Davey Jones Big OE

[Davey Jones]

Davey Jones Big OE

"Overseas Experience (OE) is a New Zealand Term for an extended overseas working period or holiday. Sometimes referred to as "The big OE" in reference to the extended duration of the travel - typically at least one year, and often extended far longer" Wikipedia

Welcome to my first FM16 save and also my first unemployed start with no coaching badges and Sunday League footballing experience.

Meet Davey Jones, 21 year old Kiwi!

I also put most of my attributes towards adaptability.

My goal in this save is that I want to experience management in many different countries and pick up coaching badges while hopefully learning new languages and cultures(well in the game at least...).

My start date is July 2016 and have a medium database loaded with leagues listed below,

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Argentine Premier Division
Australia Hyundai A-League
Brazilian National First Division
Chinese Super League & National First Division
English leagues from Vanarama National League and above
France French National and above
German First and Second Divisions
Hong Kong Premier League
Italian Serie A and B
Malaysian Super League
Russian Premier and First Divisions
Scottish Premiership and Championship
Singapore League
South African Premier Soccer League
South Korea K-League
Spain LIGA BBVA and adelante
United States MLS
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May add and remove leagues in future but above gives me a good chance to travel around the world hopefully.

Hope you guys will enjoy reading this story and I will be taking my time with this save as to not to burn myself out.
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[Davey Jones]

The Job Hunt

Managed to score an interview with the South African football team Polokwane City and the media reckoned I would get the job, only to be unsuccessful.

Spurred on by the setback, I stepped up the job application process and on the 28th July 2015, I got an interview with the Singapore League current champions Warriors FC.

I aced the interview, reassuring the board that I will get the team back into a respectable position on the league table with the current transfer budget and wages. Also promised to maintain a good level of squad harmony after the last predecessor lost the squad confidence after a run of bad results. No philosophies were agreed on which suits me anyway I want to be flexible.

Sure enough, they offered me a 1 year contract.

Singapore Leagues runs from early February to November and effectively I have one and a bit seasons to sort out the team and impress the board.

Time to move to Singapore!

Also if anyone knows how to get large images to work without having the original size thing popping up please let me know, Cheers.
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[Davey Jones]

Current champions play in Singapore League, 36th ranked league in Asia.

Before they officially changed their name on 20 January 2013, they were previously known as the Singapore Armed Forces Football Club (SAFFC) since their establishment on 16 February 1996.

Warriors F.C. is currently the most successful club in the history of the S-League, having won the title a record nine times: in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2014 and finishing second in 4 seasons: 1996, 1999, 2001, 2005.



Woodlands Stadium
In light of the preparation of the 2015 SEA Games, the Warriors had to vacate Choa Chu Kang Stadium and will instead play their home matches at the Woodlands Stadium for the 2015 season instead.

Current Competitions

Bottom of the league with 3 wins from 17 games, knocked out of Singapore Cup, need a win to progress in Singaporean League Cup, knocked out of Asian Champions League and Confederation Cup and won't be playing in either of those next season as only the League winner goes through to Champions League and Singapore Cup winner plays in Confederation.

No wonder why the manager got sacked. Huge job for me to get the squad back on track. Defence needs to be tightened up definitely.

Played Fixture List

Squad Overview

Huge gaps in qualities of players. My best players are mostly the foreigners. My strength lies in the attack and the massive weakness are definitely the goalkeepers. Most of the star players are coming back from injuries with top goalscorer Fazrul Nawaz still ruled out for 3-6 weeks.

Only allowed up to 4 foreigners in the team. Currently have 4, Kevin McCann (RB), Marin Vidosevic (LB), Miroslav Pejic (AML) and Jasper Jones(ML).

Have 7 Singaporean players in the team that have played or currently playing in the international team. Most of others ply their trade in Malaysian Super League and that is where I will start looking to strengthen the team, that is if I survive till end of the season.

With 11 games or more if we survive in Singaporean League Cup, I expect to see a pick up in wins to move up the league table a bit and a chance to really review the squad and decide who will be staying for next season.


I hereby call this job Operation: Fallen Champions

Goals:

This season
- Improve League Position

Next Season
- Strengthen squad in each department with Singaporean Internationals or above average players.
- Be challenging for the title to regain Asian Champions League football.

Onward to my first match which is Singaporean League Cup game against Hougang Utd.

​

 

[Davey Jones]

Personal News

I asked the board if I could start studying for my badges and sure enough they allowed me to do so. Will help out in the long run with the training.

Current Injuries

Have 3 of my best players injured at the moment.

Shl Jlyl is my best central midfielder in the squad, Kario Ivancic is my best attacking midfielder and Fazrul Nawaz is my best striker in the team by the long shot. But the physio has allowed Nawaz to play as his injury only affects his wrist and he can easily wear a small cast.

Media Duty

It was time to front the rabble of media and put down fears of me not being up to task for the club. The chairman joined me as a show of solidarity. We had to be more ambitious to get the club back to where it should be and everybody had to get their ***** in gear to do so.

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Matches

Singapore League Cup

Hougang Utd Group A Match

A must win game to keep us in the competition but the board is not worried if we don't win, nerveless I am going to give it my best shot with the players I have.

Who to choose for the goalkeeping position?

Daniel Ong or Abdul Qadir Yussoff? Both one star rated keepers. It was a tough choice but Yussoff edged it out for me as he is slightly better in one on ones and composure. Also it help he played less games and had a better rating than Ong who must have been the cause of the defensive frailties that lead the club sitting on the bottom of the table.

Tactic

I decided to settle down for a attacking formation, utilizing the strength of the attack. Bennett my 36 year old Singapore ex international centre back is forced to play on the right back as First choice Kevin McCann was ruled out due to injury. Other wise I felt this was a strong squad despite not having Nawaz up front or Ivancic and Jlyl in central midfield.

So Close!

Our Goal

Lead the game from the 38th minute after Hassan broke through the defense after picking up a pass from Pejic and scored. Couple of injuries forced me to abandon the attacking formation and deploy a 3 man defense to sit back and defend, leaving our flanks exposed to their attacks.

Thought we were going to make it despite them peppering our goal and sure enough Ghani found a hole in our defense and scored. Hafiz Rahim and Al Afiq Hamzah were injured, Rahim being the worse of all as I have no attacking right midfielders now for my next match.

Hougang Utd Equalizer

And we are out of the cup competition as we needed a win to get through.

But turns out there is a Loser Stage! A chance for me to see the team more before the league games resume!

Media are predicting we should win easily....
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[Milleg9]

what a fantastic layout, hard to buy in when you don't know the league or players but really good!

 

[Davey Jones]

what a fantastic layout, hard to buy in when you don't know the league or players but really good!

Yeah it is, have zero knowledge of the league or players in Singapore and its been fantastic so far learning and realising this not going to be an easy save, given the quality of the players at my disposal. **** I even have to start retraining my best players in different positions just to spread the quality around!

 

[Davey Jones]

Singapore League Cup Continued

Singapore Recreation Club Loser Stage Semi Final

Decided to stick with this formation again but with no natural right wingers left meant I had to play left winger Irwan Shah out of position. I also decide to bring Nawaz along despite his wrist injury. Sa'ad makes his first team football debut as attacking midfielder.

Dominant display with only goal coming from winger Irwan Shah. My debut player Aminshalfie Sa'ad grabs man of match with an assist and dominant performance.

Our win meant we were going into the Loser Stage Final. Not exactly glorious but it has improved the morale of the team a bit.

Home Utd Loser Stage Final

Injury News

My best right back injured again. He joins a rapidly growing injury list.

Kevin McCann

Former Scottish U21 player is one of the most important players in the team with superb defending and attacking skills in the league plus great determination.

Team

No right backs and wingers so I had to improvise again with Pejic this time covering right wing and central defender Ong shifted out wide and Wheeler brought in alongside Bennett. Nawaz starts this time as I feel he will be useful in creating chances and Sa'ad after his debut performance remains in attacking mid position.

Match details in the next post!
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[Davey Jones]

Singapore League Cup Continued

Home Utd Loser Stage Final

Playing against the team containing the most dangerous attacking player in the league. I would give anything to have him in my team. Actually found an interesting article about him online. Link here if you want to have a look.

Match

7/8/2015 Jalan Besar Stadium. Attendance: 166

Got off to a terrible start...

Sa'ad puts us level with a long range shot, starting to love this guy already!

Despite marking him tight and close, Ilsø manages to get free and scores. 2-1 to Home Utd going into half time.

After the break Shah scores from inside the box. Still footing with Home Utd despite them out shooting us.

What is this? My injured striker gets on the end of a goal! 3-2 to us!

Looked like we were going to make it home around the 90th min, holding on for dear life, but Ken Ilsø had other ideas or a flipping genius idea off hitting what it was either a cross or a shot from the right flank over Yusoffs head and just under the cross bar into the goal! 3-3. Shocked, we went into extra time with players well exhausted.

Extra time came and went with not much happening as players were too exhausted to find good finishing chances. So it went to penalties and Nawaz and Bennett had their shots saved and while Ilsø did miss his too, his teammate Casmir calmly put away the winning one.

Gutted

We could have won the game but we were undone by the brilliance of one Ken Ilsø. I can't fault the team for the effort and at least we have a 16 day break till the league game vs. Hougang Utd. Plenty of time to shape up the defense after two late lapses in the last three games and hopefully some of the injured players will be ready to play again.
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[Davey Jones]

Quick rundown of some of my best players

Miroslav Pejic

My most creative attacking player, hails from Bosnia and can play up front and wide. Will be retraining him to play on the right wing to as I have too many good left wingers.

Marin Vidosevic

Talented 28 year old Croatian, best played as full back but has good attacking qualities, one of the teams best assist provider.

Jasper Johns

20 year old English midfielder, has great teamwork and work rate skills, best deployed on the left but will be played in center as I have a shortage of quality central midfielders.

Fazrul Nawaz

My best striker, 30 year old Singaporean international has good pace and ability to get in behind defences and collect long passes. Also can be played on the flanks.

Daniel Bennett

My oldest and best centre defender, 37 year old, 131 capped Singaporean international still has the ability to play at this level, blessed by his natural fitness and good leadership.
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[Davey Jones]

Hougang Utd - S-League

With McCann injured I had to promote Illyas Lee from Reserve squad to fill the right back position and Ivancic plus Hamzah come back into the squad from their injuries. Probably my strongest first team for each game.

Match

Dominated the team but did not finish our chances and got punished late in the game. Good to see attacking instincts but it is useless if we can't finish it or defend well.

Left back Vidosevic scores from a header putting us in front, only to make a mistake in the 78th minute to allow Hougang Utd to equalize. Still got man of the match though!

Records

A worrying statistic, 9 games without a win.

Media

Despite the draw I was happy to see the squad embrace my attacking methods and its a start of the rebuild job.

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Balestier Khalsa FC - S-League

Media already writing my team off against Balestier Khalsa.

So I mention it is important to look for a balance between attack and defense. Hence my changed tactic.

Pejic finally gets a start on the left wing, Nawaz shifted to the right wing and Farkhan gets a chance up front.
I also reshuffle the defence, pushing Bennett up into the defensive midfielder position and Ong partners with Hamzah.

Match

Pejic shows everyone how it's done!

Pejic scored either side of half time to see us comfortably take the lead and the team put in the second clean sheet since I took over.

Satisfied to break the win hoodoo in the league.

Fixtures

Next game taking on Home Utd and hopefully avenging our penalty loss!

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Home Utd - S-League

I decide it is important we attack as its a home game and my original tactic is the best tactic I can use to include all of my attacking players.

McCann comes back into his favored right back position from injury while last match hero Pejic is back on right wing with Shah taking the left wing. This is my strongest team I can put out and finally all of my best players are together for once.

Match

Defence in put a good shift again and our passing restricted Home Utds ability to attack us. 23 shots to 4! Its a wonder how we did not score anymore goals but I will take the win anyday.

Pejic on fire again!

Records

Lets hope I can keep this run going!

League Table

After 3 games we have moved off the bottom and have a real chance on catching 5th place. Seven games to go!

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[Davey Jones]

S-League
Niigata Unicorn

We come up against the Japanese based team.

No changes to the first team as usual.

Match

Shah cut in from the left and slammed the ball home!

Usual defense frailties allowed Itakura to ****** the late goal for Niigata Unicorn.

I was fuming again with another late equalizer spoiling the points. But in hindsight looking at the stats it was a balanced game.

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S-League
Young Lions

No media predictions(oops). Just say we should win again easily blah blah.

I shift Pejic into the middle, hoping he can spark more creativity and chances, Rahim fills in on the right wing.

A bore draw. Less said, the better.

Upside is that the board is happy with my management apart from the last game.

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S-League
Geylang International FC

A serious chance to pick up points against the bottom team.

After last match debacle I put Pejic back on the left wing and Ivancic returns to the centre. This better work.

Match

Nawaz scores!

Geylang fight back.

With time running out it, Nawaz pops up again and clinches the winner!

Relieved to pick up a scrappy win, Geyland controlled the possession but we had better scoring chances. Nawaz finally breaks a 5 game goal drought to score two and take the Player of the Match.

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S-League
Harimau Muda

Playing against the team packed with Malaysian players.

Being an away game I decide to bring this tactic back so changes were made, Ivancic dropped to the bench, Sulaiman gets a start. A.Hamzah got suspended for picking up too many yellows so Ong gets a rare start.

Match

Concede a goal from a corner via header.

Nawaz carry's on from the last game to score right on half time.

Another bleeping draw. Balanced game again.

League News

Brunei based team managed by Steve Kean(Ex-Blackburn Manager) storm away to win the title.

The gap between 6th and 7th is too big to close down so 7th would be our final position provided we close out the season with wins.

Still no losses in the League but too many draws, 3 wins and 4 draws out of 7 games.​

 

[Davey Jones]

S-League
Tampines

Shah dropped to the bench and Pejic takes the left with Rahim on the right.

Match

Nawaz continues his fine form with a header!

Draws are a theme this season but it is still better than a loss.

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S-League
Hougang Utd

Decided to adopt the defensive approach against Hougang, Jiayl dropped for Sulaiman.

Match

1....

2....

3...

****** there goes the clean sheet!

And the number 4! 4 Goals in 35 mins!
Raham, Pejic and Nawaz getting the goals as we steamroll Hougang!

Best win and unexpected as we recently picked up two draws against them a while ago. Nawaz continues his fine form, 5 goals in 4 games. Possession was split but we were more attacking in the final third and our early start certainly caught the opponent unaware.

Records

Breaking records is a sign I am doing something right!

Just one more game to cover and then its the season review!​

 

[Davey Jones]

October Awards

My in form striker takes Player of the Month

Pejic and Nawaz my deadly combination.

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S-League
DPMM

Playing the recently crowned champions is going to be a tough game as they are managed by Steve Kean who formerly managed Blackburn as they tumbled out of the Premier League. And they only lost one game so far during the season.

Sticking with my best lineup.

A good day in front of the goal taking our chances. Nawaz and Pejic finishing out the season on a high.

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Review Part One

Fixtures I managed this season

10 League games - 5 Wins and 5 Draws plus a run in the League Cup Loser Stage Final. Pretty impressive.

With all games completed we have 7th place locked away, an improvement after we were languishing at 10th when I took over.

Squad evaluation, awards and goals for 2016 season coming soon!
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[Davey Jones]

Review Part 2

A disappointing year for the club.

No surprises on the squad as its already my best players. Nawaz takes the cake with fan player of the year with 11 goals. Jasper Johns is the one to watch for the future, playing well in the team and making himself a dominant midfielder.

Pejic blazed a trail this season in whatever position and is the leagues best left winger. Nawaz picked among the substitutes.

Board happy with my management and improvement in squad harmony.

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Operation: Fallen Champions

Goals:

This season
- Improve League Position - DONE

Next Season
- Strengthen squad in each department with Singaporean Internationals or above average players.
- Be challenging for the title to regain Asian Champions League football.

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Squad

Those selected(Darker) are the players I want to retain the most for next season. It will be my mission to find better back up players considering the amount of Singaporean players there are that are decent players.

Positions I need reinforced the most are the goalkeeper despite Yusoff playing well, a central defender as Bennett is not going to last forever at age of 37 and a good backup striker for Nawaz.

I plan on getting rid of players in the reserves and a few one star rated players in the first team as I want to reduce the wage bill so I can sign Nawaz, McCann, Vidosevic, Johns, Shah and Pejic on new long term contracts.

The one player I missed, Ivancic will be released at the end of next season as he is not good enough for an attacking midfielder, only 2 assists in 12 games. He takes up a valuable foreigner spot and I would be keen to use that spot for a better midfielder or tall striker as most players in the league are short or can't challenge for headers.

Only Jasper Johns has an average rating about 7, Sa'ad does also have above 7 rating but only played 5 games.
As for Assists its spread around with my fullbacks McCann, Vidosevic picking up several, Bennett somehow got 7 but it wasn't during the games I managed. Assist machine goes to Rahim who predominantly plays on the right wing. Hmm I might have to play him more there than Pejic. As for goals Nawaz of course will have the most with Pejic following behind.

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Personal News

Got offered for the Singapore U-23s role in the up coming U23 Asian Cup, held in Qatar over January, just before the new S-League Season starts. I promptly accepted as its a good start to get into international management. Until I had a look at the group we were drawn in. Crikey!

Qatar and Japan are very strong teams who should beat us no problem meanwhile Syria could be a good team to take on for a win. I also had a look at their squads and they are grayed out players, going to be a fun tournament not...

Thank for you following my story so far and if you have anything to comment on about, please do not hesitate to do so! Cheers
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[Davey Jones]

Singapore U-23 Asian Cup 2016

Dashing Mo!

23 players selected, a bit heavy with midlfield players but some of them can also cover defense. You might be able to spot some of my Warriors FC players in the team, Illyas Lee, Aminshafie Sa'ad and Hazim Faiz Hassan.

I was really scrapping the barrel in terms of quality with Adam Swandi being the best player by miles, rated 3 stars. Most of the better players were well over 23 years old and clearly Singapore don't have a great youth system at the moment.

Some friendlies against our neighboring countries yielded tight wins and does not fill me with confidence if we can beat Qatar and Japan.

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Groups

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Qatar

Deciding with the quality of players, I have gone for a very central formation, hoping our firepower up front can do the talking. Swandi left on bench due to recovery from a injury. I have grave concerns we will get beaten for the aerial balls easily due to height of the palyers plus **** poor jumping ability.

Royal trashing, winds were knocked out of us with the early header conceded and they constantly tormented the defense from the wings creating space for their strikers to collect the ball and knock it in. I was just ****** happy to get a goal at all and we did with Aziq finding the net. Only for Qatar to remind us again that heading is a valuable trait to have.

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Japan

Knowing it will be pointless sitting back and letting them attack us I decide we are better off on the attack as Swandi is a creative player in centre of the pitch. I tend to tweak formations on the fly during the match when I have a better handle on how things are going.

Aannnndddd nope! At least they went one better than Qatar. All of Japans goals were finished inside the box which frustrated me a lot as the defense were constantly getting dragged out of positions by pacy strikers.
Swandi's goal on 87th minute a least made things a little better.

As expected really.

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Syria
"Battle of Pride"

A chance for us to savage any pride at the U23 Asian Nations Cup. I went with my strongest squad possible as I was going all out for those points and finish 3rd in the group.

Swandi smashes it in!

Aziq finishes the game off on 81st minute! Our only win but we are going to celebrate it like we won the World Cup or something like that.

Not Last!

I repeat, We are not last!

Oversaw 5 games with two losses during my time as the Singapore U23 manager. Not a bad run but time for me to leave the post and get back to the 2016 Pre-season training with the Warriors FC!

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[Davey Jones]

2016 Pre-Season

Transfers

Despite my plans to bolster the squad with lots of new signings, I only ended up with two that actually can improve the squad. Two Singaporean youth internationals, Faris Azienuddin and Suria Prakash, who you might recognize from my previous Under 23 squad.

Short but talented marker, brought in with a view to be key defensive player in the future.

An up and coming striker, signed as back up to Nawaz. Great potential to be a leading star in the future.

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Current Squad

Still a attack heavy team which suits me anyway due to lack of good Singaporean defensive players. Will be looking to tie down most of the players on longer contacts and have begun releasing reserve players to free up the wage budget.

Media predicts we will get 4th place but I know we can go better than that once we get good results on board.

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Preseason & Upcoming Fixtures

Undefeated pre-season with some convincing wins, good to see Prakash getting on the score sheet.

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Personal

Finished my National C Licence and asked the board if I could being work for National B.

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[Davey Jones]

On Fire!

Played ten games and wow we got off to a winning run, well almost a winning run apart from disappointing Young Lions game.

On a seven game winning streak. Nawaz top scorer with 6 goals. Ivancic is starting to deliver on performances, picking up 3 goals and assisting with 5! Hard to pick the best game as we dominated Tampines and Hougang Utd by 3 goals and been picking up good clean sheets.

We have skyrocketed to the top of the league with a 5 point buffer.

A more thorough report to come near middle of the season.

Stay tuned!​

 

[Yeti01]

Hey mate - just caught up with this. You've really turned them around! Well done!

 

[Davey Jones]

Hey mate - just caught up with this. You've really turned them around! Well done!

Cheers, not an easy task with the resources available.

 

[Davey Jones]

Mid Season Update

Success on the field but disaster is unfolding behind the scenes

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Competitions

First in the League, stretching our lead to 7 points and our goal difference is double off our nearest contender. Also made progress in Singapore Cup, moving into Quarter Finals.

Fixtures

Just one game lost against Young Lions who we have not yet beaten this season and 2 drawn as our goal scorers are starting to struggle for form. I might be the cause of that as I keep playing Nawaz on the right wing as lack of good players on that side.

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Squad Updates and Stats

First up, big injury news

My most creative player out for the season!

And just in the last game Ivancic picked up an injury, keeping him out for 5-6 months, just as he was getting into good form.

Squad morale very good along with most of players forms. My only criticism is Prakash is not scoring enough and he has gone 8 games without a goal, a bit concerning for me. Nawaz leads the goal charts with 8 and Ivancic in assists with 5.

Wage Issues and Contract Renewal

At the moment club spending on wages is over the budget and I can't do much about as most players needed a bump in their salary packages to stay longer. But more worryingly is the fact the board won't make it bigger and its hampering my chances to resign 2/3s of the squad for next season.

Board offered me a contract renewal and I made it clear that for me to stay I needed the Wage Budget bigger along with Transfer Budget. No surprises that the board refused. This might be my last season with the Warriors FC.

Players highlighted in dark grey are the ones that need contracts renewed for next season. At the moment there is no money to do so.

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Singapore League Cup Match

Muangthong Utd, hailing from Thailand and its a greyed out team.

Decided to play a cautious game, went for a counter attacking formation with Nawaz on the right wing and Emmeric Ong sitting in defensive midfield.

Outgunned and constantly being beaten for the ball, it was surprising we made it to the 90 minute mark without conceding a goal. We also lost Ivancic early in the game. Extra time came and went with no luck for both teams and it boiled down to the penalties.

Yussoff makes a critical first penalty save and the boys kept calm and slotted theirs home for us to win!

Just look at the their possession and shots stats compared to ours!!! 35 shots to 10 and 57% possession! Its a miracle we survived at all.

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Upcoming games

Hopefully we can continue our fine form in the league meanwhile making progress in both of the Cups.

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