FM2005: European Football is back at Loftus Road!

[FrogMan]

Well, welcome back my readers and friends, for a new installment of the "Football at Loftus Road" series

This will be my fourth season as the manager of the Queens Park Rangers as we enter the 2007/08 season. If you don't know already, Loftus Road is the name of the Club's home and where we play our home games.

2004/05 was my first and turned out to be a magical season. Out of nowhere, we went all the way to a 2nd place finish and a promotion to the EPL.

I then picked up reporting about my team in my dynasty report format and you can read it in the thread titled "FM2005: Loftus Road to host Premiership football again" which details the 2005/06 and 2006/07 season.

After going easy on the transfers in the offseason before the 2005/06 season, always nervous in a first season up to a new league, we ended up finishing in 14th place.

The following offseason, I unleashed the focking fury on the free transfers and brought many new players, of which 7 were starters by the end of the 2006/07 season. It sure paid off as we went on to play another magical season, culminating to a 5th place finish and a spot in the EUFA Cup!!!

The date is June 15, 2007 and this is where we're at.

I plan on going through the offseason and then, around the time of our last friendly, do my usual positional review of the team and we'll pick up the season from there...

FM

[KevinNU7]

Good Luck!

[Blade6119]

GO GET EM!!!!

[FrogMan]

Thanks guys. I got a little disclaimer I want to put out there though.

As some of you may know (if you wander in the general discussion forum), I have ordered FM2006 and while shipping could take a while and I intend on playing out this season, it could, and will probably be my last one in this career. Let's hope we can make it a good one!

FM

[Galaxy]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Thanks guys. I got a little disclaimer I want to put out there though.

As some of you may know (if you wander in the general discussion forum), I have ordered FM2006 and while shipping could take a while and I intend on playing out this season, it could, and will probably be my last one in this career. Let's hope we can make it a good one!

FM

[finkenst]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Thanks guys. I got a little disclaimer I want to put out there though.

As some of you may know (if you wander in the general discussion forum), I have ordered FM2006 and while shipping could take a while and I intend on playing out this season, it could, and will probably be my last one in this career. Let's hope we can make it a good one!

FM

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

what will i do during the slow parts of my day at work???

[KevinNU7]

Originally Posted by finkenst

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

what will i do during the slow parts of my day at work???

Read his new dynasty about his team in FM06

[terpkristin]

Lookin' forward to the new season, FM!
By the way, you need to update your signature.

/tk

[FrogMan]

June 15, 2007
The European Club rankings have been announced and it's the first time we're listed in there We are listed in 119th place although we are in a seven way tie with a bunch of EPL clubs who've not done anything on the European front in recent years. Charlton is listed first in that group and they're in 113th place.

Here's how all the English clubs are ranked:

Pos	Club	Nation	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	Total
6th	Arsenal	ENG	17.520	17.711	36.256	18.737	28.434	118.657
7th	Man Utd	ENG	26.520	15.711	28.256	11.737	35.435	117.658
10th	Newcastle	ENG	15.520	24.711	15.256	29.737	19.434	104.657
11th	Liverpool	ENG	20.520	14.711	22.256	21.737	24.434	103.657
16th	Chelsea	ENG	5.519	22.711	17.256	17.737	27.434	90.656
44th	Birmingham	ENG	3.519	3.712	5.256	4.737	29.434	46.657
45th	Middlesbrough	ENG	3.519	3.712	20.256	11.737	6.434	45.657
73rd	Tottenham	ENG	3.519	3.712	5.256	15.737	8.435	36.659
79th	Leeds	ENG	11.520	3.712	5.256	4.737	6.434	31.659
80th	Fulham	ENG	11.520	3.712	5.256	4.737	6.434	31.659
81st	Blackburn	ENG	5.519	4.711	5.256	4.737	11.435	31.657
85th	Man City	ENG	3.519	9.711	5.256	4.737	6.434	29.656
93rd	Ipswich	ENG	8.520	3.712	5.256	4.737	6.434	28.659
94th	Norwich	ENG	3.519	3.712	5.256	8.737	6.434	27.657
110th	Southampton	ENG	3.519	4.711	5.256	4.737	6.434	24.656
113th	Aston Villa	ENG	3.519	3.712	5.256	4.737	6.434	23.657
113th	Millwall	ENG	3.519	3.712	5.256	4.737	6.434	23.657
113th	Q.P.R.	ENG	3.519	3.712	5.256	4.737	6.434	23.657
113th	Leicester	ENG	3.519	3.712	5.256	4.737	6.434	23.657
113th	Everton	ENG	3.519	3.712	5.256	4.737	6.434	23.657
113th	Charlton	ENG	3.519	3.712	5.256	4.737	6.434	23.657
113th	West Ham	ENG	3.519	3.712	5.256	4.737	6.434	23.657

And here is the top 20 of the European clubs:

Pos	Club	Nation	01/02	02/03	03/04	04/05	05/06	Total
1st	Juventus	ITA	29.256	12.928	32.327	32.293	39.599	146.402
2nd	Milan	ITA	31.256	16.927	22.327	42.293	20.600	133.402
3rd	Inter	ITA	28.256	15.928	20.327	34.293	33.599	132.402
4th	Valencia	ESP	27.114	29.722	24.313	31.222	18.317	130.688
5th	Barcelona	ESP	31.114	16.722	18.313	33.222	25.317	124.688
6th	Arsenal	ENG	17.520	17.711	36.256	18.737	28.434	118.657
7th	Man Utd	ENG	26.520	15.711	28.256	11.737	35.435	117.658
8th	Deportivo	ESP	19.114	21.722	23.313	23.222	23.317	110.688
9th	R. Madrid	ESP	27.114	21.722	11.313	30.222	20.317	110.687
10th	Newcastle	ENG	15.520	24.711	15.256	29.737	19.434	104.657
11th	Liverpool	ENG	20.520	14.711	22.256	21.737	24.434	103.657
12th	Roma	ITA	17.256	12.928	17.327	24.293	29.600	101.403
13th	FC Bayern	GER	6.017	10.555	24.719	21.114	36.665	99.069
14th	Werder Bremen	GER	7.017	1.555	36.720	34.115	18.664	98.070
15th	Celtic	SCO	23.433	15.432	15.763	11.856	26.969	93.453
16th	Chelsea	ENG	5.519	22.711	17.256	17.737	27.434	90.656
17th	Sevilla	ESP	5.114	4.722	12.313	33.222	34.317	89.687
18th	Porto	POR	24.547	26.381	11.135	15.172	12.364	89.598
19th	Dortmund	GER	18.017	6.554	30.719	5.114	25.664	86.068
20th	Benfica	POR	3.547	13.381	33.134	19.172	13.364	82.597

June 16, 2007
Gareth Ainsworth announces that he will retire on June 19, 2008. His contract with us runs out this June, so he will retire with another, if not right at the end of this season, based on his loan spell last season...


FM

[FrogMan]

June 20, 2007
Woah, big day today!

Danny Shittu was voted Q.P.R.'s Player of the Year by the club's supporters. It's is second POY award in a row.

The U18 squad received a new batch of youngsters. I don't see much interesting in them but once my assistant points out Bob Cooke as an exciting player for the future, I must admit I am intrigued. The kid is a 15yo MC described as a promising midfielder. The nice thing about him is that he's got the determination to maybe succeed with us. That he is only 15 is something pretty impressive in itself...

We're given $24.5M for EPL TV rights for the upcoming season. This boosts our bank account balance to $55.3M, even after dividends of $8.6M have been paid to the shareholders.

Among other news, I go WHAT!!! Due to strong local opposition, the local council have denied the club planning permission for the proposed ground improvements. Took a while for me to understand that it meant no upgrades to the stadium... bleh!

We did sign a new sponsorship deal worth $3.6M per annum. This deal wiil run for 2 years.

Even more money flowing as I'm given $10.5M in transfer budget for the new season. This is the highest budget I've ever been given with Q.P.R. I'll now think about first hiring a new assistant...

The team board are delighted with my performance as manager of the club. they also inform me that the team is expected to achieve a respectable league position within the EPL in the coming season. The fans, as usual, are a bit more demanding. They expect the team to qualify for Europe this season. In short, they want nothing less than a repeat of what we've done this season...


FM

[bulletsponge]

sweet. last season huh? FM06 is coming out soon and im starting to get that itch again

[FrogMan]

re: this...

Originally Posted by Galaxy

and this...

Originally Posted by finkenst

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

what will i do during the slow parts of my day at work???

I appreciate the concerns guys, thing is doing it the way I do it is very time consuming and it'll be kind of fun to pull away from it to learn the intricacies of the new iteration of FM2006

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

Read his new dynasty about his team in FM06

This won't happen for a little while though, if it happens at all. I'll need to get acquainted and comfortable with the new game before I feel ready to do a dynasty report again. I'm a bit overwhelmed and intimidated by all the new interactions I see happening in the game and reporting it the way I'm used to could get crazy in no time...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Lookin' forward to the new season, FM!
By the way, you need to update your signature.

/tk

thanks, sig updated

FM

[FrogMan]

June 22, 2007
I need a new assistant manager, as my current assistant, Willibert Kremer is set to retire tomorrow...

I've seen a few that have the skill set I'm looking for (high ability to evaluate player ability & potential, high reputation, high motivational skills) but one is clearly standing out from the others and that is Liverpool's 52yo scout, Terry Berry. The guy's got 20's just about everywhere. Funny thing though, when I go to offer him a contract, he says it would take him a very large contract offer for him to even consider agreeing terms to come be a scout for us, but when I'm talking about an assistant manager position, he simply wants to earn as much as what he's earning at Liverpool, which is a tiny $3,000 per week. I offer him that. If we were to agree to terms, we would have to pay Liverpool a compensation of $600k. Just so you know, my team board would allow me to offer him up to $16,000 per week as an assistant. I've seen them top the offer to as low as $5,000 for some other prospects so they must see the same good things in him that I see myself. On top of it all, you can't beat a name like Terry Berry

June 23, 2007
As was planned, Willibert Kremer retired today.

Terry Berry has agreed a deal with Q.P.R though and he will replace Kremer as my assistant. You can see his profile below and you have to agree with me that he's got it all to be a great assistant.


Seeing how I now realize that some of my coaches do royally suck, I also start looking for some replacement ones. I find this free agent scout, a 36yo Swede name Pär Zetterberg, former member of the Sweden national team, with which he scored 6 goals in 29 caps. Anyway, while he is listed as a scout, I find that he'd be much better suited to be a coach and I offer him a contract to come coach for us, contract that he accepts in the minute. You can see his profile below and you'll probably agree that he is indeed better suited to be a coach as he can coach both outfield players, goalkeepers, and work with youngsters better than he can evaluate player abilities and potentials.



FM

[FrogMan]

June 25, 2007
Hrm, the Q.P.R. reserves squad has booked 4 friendlies, weird. I think it's the first time ever I've seen my reserve team book friendlies. Okay then...

Burnley are the only offer team to offer us a friendly. It's for July 21st and I accept it.

I make a friendly offer to our rivals Arsenal for July 6 and they accept it. I know it's a bit early, but I see that the first leg of the EUFA Cup 1st qualifying round is on July 12th and I'm not too sure if we'll be in there or not... We'll know soon since they say the draw for that round should happen on June 29.

June 30, 2007
I learn that our friendly with Arsenal will be shown on TV.

The EUFA Cup draw for the First qualifying round has come and gone and no English team was in there. At worst, we'll play in the 2nd Qualifying round which is only on August 9, or 2 days before the start of our regular season. I will book friendlies then.

Friendly offers that were sent and accepted:
07/16 Real Madrid at Loftus Road
07/26 Chelsea at Loftus Road.

Friendly offers that were sent and rejected:
07/11 FC Bayern at Loftus Road
07/30 Luton Town at Kenilworth Road (!)

I always like to go play a game at Kenilworth Road, for old times sake. If they don't care, well screw them!


FM

[FrogMan]

July 1st, 2007
It's the "Christmas day in July" event of the year

Simon Jentzsch arrives to Loftus Road from Wolfsburg.

Flamboyant winger Christian Wilhelmsson arrives to Loftus Road from Crystal Palace.

hahaha, former Ranger left winger Adam Miller arrives to York City and tells their fans that his ability with a football will leave them drooling I guess conference level is at least high enough for him because he sure never got our supporters drooling...

I see something kind of funny. Many of our players with expiring contracts have decided to stay at the club on month-to-month contracts. I've seen it in the past with a player here or there, but this time, there five of them. They are: Marcus Bignot, Chris Day, Paul Dickov, Gino Padula, and Lewis Hamilton. I let them all but Hamilton stay for now.

July 2, 2007
Youssouf Hersi arrives to Loftus Road from Vitesse.

Woah, I see that Simon Jetzsch is rated as a 5 star player on Terry Berry's team report. Christian Wilhelmsson is the only play with more than a star, at 2 stars. We had a few 2 stars last season when players were match fit and all, so I'd assume we'll have a few again later on in the season...

I make a few friendly offers. Deportivo accept our offer to come play at Loftus Road on 07/11 but Rangers reject two offers for a friendly on July 31. They don't want to play us either at Loftus Road or on their pitch...


FM

[FrogMan]

July 3, 2007
I decide to declare my interest in 22yo Brazilian fullback César Augusto Fawcett. He's a left fullback and it's not as if I'd really need him, with the glut of left fullbacks that we have, but I remember from another life and though it'd be nice to see if there's any interest to let him go...

July 4, 2007
Friendly offers get rejected by both Roma and Ajax, then in a try to doa two games tour of Scotland, I get rejected by Dundee and Celtic, and again rejected by Paris and Marseilles for a possible two game tour of France. Oh well...

The manager of Real Sociedad, where César Augusto Fawcett is currently playing, has sent a resolute hands-off message to any club interested in buying him, following speculations that Q.P.R. are leading the race to sign the fullback. The Los Txuri-Urdin boss declared that the 22yo fullback is a valuable asset to the club and will not be leaving under any circumstances...

FM

[FrogMan]

July 6, 2007

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	-	84%	-	-	-
DR		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	84%	-	-	-
DL	Unh	Steve Singh	D/DM LC	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	81%	-	-	-
DC	Lmp	Pascal Cygan	D C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	82%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-8-5-7-7	83%	-	-	-
DMC	Unh	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	82%	-	-	-
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Okay	-	82%	-	-	-
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	8-7-8-7-9	83%	-	-	-
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Okay	-	95%	-	-	-
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-9-6-8-7	82%	-	-	-
FC	Lmp	Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	82%	-	-	-
S1	Unh	Generoso Rossi	GK	Very Good	7-8-6-6-8	82%	-	-	-
S2	Wnt	Jonathan Burton	D LC	Superb	-	80%	-	-	-
S3	Unh	Arthur Gnohéré	D C	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	83%	-	-	-
S4		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	81%	-	-	-
S5		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	83%	-	-	-
S6	Unh	Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	-	83%	-	-	-
S7	Lmp	Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-8-6-7-7	82%	-	-	-
S8		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	83%	-	-	-
S9	Lmp	Chris Dawson	M R	Very Good	-	81%	-	-	-
S10	Lmp	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Very Good	7-8-5-8-7	80%	-	-	-
S11		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Good	7-7-6-8-7	83%	-	-	-
S12	Lmp	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	82%	-	-	-
-	Unh	Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	84%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Chris Day	GK	Very Poor	9-7-8-6-6	82%	-	-	-
-	Lst	Jody Morris	M C	Okay	-	83%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Paul Dickov	S C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	83%	-	-	-
-	Int	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	85%	-	-	-
-	Wnt	Lee Porter	D L	Superb	-	42%	-	-	-

Friendly #1: we play Arsenal at Loftus Road.

Well, not as many new faces on the starting eleven this season as there was at this point last season, technically only Youssouf Hersi and Christian Wilhelmsson. Steve Singh is getting a chance with the first squad and Jonathan Burton will see playing time at centreback.

I see that Thierry Henry has suffered a broken foot in traing in early May and he's still 2 months away from coming back.

This game is on TV and Simon Jetzsch is mentionned as our key man and Ashley Cole as Arsenal's. Arsenal are 4-6 favourites to win this one.

We moved the ball really well early on, even after Christian Wilhelmsson had been sent of for getting his second yellow in the 32st mintue. A that point, shots were 7(2) for us, nothing for Arsenal...

Grzegorz Rasiak showed he could still score goals when he converted a pass from Peter Lovenkrands.

1-0 at the half, shots stille highly in our favour: 9(3) for us, still nothing for them.

Had this been a league match, I would have altered our formation and tactics, but I left it with two strikers and no attacking middie, since I wanted us to play two strikers.

That resulted in a comeback from Arsenal that saw them score 3 in the second half to take the game 1-3. One goal was allowed by Jentzsch but the last two were let in by Rossi in the 83rd and 88th minute.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 1, Arsenal 3

We outshot them overall, 15 to 6 but they beat us on target, putting all their 6 shots on target compared to only 5 for us.

Peter Lovenkrands still got selected Man of the Match with a rating of 8, same rating that was given to Youssouf Herssi (I agree) and Generoso Rossi (strongly disagree). For some reason, maybe he didn't like that Rossi was the keeper for the last 23 minutes, Simon Jentzsch rated at 6...

It's still only a friendly though...


FM

[FrogMan]

July 7, 2007
Machester City accept my offer of a friendly at Loftus Road on July 29. This makes it 6 friendlies for now.

I learn that Freddy Guarín has been called up to the Colombia squad for the Copa America. It starts on July 11 and the final is played on July 28. Hopefully he'll play enough to get in game shape and get a friendly with us before the season starts for good...

July 9, 2007
Benfica accept my offer for a friendly to be played at Loftus Road on August 4. This will be our seventh and last friendly, exactly one week before the start of our EPL season. With them and Deportivo and Real Madrid, we will have played three non-English club who are listed in the top 20 in Europe... Add to that Arsenal and Chelsea, that's a nice preseason...


FM

[FrogMan]

July 11, 2007

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	6	95%	-	-	-
DR		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	95%	-	-	-
DL	Unh	Steve Singh	D/DM LC	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	95%	-	-	-
DC	Wnt	Jonathan Burton	D LC	Superb	7	87%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-5-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
DMC	Unh	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Okay	6	91%	-	-	-
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	7-8-7-9-8	95%	-	-	-
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Okay	8	95%	-	-	-
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	9-6-8-7-7	88%	-	-	-
FC		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	-	-	-
S1	Unh	Generoso Rossi	GK	Very Good	8-6-6-8-8	95%	-	-	-
S2		Pascal Cygan	D C	Very Good	7-7-8-7-7	87%	-	-	-
S3	Unh	Arthur Gnohéré	D C	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	93%	-	-	-
S4		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	92%	-	-	-
S5		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
S6	Unh	Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7	90%	-	-	-
S7		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	8-6-7-7-7	86%	-	-	-
S8	Unh	Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
S9		Chris Dawson	M R	Very Good	7	86%	-	-	-
S10	Lmp	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Very Good	8-5-8-7-7	85%	-	-	-
S11		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Good	7-6-8-7-7	85%	-	-	-
S12	Lmp	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	75%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Chris Day	GK	Very Poor	9-7-8-6-6	93%	-	-	-
-	Int	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	-	-	-
-	Wnt	Lee Porter	D L	Superb	-	53%	-	-	-
-	Lmp	Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	79%	-	-	-

Friendly #2: we play Spanish side Deportivo at Loftus Road.

This game is on TV and again, Simon Jentzsch is listed as our key man. That had to be a good signing I would think... Juan Carlos Valerón is Deportivo's key man. They are 4-6 favourites to win this game.

Deportivo show a 4-2-3-1 formation and boy do we kill it with ball control early on. Rochemback plays a nice pass ahead of Güiza who's all alone with the keeper but with a bad angle. Hersi is sitting, unmarked, on the penalty spot and Güiza relays him the ball for an easy goal in an open net. 1-0 after only 5 minutes.

1-0 is the halftime score. Shots on target are not very high as they are outshooting us 8(1) to 5(1).

Van der Gun scored the clincher in the 58th minute when he took control of a shot from an impossible angle by Rowlands.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Deportivo 0

Not that we dominated them, but I feel that we showed that we belonged with a team of that calibre. Yeah, it's still only a friendly, but I feel good with how we played in that one. We outshot them 15(5) to 10(1) on the game.

Martin Rowlands was selected Man of the Match, but only because I subbed him out right after his nice shot on goal. Everybody else rated at 7, except Peter Lovenkrands who had to leave the game after 15 minutes, injured. He shows up uninjured after the game though.


FM

[FrogMan]

and with that I can say I am finally caught up on my reporting. I got behind on October 10, with the long weekend due to the Canadian Thanksgiving, and was havign a hard time getting caught up. I even took some time to fiddle around with the FM2006 demo this week, in order to not go so much forward that it wouldn't make sense for me to do the positional review...

Now we can plow forward, you still with me?

FM

[TonyR]

Just started reading your dynasty FM. Keep up the good work!

[mrkilla22]

Goodluck this season Frogman!

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Among other news, I go WHAT!!! Due to strong local opposition, the local council have denied the club planning permission for the proposed ground improvements. Took a while for me to understand that it meant no upgrades to the stadium... bleh!

My first thought: Move!

But, uhhh, that's just FOF creeping in.

[finkenst]

Originally Posted by daedalus

My first thought: Move!

But, uhhh, that's just FOF creeping in.

hehehe

likewise...

[KevinNU7]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

July 7, 2007
Machester City accept my offer of a friendly at Loftus Road on July 29. This makes it 6 friendlies for now.

I learn that Freddy Guarín has been called up to the Colombia squad for the Copa America. It starts on July 11 and the final is played on July 28. Hopefully he'll play enough to get in game shape and get a friendly with us before the season starts for good...

July 9, 2007
Benfica accept my offer for a friendly to be played at Loftus Road on August 4. This will be our seventh and last friendly, exactly one week before the start of our EPL season. With them and Deportivo and Real Madrid, we will have played three non-English club who are listed in the top 20 in Europe... Add to that Arsenal and Chelsea, that's a nice preseason...


FM

YAY! I love Benfica!

[FrogMan]

July 16, 2007

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	6-7	100%	-	-	-
DR		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	99%	-	-	-
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	96%	-	-	-
DC	Wnt	Jonathan Burton	D LC	Superb	7-7	95%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	5-7-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
DMC	Unh	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	-	-	-
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Okay	6-7	91%	-	-	-
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	8-7-9-8-6	99%	-	-	-
AMC		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	91%	-	-	-
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	6-8-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Good	6-8-7-7-7	92%	-	-	-
S1	Unh	Generoso Rossi	GK	Very Good	8-6-6-8-8	98%	-	-	-
S2		Pascal Cygan	D C	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
S3	Unh	Arthur Gnohéré	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	94%	-	-	-
S4	Unh	Steve Singh	D/DM LC	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
S5		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
S6	Unh	Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7-7	94%	-	-	-
S7		Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Very Good	5-8-7-7-7	91%	-	-	-
S8		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	92%	-	-	-
S9	Wnt	Lee Porter	D L	Superb	-	81%	-	-	-
S10	Unh	Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	93%	-	-	-
S11		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	8-7	99%	-	-	-
S12		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
-		Chris Dawson	M R	Very Good	7-7	92%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Chris Day	GK	Very Poor	9-7-8-6-6	98%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	6-7-7-7-7	82%	-	-	-
-	Int	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	90%	-	-	-

Friendly #3: we play Real Madrid at Loftus Road.

The game is on TV and both keepers, Simon Jentzsch and Iker Casillas, are listed as both team's key men. Real Madrid are 4-6 favourites to win this game.

Güiza is part of our first 2 goals in the first half, although it goes very late in the half. He scored on a shot from 30 yards out in the 44th minute then sent a nice pass ahead of Critiano Lucarelli who then scored, 41 seconds into injury time.

The halftime score is 2-0 and we're outshooting them 8(4) to 4(1) at the time.

Danny Shittu pushes David Beckham inside our penalty area in the 65th minute. PENALTY!!! An unknown 18yo kid steps up for the kick BUT JENTZSCH SAVES IT!!!

Grzegorz Rasiak is pushed on a long throw inside their penalty area in the 86th minute. PENALTY!!! Marc Bircham, seeing some of the rare action he'll see this season, scores to make it 3-0.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 3, Real Madrid 0

We outshot them 12(6) to 9(3), a dominant performance.

Güiza was selected Man of the Match with a goal and a rating of 8, but 5 others also rated at 8: Jentzsch, Yakubu, Wilhelmsson, Lucarelli, and Rossi.

Youssouf Hersi and Fábio Rochemback both finished the game with a green cross next to their names and that makes me feel a tad nervous at first. They're both okay though and I breathe a sigh of relief.

FM

[FrogMan]

July 20, 2007
I learn that our friendly against Chelsea on July 26 will be presented on TV.

July 21, 2007
Squad numbers have to be confirmed today. Always a fun part of the season as I try to pick numbers that I think match player personalities. For example, I go check what Jon Dahl Tomasson's number is with is current team and I make sure it'll be available for him once he makes the move to Loftus Road...

Only 4 of our first half games have been picked up for TV coverage and I'm a bit disappointed by that. Here are the four games:
09/09, vs Tottenham at Loftus Road
09/30, at Fulham
10/27, at Chelsea
12/02, at Cardiff

Kinda surprised they didn't pick the Arsenal game...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

My first thought: Move!

But, uhhh, that's just FOF creeping in.

heheh, but you know what, I was kind of blindsided by that news. Here I am, almost 12 months of calendar year after firing up that FM2005 game for the first time and I'm still experiencing new stuff...

And not to spoil things, but be prepared for some other new, and kinda funny stuff in the next few updates

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by TonyR

Just started reading your dynasty FM. Keep up the good work!

a new addictee, weehee

Welcome aboard, I hope you'll have as much fun reading it as I have living it

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by mrkilla22

Goodluck this season Frogman!

Thanks!



FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

YAY! I love Benfica!

hehe, for some reason, the German and Scottish sides were reluctant to come to Loftus Road, but the Spanish and Portuguese were quite happy, so heh, let's go

FM

[KevinNU7]

I hope there's a lot of updates today, I'm quite bored at work

[FrogMan]

hahaha, back around lunchtime

FM

[FrogMan]

July 21, 2007

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	6-7-8	100%	-	-	-
DR		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	100%	-	-	-
DL	Wnt	Lee Porter	D L	Superb	7	94%	-	-	-
DC	Wnt	Jonathan Burton	D LC	Superb	7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DMC	Unh	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Okay	6-7-8	96%	-	-	-
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	7-9-8-6-7	96%	-	-	-
AMC		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	96%	-	-	-
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Good	8-7-7-7-8	96%	-	-	-
S1	Unh	Generoso Rossi	GK	Very Good	6-6-8-8-8	100%	-	-	-
S2		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	97%	-	-	-
S3	Unh	Arthur Gnohéré	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
S4		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S5		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
S6	Unh	Steve Singh	D/DM LC	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S7		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	6-7-7-7-7	89%	-	-	-
S8		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
S9	Unh	Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	93%	-	-	-
S10		Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Very Good	8-7-7-7-7	92%	-	-	-
S11		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	8-7-7	98%	-	-	-
S12		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
-	Int	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
-	Unh	Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7-7-7	94%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Chris Day	GK	Very Poor	9-7-8-6-6	100%	-	-	-
-		Chris Dawson	M R	Good	7-7	98%	-	-	-

Friendly #4: we play Burnley on their pitch. This is our only preseason friendly against a "lower" level kind of team.

We move the ball around with ease early on and Cedric van der Gun is the recipient of a team effort by Peter Lovenkrands and Christian Willhelmsson in the 25th minute. He scores to make it 1-0.

That is the halftime score and we're outshooting them 8(4) to 4(0) at that point.

Youssouf Hersi doubles our lead in the 84th minute when he converts a pass from Grzegorz Rasiak.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Burnley 0.

We outshot them 15(8) to 6(1) in a kind of flat game for us, even though we won 2-0.

Youssouf Hersi rated at 8 and received the Man of the Match selection, but Tomas Locatelli was the only other Ranger to receive a rating higher than 7.

We're having a good preseason so far though. Seeing some nice teamwork and some nice movement of the ball from one wing to another.

FM

[FrogMan]

July 25, 2007
Always looking for possible improvements to the club, I spot this left fullback name simply Juanfran. He's a 31yo Spaniard with good to great skills everywhere a full back needs them. I know we don't really need a new fullback for the future, but I got a feeling he could be an improvement over Michael Ball, or at least platoon with Ball when we'll have games with less rest in between. More than anything, he's a free agent and I'd be looking to get him on the cheap side. He's looking for a 2 year contract worth around $33,000 per week with a signing on fee of $90k. My assistant believes that he would be no more than a fringe player at the club and recommend restricting our offer to $17,500 per week. I listen to my assistant but still feel I should offer him just a tad more and I offer him $20k per week with a bonified signing on fee of $200k.

July 26, 2007
I get a reminder of the Q.P.R. players who are entering the last year of their contract. You can see a list of them right here:

Pkd	Inf	Name	Squad Status	Weekly wage	Expires	Prot	Value
-		Danny Moss	Youngster	$400	3.1.2008	No	$10K
-		Jamie McCoy	Youngster	$440	26.2.2008	Yes	$170K
-		Darren Parsons	Youngster	$440	5.5.2008	Yes	$10K
S7		Tomas Locatelli	Key Player	$41,000	30.6.2008	Yes	$4.8M
S9	Unh	Martin Rowlands	First Team	$24,000	30.6.2008	Yes	$4.4M
S1	Unh	Generoso Rossi	First Team	$23,000	30.6.2008	Yes	$2.4M
FC		Grzegorz Rasiak	Key Player	$11,000	30.6.2008	Yes	$5.2M
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	First Team	$30,000	30.6.2008	Yes	$8M
-	Ine	Jake Cole	Rotation	$360	30.6.2008	Yes	$280K
-		John Fletcher	Youngster	$160	30.6.2008	Yes	$110K
-	Ine	Scott Donnelly	Rotation	$1,500	30.6.2008	Yes	$6.2M
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	Key Player	$41,000	30.6.2008	Yes	$6.8M

Of these, Martin Rowlands and Generoso Rossi are probably gone at the end of the season. The status of some other players will depend greatly on how much they contribute to the team this season. Among these are Tomas Locatelli, Grzegorz Rasiak, Fabrice Fernandes, and Cristiano Lucarelli.

I'm still unsure about youngster Scott Donnelly.


FM

[FrogMan]

July 26, 2007

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	6-7-8-7	100%	-	-	-
DR		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	100%	-	-	-
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DMC	Unh	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Okay	6-7-8-7	98%	-	-	-
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	91%	-	-	-
AMC		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	96%	-	-	-
FC		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	-	-	-
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Good	7-7-7-8-7	98%	-	-	-
S1	Unh	Generoso Rossi	GK	Very Good	6-8-8-8-7	100%	-	-	-
S2		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S3	Wnt	Lee Porter	D L	Superb	7-7	98%	-	-	-
S4	Wnt	Jonathan Burton	D LC	Superb	7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S5	Unh	Arthur Gnohéré	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S6	Unh	Steve Singh	D/DM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S7		Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	93%	-	-	-
S8		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
S9	Unh	Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	99%	-	-	-
S10		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-8	92%	-	-	-
S11		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	8-7-7-8	98%	-	-	-
S12		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	98%	-	-	-
-	Unh	Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Chris Day	GK	Very Poor	9-7-8-6-6	100%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	9-8-6-7-7	81%	-	-	-
-	Int	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	79%	-	-	-

Friendly #5: we play Chelsea at Loftus Road.

This game is on TV and Simon Jentzsch is again presented as The Rs' key man. Pablo Aimar is the one for Chelsea. They are 4-5 favourites to win this game.

Chelsea show a narrow 4-1-3-1-1 formation with 3 MCs in the middle of the field.

I go woah in the 10th minute after Cristiano Lucarelli who had just received a quick pass from Christian Wilhelmsson, exchanged the ball with Fabrice Fernandes before firing a powerful shot. A great sequence that means we're up 1-0 early on.

1-0 is the halftime score but they are outshooting us 4(1) to 2(1).

Pascal Cygan is either having a seizure in the 52nd minute, or he's watching out for the ladies in the stands, but he lets go of a short pass from Steve Finnan to the penalty area. One of their strikers gets to it and ties the game 1-1.

We left a man all alone in the 6 yard box in the 73rd minute and they make us pay for it. Down 1-2.

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

Not our finest, as they outshot us 9(4) to 5(2) although we stayed close and even had the lead at one point.

Following the game, my scout reports back on 22yo centreback from Chelsea, Robert Huth and he tells me he would be a decent signing. I decide to declare my interest in the kid, publicly revealing that I'm keeping tabs on the youngster to possibly expand the squad at Loftus Road.

July 27, 2007
Chelsea boss José Mourinho seems to be indicating that the central defender Robert Huth can leave Stamford Bridge, with Queens Park Rangers expressing an interest in signing the player. The 22yo player has been the subject of transfer speculation in the media and Mourinho has fanned the flames by declaring that he would be prepared to sell should the price be right.

That's always the thing with Chelsea, the right price for them isn't always right for me... We'll see...


FM

[FrogMan]

July 29, 2007
First, the nice little news that'll make KevinNU7 happy. I learned that our friendly against Benfica on August 4 has been picked up for live TV coverage, giving us 5 of our 7 friendlies on TV.

Now for the big one. What do you do when, in the middle of your emails, you see something that says "Ivory Coast want Gougeon"??? In the email, one simple sentence that I had never read before: "The Ivorian Football Association have offered you the job of Ivory Coast manager".

"HUH! Where did that come from???" was my first reaction, then I smiled How cool is that?

A quick look through their players tells me they have some good ones despite being fed by only 5 clubs. They were also the winners of the 2006 African Cup of Nations, which I thought was very impressive.

Then I thought, "and why not?!?!" and I accepted the position

Ivory Coast appoint Gougeon as manager
The Ivorian Football Association have named Q.P.R. boss Steve Gougeon as the new national coach.

With Gougeon set to divide his time between club and country, it remains to be seen whether a conflict of interests will emerge or whether he will cope with the additional pressures.

The Ivorian FA let me know up front what their expectations are. They expect me to ensure that the national team do not embarass themselves during the qualifiers for the World Cup. They realise that Ivory Coast may not be the strongest footballing nation in the world but they want me to ensure the country retain their sense of pride.

Just what I like, taking control of an underdog

I see only two games in their list of fixtures and they're the two legs of World Cup Qualifiers against Madagascar, at home on October 13 and away on the 17th.

I'm thinking of bringing my patented 4-1-2-1-2 formation to Ivorian football fans and here's the selection I can see at first:

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Gérard Amoukou Gnanhouan	GK	Superb	6-7-6-6-7	100%	-	-	-
DR		Emmanuel Eboué	D/DM RL	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	100%	3	-	7.00
DL		Arthur Boka	D/DM L	Okay	6-7-7-8-7	94%	-	-	-
DC		Guy Demel	D/DM C	Very Good	5-6-7-6-6	100%	-	-	-
DC		Abdoulaye Meïté	D C	Superb	8-7-6-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DMC		Didier Deguy Zokora	D/DM C	Okay	6-6-6-6-7	100%	-	-	-
MR		Salomon Kalou	AM R	Superb	7-6-6-7-7	100%	-	-	-
ML		Kanga Gauthier Akalé	AM L	Very Poor	5-6-6-6-6	100%	-	-	-
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Okay	7-8-6-7-7	100%	-	-	-
FC		Didier Drogba	S C	Superb	8-10-7-7-6	94%	3	-	6.67
FC		Arouna Koné	S C	Very Good	7-8-7-8-7	100%	-	-	-
S1		Daniel Yeboah	GK	Very Good	7-6-7-7-6	100%	-	-	-
S2		Joël Venceslas Kouassi	D RC	Superb	8-7-6-6-7	100%	-	-	-
S3		Marc-Eric Gueï	F LC	Superb	8-8-8-8-7	100%	-	-	-
S4		Tchiressoua Guel	AM RC	Superb	7	100%	-	-	-
S5		Yaya	AM C	Very Poor	9-8-6-7-9	100%	-	-	-
S6		Eli Kroupi	S C	Superb	8-7-7-8-8	100%	-	-	-
S7	Wnt	Aruna	F RC	Superb	8-8-6-5-7	75%	-	-	-
-		Guillaume Faddoul	GK	Very Poor	6-6-6-6-6	97%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Cedric Konan	F RLC	Superb	6-7-7-7-8	76%	-	-	-
-	Inj	Kolo Abib Touré	D RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	50%	3	-	7.00
-	Lmp	Zoro	D/DM R	Good	7-6-7-6-7	77%	-	-	-

I remember seeing Bonaventure Kalou while looking for players with unprotected contracts and yep, his contract is still unprotected, but runs out only in 2008 and he's got a value of $19M... Drogba will be an anchor up top and Kolo Abib Touré, once he's back from injury, will be anchoring the defense.


FM

[KevinNU7]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

July 29, 2007
First, the nice little news that'll make KevinNU7 happy. I learned that our friendly against Benfica on August 4 has been picked up for live TV coverage, giving us 5 of our 7 friendlies on TV.

**Runs to television and immediately puts it on RTP**

[KevinNU7]

Congrats on the offer. I'd love a run down of the Ivory Coast's qualifier group

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

Congrats on the offer. I'd love a run down of the Ivory Coast's qualifier group

I'll be posting about both squad in this thread here and I have more news about the squad still to report. What do you mean "a run down"? What teams are with us and such?

Not sure, but I think we are sort of pre-group stage, cause I don't remember seeing a group table and we don't have games books with many teams, only this two leg series with Madagascar, so I'm thinking we probably need to pre-qualify before we get to qualification in group stage...

FM

[FrogMan]

July 29, 2007

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	6-7-8-7-6	100%	-	-	-
DR		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	95%	-	-	-
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	-	-	-
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	-	-	-
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
DMC	Unh	Fábio Rochemback	DM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	-	-	-
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Okay	6-7-8-7-7	94%	-	-	-
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	9-8-6-7-7	90%	-	-	-
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	8-7-7-8-7	94%	-	-	-
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	94%	-	-	-
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Good	7-7-8-7-7	94%	-	-	-
S1	Unh	Generoso Rossi	GK	Very Good	8-8-8-7-8	100%	-	-	-
S2		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	-	-	-
S3	Unh	Steve Singh	D/DM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	92%	-	-	-
S4	Wnt	Jonathan Burton	D LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	-	-	-
S5	Unh	Arthur Gnohéré	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
S6		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	89%	-	-	-
S7		Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	90%	-	-	-
S8		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	92%	-	-	-
S9	Unh	Martin Rowlands	AM RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	91%	-	-	-
S10		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7	92%	-	-	-
S11		Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	-	-	-
S12		Grzegorz Rasiak	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	91%	-	-	-
-	Int	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	73%	-	-	-
-	Unh	Marc Bircham	DM C	Very Good	7-7-7	100%	-	-	-
-	Ctr	Chris Day	GK	Very Poor	9-7-8-6-6	100%	-	-	-

Friendly #6: we play Manchester City at Loftus Road. It's their 3rd of only 4 booked friendlies while it's our 6th of 7. I like having many friendlies to get the guys match fit...

We take the lead in the 29th minute when Cristiano Lucarelli fought for a header in a crowd of players in front of the net. He won his battle and was able to send Christian Wilhelmsson's center following a short corner kick to the back of the net. Up 1-0.

That's the halftime score and we're outshooting them 6(5) to 3(1) at that point.

We add another goal to our lead very late in the game, in the 83rd minute to be exact, when Grzegorz Rasiak shows he really wants to play first team by beating a defender and then burying the ball for the goal.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Man City 0.

We outshot them 11(7) to 5(1). Gotta love a high total of shots on target like that.

Following the game, I learn that Juanfran has accepted our offer and has agreed to join Q.P.R. on a free transfer. To play for us, he rejected offers from German side Gladbach and Spanish sides Osasuna and Zaragoza. He will play in our last friendly and I wouldn't be surprised to see him have some success with us. You can view his profile below.


He's got a great skill set and he's coming off two great season:

Year	Team	Division	Info	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Av R
2006-07	Besiktas			13	0	3	2	7.62
2005-06	Besiktas			50	2	19	8	7.52

While I know that Besiktas is a lower level team, you gotta be impressed by his stats of two seasons ago:

Statistics	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Sh Tar	Fouls	Fls Ag	Av R
Non Competitive	1	0	0	0	0	0	3.00	75 %	-	-	-	7.00
League	33	1	15	7	6	0	3.24	90 %	38 %	16	-	7.70
Cup	7	1	2	1	2	0	2.57	89 %	40 %	2	-	7.14
Continental	10	0	2	0	0	0	3.00	73 %	-	11	7	7.20
International	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	----
Overall	50	2	19	8	8	0	3.10	86 %	36 %	29	7	7.52

19 assists is very impressive although I'd think he also played winger in that season...


FM

[FrogMan]

July 30, 2007
Robert Huth has said that his rumoured transfer to Q.P.R. is pure speculation. The central defender told Skysports.com that he had a contract with Chelsea and was more than happy to stay there.

Oh, okay... Let's try something. Huth is valued at $5.2M and I offer Chelsea that. I doubt it'll be enough, but we'll see...

Here's a tidbit about the Ivory Coast national team. They are currently ranked 38th in the world, not too shabby. Here are the complete world rankings:

Rank	Nation	Points
1st	Brazil	1266
2nd	Italy	968
3rd	Spain	956
4th	France	940
5th	England	927
6th	Bulgaria	926
7th	Japan	890
8th	Belgium	879
9th	Romania	855
10th	Argentina	851
11th	Germany	846
12th	Portugal	842
13th	Uruguay	841
14th	Nigeria	814
15th	Greece	807
16th	Holland	804
17th	South Korea	798
18th	Mexico	794
19th	United States	781
20th	Denmark	770
21st	Russia	769
22nd	Poland	756
23rd	Colombia	755
24th	Czech Republic	740
25th	Costa Rica	721
26th	Republic of Ireland	720
27th	Scotland	715
28th	Egypt	703
29th	Sweden	702
30th	China PR	700
31st	Uzbekistan	699
32nd	Turkey	696
33rd	Vanuatu	694
34th	Serbia and Montenegro	689
35th	Croatia	688
36th	Cameroon	684
37th	Jordan	682
38th	Ivory Coast	668
39th	Senegal	656
40th	Morocco	638
41st	Honduras	629
42nd	Slovakia	628
43rd	Ecuador	624
44th	Saudi Arabia	623
45th	Peru	621
46th	Jamaica	617
47th	Iran	616
48th	Iceland	611
49th	Wales	611
50th	Norway	609
51st	Paraguay	607
52nd	Australia	606
53rd	Chile	605
54th	Tunisia	587
55th	Kuwait	582
56th	Bolivia	580
57th	Ghana	575
58th	Algeria	568
59th	South Africa	568
60th	Guinea	566
61st	Belarus	559
62nd	Finland	558
63rd	Zambia	558
64th	Oman	555
65th	Ukraine	551
66th	New Zealand	547
67th	Georgia	546
68th	North Korea	544
69th	Canada	542
70th	Democratic Republic of Congo	535
71st	Bahrain	527
72nd	Angola	526
73rd	Lithuania	525
74th	United Arab Emirates	515
75th	Bosnia and Herzegovina	513
76th	Trinidad & Tobago	513
77th	The Congo	511
78th	Venezuela	509
79th	Israel	508
80th	Switzerland	506
81st	Iraq	502
82nd	Zimbabwe	501
83rd	Latvia	499
84th	Solomon Islands	495
85th	Tajikistan	493
86th	Thailand	489
87th	Albania	484
88th	Samoa	484
89th	Hungary	478
90th	Qatar	477
91st	Slovenia	471
92nd	Liberia	462
93rd	Mali	458
94th	Syria	458
95th	Burkina Faso	457
96th	Kenya	451
97th	Panama	447
98th	Northern Ireland	444
99th	FYR of Macedonia	442
100th	Cyprus	441
101st	New Caledonia	434
102nd	Lebanon	423
103rd	Togo	419
104th	Austria	416
105th	Mozambique	414
106th	Chinese Taipei (China PR)	407
107th	Turkmenistan	395
108th	Libya	391
109th	Vietnam	390
110th	Moldova	378
111th	Gabon	370
112th	Indonesia	369
113th	Cuba	362
114th	Papua New Guinea	362
115th	Madagascar	361
116th	Malawi	359
117th	Swaziland	358
118th	Tahiti	355
119th	Yemen	354
120th	Sudan	353
121st	Surinam	351
122nd	El Salvador	345
123rd	St Kitts & Nevis	341
124th	Malaysia	338
125th	Mauritius	338
126th	Azerbaijan	337
127th	Guatemala	337
128th	Malta	337
129th	Rwanda	337
130th	Lesotho	328
131st	Uganda	327
132nd	Fiji	325
133rd	Armenia	320
134th	India	315
135th	Ethiopia	313
136th	Nicaragua	313
137th	American Samoa	312
138th	Burundi	311
139th	Singapore	308
140th	Myanmar	307
141st	Namibia	306
142nd	The Gambia	303
143rd	Sierra Leone	303
144th	Benin	302
145th	Haiti	299
146th	St Vincent & The Grenadines	295
147th	Luxembourg	289
148th	Estonia	287
149th	Tanzania	281
150th	Kyrgyzstan	279
151st	Tonga	265
152nd	Aruba	264
153rd	Grenada	264
154th	Saint Lucia	264
155th	Bermuda	259
156th	Chinese Taipei (China PR)	257
157th	Botswana	248
158th	Dominican Republic	241
159th	Faroe Islands	239
160th	Guam	234
161st	Palestine	233
162nd	Netherlands Antilles	232
163rd	Sri Lanka	232
164th	Antigua & Barbuda	230
165th	Anguilla	224
166th	Chad	224
167th	Eritrea	222
168th	Bangladesh	218
169th	Barbados	206
170th	Maldives	204
171st	US Virgin Islands	195
172nd	Belize	193
173rd	Dominica	191
174th	Equatorial Guinea	191
175th	San Marino	191
176th	Laos	189
177th	Cape Verde Islands	187
178th	Pakistan	181
179th	Liechtenstein	180
180th	Kazakhstan	178
181st	British Virgin Islands	172
182nd	Central African Republic	171
183rd	Seychelles	167
184th	Bahamas	159
185th	Guyana	159
186th	Niger	159
187th	Cook Islands	153
188th	Puerto Rico	151
189th	Mauritania	149
190th	Nepal	147
191st	Andorra	140
192nd	Cayman Islands	140
193rd	Mongolia	140
194th	Cambodia	128
195th	Macau (China PR)	108
196th	Guinea-Bissau	102
197th	Bhutan	94
198th	Somalia	93
199th	São Tomé & Principe	92
200th	Brunei Darussalam	90
201st	The Philippines	86
202nd	Montserrat	53
203rd	Afghanistan	52
204th	Turks and Caicos Islands	38
205th	Djibouti	34

As you've noticed, I've decided to do something for whenever I'm reporting about the Ivory Coast squad. I will post in orange. If anybody has trouble reading it, please let me know.

July 31, 2007
Oddschecker.com have announced their odds and Man Utd and Arsenal have been made 6-4 joint favourites to win the EPL title this season.

The rest of the main contenders are: Chelsea (7-4), Liverpool (5-2), Newcastle (40-1), and Tottenham (40-1).

Woah, coming at 40-1, the bookmakers appear convinces that with a good run of results you have an outside chance of mounting a title challenge. The pricse also reflects the fact that they would not place you amongst the hot favourites this season.

Still, we're price the same as other teams mentionned as "main contenders", that's kind of flattering...

Seeing how their schedule is really empty, I decide to book a few friendlies for the Ivory Coast squad. I offer and receive positive response for the following four friendlies:
09/01, vs Belgium (8th in the world)
09/05, vs Senegal (39th in the world)
10/06, vs Norway (50th in the world)
11/10, at Nigeria (14th in the world)

I'm hoping these friendlies will give me a better idea of where the team stands and who's worthy of a start and who's not, especially the first three, all played before our two World Cup qualifiers.


FM

[FrogMan]

August 1st, 2007
The team board is delighted with my work, so delighted in fact that they decided to untie the purse and increase my transfer budget. The board are pleased to announce that as a result of an improvement in the Club's financial position, they have raised my current transfer budget by $17.5M to 27.5M. WEEHEE!!!

In the middle of the hoopla, Raul Sánchez and Jon Dahl Tomasson both arrive to Loftus Road, respecitvely from Salamanca and AC Milan.

August 3, 2007
My bid for Robert Huth has been rejected without an offer to negotiate by Chelsea. I may bid again later in the month, we'll see...

I spot a defender who I think would be of great use for us. The name is Arne Friedrich, 28yo German fellow currently playing at Dortmund. The guy's a tackling machine, averaging over 8 tackles per game. He's valued at $8.4M although I see they paid some $25M to bring him to Dortmund a couple seasons ago. I take a chance and offer them $8.4M for him.

As evidenced by my interest in Huth and now Friedrich, I'm interested in either some depth, or maybe a difference maker on the defensive line. We'll see what I can find...


FM

[FrogMan]

August 4, 2007

Friendly #7: we play Benfica at Loftus Road in our seventh and last friendly.

Danny Shittu loss some practice time due to injury this week and because of that, his condition is a bit low.

Following where my assistant has him listed in his team report, I give the start to Jon Dahl Tomasson in the AMC spot. We've built some great depth and that means leaving some players on the bench...

I just now realize I forgot to save the pregame lineup. Since it's only a friendly, I won't bother with it.

The game is on TV and Simon Jentzsch is still our key man while Petit is the one for Benfica. They are evens favourites to win this game.

The first half ends in a 0-0 tie that was everything but boring. We outshot them 6(3) to 1(1) and kept mounting attacks after attacks after a rough start to the game.

In the 55th minute, Fabrice Fernandes knocks the ball away from an opponent's feet and regain possession. He turns around and tries a long shot that finds the back of the net. Up 1-0!

in the 61st minute, Martin Rowlands doubles our lead with a precise strike on a free kick from 25 yards out. Up 2-0!

Danny Shittu only came into the game in the 75th minute, but still scored a neat goal heading in an incoming corner kick into injury time.

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

We outshot them 15(9) to 2(1) on the game and clearly dominated possession. We're done with our friendlies and I have the feeling we've shown we can compete with other top level European clubs. I know, these were only friendlies, but still, I'm happy with the results.

Chelsea signed an Italian named Daniele De Rossi for $30M. Yeah so what? And I thought the same but was seriously amused by his skill set. Look at how many "15" there are in there...


Now done with friendlies, I'll get to the positional reviews before moving forward to the last few days before the start of the season and the season itself...

FM

[KevinNU7]

With the chance for Euro glory I think it is wise that you are adding depth as you will need more then just 11 players and solid subs to be competitive.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

With the chance for Euro glory I think it is wise that you are adding depth as you will need more then just 11 players and solid subs to be competitive.

agreed, if we go forward to any kind of level in the EUFA cup, we'll play many more games than we played last season...

FM

[FrogMan]

Team Overview 2007: Goalkeepers

KEEPERS	depth	Position	Age	aer	coa	com	ecc	han	kic	one	ref	rus	pun	thr	pos	jum	bra
Jentzsch, Simon	1	GK	31	13	14	14	9	14	12	17	17	14	12	14	14	17	16
Rossi, Generoso	2	GK	28	12	13	13	7	15	14	12	13	13	15	13	12	12	13
Day, Chris	3	GK	32	13	12	12	7	11	9	12	16	14	7	7	4	13	7
Morgan, Dean	4	GK	19	12	12	11	3	14	12	10	10	3	6	12	12	10	7
Cole, Jake		GK	21	9	11	12	6	11	8	10	13	12	10	7	8	10	15
McCoy, Jamie		GK	18	12	7	3	3	10	5	7	6	5	8	5	4	4	12

The signing of Simon Jentzsch should be a welcome addition to the club although I must say that much maligned Chris Day and Generoso Rossi didn't do all that bad last season. They only had the ability to drive me completely crazy with bad games, or bad starts to game, from which they never recovered.

Hopefully, Jentzsch will be able to shoulder the biggest part of the load, as I've sort of lost confidence in Rossi, even though he's got the skills to be effective when asked upon.

Chris Day remains with the club on a month to month contract. He's a nice insurance policy and it's not as if we're that tight under the wage budget.

As an extra this season, I'll post what the position looked like in 2005/06, so only two seasons ago

Team Overview: Keepers (2005)

FM

[terpkristin]

I gotta say, when I saw that your stadium wasn't going to be expanded after all, because of the town, I started wondering if you could then ask your board to expand your transfer budget, since they weren't spending the money on the stadium. Cool to see they did decide to give you more money for the transfers.

And *very* cool about the IC position!!!

Note, I only can read your dynasty in the evenings, so please don't think I'm ignoring you! Those "real world" and "job" things are kind of limiting my reading time!! (not a complaint, really)

/tk