Micky Pain
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August 2010.
The new season is just about to begin, Leeds United are once again back in the Premier League and have just earlier today lifted the Community Shield.
An amazing feat after some truly stunning games and, honestly, loads of shear luck.
So before I delve into the new season, let's recap the story so far.
Do we really need another Leeds story, you ask?
Absolutely not, but who's to stop me?
So here we go....
DISCLAIMER:
I do try different teams, but sooner or later I always end up with Leeds again, so to make this save different from my previous attempts, I employed a little "soft-cheating" in the beginning.
By that I mean, I started the game a few weeks earlier than the start of the season, mainly to be able to arrange proper friendlies for some cash, and to have enough time to search for some decent staff. It was just a bit of a head-start for me, and realistically speaking, a new manager wouldn't start working at the day the transfer window opens, now would he?
I will try to recollect the previous two seasons to the best of my abilities, but some areas will probably remain a bit cryptic until I reach the here and now, so bare with me.
Also, I won't be putting screens up, for one cos I'm lazy, and secondly, and more importantly, my upload speed here is so low that it would take me 10-20 minutes to put up any screens, and frankly, I can't be bothered. In the future, maybe, right now, categorically no.
Early June 2008
For obscure and undisclosed reasons I become manager of Leeds United. It appears the board decided the first guy of the streets couldn't do a worse job than what was already happening, so here I am.
No assistant manager is in place, so the first order of business is to hire one. I scout, I offer but I get shut down from every one of my targets. It should be another few month before I am able to fill that position.
In the meantime, it is time to schedule some friendlies, both to create revenue (and thereby spending money) for the coming season, and to assess the state of the team.
Also, the list of players that do not fit into my plan is already firmly in my mind.
In the following weeks, many high-profile teams would be arriving to compete at Elland Road, with Manchester United and City, Juventus, Inter Milan, Galatasaray only some of the names.
After being rejected upon my first invitations, I appealed to their greed and offered them a share of my projected profits.
My best scout was send on a roaming assignment into eastern Europe and would find quite a few interesting players for me during the course of the season.
July 2008
All in all, up to the start of the transfer window, the club had recorded a record-profit of over 7 million. Great, I think, time to go shopping.
But wait, of all the money I brought into the club, none made it into my transfer budget, and my request for more funds was shut down "until I prove myself to the club".
In any case, I offloaded players that didn't fit into my plans, most notably Prutton, Angkergen and Robinson with some semi-decent deals that at the very least allowed me to hire some need blood for the coming season.
My major signings were Guus Joppen as DC and Adam Larsen as my new GK, for a combined 600k.
I managed to sign Stephen Appiah and Zamora as free agents, and two more who must have been so unimportant that the names just won't come to mind right now.
Pre-season was in no short terms sensational, both in terms of revenue (which I wouldn't see until January of the next year) and results. Amongst the highlights were a draw against Milan, a (dumb-luck) 1-0 victory over Juventus and 2 victories and one draw over Galatasaray, although both Manchester teams beat us quite heavily.
2008 - 2009 Season
All in all a fairly standard season. The board found Newcastle as a parent club, which helped out a lot in getting cheap loans since the budget was tight early on, we completely under-performed in the League cup after loosing our second game to a League 2 team (Grimsby, I think) and I started to fear for the worst.
The biggest challenge early in was the sheer number of injuries. Frazer Richardson broke his leg in the first fixture and would not play a single game in the entire season. Delph and Appiah both carried their share of knocks and minor injuries, Beckford was out for many weeks on end and many many small knocks and injuries lead me to hardly ever playing the same line-up twice in a row.
So, after the unlucky League cup exit, clouds were on the horizon....
Up stepped Howson and Michalik, about the only two players that managed to stay virtually injury free, and between the two of them scored most of my goals.
Michalik was just unstoppable at corners, and Howsosn speed down the wing and his ability from direct free-kicks made him probably the best player in my squad.
That said, despite a rough start to the season, the team came together and held a solid 2<sup>nd</sup> place going into the January transfer window.
Finally, some of the money I made playing all those super-clubs was made available, and head-first I jumped into the bidding war.
I sold a few more players that never played and most notably signed Kaldec, Delfouneso, Lua Lua, Illic, Milan Smiljanic(who would turn out a real ***) and Christian ***.
Almost all my money spend, the future truly depended on winning the league now (wage and transfer budget stretched tighter than Joan Rivers face....).
That said, with the exception of the FA cup, the team won almost everything, winning the League 1 with a comfortable margin as well as lifting the Johnston's Paint trophy.
2008/2009 Post-Season – 2009/2010 Pre-Season
With the season over, it was time to scavenge talent from recently relegated teams all over Europe.
One notable signing was Filip Trojan, from recently relegated St. Pauli who turned out a sublime left-winger for my team.
The team was once again combed for the weaker links, and players such as Becchio and Shownummi were finally creating interest from other clubs.
Newcastle send me a decent goalie on loan, as I didn't have any adequate cover for Larsen in goal, which meant I could save my transfer money by not needing to hunt for a new keeper this time around.
I staked my reputation (and my job) on declaring to challenge for the title to squeeze every penny out of the board for transfers.
One of my biggest finds was Dimitris Papadopulous (spelling?). The former Greek international striker joined me for a pittance as a free agent, and was by far my best scorer in the first half of the coming season.
Right about now, my troubles started to happen with some of my more prominent players
(see http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/f55/heavy-depreciation-of-players-t19900.html ).
Basically, bigger clubs were declaring interest in my star players, leading them from unhappy to flat out refusing to co-operate (e.g. straight red cards in matches, not showing for training sessions, etc).
Normally, I would have let them go, but both my ambitions were in jeopardy with those key players leaving and my transfer budget was tight without having to shop for replacements.
That, and both players had vastly depreciated in value. Milan Smiljanic (the aforementioned ***) had dropped from around 3M to just over 500k, and I was absolutely unwilling to let him go for next to nothing compared to what I payed for him.
Luckily, Appiah was injured going into the season, so no-one bid on him, and Delph declared in no uncertain terms that he has no intension of leaving Elland Road in the near future.
Anyway, I was hoping for the best as the season started, basically praying for my unsettled players to either regain their happiness or at least a fraction of their value so I could replace them properly.
2009/2010 Season
Again, a few injuries here and there, but not as bad as last season. The start was OK with spurts of brilliance followed by completely avoidable defeats by bottom-table teams, but we found ourselves always bouncing up and down between 3<sup>rd</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup>, not too bad for the first season.
Once again, the League cup continued without us after the 3<sup>rd</sup> round, but we steadily installed ourselves within the top four in the league table.
Not too bad a feat with the relegated West ham, Hull City and Fulham making up the other three teams.
My two problem players were still unhappy coming into mid-season, but their sub-par performance coupled with a few injuries didn't exactly lift either spirit or value.
The plan was hatched to loan them out come January, hope for a team to cover their wage and keep them until next season. With the possibility of Leeds gaining promotion to the Premier League, they just might come around and stay....
The January window opened, my latest signings finally arrived, and what signings they were....
Adailton and Jaoa Paulo from Brazil joined my team, Aleczic (spelling?) arrived as well.
The latter was actually an accidental signing – I mistook my scouting reports and signed him instead of the midfielder I was gunning for, which unsettled Beckford (too many strikers) so that I impulsively transfer listed him right on the spot.
I brought in Espen Ruud to cover for the loaned-out Illic and the injury prone Richardson to finish my transfer frenzy.
About that time I switched my tactics from my former 4-5-1 variant to a slower 4-4-2 play (based on Brian Clough Tactics by JP Woody but with a tad more speed and counter attacks, and a variation of it with wingers instead of MR and ML).
The first few games seemed promising, not scoring much but conceding even less, and slowly, going into February I reached the top spot in the league for the first time.
Adailton paired with Papadopulous started to really tear up the opposition (with the former becoming my teams top scorer in only half a season), my midfield really clicked and the added speed in defense with Ruud and Jaoa Paulo managed to cut down most opposition before they even had a chance to challenge my keeper.
I managed to slowly leave the 2<sup>nd</sup> place in the league behind, at times leading by 12 points or more before a laps in concentration cost me a game or two, but for a brief period of only around 2 weeks I never relinquished that top seat anymore (and then only because I had games rescheduled due to international duties or cup games).
Yes, cup games.
I was determined to prove my worth to the club, drawing a few non-league teams early on (Kettering for one) and my goal was – don't loose to any team lower than yourself.
It was almost over against Birmingham, I only just equalized in extra time before seeing them off at home with a solid 2-0 performance.
The field was thinning out, and I got a lucky draw with Bristol City in the next round. Although a Premier League team, they were very much beatable (with the extra incentive of having loaned my unhappy Illic to them).
I was going into the game with mixed feelings. For one, we had a great run, and maybe concentrating on the league would be more beneficial in the long run, but I'd be damned if I went without a fight.
I was actually able to field my choice starters for this game, and pundits had me slightly favored even we played away from home.
To cut to the point, after trailing at half time, I had the first experience of players praising me after the game for my inspiring team talk. I don't remember what I said exactly, but the second half almost seemed as if I was previously only playing my reserves. We dominated, and only bad luck prevented us from only scoring two goals to win the match.
I was elated to say the least, and for the first time that tiny voice emerged saying, maybe, just maybe, this is our year....
The League games were going well, by now the team was really playing as a unit, and the next cup round was coming up with us drawing Sunderland.
Again, a quite beatable team, I thought, with, as it happened, my other loaned-out player on their side.
It was another hard-fought match, but Leeds remained resolute and emerged victorious.
By now we we were the only non-premier league team still running, and that in itself is a great achievement.
I was watching the other teams match-ups with anticipation.
Some unexpected results had Newcastle, Manchester City and Manchester United advance to the semi finals.
As luck would have it, we were matched with Newcastle, probably the easiest of the remaining teams.
Leading up to the game, I was close to tears – my star goalkeeper was out injured, and my backup was a loan from Newcastle – and not eligible for the cup tie.
Literally the day of the tie, Larsen was back in business, a huge relief for my side.
The game was played in Wembley, star line-up all ready, excited, terrified, all that and a bag of chips.
And it turned out a truly unremarkable match....
Little chances, we never dominated, we never were dominated, somehow scored twice, conceded once and then it was over. It felt like an end-season game, with the place in the table decided, nothing to win, nothing to loose, just 90 minutes of play – until it sunk in.... We reached the f'ing final.
How exactly did that happen?
By now, the league was all but over.
We drew against the second, demolished the 3<sup>rd</sup>, lost against the 22<sup>nd</sup>, and 5 games to go, we clinched promotion, and won the league with 4 games to go.
Time to play all my subs, lest I injure one of my star players before the historic bout against Manchester City (who somehow kicked Man U out of the cup).
I was not exactly hopeful, seeing as how they had literally demolished my team in Pre-Season on home ground, but with our recent performances I gave us at least an outside chance.
The big day and, I must say, the most exciting game I had so far. City had a few injuries to starters, but they came out flying, and how and how often they missed my goal and tested Larsen when they hit, I was rapidly loosing confidence. About 30 minutes in, one of the most clinical counter attacks that I have ever witnessed had Adailton give me the 1-0 at half time.
Great, I think, leading at the half against a team that is CLEARLY better than us, there's really nothing I know in team talk that they can let me hold on to that. I praised, declared faith, and only peaking between the fingers covering my face I had to endure the equalizer after only 3 minutes played in the second half.
We were hammered, overrun, all that and more, but City just couldn't hit the goal, two crossbar attempts not withstanding. With time almost up, another brilliant move between Adailton and Alczic, almost an exact replica of our first goal, had us go up by one.
The last five minutes or so of that game must have been the longest of any game I played, and Larsen almost giving it up right there with a botched clearance. The whistle was sweetest sound I have heard since starting that save.
Leeds United, FA cup winners.
It was all coming together.
Championship champs, FA cup winners, qualified for Euro Cup, my trouble players back up in value, and the cup price money alone should allow me to make some key transfers very soon.
2009/2010 Post-Season – 2010/2011 Pre-Season
Just as the season was about to start, the chairman retires. Take-over bids, transfer embargo, all that just when I need to make some key signings to not completely crash and burn in the Premier League, just my luck.
Fortunately, I was able to finalize a deal to bring Wynaldium to Elland Road, just before the last season ended so at least my midfield has gained depth, no matter when the embargo is lifted.
Luck would have it that Tottenham came knocking with a great offer for their vacant manager position.
I'm not sure if me rejecting that offer made any impact, but only two days later I was able to do my magic on the transfer market.
Many of the old faithfuls are getting the ax this time, Illic seemed more happy to stay now, but Smilianc got the boot, and not even that, I sold him to a club in the lower leagues.
Serves him right, ungrateful *******...
Well, I had to seriously invest, and with all my transfer money gone I added Beevers, Feghoulie,Wilshere and German Lux to my squad.
Coupet, which I found on the free market, decided against my offer. He would have been a great tutor for my younger goalies, but what the ****.
I forgot to take my assistant of arranging friendlies, so they were all set and done before I could blink, I only got to schedule a match against Bayern Munich, which we quite comfortably took 2-0 on our home ground.
With the season about to start, the last match in my post mortem is closing the circle:
August 2010.
Chelsea – Leeds United for the community shield.
No injuries on either side, Chelsea heavily favored 1-4 the match was about to begin.
It would be overstating the fact to say we ruled, but we did hold our ground.
3 minutes in, Adailton is taken off with an injury (officially a wonder kid now, and hands down my star player), things were looking grim.
A lapse in concentration by Alex, who headed the ball past the quite lethargic looking Cech gave us an early lead. Chelsea were bringing the heat, but my defense held firm until Michalik hammered in a header from the corner just before halftime.
I tried everything I could think of to keep my team up and listening, and keep that lead, but Chelsea really brought on the heat. Drogba somehow weaseled one past my defense before Lampard equalized with one lightning bolt of a free-kick from just outside the box.
The game slowed down a bit, at least we were evenly matched, and in my mind I was thinking overtime already and considering which players to sub in for a possible shoot-out, when Chech made a superb assist to my waiting Papadopulous at the edge of the box with nothing between him and the goal for the 3-2 final result.
Only time will tell how much more luck I can have before it runs dry, but I am hopeful of the coming season.....
THE END (for now)
---------- Post added at 12:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:29 AM ----------
Alright, next match is against Meccabi Netanya, a greek team I think, for a spot in the EURO Cup.
Adailton is out for around 3 weeks after the challenge in the Chelsea match, but I should have it covered.
My line-up right now is as follows:
if more names than spots it means I rotate the layers, if the names are in brackets it's my designated subs for that position
I have Kadlec and a regen striker named Pena out on loan and they seem to be progression rather nicely.
I also still have my eye on a guy named Vladimir Yurchenko from Saturn who looks very promising, but I might put that up until January and let all the new signings gel together first.
And I should possibly get more English guys on board, lest I have some injuries and can't meet the homegrown rule for the Euro Cup.
The new season is just about to begin, Leeds United are once again back in the Premier League and have just earlier today lifted the Community Shield.
An amazing feat after some truly stunning games and, honestly, loads of shear luck.
So before I delve into the new season, let's recap the story so far.
Do we really need another Leeds story, you ask?
Absolutely not, but who's to stop me?
So here we go....
DISCLAIMER:
I do try different teams, but sooner or later I always end up with Leeds again, so to make this save different from my previous attempts, I employed a little "soft-cheating" in the beginning.
By that I mean, I started the game a few weeks earlier than the start of the season, mainly to be able to arrange proper friendlies for some cash, and to have enough time to search for some decent staff. It was just a bit of a head-start for me, and realistically speaking, a new manager wouldn't start working at the day the transfer window opens, now would he?
I will try to recollect the previous two seasons to the best of my abilities, but some areas will probably remain a bit cryptic until I reach the here and now, so bare with me.
Also, I won't be putting screens up, for one cos I'm lazy, and secondly, and more importantly, my upload speed here is so low that it would take me 10-20 minutes to put up any screens, and frankly, I can't be bothered. In the future, maybe, right now, categorically no.
Early June 2008
For obscure and undisclosed reasons I become manager of Leeds United. It appears the board decided the first guy of the streets couldn't do a worse job than what was already happening, so here I am.
No assistant manager is in place, so the first order of business is to hire one. I scout, I offer but I get shut down from every one of my targets. It should be another few month before I am able to fill that position.
In the meantime, it is time to schedule some friendlies, both to create revenue (and thereby spending money) for the coming season, and to assess the state of the team.
Also, the list of players that do not fit into my plan is already firmly in my mind.
In the following weeks, many high-profile teams would be arriving to compete at Elland Road, with Manchester United and City, Juventus, Inter Milan, Galatasaray only some of the names.
After being rejected upon my first invitations, I appealed to their greed and offered them a share of my projected profits.
My best scout was send on a roaming assignment into eastern Europe and would find quite a few interesting players for me during the course of the season.
July 2008
All in all, up to the start of the transfer window, the club had recorded a record-profit of over 7 million. Great, I think, time to go shopping.
But wait, of all the money I brought into the club, none made it into my transfer budget, and my request for more funds was shut down "until I prove myself to the club".
In any case, I offloaded players that didn't fit into my plans, most notably Prutton, Angkergen and Robinson with some semi-decent deals that at the very least allowed me to hire some need blood for the coming season.
My major signings were Guus Joppen as DC and Adam Larsen as my new GK, for a combined 600k.
I managed to sign Stephen Appiah and Zamora as free agents, and two more who must have been so unimportant that the names just won't come to mind right now.
Pre-season was in no short terms sensational, both in terms of revenue (which I wouldn't see until January of the next year) and results. Amongst the highlights were a draw against Milan, a (dumb-luck) 1-0 victory over Juventus and 2 victories and one draw over Galatasaray, although both Manchester teams beat us quite heavily.
2008 - 2009 Season
All in all a fairly standard season. The board found Newcastle as a parent club, which helped out a lot in getting cheap loans since the budget was tight early on, we completely under-performed in the League cup after loosing our second game to a League 2 team (Grimsby, I think) and I started to fear for the worst.
The biggest challenge early in was the sheer number of injuries. Frazer Richardson broke his leg in the first fixture and would not play a single game in the entire season. Delph and Appiah both carried their share of knocks and minor injuries, Beckford was out for many weeks on end and many many small knocks and injuries lead me to hardly ever playing the same line-up twice in a row.
So, after the unlucky League cup exit, clouds were on the horizon....
Up stepped Howson and Michalik, about the only two players that managed to stay virtually injury free, and between the two of them scored most of my goals.
Michalik was just unstoppable at corners, and Howsosn speed down the wing and his ability from direct free-kicks made him probably the best player in my squad.
That said, despite a rough start to the season, the team came together and held a solid 2<sup>nd</sup> place going into the January transfer window.
Finally, some of the money I made playing all those super-clubs was made available, and head-first I jumped into the bidding war.
I sold a few more players that never played and most notably signed Kaldec, Delfouneso, Lua Lua, Illic, Milan Smiljanic(who would turn out a real ***) and Christian ***.
Almost all my money spend, the future truly depended on winning the league now (wage and transfer budget stretched tighter than Joan Rivers face....).
That said, with the exception of the FA cup, the team won almost everything, winning the League 1 with a comfortable margin as well as lifting the Johnston's Paint trophy.
2008/2009 Post-Season – 2009/2010 Pre-Season
With the season over, it was time to scavenge talent from recently relegated teams all over Europe.
One notable signing was Filip Trojan, from recently relegated St. Pauli who turned out a sublime left-winger for my team.
The team was once again combed for the weaker links, and players such as Becchio and Shownummi were finally creating interest from other clubs.
Newcastle send me a decent goalie on loan, as I didn't have any adequate cover for Larsen in goal, which meant I could save my transfer money by not needing to hunt for a new keeper this time around.
I staked my reputation (and my job) on declaring to challenge for the title to squeeze every penny out of the board for transfers.
One of my biggest finds was Dimitris Papadopulous (spelling?). The former Greek international striker joined me for a pittance as a free agent, and was by far my best scorer in the first half of the coming season.
Right about now, my troubles started to happen with some of my more prominent players
(see http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/f55/heavy-depreciation-of-players-t19900.html ).
Basically, bigger clubs were declaring interest in my star players, leading them from unhappy to flat out refusing to co-operate (e.g. straight red cards in matches, not showing for training sessions, etc).
Normally, I would have let them go, but both my ambitions were in jeopardy with those key players leaving and my transfer budget was tight without having to shop for replacements.
That, and both players had vastly depreciated in value. Milan Smiljanic (the aforementioned ***) had dropped from around 3M to just over 500k, and I was absolutely unwilling to let him go for next to nothing compared to what I payed for him.
Luckily, Appiah was injured going into the season, so no-one bid on him, and Delph declared in no uncertain terms that he has no intension of leaving Elland Road in the near future.
Anyway, I was hoping for the best as the season started, basically praying for my unsettled players to either regain their happiness or at least a fraction of their value so I could replace them properly.
2009/2010 Season
Again, a few injuries here and there, but not as bad as last season. The start was OK with spurts of brilliance followed by completely avoidable defeats by bottom-table teams, but we found ourselves always bouncing up and down between 3<sup>rd</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup>, not too bad for the first season.
Once again, the League cup continued without us after the 3<sup>rd</sup> round, but we steadily installed ourselves within the top four in the league table.
Not too bad a feat with the relegated West ham, Hull City and Fulham making up the other three teams.
My two problem players were still unhappy coming into mid-season, but their sub-par performance coupled with a few injuries didn't exactly lift either spirit or value.
The plan was hatched to loan them out come January, hope for a team to cover their wage and keep them until next season. With the possibility of Leeds gaining promotion to the Premier League, they just might come around and stay....
The January window opened, my latest signings finally arrived, and what signings they were....
Adailton and Jaoa Paulo from Brazil joined my team, Aleczic (spelling?) arrived as well.
The latter was actually an accidental signing – I mistook my scouting reports and signed him instead of the midfielder I was gunning for, which unsettled Beckford (too many strikers) so that I impulsively transfer listed him right on the spot.
I brought in Espen Ruud to cover for the loaned-out Illic and the injury prone Richardson to finish my transfer frenzy.
About that time I switched my tactics from my former 4-5-1 variant to a slower 4-4-2 play (based on Brian Clough Tactics by JP Woody but with a tad more speed and counter attacks, and a variation of it with wingers instead of MR and ML).
The first few games seemed promising, not scoring much but conceding even less, and slowly, going into February I reached the top spot in the league for the first time.
Adailton paired with Papadopulous started to really tear up the opposition (with the former becoming my teams top scorer in only half a season), my midfield really clicked and the added speed in defense with Ruud and Jaoa Paulo managed to cut down most opposition before they even had a chance to challenge my keeper.
I managed to slowly leave the 2<sup>nd</sup> place in the league behind, at times leading by 12 points or more before a laps in concentration cost me a game or two, but for a brief period of only around 2 weeks I never relinquished that top seat anymore (and then only because I had games rescheduled due to international duties or cup games).
Yes, cup games.
I was determined to prove my worth to the club, drawing a few non-league teams early on (Kettering for one) and my goal was – don't loose to any team lower than yourself.
It was almost over against Birmingham, I only just equalized in extra time before seeing them off at home with a solid 2-0 performance.
The field was thinning out, and I got a lucky draw with Bristol City in the next round. Although a Premier League team, they were very much beatable (with the extra incentive of having loaned my unhappy Illic to them).
I was going into the game with mixed feelings. For one, we had a great run, and maybe concentrating on the league would be more beneficial in the long run, but I'd be damned if I went without a fight.
I was actually able to field my choice starters for this game, and pundits had me slightly favored even we played away from home.
To cut to the point, after trailing at half time, I had the first experience of players praising me after the game for my inspiring team talk. I don't remember what I said exactly, but the second half almost seemed as if I was previously only playing my reserves. We dominated, and only bad luck prevented us from only scoring two goals to win the match.
I was elated to say the least, and for the first time that tiny voice emerged saying, maybe, just maybe, this is our year....
The League games were going well, by now the team was really playing as a unit, and the next cup round was coming up with us drawing Sunderland.
Again, a quite beatable team, I thought, with, as it happened, my other loaned-out player on their side.
It was another hard-fought match, but Leeds remained resolute and emerged victorious.
By now we we were the only non-premier league team still running, and that in itself is a great achievement.
I was watching the other teams match-ups with anticipation.
Some unexpected results had Newcastle, Manchester City and Manchester United advance to the semi finals.
As luck would have it, we were matched with Newcastle, probably the easiest of the remaining teams.
Leading up to the game, I was close to tears – my star goalkeeper was out injured, and my backup was a loan from Newcastle – and not eligible for the cup tie.
Literally the day of the tie, Larsen was back in business, a huge relief for my side.
The game was played in Wembley, star line-up all ready, excited, terrified, all that and a bag of chips.
And it turned out a truly unremarkable match....
Little chances, we never dominated, we never were dominated, somehow scored twice, conceded once and then it was over. It felt like an end-season game, with the place in the table decided, nothing to win, nothing to loose, just 90 minutes of play – until it sunk in.... We reached the f'ing final.
How exactly did that happen?
By now, the league was all but over.
We drew against the second, demolished the 3<sup>rd</sup>, lost against the 22<sup>nd</sup>, and 5 games to go, we clinched promotion, and won the league with 4 games to go.
Time to play all my subs, lest I injure one of my star players before the historic bout against Manchester City (who somehow kicked Man U out of the cup).
I was not exactly hopeful, seeing as how they had literally demolished my team in Pre-Season on home ground, but with our recent performances I gave us at least an outside chance.
The big day and, I must say, the most exciting game I had so far. City had a few injuries to starters, but they came out flying, and how and how often they missed my goal and tested Larsen when they hit, I was rapidly loosing confidence. About 30 minutes in, one of the most clinical counter attacks that I have ever witnessed had Adailton give me the 1-0 at half time.
Great, I think, leading at the half against a team that is CLEARLY better than us, there's really nothing I know in team talk that they can let me hold on to that. I praised, declared faith, and only peaking between the fingers covering my face I had to endure the equalizer after only 3 minutes played in the second half.
We were hammered, overrun, all that and more, but City just couldn't hit the goal, two crossbar attempts not withstanding. With time almost up, another brilliant move between Adailton and Alczic, almost an exact replica of our first goal, had us go up by one.
The last five minutes or so of that game must have been the longest of any game I played, and Larsen almost giving it up right there with a botched clearance. The whistle was sweetest sound I have heard since starting that save.
Leeds United, FA cup winners.
It was all coming together.
Championship champs, FA cup winners, qualified for Euro Cup, my trouble players back up in value, and the cup price money alone should allow me to make some key transfers very soon.
2009/2010 Post-Season – 2010/2011 Pre-Season
Just as the season was about to start, the chairman retires. Take-over bids, transfer embargo, all that just when I need to make some key signings to not completely crash and burn in the Premier League, just my luck.
Fortunately, I was able to finalize a deal to bring Wynaldium to Elland Road, just before the last season ended so at least my midfield has gained depth, no matter when the embargo is lifted.
Luck would have it that Tottenham came knocking with a great offer for their vacant manager position.
I'm not sure if me rejecting that offer made any impact, but only two days later I was able to do my magic on the transfer market.
Many of the old faithfuls are getting the ax this time, Illic seemed more happy to stay now, but Smilianc got the boot, and not even that, I sold him to a club in the lower leagues.
Serves him right, ungrateful *******...
Well, I had to seriously invest, and with all my transfer money gone I added Beevers, Feghoulie,Wilshere and German Lux to my squad.
Coupet, which I found on the free market, decided against my offer. He would have been a great tutor for my younger goalies, but what the ****.
I forgot to take my assistant of arranging friendlies, so they were all set and done before I could blink, I only got to schedule a match against Bayern Munich, which we quite comfortably took 2-0 on our home ground.
With the season about to start, the last match in my post mortem is closing the circle:
August 2010.
Chelsea – Leeds United for the community shield.
No injuries on either side, Chelsea heavily favored 1-4 the match was about to begin.
It would be overstating the fact to say we ruled, but we did hold our ground.
3 minutes in, Adailton is taken off with an injury (officially a wonder kid now, and hands down my star player), things were looking grim.
A lapse in concentration by Alex, who headed the ball past the quite lethargic looking Cech gave us an early lead. Chelsea were bringing the heat, but my defense held firm until Michalik hammered in a header from the corner just before halftime.
I tried everything I could think of to keep my team up and listening, and keep that lead, but Chelsea really brought on the heat. Drogba somehow weaseled one past my defense before Lampard equalized with one lightning bolt of a free-kick from just outside the box.
The game slowed down a bit, at least we were evenly matched, and in my mind I was thinking overtime already and considering which players to sub in for a possible shoot-out, when Chech made a superb assist to my waiting Papadopulous at the edge of the box with nothing between him and the goal for the 3-2 final result.
Only time will tell how much more luck I can have before it runs dry, but I am hopeful of the coming season.....
THE END (for now)
---------- Post added at 12:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:29 AM ----------
Alright, next match is against Meccabi Netanya, a greek team I think, for a spot in the EURO Cup.
Adailton is out for around 3 weeks after the challenge in the Chelsea match, but I should have it covered.
My line-up right now is as follows:
if more names than spots it means I rotate the layers, if the names are in brackets it's my designated subs for that position
GK
German Lux/Adam Larsen
DL
Jaoa Paulo (Ben Parker)
CB
Beevers, ***, Joppen, Michalik
DR
Illic, Espen Ruud (Richardson)
ML/AML
Feghouli (Fillip Trojan)
MC
Delph, Appiah (Bradey Johnson, Kilkenny)
MR/AMR
Wijnaldum, Howson (Lua Lua)
ST
Adailton, Danijl Aleksic, Papadopulous (Delfouneso)
German Lux/Adam Larsen
DL
Jaoa Paulo (Ben Parker)
CB
Beevers, ***, Joppen, Michalik
DR
Illic, Espen Ruud (Richardson)
ML/AML
Feghouli (Fillip Trojan)
MC
Delph, Appiah (Bradey Johnson, Kilkenny)
MR/AMR
Wijnaldum, Howson (Lua Lua)
ST
Adailton, Danijl Aleksic, Papadopulous (Delfouneso)
I have Kadlec and a regen striker named Pena out on loan and they seem to be progression rather nicely.
I also still have my eye on a guy named Vladimir Yurchenko from Saturn who looks very promising, but I might put that up until January and let all the new signings gel together first.
And I should possibly get more English guys on board, lest I have some injuries and can't meet the homegrown rule for the Euro Cup.
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