FM2005: Loftus Road to host Premiership football again

[FrogMan]

I'm ba-ack

well, well, well, here we are, almost exactly 3 months to the day I posted about the corrupted savegame file in my QPR Dynasty. I had some mourning to do. I don't think I've ever been so frustrated of having a game pulled from me since, I don't know, maybe when I was a toddler and I had to let my little sister play with some fisher price toy, because, you know, I was the big brother and I had to relent...

I tried starting some new career, something different, namely in Spain. Not once, but twice. Mainly because the first time was just too big and ran too darn slow, even with the new 512MB stick of RAM. I ended up starting a third one, back In England, at Loftus Road, trying to bring QPR back to the promised land. Played for a little while back in early July, but couldn't get back into it. Then this wonderful Summer weather hit us, then the wife started working nights, all sorts of things combining to make me not have enough time to even think about continuing this new game, so I left the game on the shelves, three matches into the 2004-05 season, until Tim's bragging about his Chelsea squad reawakened my senses.

And with that, with an early record of 1 draw and 2 losses, I embarked on a magical season that saw me take this bunch of nobodies on two streaks, one of 17 games without a loss and another one of 21 games without a loss, on our way to a 2nd place finish and a promotion to the Premiership!!! Keep in mind, that QPR team had just promoted to the Championship at the end of the 2003/04 season!

And you know what? I need to talk about my team...
Thing is, my wife doesn't share my level of enthusiasm...
You, you here, you understand me! You come here, you read about my team, you comment about it, best of all, you give me an outlet where I can rant and rave about my bunch of nobodies

I honestly don't think I will write down as much notes as I used to and because of that, this new dynasty will probably not be up to what the old used to be. That, and as I said, sometimes the computer is unavailable (it's in our bedroom and when the wife works the night shift, she often naps in the evening, forcing me to the TV room), making me want to play more than write notes whenever I get a chance to play

Anyway, hopefully you'll be many to pay us a visit here. Post comments, I appreciate them, just don't think I'll do everything you recommend.

As I get ready for the 2005-06 season, I'll be back with some sort of team overview, position by position, as I used to do them in the good old days.

FM

[gi]

Looking forward to it! Welcome back!

[FrogMan]

thank gi, glad to see you back in the fold so quick

FM

[FrogMan]

As I'll plow into the overview of the lineup, position by position, my old time readers will immediately see that this team is nowhere close to what the good old R's used to be when we left them in 2012. It's still a young, immature team if I could say. This coming season will certainly be a tough one, as we try to avoid relegation straight out of the EPL after only one season.

I'll introduce the players first and then will talk about how the team did in 2004/05 and where I want to go with them...




Team Overview: Keepers

KEEPERS	depth	Position	Age	aer	coa	com	ecc	han	kic	one	ref	rus	pun	thr	pos	jum	bra
Day, Chris	1	GK	29	13	13	13	7	11	10	13	16	14	7	8	4	15	7
Cole, Jake	2	GK	19	9	11	12	6	11	8	10	13	12	10	7	8	10	15
Culkin, Nick	3	GK	27	10	9	10	8	11	8	12	13	11	9	11	9	12	14
Rossi, Generoso	SUSP	GK	26	12	12	12	7	13	13	12	11	13	15	12	11	12	13
Morgan, Dean		GK	17	9	9	8	3	11	9	7	7	3	6	9	8	11	7

Chris Day was our starting keeper for the whole 2004/05 campaign, backed up at times by Jake Cole, and at other times by a loanee keeper that I don't plan on bringing back. Day had his good and his bad days with most of his bad days coming early on. I have wanted to can his sorry ass very often early on but I held on to him and he finished the season with some very good performance. Jake Cole is a youngster with not much of a future, but to keep the bench warm. Nick Culkin is on a month-to-month contract and will remain on that contract until he decides to leave, or when we run out of wage budget, but that's not about to happen (more on that later).

Generoso Rossi is a special case. An Italian keeper who's got some skills, he is under a global ban until the end of August 2005. A quick search of "generoso rossi suspended" on Google brings some pretty weird stories of betting scandals and match fixing. He was on our roster for the whole 2004/05 season but was unavailable for any game, not even Reserves friendlies, adding to his unhappiness. At one point, he was telling me that he was finding it difficult to settle in the area. I was like "damn, don't you start trying to fix our matches by peeing in our Gatorade!!!" but he finally settled down a bit during the present offseason. He could very well overtake the keeper position for Chris Day once he becomes available, although I'll also keep the keeper position as one of great importance should some transfer budget become available.

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Centrebacks

CENTREBACKS	depth	Position	Age	hea	jum	mar	tac	pos	agg	acc	ant	bra	dec	det	pac	pas	str
Shittu, Danny	1	D C	24	19	18	11	14	12	15	15	10	16	7	16	14	5	18
Hierro	1	D/DM C	37	15	16	12	15	16	17	7	14	16	16	18	4	12	13
Santos, Georges	2	D/M C	34	16	15	11	11	12	20	7	11	15	7	12	10	7	17
Prunier, William	2	SW/D C	37	17	15	15	9	15	15	5	13	16	12	16	4	9	7
Gnohéré, Arthur	3	D C	26	11	14	10	16	10	15	14	12	14	6	6	14	8	13
Rose, Matthew	3	SW/D/DM RC	29	11	14	12	17	12	10	13	11	10	10	12	11	8	11
Bennett, Philip		D C	17	5	13	5	11	3	19	11	6	11	5	16	12	5	10
Fogg, Luke		D C	17	3	12	6	6	5	12	12	5	3	6	1	14	5	9
Johnson, Ryan		D C	18	7	11	8	8	8	8	14	7	16	8	12	9	8	14
Kanyuka, Pat		D C	18	18	10	7	9	7	6	6	7	12	9	8	7	7	12
Webb, Lee		D C	16	9	11	7	6	7	10	14	8	8	8	12	13	7	11
Fletcher, John		D LC	18	7	12	8	11	11	14	9	8	6	14	12	6	5	8

It's nice to see a guy like Danny "Big Dan" Shittu at only 24 years of age. Big Dan really is a rock in the middle of my defensive line and he rewarded my trust in him with many form ratings of 8 and over over the course of the season. Georges Santos and Matthew Rose alternated in the second centreback spot last season, but they're likely to oly see spot duty there this season. Hierro (free transfer from Bolton) and William Prunier (free transfer from Valenciennes) were brought in just for that. Both at 37, they won't be with the team for long, but for now, they will plug the hole. I did catch a bit of flack from the fans for signing Prunier, but hey, he came on a free and only on a one year contract.

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Fullbacks

FULLBACKS	depth	Position	Age	mar	pac	cro	agg	tac	pas	ant	hea	pos	sta	acc	str	str	wrk
Rose, Matthew	1	SW/D/DM RC	29	12	11	6	10	17	8	11	11	12	14	13	11	11	15
Warnock, Stephen	1	D/M L	23	13	12	12	12	16	11	14	12	14	16	14	10	10	15
Padula, Gino	1	D L	29	12	13	12	7	14	12	12	7	13	12	11	12	12	11
Hamilton, Lewis	2	D R	21	12	9	11	13	10	10	12	10	10	11	9	10	10	9
Bignot, Marcus	INJ	D RL	30	10	14	8	14	15	9	10	10	10	13	13	12	12	16
Fletcher, John		D LC	18	8	6	8	14	11	5	8	7	11	10	9	8	8	19
Grant, Wayne		D R	15	10	10	4	8	5	4	5	7	7	11	10	9	9	10
Murphy, Daniel		D R	18	9	9	5	19	6	5	6	6	7	12	7	11	11	15
Walton, Keith		D R	16	6	13	4	15	6	1	2	2	2	13	13	8	8	19
Burton, Jonathan	future	D L	16	13	13	8	18	13	12	13	14	13	7	11	9	9	8

This is a position that is really hurting. Marcus Bignot was our regular right fullback last season but he suffered a groin tear with about a month to go and is still two months away from coming back. Matthew Rose took over on the right when Bignot went down and he played well, not awesomely, but not badly, and for that reason, he'll start in that spot. Gino Padula started the season at the left fullback spot and played pretty well. In fact, we could have done without the addition of Stephen Warnock, but when the possibility came of loaning Warnock for the season, it was just too nice. Warnock went back to his team and we loaned him again for the whole season, so he will platoon with Padula on the left.

After that, it's a bit sketchy. We got Lewis Hamilton who I guess could step in, but not much else after him. Jonathan Burton could very well be a superstar some day but his casual style combined with the fact that he's not very determined may cause him to stagnate at one point... I'm very impressed with the skills he has at only 16 years of age...


FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Defensive Midfielders

DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS	depth	Position	Age	hea	mar	tac	agg	tea	pas	dri	fir	lon	pos	fin	cre	pac	sta	wrk
Bircham, Marc	1	DM C	27	8	10	19	18	20	11	8	8	7	11	6	11	13	16	20
Powell, Darryl	1	DM C	33	16	11	16	12	13	10	9	11	10	13	9	10	9	15	14
Morris, Jody	2	M C	26	7	13	13	17	16	15	9	13	14	10	12	14	12	16	17
Hierro	3	D/DM C	37	15	12	15	17	16	12	7	10	19	16	13	11	4	13	15
Santos, Georges	4	D/M C	34	16	11	11	20	11	7	7	9	13	12	9	9	10	10	15
Frandsen, Per	4	DM C	35	12	8	13	8	14	13	8	13	16	14	10	9	8	9	16
Rose, Matthew	5	SW/D/DM RC	29	11	12	17	10	15	8	9	8	7	12	9	8	11	14	15
Bean, Marcus	6	DM C	20	13	12	18	14	12	13	9	10	8	13	9	8	12	12	12
Bell, Jon		M C	16	5	6	6	8	16	10	6	6	7	7	4	7	8	9	12

I am still playing a 4-1-2-1-2 wide diamond formation and this means finding the right defensive middie to plug on top of the line of defenders. Marc Bircham played most of the season as the starter at that spot and while he played fairly well for most of the season, he was also guilty of some disappearing acts throughout the season. Georges Santos was his main backup but as you can see, he's dropping on the depth chart, as is Marcus Bean, who was the second backup, and even starter when Birch got injured and Santos had to play centreback. Bean made me nervous when on the field and that is nervous a good thing.

Darryl Powell (free transfer from Nottm Forest), Jody Morris ($150k transfer from Millwall), and Per Frandsen (free transfer from Wigan) will bring some depth to the position. The fans questionned the signing of Powell, saying that they thought he over the hill. Oh well, we'll see. I think he'll be of some help, especially since he came on a free transfer.


FM

[thetrain]

weee, christmas all over again

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Attacking Midfielders

ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS	depth	Position	Age	dri	cre	off	pas	lon	fin	sta	fir	tea	pos	mar	tac	pac	agg	wrk
van der Gun, Cedric	1	AM/F C	26	12	13	19	17	6	10	15	13	16	16	11	6	15	14	13
Dani	2	AM C	29	11	11	10	13	10	12	11	16	4	8	5	2	14	7	9
Rowlands, Martin	3	AM RC	26	12	11	13	12	12	12	14	13	13	10	9	10	12	14	13
Djorkaeff, Youri	3	AM RLC	37	10	13	10	13	11	9	5	11	12	4	2	6	7	10	12
Miller, Adam	4	AM LC	23	9	11	12	10	10	9	14	10	11	3	6	9	13	5	14
Gallen, Kevin	4	AM/F RC	29	8	12	12	13	10	11	12	14	13	8	8	9	9	13	10
Bell, Jon		M C	16	6	7	6	10	7	4	9	6	16	7	6	6	8	8	12
Morris, Jody		M C	26	9	14	13	15	14	12	16	13	16	10	13	13	12	17	17
Smith, Andrew		AM C	16	6	4	7	6	7	6	11	4	19	8	7	7	12	14	15
Brown, Aaron		AM LC	25	10	7	17	11	8	9	15	4	19	13	12	10	14	6	18
Donnelly, Scott		AM RC	18	9	8	8	9	8	8	11	10	8	6	5	5	12	8	10
Farr, Sonny		AM/F LC	18	7	11	8	8	7	12	11	8	7	7	3	7	9	10	14
Walton, Matthew		AM/F RC	17	6	1	2	4	3	2	12	2	13	5	2	7	14	18	16

Martin Rowlands and Dani alternated at the starting AMC spot last season and while I think Rowlands did a very good job, I like what he can bring to the wing more than what he brings to the center spot. Dani came on as one of my first signees on a free transfer in the Summer of 2004 and wasn't very impressive in his first season as a Ranger thus giving me reasons enough to try and bring a few new players to the position.

Cedric van der Gun comes to us on a free transfer from Dutch side Ajax and he could and he's currently slated to take over the AMC spot with Rowlands moving back to the wing. Dani still figures in the mix and Youri Djorkaeff, another free transfer that that fans questionned du to his advanced (!) age, will be the wild card, capable of playing all three attacking middie spots. Adam Miller is listed there but almost never played in that spot last season, mostly coming in as a sub winger.


FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by thetrain

weee, christmas all over again

LOL!!! You have 9 posts, all in my dynasties. I guess there is one thing and one thing only that makes you visit FOFC

FM

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

LOL!!! You have 9 posts, all in my dynasties. I guess there is one thing and one thing only that makes you visit FOFC

FM

Hey, my first posts here were thanks to X-Com.

[Blade6119]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Hey, my first posts here were thanks to X-Com.

Damnit, i knew there had to be some negative to that thread

[mrkilla22]

Oh sweet! Time for some more FM soccer at Loftus Road! I can't wait!

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Blade6119

Damnit, i knew there had to be some negative to that thread

Don't make me kill you.

Oh. Wait. I don't have to bother. You're due to get fragged any minute now.

[condors]

good luck

[daedalus]

Welcome back.

It's weird to see some of the old names (like Day) again.

[FrogMan]

Thanks everyone for stopping by. I hope I the team won't let down its many supporters

Originally Posted by daedalus

Welcome back.

It's weird to see some of the old names (like Day) again.

Welcome back to you too

It is indeed weird. Day is one, but seeing a 24yo Shittu in there instead of a 30+ yo is simply awesome and if you remember at the very start of my first dynasty, Martin Rowlands was a star on the right wing. So much so that I ended selling him for some good money.

I've also been looking at some of the players I had at the end of my dynasty, the Rochembacks, Vanden-Borre, Fawcett, Fritz, Kelly... Lack of transfer budget is keeping me from making any kind of moves, but I have my eyes on some of them

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Wingers

WINGERS	depth	Position	Age	dri	cro	pac	pas	sta	cre	fin	fir	lon	off	mar	tac	tea	lth
Fernandes, Fabrice	1	AM RL	25	16	17	14	16	12	15	13	15	14	14	7	8	17	6
Rowlands, Martin	1	AM RC	26	12	15	12	12	14	11	12	13	12	13	9	10	13	1
Brown, Aaron	2	AM LC	25	10	12	14	11	15	7	9	4	8	17	12	10	19	12
Ainsworth, Gareth	2	AM R	32	11	14	13	9	15	7	10	7	10	10	4	8	18	5
Miller, Adam	3	AM LC	23	9	10	13	10	14	11	9	10	10	12	6	9	11	3
Donnelly, Scott	3	AM RC	18	9	10	12	9	11	8	8	10	8	8	5	5	8	6
Cook, Lee	3	AM L	22	9	14	14	12	13	10	10	10	8	11	6	6	14	4
Warnock, Stephen	4	D/M L	23	10	12	12	11	16	9	9	10	10	17	13	16	12	2
Dawson, Chris		M R	15	7	10	13	10	12	10	11	8	7	8	9	8	11	8
Mason, Darren		M R	17	7	5	10	3	12	6	5	4	5	3	4	5	15	8
Poole, Alan		DM R	16	6	7	9	5	8	5	4	5	8	4	6	5	15	6

The winger position is a very important one with the 4-1-2-1-2 tactic that I play with the Rangers. Because of that, when team chairman Bill Power pulled his expected "go out and get a high profile player" stunt, I went and spend almost every penny we had and got left winger Fabrice Fernandes for a fee of $4M from Southampton. And did that move pay off. Fernandes went on to average a form rating of 7.64 over the course of the season, and while he didn't score one goal, he assisted on 12 others and was named MoM a team leading 11 times. He's got everything to be our left winger for many seasons to come, even though he is a bit low on stamina to my taste.

I've already mentionned that Martin Rowlands brings something special to our wing attack and that was clearly evident last season when he was named Player of the Year by the club's supporters. He averaged a form rating of 7.30 on the season, scoring 7 goals and assisting on 10 others while rotating between right wing and the AMC spot.

Gareth Ainsworth is a solid backup to Rowlands but we seemed to lack something in the games he was the starting right winger.

Aaron Brown, Adam Miller, and Lee Cook alternated as the backups to Fernandes on the left wing and while they are serviceable and could possibly help us out in case of a short term injury, I don't see them as long term starters...

I might possibly go out and try to sign a player on loan or two to give us some depth on the wings.


FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: Strikers

STRIKERS	depth	Position	Age	fin	off	cre	dri	pas	fir	fla	lon	hea	jum	pac	sta	str	dec	cmp
Rasiak, Grzegorz	1	S C	26	16	11	10	11	11	10	9	9	13	15	11	13	17	9	13
Güiza	2	S C	24	12	14	9	14	14	9	16	17	9	13	15	16	14	11	11
Gallen, Kevin	3	AM/F RC	29	11	12	12	8	13	14	12	10	12	12	9	12	16	13	12
Farr, Sonny	4	AM/F LC	18	12	8	11	7	8	8	7	7	7	3	9	11	8	9	10
Palmer, Ray		S C	17	4	6	3	5	3	3	7	4	2	11	14	10	7	10	5
Harper, Phil		F RC	18	6	6	7	3	6	6	6	6	6	13	12	13	8	8	6
Walton, Matthew		AM/F RC	17	2	2	1	6	4	2	12	3	11	4	14	12	8	3	8

Due to my own lack of foresight, combined with the fact that they really were not impressing me, I let go of three of our first team strikers on Bosman type transfers this past offseason. Rebuilding skill and depth at the position won't happen overnight, more like a work in progress. First step was the signing of 26yo Grzegorz Rasiak on a free transfer from Derby. Rasiak is coming off a very nice season with Derby, season in which he scored 25 goals, assisted on 9 others and was named Derby's Player of the Year by their supporters. His 22 of his 25 goals happened in league play and were good enough to put him in 3rd place of the scoring championship.

Güiza is the other signee coming to the team this offseason, following a free transfer from Spanish side Mallorca. He's got great pace and could play the role of the burner up front.

Kevin Gallen had a good season for us last year and while he never is spectacular, he gets the job done when asked upon.

After these three, the quality drops considerably. I need to say that we have another oldie coming on board in 37yo Igor Protti, coming from Italian Serie A side Livorno.

As for with the wingers, it's not excluded that I may keep on shopping for some more power on top of the lineup...

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: A Look Back on 2004/05

As I said earlier, 2004/05 was a magical season. After drawing once and losing twice in our first three games, it all fell into place. The team wasn't a scoring machine, but boy did we overachieve on the defensive side of things. Take a look at the league table for the English Championship:

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	C	Leicester		46	28	12	6	96	46	+50	96
2nd	P	Q.P.R.		46	27	12	7	68	30	+38	93
3rd	P	Derby		46	23	15	8	78	43	+35	84
4th		Sunderland		46	22	17	7	71	52	+19	83
5th		Wolves		46	21	14	11	71	44	+27	77
6th		Sheff Utd		46	20	16	10	64	40	+24	76
7th		West Ham		46	22	9	15	62	51	+11	75
8th		Reading		46	21	11	14	68	54	+14	74
9th		Wigan		46	20	13	13	63	53	+10	73
10th		Leeds		46	16	19	11	62	43	+19	67
11th		Nottm Forest		46	16	15	15	54	49	+5	63
12th		Plymouth		46	16	15	15	57	58	-1	63
13th		Ipswich		46	16	12	18	57	59	-2	60
14th		Gillingham		46	14	15	17	46	54	-8	57
15th		Burnley		46	15	12	19	55	70	-15	57
16th		Rotherham		46	15	10	21	41	59	-18	55
17th		Brighton		46	14	9	23	52	68	-16	51
18th		Coventry		46	14	9	23	60	82	-22	51
19th		Cardiff		46	13	11	22	52	70	-18	50
20th		Preston		46	13	8	25	53	74	-21	47
21st		Stoke		46	9	17	20	43	58	-15	44
22nd	R	Millwall		46	10	13	23	39	70	-31	43
23rd	R	Watford		46	8	10	28	50	91	-41	34
24th	R	Crewe		46	8	8	30	47	91	-44	32

30 goals against in 46 league games is pretty impressive. Darn it, it's 0.65 goal per game and 10 less on the season than the second best defense in the league!!!

68 goals for doesn't appear that good when you compare it to the offensive powerhouse that Leicester were last season (96 goals for) but it was plenty enough to clinch 2nd place with one game to play in the season and finish 9 points clear of 3rd place. In fact, 68 goals was 5th best in the league, so not too bad...

As for individual performances, Fabrice Fernandes and Danny Shittu were named on the English Chapmionship Team of the Year and I came in second place for Manager of the Year.


FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview: A Look Forward to 2005/06

I always thought that the first season after a promotion is the toughest, escpecially the move from Championship to the Premiership. This may be even more true for us. Take a look at what the team's finances look like as of July 12, 2005:


Yep, you read right, $28M in the bank, yet only $308k of transfer budget to start the season. $308k of which $150k has already gone to the acquisition of Jody Morris. sigh... We'll see if Bill Powell comes back to me requesting that I go after a high profile player with a "sky is the limit" kind of budget... That or if they board will increase the transfer budget available.

Wages for now are quite under control with only $152k of total wages against a wage budget of $420k, but we're sitll operating with a bunch of nobodies.

Here are the players we have under contract, sorted by the date their contract expires:

Pkd	Inf	Name	Squad Status	Weekly wage	Expires	Prot	Value
-		Phil Harper	Youngster	$320	28.3.2006	Yes	$80K
S5	Lst	Stephen Warnock	-	$6,200	7.6.2006	Yes	$3.4M
S11		Dani	First Team	$4,600	30.6.2006	Yes	$1.8M
S8		Youri Djorkaeff	Key Player	$4,600	30.6.2006	Yes	$120K
DC		Hierro	First Team	$10,500	30.6.2006	Yes	$130K
-		Aaron Brown	Hot Prospect	$3,800	30.6.2006	Yes	$1.15M
S3		Georges Santos	Backup	$4,400	30.6.2006	Yes	$120K
-		Lee Cook	Key Player	$3,000	30.6.2006	Yes	$1.45M
-	Sus	Generoso Rossi	Key Player	$4,400	30.6.2006	Yes	$2.4M
S2		William Prunier	First Team	$2,200	30.6.2006	Yes	$70K
-	Inj	Darryl Powell	First Team	$2,800	30.6.2006	Yes	$550K
DR		Matthew Rose	First Team	$3,600	30.6.2006	Yes	$1.7M
DL		Gino Padula	First Team	$3,200	30.6.2006	Yes	$2.6M
-		Marcus Bean	Backup	$1,850	30.6.2006	Yes	$1.35M
-		Daniel Murphy	Youngster	$160	30.6.2006	Yes	$60K
S4		Lewis Hamilton	Backup	$220	30.6.2006	Yes	$130K
-		Ryan Johnson	Hot Prospect	$550	30.6.2006	Yes	$40K
-		Scott Donnelly	Backup	$650	30.6.2006	Yes	$2.4M
-	Inj	Sonny Farr	Youngster	$140	30.6.2006	Yes	$140K
-	Unh	Arthur Gnohéré	Rotation	$3,200	30.6.2006	Yes	$900K
-	Inj	Marcus Bignot	First Team	$2,600	30.6.2007	Yes	$1.5M
S10		Per Frandsen	Key Player	$6,200	30.6.2007	Yes	$600K
S7		Gareth Ainsworth	First Team	$3,600	30.6.2007	Yes	$1.55M
S9		Marc Bircham	Key Player	$3,600	30.6.2007	Yes	$4M
GK		Chris Day	First Team	$3,200	30.6.2007	Yes	$3.6M
S12		Kevin Gallen	First Team	$5,000	30.6.2007	Yes	$3.4M
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	Key Player	$10,500	30.6.2007	Yes	$6.2M
S6		Adam Miller	Backup	$3,200	30.6.2007	Yes	$1.05M
-		Pat Kanyuka	Hot Prospect	$600	30.6.2007	Yes	$44K
MR		Martin Rowlands	First Team	$7,000	30.6.2008	Yes	$6M
FC		Grzegorz Rasiak	Key Player	$9,200	30.6.2008	Yes	$6.2M
FC		Güiza	First Team	$13,000	30.6.2008	Yes	$7.4M
S1		Jake Cole	Rotation	$300	30.6.2008	Yes	$200K
-		John Fletcher	Youngster	$130	30.6.2008	Yes	$90K
AMC		Cedric van der Gun	Key Player	$7,400	30.6.2009	Yes	$5M
DC		Danny Shittu	First Team	$6,000	30.6.2009	Yes	$3.8M
DMC		Jody Morris	First Team	$5,000	30.6.2009	Yes	$3.2M

I count 18 players whose contract expire in June 2006. Of these, it's not impossible that I could decide to retain not one of them.

Here's a look at what the start of the season looks like for us:


As you can see, as of July 12th, we've played 2 preseason friendlies and while the final scores don't indicate much success, I gotta say I was pretty happy with them. We took the lead early against Aston Villa and were controlling the game until the got back in little by little, finally scoring late in the game. The ManU game was a really close one that got decided on an own goal by Herrio. While they did outshoot us, it was a pretty close game overall, but still only a preseason friendly.

As you can see, I'll be visiting Kenilworth Road on our very next friendly. I just can't spend one offseason without playing Luton

So far this offseason, I've been trying to sign a striker, but with my very low transfer budget, my search has been limited to the free agent scrap. I made a contract offer to Patrick Kluivert. He wanted upward of $60k per week while my board allowed me to give as much at $41k. I gave him as much as I could, plus a $2M signing fee and I cranked up the appearance fee, goal and assist bonus, but that wasn't enough. He didn't reject that offer but ended up signing with Ajax instead.

As for tactics, I go into the season thinking we'll play my usual 4-1-2-1-2 wide diamond formation but with possible twists late in games, given our lack of depth at the striker position. It's possible that we'll switch to some kind of 4-1-2-2-1 (2 AMC behind one lone striker) or even start some games in a more defensive 4-2-2-2-1 setup (2 DMC, 2 wingers, 2 AMC) as we seem to have plenty more to pick from in the midfielder spots... As in the past, we still play our brand of "boring" ball control game with very short pass and a lot of pressing when we're without the ball...

What do I expect in 2005/06? Simply to survive would be great.

What do you think this team will do in 2005/06? I'm interested to know

Just so you know, my football universe in that career includes the following leagues:
England (League One and above)
France (First League only)
Germany (First Division only)
Italy (Serie A only)
Holland (Premier Division only)
Scotland (Premier League only)
Spain (First Division only)

...for a total of 7 nations and 9 leagues with a small database. It's not running so bad, when you're out of the transfer windows. During transfer craziness, it is a bit rough, but I like it that way...

The date is July 15, 2005 and this is where the story starts...


FM

[finketr]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

... until Tim's bragging about his Chelsea squad reawakened my senses.

...

FM

HAhahahah!

And, of course, your original "A Frog in ..." series didn't inspire me to buy the game or anything.



I rule.

Oh, i got a transfer budget of 127m pounds. I've spent 55k pounds on a high ceiling 17y england defender.



--tim

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by finketr

HAhahahah!

And, of course, your original "A Frog in ..." series didn't inspire me to buy the game or anything.

As Dionne Warwick and her friends once sang: "That's what friends are for..."

Originally Posted by finketr

I rule.

Oh, i got a transfer budget of 127m pounds. I've spent 55k pounds on a high ceiling 17y england defender.

Yes you do, but please stop nagging me with these big money spendings, I think I'm gonna cry....

FM

[FrogMan]

July 15, 2005

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Superb	8-8-7-7-6	96%	-	-	-
DR		Matthew Rose	SW/D/DM RC	Superb	8-8-8-7-7	96%	-	-	-
DL		Gino Padula	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	96%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	96%	-	-	-
DC		Hierro	D/DM C	Superb	7-6	96%	-	-	-
DMC		Jody Morris	M C	Superb	7-6	90%	-	-	-
MR		Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	90%	-	-	-
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	7-8-8-7-6	90%	-	-	-
AMC		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Very Poor	7-7	97%	-	-	-
FC		Kevin Gallen	AM/F RC	Superb	9-7-7-7-7	94%	-	-	-
FC		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-7	90%	-	-	-
S1		Jake Cole	GK	Superb	8-7-8	96%	-	-	-
S2		William Prunier	SW/D C	Superb	7-7	90%	-	-	-
S3		Georges Santos	D/M C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	96%	-	-	-
S4		Lewis Hamilton	D R	Superb	7-7-9-7-7	90%	-	-	-
S5	Lst	Stephen Warnock	D/M L	Superb	7	90%	-	-	-
S6		Adam Miller	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	85%	-	-	-
S7		Gareth Ainsworth	AM R	Superb	8-7-9-7-7	89%	-	-	-
S8		Youri Djorkaeff	AM RLC	Very Good	7	90%	-	-	-
S9		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	82%	-	-	-
S10		Per Frandsen	AM C	Superb	7-7	91%	-	-	-
S11		Dani	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	90%	-	-	-
S12		Güiza	S C	Good	7-7	88%	-	-	-
-		Marcus Bean	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	78%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Marcus Bignot	D/DM RL	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	31%	-	-	-
-	Yth	Jonathan Burton	D L	Very Poor	7	90%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Darryl Powell	DM C	Superb	7	71%	-	-	-

We play a friendly against Luton Town at Kenilworth Road. Not much to say, as I'm mostly getting to know who will be helpful among the new guys. As would have been expected, we dominated the game in that one, even though the final score ended up being only a 1-0 win for us. Hierro scored our only goal on a deflected shot from 25 yards out.

We outshot them 19(11) to 7(1) with shots on target in the parenthesis, as usual. We won possession with 58%, split evenly accross the field.

Fabrice Fernandes had an ordinary game with a form rating of 6 while newcomer Grzegorz Rasiak played a good game and had the team's only 8 in form rating.


FM

[FrogMan]

July 17, 2005

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Superb	8-7-7-6-7	99%	-	-	-
DR		Lewis Hamilton	D R	Superb	7-9-7-7-7	90%	-	-	-
DL	Lst	Stephen Warnock	D/M L	Superb	7-7	90%	-	-	-
DC		William Prunier	SW/D C	Superb	7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
DC		Hierro	D/DM C	Superb	7-6-7	91%	-	-	-
DMC		Jody Morris	M C	Superb	7-6-7	87%	-	-	-
MR		Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	90%	-	-	-
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	8-8-7-6-8	90%	-	-	-
AMC		Youri Djorkaeff	AM RLC	Very Good	7-7	90%	-	-	-
FC		Kevin Gallen	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	91%	-	-	-
FC		Güiza	S C	Good	7-7-6	88%	-	-	-
S1		Jake Cole	GK	Superb	8-7-8-7	98%	-	-	-
S2		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	93%	-	-	-
S3		Georges Santos	D/M C	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	99%	-	-	-
S4		Matthew Rose	SW/D/DM RC	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
S5		Gino Padula	D/DM L	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	92%	-	-	-
S6		Adam Miller	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	85%	-	-	-
S7		Gareth Ainsworth	AM R	Superb	7-9-7-7-7	85%	-	-	-
S8		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Very Poor	7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
S9		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	85%	-	-	-
S10		Per Frandsen	AM C	Superb	7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
S11		Dani	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	88%	-	-	-
S12		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-7-8	90%	-	-	-
-		Marcus Bean	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	89%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Marcus Bignot	D/DM RL	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	31%	-	-	-
-	Yth	Jonathan Burton	D L	Very Poor	7	92%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Darryl Powell	DM C	Superb	7	72%	-	-	-

We play a friendly against Watford on their pitch. We beat them 2-0 once and drew them 1-1 in our two games against them in the Championship last season. I'm already resting some players that already match fit, giving some others a bit more work.

Watford offer a good opposition early on and even though we score first in the 21st minute, I feel that we're not having a good game. Youri Djorkaeff scored that first goal on a shot from 25 yards out.

Off the bench, Grzegorz Rasiak scores our second goal in the 62nd minute and they reply in the 84th minute when a long shot deflects off Danny Shittu to make it a final score of 2-1 for us.

Güiza is named Man of the Match with a rating of 9. He was the architect behind both of our goals. Chris Day and Hierro both have solid showings with form ratings of 8. Shots were pretty even at 11 on both sides, but we outshot them on target, 7 to 3.

Following the game, I declare my interest for West Brom's Ronnie Wallwork, a 27yo central defender who's also able to play on the right side of the defense. He spent part of last season on a loan with us and he did fairly well, averaging a form rating of 7.17 over 12 games with us. He's currently valued at $320k, but West Brom has transfer listed him with an asking price of $150k that would fit under what's left of my transfer budget. You can see Wallwork's profile by clicking the following thmubnail:


West Brom boss, Bryan Robson is quick to reply that they're ready to listen to any offer we could make for Wallwork. We'll see...


FM

[FrogMan]

July 18, 2005
Interesting twist today, as Abubakari Yakubu, a 23 yo free agent defender (D/DM RC) from Ghana, accepts an offer I had completely forgotten having made to him I guess this takes care of our right fullback problem, at least for now

Yakubu is described as a determined defender and find that he's also quite a physical phenomenon. You can take a look at his profile by clicking the thumbnail below:


He's got average defending skills and much less crossing than what I want from my fullbacks, but his passing isn't bad and as I said, great overal physical abilities. He comes to us as a free agen after being released by Dutch side Ajax where he didn't even play last season, spending the whole season on loan at another Dutch side, Vitesse. There, he averaged a form rating of 6.94 while scoring 4 goals and adding 3 mentions as Man of the Match.

FM

[FrogMan]

July 19, 2005
I offered a contract to a dinosaur today. Seriously, Gianfranco Zola is a 39yo AM/F RLC who's described as a playmaker forward. I knew nothing about him, other than the fact that he played for Chelsea from 1996 to 2003, scoring tons of goals, until I googled his name and came up with a Wikipedia entry to his name. His contract has expired with his current team and he's asking for $39.5k per week with a signing fee of $60k for a one year deal. Since we're so under budget in terms of wages, and looking for a solid striker, I decide to offer him what he wants and while maybe the fans will question the move, I'm sure he could help out my bunch of nobodies, even if only for one season. He's already considering an offer from his current team though. We'll see...

I also offer a 2 weeks trial to a 31yo free agent striker named Artim Sakiri. He's got good secondaries for a striker, but kind of low finishing (9). I'd like to see him play in a friendly or two before commiting an offer to him...

[FrogMan]

July 21, 2005
In an exclusive interview with a football website, West Brom central Defender Ronnie Wallwork has said that he is flattered at reports linking him with a move to Q.P.R.

The centre-back openly stated that he would be foolish to turn down a move to the Rs and will consider any offer they may make him.

Even with the recent acquisition of Yakubu, I look into what it would cost us to get Wallwork to Loftus Road. West Brom still want $150k for him, but there's a glitch. He's currently on loan at Brentford and the transfer would only happen on the next available date, which would be January 1st, 2006. No sense in me making a bid now if we won't see him around for almost 4 months...

FM

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I'm ba-ack

...so I left the game on the shelves, three matches into the 2004-05 season, until Tim's bragging about his Chelsea squad reawakened my senses.

Damn! I thought I had something to do with you going back to the game, especially in terms of egging you on. Good grief, where's the love?

/tk

[thetrain]

gianfranco zola was a great player

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Damn! I thought I had something to do with you going back to the game, especially in terms of egging you on. Good grief, where's the love?

/tk

aw tk, you're in my thoughts everytime when I play. Wait until my players start coming down with the dreaded terpkristinitis, you'll feel the love then

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by thetrain

gianfranco zola was a great player

I don't want to spoil things too much, but I hope he could still be at least a good player

FM

[FrogMan]

July 22, 2005

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Superb	7-7-6-7-8	100%	-	-	-
DR		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	-	100%	-	-	-
DL		Gino Padula	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-6	100%	-	-	-
DC		Hierro	D/DM C	Superb	7-6-7-8	97%	-	-	-
DMC		Darryl Powell	DM C	Superb	7	91%	-	-	-
MR		Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	96%	-	-	-
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	8-7-6-8-7	95%	-	-	-
AMC		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Very Poor	7-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
FC		Kevin Gallen	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	92%	-	-	-
FC		Güiza	S C	Good	7-7-6-9	94%	-	-	-
S1		Jake Cole	GK	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S2		William Prunier	SW/D C	Superb	7-7-7-7	96%	-	-	-
S3		Georges Santos	D/M C	Okay	7-7-7-6-7	100%	-	-	-
S4		Matthew Rose	SW/D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S5	Lst	Stephen Warnock	D/M L	Superb	7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
S6		Adam Miller	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
S7		Gareth Ainsworth	AM R	Superb	9-7-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
S8		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	-	-	-
S9		Jody Morris	M C	Superb	7-6-7-7	94%	-	-	-
S10		Per Frandsen	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
S11		Dani	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
S12		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7	95%	-	-	-
-		Youri Djorkaeff	AM RLC	Very Good	7-7-7	92%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Marcus Bignot	D/DM RL	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	31%	-	-	-
-		Marcus Bean	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
-		Lewis Hamilton	D R	Superb	9-7-7-7-7	96%	-	-	-
-	Yth	Jonathan Burton	D L	Very Poor	7	98%	-	-	-

We play a friendly against League One Bradford City on their pitch today. They finished last season in 17th place on League One.

Prior to the game, I set everyone's training to their positional training. Everyone's been on preseason training since reporting to the team around the beginning of July.

This game is no contest as we're way too tough for Bradford City. Finaly score is a 3-0 win for us with Grzegorz Rasiak scoring two goals off the bench. The other goal was scored by Martin Rowlands after Güiza showed great vision and gave him the ball on a perfect pass.

Grzegorz Rasiak get the MoM with a rating of 8 and 2 goals. We outshot them 13(8) to 1(0). I'm really getting the feeling that he could score a ton of goals for us this season. That is good because that's why I brought him on the team

We did suffer two injuries in the game though. Darryll Powell, who was just coming back from an injury, suffered a twisted knee and he'll miss 2 weeks, while Dani strained his groin and will miss two weeks while sent away on physiotherapy.

Following the game, I get a scout report stating that central defender Ronnie Wallwork is way below the standard of players for QPR. Oh well, it's not like he still figured in our plans, following the signing of Yakubu...

FM

[FrogMan]

July 23, 2005
Today is the day that player numbers have to be turned in. I always like that day, in a sort of childish way. Reminds me of when I was a kid and they were giving us our jersey

Seven of our games have been picked up for live TV coverage in the first half of the season. Maybe my memory is failing me, but I find this to be a bit high. Anyway, I won't complain. Here are the seven matches:


FM

[FrogMan]

July 24, 2005
Woot! Gianfranco Zola says he is delighted to have successfully negotiated terms with Q.P.R.!!! He accepts to join us on a one year deal

Meanwhile, our star left winger Fabrice Fernandes is unhappy and wants a new deal. He says that other players in the division are on far better deals and is unhappy that he's being denied a respectable wage. He's now earning $10.5k per week and is looking to upgrade that to $34.5k per week. My assistant says that while he is a member of the first team, we could easily replace him. I'm not sure I agree with that. Anyway, I offer $30k and a signing fee of $400k to Fernandes while boosting the minimum fee release clause from 9.4M to 18M.

July 25, 2005
Zola arrives to Loftus Road!!! Big press conference and all I give him the jersey number corresponding to his venerable age, #39

He played all last season with Cagliari in Italy Serie A and scored 11 goals, assistig on 9 others while getting 5 MoM and an average rating of 7.42. Here are his stats for last year:

Statistics	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Sh Tar	Fouls	Fls Ag	Av R
Non Competitive	2	0	2	1	0	0	-	57 %	-	-	-	7.50
League	34	9	8	4	5	1	0.03	60 %	44 %	7	-	7.41
Cup	4	2	1	1	0	0	0.25	58 %	25 %	-	-	7.50
Continental	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	----
International	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	----
Overall	38	11	9	5	5	1	0.05	60 %	42 %	7	-	7.42

The guy has been playing forever it seems. Look at his career stats:

Year	Team	Division	Info	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Av R
2005-06	Q.P.R.	Premier Division	Free	-	-	-	-	----
2004-05	Cagliari	Serie A		38	11	9	5	7.42
2003-04	Cagliari			43	13	-	-	-
2002-03	Chelsea			38	14	-	-	-
2001-02	Chelsea			35	3	-	-	-
2000-01	Chelsea			36	9	-	-	-
1999-00	Chelsea			33	4	-	-	-
1998-99	Chelsea			37	13	-	-	-
1997-98	Chelsea			27	8	-	-	-
1996-97	Chelsea			23	8	-	-	-
1996-97	Parma			8	2	-	-	-
1995-96	Parma			29	10	-	-	-
1994-95	Parma			32	19	-	-	-
1993-94	Parma			33	18	-	-	-
1992-93	Napoli			33	12	-	-	-
1991-92	Napoli			34	12	-	-	-
1990-91	Napoli			20	6	-	-	-
1989-90	Napoli			18	2	-	-	-
1988-89	Torres			34	11	-	-	-
1987-88	Torres			24	2	-	-	-
1986-87	Torres			30	8	-	-	-
1985-86	Unknown Club			27	10	-	-	-
1984-85	Unknown Club			4	0	-	-	-

Finally about him, he is described as a playmaker forward with a professional personality. He is currently very unfit, but once he regains match fitness, he should a big help to our club. He clocks in as our only 4 stars player in my assistant's team report. You can view his profile by clicking the following thumbnail:


FM

[Katon]

Nice to see Franco's still doing well. Now I'll definitely have to follow this closely (not that I wasn't doing that already).

[condors]

congrats on the signing! Shame he isn't 19 but he looks like he still has it

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Katon

Nice to see Franco's still doing well. Now I'll definitely have to follow this closely (not that I wasn't doing that already).

Cool, glad to see you on board. I'm seeing one thing though,
Location: Williamstown, MA. Is that new? I always thought you were in England... May be my mind playing tricks on me though...

FM

[SirFozzie]

IIRC, I thought Katon was in London..

If it's new Katon, welcome to the Commonwealth of Massholes

(I can say that, I live here!)

[FrogMan]

July 27, 2005
Fabrice Fernandes signs a new 3 year deal worth $4.4M.

July 28, 2005
Artim Sakiri, a 31 yo free agent striker from Macedonia FYR, accepts a 2 weeks trial with us. He'll get to the team once he gets his work permit.


FM

[FrogMan]

July 28, 2005

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Superb	7-6-7-8-7	100%	-	-	-
DR		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7	100%	-	-	-
DL		Gino Padula	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-7-6-7	100%	-	-	-
DC		Hierro	D/DM C	Superb	7-6-7-8-8	99%	-	-	-
DMC		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	97%	-	-	-
MR		Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	7-6-8-7-8	98%	-	-	-
AMC		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-8	100%	-	-	-
FC		Gianfranco Zola	AM/F RLC	Okay	-	82%	-	-	-
FC		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	96%	-	-	-
S1		Jake Cole	GK	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S2		William Prunier	SW/D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
S3		Georges Santos	D/M C	Okay	7-7-6-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S4		Matthew Rose	SW/D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S5	Lst	Stephen Warnock	D/M L	Superb	7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
S6		Adam Miller	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	97%	-	-	-
S7		Gareth Ainsworth	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
S8		Marcus Bean	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S9		Jody Morris	M C	Superb	7-6-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S10		Per Frandsen	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
S11		Kevin Gallen	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
S12		Güiza	S C	Good	7-7-6-9-7	98%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Marcus Bignot	D/DM RL	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	31%	-	-	-
-	Yth	Jonathan Burton	D L	Very Poor	7	100%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Dani	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	58%	-	-	-
-		Youri Djorkaeff	AM RLC	Very Good	7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
-		Lewis Hamilton	D R	Superb	9-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Darryl Powell	DM C	Superb	7-7	77%	-	-	-
-	Sus	Generoso Rossi	GK	Very Good	-	100%	-	-	-

We play a friendly against Sunderland on their pitch. Gianfranco Zola is in at striker and I give him the playmaker tag and ask the guys to "use the playmaker".

That turned out to be a ugly, ugly game that we lose 0-2. Abubakari Yakubu got injured in the 5th minute and had to go off with a tigh strain that will keep him off the field for 5 days. I turned off the "playmaker" thingie midway through the game.

We got completely shut out of any shots in the first half while they fired 10 shots, 3 of them on target. We ended the game being outshot 13(6) to 3(2)...

FM

[FrogMan]

July 29, 2005
As I write this, I realize that my offer to loan 19yo Christopher Eagles from Manchester United went completely unreported. Well, the offer has just been accepted.

July 30, 2005
Artim Sakiri gets his work permit to come on trial with us. His trial period starts today.

August 1st, 2005
The team board and the fans are now simply pleased with my work as manager of the club.

Igor Protti arrives to the team from Italian side Livorno. As I kind of expected, the fans questions the signing of the 37 year old, but oh well, he's depth at the striker position. And he still got pretty good ratings last season, averaging 7.22 in form rating at Livorno while scoring 7 goals in only 23 games. You can see his profile by clicking on the following thumbnail:


As with Zola, I assigned him the number of his age. In his case, #37

I offer to loan D/DM R Tony McMahon out of Middlesbrough, until the end of the season.

FM

[Katon]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Cool, glad to see you on board. I'm seeing one thing though,
Location: Williamstown, MA. Is that new? I always thought you were in England... May be my mind playing tricks on me though...

FM

Your mind's not playing tricks on you. I just started at Williams College, and it would be kind of tricky to commute to classes from London, so I had to relocate.

[FrogMan]

August 2, 2005

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	PR	Chris Day	GK	Superb	6-7-8-7-6	100%	-	-	-
DR		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-6	88%	-	-	-
DL	Lst	Stephen Warnock	D/M L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
DC	PR	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-6-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DC		Hierro	D/DM C	Superb	6-7-8-8-7	100%	-	-	-
DMC		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
MR	PR	Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	6-8-7-8-7	98%	-	-	-
AMC		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Very Poor	7-7-7-8-7	98%	-	-	-
FC		Gianfranco Zola	AM/F RLC	Good	7	92%	-	-	-
FC		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	94%	-	-	-
S1		Jake Cole	GK	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	100%	-	-	-
S2		William Prunier	SW/D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-6	100%	-	-	-
S3		Georges Santos	D/M C	Okay	7-6-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S4		Lewis Hamilton	D R	Superb	9-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S5		Gino Padula	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
S6		Adam Miller	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	96%	-	-	-
S7		Gareth Ainsworth	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
S8		Christopher Eagles	AM RC	Poor	-	93%	-	-	-
S9		Jody Morris	M C	Superb	7-6-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
S10		Per Frandsen	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
S11	Lmp	Igor Protti	F C	Superb	-	83%	-	-	-
S12		Güiza	S C	Good	7-6-9-7-7	98%	-	-	-
-		Marcus Bean	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Marcus Bignot	D/DM RL	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	31%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Dani	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	51%	-	-	-
-		Youri Djorkaeff	AM RLC	Very Good	7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-	PR	Kevin Gallen	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Darryl Powell	DM C	Superb	7-7	71%	-	-	-
-	PR	Matthew Rose	SW/D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	97%	-	-	-
-	Sus	Generoso Rossi	GK	Superb	-	100%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Artim Sakiri	AM/F LC	Superb	-	100%	-	-	-

We play our last friendly as we host Dutch side Ajax.

Prior to the match, I get the news that Christopher Eagles has accepted to join us on loan until the end of the season. I assigned him a number TWICE his age and only come to #38 Here's his profile:


He's still young and brings depth to the right winger spot in case of injury, or when we'll have that crazy stretch in December/January. As he gets to Loftus Road, he says that he is delighted to we've given him the opportunity to gain some first-team experience. He went on to add that he was still learning his trade and that he felt the loan would be a good step up from playing reserve team football.

One last thing before we play that last friendly: THE ODDS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED!!! And it's with no big surprises that ukbetting.com is setting us with very low odds of winning the EPL title. With prices starting at 1000-1, the bookmakers appear convinced that my team lacks the quality to mount any sort of title challenge (well duh!) in your first season up and that we would do well to stay in the division.

Man Utd and Arsenal have been made 7-4 joint favourites to win the EPL tile while the rest of the contenders come as follows: Chelsea (2-1), Liverpool (3-1), Newcastle (20-1) and Tottenham (33-1).

With that odds annoucement, the media are hounding me. A journalist from the Daily Star approached me with this question: The bookies are tipping you for relegation this season. To you think you will have to bolsted your squad in order to stay up?.

As much as I want to tell that yeah, I'd like to change about half my team, I restrain myself and go with the more upbeat answer that I hope not and I think the players we've got here should be good enough to save us.

Many of my players accept this comment very well. Chris Day, Kevin Gallen, Danny Shittu and Matthew Rose are all pleased I am not looking for re-enforcements to bolster our fight against relegation and they all hope to repay the faith I've shown in teh current squad. Martin Rowlands on the other hand is pleased because he won't have to compete very hard for first-team playing time. hrm...

We finally get to play that final friendly against Ajax and it's a dandy. We went up 1-0 on a beauty of a goal from Cedric van der Gun in the 17th minute, as he converted a perfect from Fabrice Fernandes. We added a second goal in the 72nd minute when Per Frandsen scored on another center from the left, this time from Adam Miller. We win it 2-0, but we got outshot 16(4) to 7(4).

Backup keeper Jake cole is named Man of the Match with a rating of 8.

FM

[FrogMan]

August 3, 2005
Fullback Marcus Bignot resumes light training but is about one full month from being back to full speed. Even when he'll be back, it's not a given that he'll get his starting right fullback spot back.

August 5, 2005
Our offer to loan Tony McMahon has been accepted by Middlesbrough.

August 8, 2005
Dani resumes full training following his physiotherapy sessions.

August 10, 2005
Tony McMahon accepts to go on loan with us, but oops. Looks liek there's a max of 2 domestic players on loan and with Stephen Warnock and Christopher Eagles, we already got our two. It's much more restrictive for EPL teams than in the lower leagues...

I make a bunch of roster moves, sending many players down to the reserves:
Prunier
Santos
Hamilton
Dani (if only to regain form)
Djorkaeff
Bignot (still 4 weeks from being ready)
Gallen
Bean
Powell

We'll keep 22 in the first-team squad for now.

Huhoh, Artim Sakiri's two weeks trial is over without him even playing one minute with us. I gues his arrival coinciding with the arrival of Igor Protti wasn't good timing for him...


FM

[FrogMan]

August 13, 2005

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Superb	7-8-7-6-7	100%	-	-	-
DR		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-6-7	100%	-	-	-
DL	Lst	Stephen Warnock	D/M L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-6-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DC		Hierro	D/DM C	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DMC		Marc Bircham	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
MR		Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	100%	-	-	-
AMC		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Poor	7-7-8-7-7	100%	-	-	-
FC		Gianfranco Zola	AM/F RLC	Good	7-7	99%	-	-	-
FC		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S1		Jake Cole	GK	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	100%	-	-	-
S2		Christopher Eagles	AM RC	Poor	7	100%	-	-	-
S3		Adam Miller	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S4		Per Frandsen	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S5		Güiza	S C	Very Good	6-9-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-		Igor Protti	F C	Superb	7	99%	-	-	-
-	Sus	Generoso Rossi	GK	Superb	-	100%	-	-	-
-		Gareth Ainsworth	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-		Jody Morris	M C	Superb	6-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-		Matthew Rose	SW/D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	-	-	-
-		Gino Padula	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-

League Match #1: we play Charlton at Loftus Road. They finished 16th in the EPL last season, in fact, here's the league at the end of the 2004/05 season:

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	C	Arsenal		38	22	10	6	66	40	+26	76
2nd		Man Utd		38	21	9	8	67	36	+31	72
3rd		Chelsea		38	18	16	4	55	36	+19	70
4th		Liverpool		38	20	8	10	58	41	+17	68
5th		Tottenham		38	20	7	11	55	47	+8	67
6th		Middlesbrough		38	17	12	9	61	47	+14	63
7th		Newcastle		38	17	10	11	52	38	+14	61
8th		Everton		38	17	8	13	50	45	+5	59
9th		Fulham		38	17	6	15	57	46	+11	57
10th		Southampton		38	15	8	15	48	47	+1	53
11th		Man City		38	14	10	14	59	57	+2	52
12th		Aston Villa		38	13	12	13	52	51	+1	51
13th		Crystal Palace		38	13	8	17	39	54	-15	47
14th		Birmingham		38	12	6	20	46	62	-16	42
15th		Bolton		38	11	9	18	39	58	-19	42
16th		Charlton		38	10	7	21	39	55	-16	37
17th		Blackburn		38	10	6	22	35	55	-20	36
18th	R	West Brom		38	9	7	22	36	56	-20	34
19th	R	Portsmouth		38	9	7	22	38	61	-23	34
20th	R	Norwich		38	8	8	22	39	59	-20	32

Charlton should be a team with whom we'll be fighting, but that game was tough. As I've done numerous times in the past, I decide to go into this game without any backup defenders and boy did I pay the price. Before the first time was over, we'd lost Abubakari Yakubu to an injur in th 7th minute (replaced him with AM Per Frandsen) and centreback Hierro in the 41st minute (move Frandsen to DC, put Rowlands as right fullback). On top of that, Marc Bircham had collected his second yellow card in the 37th minute. Rough, very rough...

Despite all that, we came out at the half still tied 0-0 with them outshooting us barely, 4(3) to 3(1).

Stephen Warnock needed help from the physio in the 56th minute but stayed in the game.

They finally scored one to take the lead in the 86th minute, after Chris Day had made two consecutive saves but had let a long rebound fly. We went to all attack for the remainder of the game to no avail.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 0, Charlton 1

This is gonna be a loooong season...

Chris Day is named Man of the Match in the loss with a rating of 9. They outshot us 12(8) to 8(2).

Marc Bircham will be banned for our next match after being sent off, but it's the injury news that will hurt us the most. Yakubu broke his wrist and will miss 4 weeks while Hierro broke his shoulder and will miss a full two months. Crap!


FM

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by Katon

Your mind's not playing tricks on you. I just started at Williams College, and it would be kind of tricky to commute to classes from London, so I had to relocate.

I vaguely recall you mention coming over for school in one of the threads when we discussed television coverage. How're you doing for that?

And good luck, by the way.

[FrogMan]

August 20, 2005

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Chris Day	GK	Superb	8-7-6-7-9	100%	1	-	9.00
DR		Lewis Hamilton	D R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DL		Gino Padula	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	6-7-7-7-7	100%	1	-	7.00
DC		Georges Santos	D/M C	Okay	6-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (7)	-	6.86
DMC		Jody Morris	M C	Superb	6-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
MR		Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Poor	7-7-7-7-7	99%	1	-	7.00
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Good	7-8-7-7-7	99%	1	-	7.00
AMC		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	99%	1	-	7.00
FC		Gianfranco Zola	AM/F RLC	Good	7-7-7	96%	1	-	7.00
FC		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	95%	1	-	7.00
S1		Jake Cole	GK	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	100%	0 (7)	-	7.43
S2		Gareth Ainsworth	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S3	Lst	Stephen Warnock	D/M L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S4		Per Frandsen	AM C	Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	0 (1)	-	7.00
S5		Güiza	S C	Very Good	6-9-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-		Igor Protti	F C	Superb	7	100%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Hierro	D/DM C	Good	8-8-7-7-7	77%	1	-	7.00
-	Sus	Generoso Rossi	GK	Superb	-	100%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Very Good	7-6-7-7	78%	1	-	7.00
-	Sus	Marc Bircham	DM C	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	100%	1	-	6.00
-		Matthew Rose	SW/D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	-	-	-
-		Adam Miller	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-		Christopher Eagles	AM RC	Okay	7-7	99%	0 (1)	-	7.00

League Match #2: we play Middlesbrough on their pitch. They won their first game 1-0 over Crystal Palace and finished 6th last season. They're set to play in the final of the Euro Vase later on this month.

I called Lewis Hamilton and Georges Santos back up from the reserves to replace the injured Abubakari Yakubu and Hierro.

And I regret starting Hamilton with about 3 minutes done in the game, as he gives the ball away to one of their winger who quickly centers it. The centered ball is headed straight in for the 0-1 goal.

The sad defensive showing continues as they move the ball around at will just outside our penalty area until a shot is fired from long range. Down 0-2 after only 10...

They'll add another goal before the end of the half to make it 0-3. They were outshooting us 7(7) to 3(2) at that point and while we shot a few times more in the second, shutting them down mostly because they had pulled back, we just can't get close to converting something.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 0, Middlesbrough 3

It's not going very well right now and our next game is against Arsenal in 11 days, sigh...

FM

[FrogMan]

August 25, 2005
Generoso Rossi's global ban is over!!!

August 27, 2005
The draw for the 2nd round of the League Cup happens. We'll play Coventry on their pitch on September 20. They're in the Championship and we beat them twice last season (2-0 at home, 4-0 away).


FM

[FrogMan]

August 31, 2005

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Unh	Generoso Rossi	GK	Superb	7	100%	-	-	-
DR		Matthew Rose	SW/D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	-	-	-
DL		Gino Padula	D/DM L	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	1	-	7.00
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
DC		Georges Santos	D/M C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	100%	1	-	7.00
DMC		Marc Bircham	DM C	Okay	7-7-7-7-6	100%	1	-	6.00
MR		Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Very Poor	7-7-7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Okay	8-7-7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
AMC		Gianfranco Zola	AM/F RLC	Okay	7-7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
FC		Güiza	S C	Very Good	9-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (1)	-	7.00
FC		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Very Good	8-7-7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
S1		Chris Day	GK	Okay	7-6-7-9-6	100%	2	-	7.50
S2		Gareth Ainsworth	AM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S3	Lst	Stephen Warnock	D/M L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	1 (1)	-	7.00
S4		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Very Poor	8-7-7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
S5		Igor Protti	F C	Superb	7	100%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Very Good	7-6-7-7	65%	1	-	7.00
-		Christopher Eagles	AM RC	Okay	7-7	100%	0 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Hierro	D/DM C	Very Good	8-8-7-7-7	64%	1	-	7.00
-		Jody Morris	M C	Poor	7-7-7-7-5	91%	1	-	5.00

League Match #3: we play Arsenal at Loftus Road. They are the EPL title Holders and even won the Champions Cup last season. They 1-2 favourites to win this game.

I go "what the heck" and put in Generoso Rossi as our starting keeper despite him not having played in over a season. I put Gianfranco Zola in at AMC and Güiza next to Grzegorz Rasiak at striker.

The presence of Zola behind the strikers pays off early as he receives a center from Fabrice Fernandes with an excellent first touch. He then bent it from long range and the ball took a deflection off one of their defender. AN OWN GOAL!!! Up 1-0!

Zola was in the middle of a second goal in teh 32nd minute, as he played a superb pass forward to Güiza who then layed a wonderful ball for Grzegorz Rasiak who converted the superb team move for the 2-0 goal!

The half ended with us up 2-0 but with them outshooting us 9(4) to 3(2). Rossi played a great first half, rating at 8 at that point. He stopped Thierry Henry on a breakaway near the end of the half. Zola was also rating at 8.

They take one back in the 53rd minute, but we'll hang on to our tiny lead. WE WIN!!!

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Arsenal 1

Generoso Rossi and Danny Shittu both got rated at 8. They outshot us 17(7) to 5(3) but it was all in possession, as we won possession with 56%, 27 of those in our end of the field.

Q.P.R. Chairman Bill Power was pleased at the win over our rivals.

FM