Igor Biscan is selected on the EPL Team of the Week. I fully expected to see Jan Lastuvka in there, but it seems that Shay Givens' double MoM week was better, bah.

October 9, 2012
Another round of World Cup qualifiers is played. Worth to note that Ahmed Yahiaoui scored 2 goals for France.

October 14, 2012
Liverpool is now scouting Stephen Pearson.

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

The example they give is a positive one, but the ones I generally see are negative. Barthez and Dudek are two well known keepers who are normally excellent, but make random mental mistakes. Stuff like trying to dribble around a player and getting tackled, trying tricky passes that get intercepted, and passing the ball straight to the opposition. Mental errors. You take risks in the other third, not your own.

Give me a consistent, low-risk, keeper any day. Barthez got the boot from Man U precisely because of his eccentric behaviour.

Basically comes back to me being happy with a keeper with a 4 in eccentricity

And as you can now see, the dude is a rock for us at the moment. Hopefully it'll keep going that way for many seasons

FM

[FrogMan]

October 14, 2012

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Jan Lastuvka	GK	Superb	7-7-9-9-9	100%	5	-	8.20
DR	Unh	John Davies	D R	Very Good	8-7-8-8-8	100%	10	-	7.50
DL		Scott Morgan	D LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	9 (1)	-	7.20
DC		Gianni Zuiverloon	D RC	Very Good	7-7-8-8-7	96%	5	-	7.20
DC		Igor Biscan	D/DM C	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	95%	5 (1)	1	7.33
DMC		Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-9-7-8	100%	13 (4)	1	7.53
MR	Wnt	Stephen Pearson	AM RLC	Good	7-6-7-10-7	96%	16 (2)	-	7.44
ML		Marcus Kelly	AM RL	Superb	6-7-8-7-7	100%	16 (2)	-	7.50
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	9-7-7-7-7	100%	9 (2)	3	7.45
FC	Unh	Quincy Owusu Abeyie	S C	Very Good	8-8-7-8-7	100%	15	8	6.93
FC		Igor Nadal Lázaro	S C	Superb	7-9-7-7-7	100%	7 (6)	4	7.23
S1		Wayne Alexander	GK	Very Good	7-5-6-5-8	100%	1 (1)	-	5.50
S2		Kim Källström	AM C	Superb	7-8-7-8-6	94%	6 (2)	3	7.38
S3		Tom Howell	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	97%	10 (7)	2	7.47
S4		Clemens Fritz	AM R	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	98%	0 (15)	-	7.20
S5		Andrew Johnson	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	100%	12 (2)	6	7.29
-		James Collins	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	93%	11	3	7.36
-		Craig Crane	D R	Superb	6-8-8-6-7	100%	6	-	7.17
-	Int	César Augusto Fawcett	D/DM L	Superb	8-6-8-7-8	90%	10	-	7.50
-	Inj	Ross McCormack	S C	Good	9-6-7-7-8	27%	4 (1)	4	7.40
-	Int	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-7-8-8	81%	15	1	7.27
-	Inj	Anthony Vanden Borre	SW/D/DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	38%	-	-	-
-	Req	Ben Watson	M C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	6.50
-		Ahmed Yahiaoui	DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-10	94%	13 (4)	2	7.24
-		Peter Young	AM RLC	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	100%	0 (2)	-	7.00

League Match #10: we play Everton on their pitch. They are currently 4th but were 1st for a while at the start of the season. They are 5-4 favourites to win this game.

They have a DC and an MC injured, some bench players injured and a DR who is on international duty.

For us, Danny Shittu and César Augusto Fawcett are on international duty.

This game is on TV and key men are presented as being Jan Lastuvka for us (!) and Leon Osman for them. They point out that the experienced midfielder is a player who can really dominate the midfield if allowed the space.

Skysports.com's prediction: Everton should come out on top against Q.P.R. today but it'll be a tight affair. If I had to make a prediction I'd stick my neck out and say 1-0.

Shit! Stephen Pearson has to leave the field in the 31st minute, injured. Clemens Fritz comes in.

The half ends scoreless. Shots are very close, with 3(2) for us, 2(1) for them. A boring first half. Fábio Rochemback's condition is at 69% following a collision with an opponent. He stays in the game anyway.

The second half is much of the same, with possibly a couple of better scoring chances on either side of the field, with us getting the best of them.

Final Score: 0-0

One of these bleh draws... Shots were extremely close, with us getting 6(4), them at 6(3). We coulda, should won it...

Their keeper, Ricardo, gets the Man of the Match with a rating of 8, but Jan Lastuvka was right with him, also rating at 8. Marcus Kelly, Youssouf Hersi, and Clemens Fritz all rated at 8 too.

We remain in 10th place with the draw.

Stephen Pearson suffered a back strain in the game. SHIT! A journalist from the Daily Star approaches me with this question: Stephen Pearson is a key player for you but the injury he picked up today could see him ruled out for a while. How much will the team miss his presence?

Seeing how he leads the team in assists with 8, it's certain that he will be miss but nobody is unreplaceable. I tell him that we'll miss Stephen but I feel we've got adequate cover.


FM

[FrogMan]

October 15, 2012
Marcus Kelly is selected on the EPL Team of the Week.

Julian Hudson reports to me on team morale. He has noted that Stephen Pearson has been in buoyant mood over the past day or so. After consulting several members of the team, Hudson has discovered that the attacking midfielder was delighted with the comments I made about him to the media recently.

I learn that our match against Southampton, due to be played in two days on October 17, has been rearranged due to international call-ups. HUH? César Augusto Fawcett is the only player on either team that will be away on that day...

October 18, 2012
Euro Cup games are played but we're not part of that first round of Group play. In group F, two upsets happened, at least in my view. G. Antepspor, playing on their home pitch, won 1-0 over Schalke 04, and Dundee Utd, playing away, won 2-1 over Villareal. I had Dundee and Antepspor marked as two potential non qualifiers... We'll have to work hard to ensure our qualification...


FM