There was no escaping it. The season had arrived and ready or not I had to pick the team to send out to play Middlesbrough at Riverside. A couple of players had struggled with getting their condition up with the hard training leading up to the season premiere. Both Steve Phillips and Matt Carter had struggled for most of the preseason. This led to Simon Hagberg manning the goal for most of the time, and in the last couple of games he had shown enough to earn himself the starting job. This can prove to be a serious blow to Phillips' status as my first team option as winning a starting job between the pipes is the hardest job under my management. I feel however that I have to try to keep and open mind about rotating the spot to give all a fair shot to show what they are good for. With Ricardo Gomes being out I opted to move Dan Fredriksson in, and start Kirk Hilton at left back as the centre backs had proven next to nothing in the friendlies. To make matters worse Chris Burns, who had some kind of run for the spot, was not fit to play. In a tossup reserve Claude Sykora was given the bench spot over Ian Kerr, who had failed to show anything of what had gotten him selected for England U21 last season. Our hopes of a good start to our campaign looked dark when Boro striker Lee Cooper capped home a brilliant move to make it 1-0. It got even darker as Roger Grini had to leave with an injury at the same time. Claude Sykora, the 17 year old reserve team player, was needed to do a mans job, much sooner than I intended when I brought him over on a Bosman from Metz. Boro continued to press forward, but at 15 minutes Hilton intercepted a pass with a header to Olivier Dubois. Dubois dribled past Darren King and hit a fierce shot past a frozen Callagher to even up the scoreline and earn his first ever Mansfield goal. The play continued with a couple of good chances for both teams. Hilton then hit a freeing forward pass for Durgham El-Bawi. El-Bawi swivelled on the ball and found Philip Mulryne in the area who connected with a diving header 38 minutes into the game, giving us the lead into intermisson. The 2nd half continued with the teams trading opportunities until Dubois fired home a freekick at 68 after Miller had been pushed. With us up 3-1 Boro seemed demoralized as we gained control over the play, but despite several good chances we could not score again, leaving us with a nice 3-1 win and 3 points from our first premiership game of the season. Saturday 21st August 2010 Middlesbrough 1 (Cooper 6) Mansfield 3 (Dubois 15, 68, Mulryne 38) Hagberg; Hilton, Grini, Fredriksson, Karlsson (c); El-Bawi; Dubois, Mulryne; McDonald; Diouf, Miller Subs: Phillips, Sykora (Grini 7), Ward, Britton (Dubois 75), Toni
Moving on, here is my breakdown of the EPL this season: 1. Leeds-last years champ deserves to be number 1 until someone knocks them off. 2. Man U-Losses of Alex and Trezeguet will hurt early, but they should quickly use their money to solve the problems. 3. Tottenham-Lots of money remaining, and with DaMarcus Beasley and Zlatan Ibrahimovic coming to the club in the offseason, expectations are high in Hotspur land, and rightfully so, I believe. 4. Lincoln-Robert Jaeger has the kind of team he likes, tough and physical, especially after adding talented defender David Davidson from Cheltenham and I expect his team to fare very well this season. 5. Chelsea-Lots of talent, but the key to this enigmatic team will be the backline. 6. Nottingham Forest-Marcus Benson is Tantalizing, but lack of depth, especially at keeper and no funding will prove to be too large of obstacles. 7. Liverpool-Rudi Voller was a great hire, but this team could be higher or lower depending on how they replace Michael Owen. 8. Mansfield Town-Olivier Dubois is a special talent, but powered by Danny Mcdonald, Philip Mulyrne, and Durgham El-Bawi, watch out for this high scoring crew. 9. Cheltenham Town-The exact opposite of Mansfield, this defensive minded team needs to add some punch and replace David Davidson if they want to take the next step, but we all in the EPL know manager Desautels can do these things whenever he wants. 10. Arsenal-Are the Gunners back? With the addition of Robert Earnshaw complementing talented attacker Jonas Daoud, this manager says Yes. 11. Derby County-Tony Watson by himself keeps this team in the middle of the premiership. He is that good. 12. Newcastle United-Thomas Christensen and Christian Arntzen are a tandem up front that will be a force to be reckoned with in the future. But even with the addition of Jermaine Pennant as a forward, this team will need time to grow and mature. Their time is not now. 13. Bradford City-The Rory's as they are affectionately known because of star striker Rory Allen got away with unspectacular play last year. Not this year. 14. Blackburn Rovers-Led by an all Scottish attack of Alex Notman, Jim Mclean and Gary Teale, and budding young star defender Jose Manuel Escudero, this team will be a sleeper in the EPL this season. 15. Manchester City-This former premier team is back after a long stay in d1, but if they want to challenge for the title of best team in Manchester they need to use their money to help star striker Stephen McPhee. 16. Middlesbrough-Powered by English International Michael Jack, this team is just barely good enough to avoid relegation. Watch out for Aaron Brown as well. 17. Wolves-Like Man City, this team is back in the premiership after a few years off in d1, and Paul Ifill and Quinton Fortune should make sure they stay there. Relegation 18. Crystal Palace-This team, newly promoted from d1, needs more talent to help Stuart Poole and Matthew Martindale if they want to compete long term. 19. Ipswich Town-Nabil Abidallah is a special talent, but he needs a lot of help if Ipswich is to avoid d1. 20. Everton-After selling their best player, Robert Earnshaw, to Arsenal with the cupboard dry, disaster is imminent unless they use their money wisely and go on a major shopping spree and fast. Overall, the premiership will be highly competitive at the top this season, as I feel anyone of the top 7 teams can win the league and Mansfield and Cheltenham could be in the mix with some good managing and smart spending.
Before a record crowd of 17,060 admirers, we opened our home season versus a very good Blackburn squad. We controlled the match from the start and on the 7th minute Per Karlsson took a through ball from Durgham El-Bawi and slashed a cross to a charging Kenny Miller who slammed it home to open the scoring. We continued to put pressure on the Blackburn net, but couldn't find the net until the 62nd minute when Philip Mulryne was clipped in the penalty box, and the excellent Durgham El-Bawi was on-target to give us a 2-nil lead. Blackburn tried to fight back, and pulled one back in the 74th minute on a Notman header. But they couldn't get another chance on our net, and we garnered all three points with a 2-1 victory. Claude Sykora got the start in the absence of Roger Grini who is expected to miss one more game due to the sprained ankle he suffered at Riverside. The surprisingly good play of Sykora in these two games got him promoted to the first team. Ian Kerr was sent down, and hopefully he can find back his good play of last season. Wedensday 25th August 2010 Mansfield 2 (Miller 7, El-Bawi pen 62) Blackburn 1 (Notman 74) Hagberg; Hilton, Fredriksson, Sykora, Karlsson (c); El-Bawi; Dubois, Mulryne; McDonald; Diouf, Miller Subs: Phillips, Burns, Ward, Britton (McDonald 74), Toni (Diouf 74) Our next match was at Sincil Bank against last season surprise contender Lincoln City. During my reign at Mansfield this is a team that has caused me great problems, only managing to get a win once, my very first season as we won 2-1 at Sincil Bank. In the first half we traded chances, but I was a bit uneasy about the performance. Claude Sykora had not continued his good play, and his agressiveness had also led to him being booked. In addition, Danny McDonald, who has failed to show much of what he is capable this season, had another poor showing, including a booking. I usually do not sub at half, but this time around I surprised even myself with an unheard of double halftime substitution as Chris Burns came in for Sykora and Luca Toni came in for McDonald to play upfront while Kenny Miller moved back. This decision came back to haunt me as Burns suffered an injury after 59 mins, further increasing my defensive casualties. With no defenders left at the bench I turned back to a 3-5-2 formation, bringing in Leon Britton at the left wing. Five minutes later Simon Ross got the winner, and my abysmal record against Lincoln in competetive matches reached 1-2-9 with an even more abysmal 5-21 total goalscore. Burns injury proved to be another torn groin muscle. He was removed from the Scotland U21 squad and is expected to be out for 2 months. I have been trying to get in reinforcements after Ricardo Gomes went down, and will intensify the efforts to get the player I'm after. The problems have not been to get the player to agree, as he is rather pissed about his team not letting him go. I'm also in a bidding war with Cheltenham to secure scottish playmaker Alan Murray of Motherwell, but so far the team is not willing to let him go. Saturday 28th August 2010 Lincoln 1 (Ross 64) Mansfield 0 Hagberg; Hilton, Fredriksson, Sykora, Karlsson (c); El-Bawi; Dubois, Mulryne; McDonald; Diouf, Miller Subs: Phillips, Burns (Sykora 46), Ward, Britton (Burns 59), Toni (McDonald 46) With international games halting the premiership action we got some time to heal before heading to Valley Parade to play Bradford. Roger Grini was back as he replaced the injured Chris Burns, moving Claude Sykora back to the bench. Aminu Sani had shown good effort in training and was awarded a spot at the bench for Leon Britton. Our offense have not shown much to start the season with most goals coming from the midfielders. The attackers did nothing to redeem themselves and the game ended in a scoreless draw. Sunday 12th September 2010 Bradford 0 Mansfield 0 Hagberg; Hilton, Grini, Fredriksson, Karlsson (c); El-Bawi; Dubois, Mulryne; McDonald; Diouf, Miller Subs: Phillips, Sykora, Ward, Sani (Mulryne 59), Toni (Miller 83) I think some changes is due as Everton is set to visit Field Mill. Hopefully we can use our grip on them to get back on track with a win and build on our 5-2-1 record against them. Oh, and attributes have been updated
Presuming we do the round on the 19th, and maybe the 25th here are my teams, if I am gone. 19th-at Man City GK-Phil Edwards DC-Andrew Nixon DC-Jimmy Ryan DC-Steve Curtis DMC-Bruno Letang MR-Simon Davies ML-DaMarcus Beasley MC-Christian Fox AMC-Shaun Maloney SC-Zlatan Ibrahimovic SC-David Johnson bench-Van Hooijdonk, Kah, Diaz, Blinkhorn, Black 25th-home vs Leeds GK-Edwards DC-Nixon DC-Ryan DC-Curtis DMC-Letang MC-Kah MR-Davies ML-Beasley AMC-Maloney SC-Ibrahimovic SC-Blinkhorn bench-Van Hooijdonk, Kuiper, Fox, Black, Newby
Textfiles updated In an attempt to get the attack going I brought Luca Toni back into the starting lineup, moving Diouf in behind the strikers for the slumping McDonald. Gary Hope has gone rampant in the reserve league and deserved a touch of first team football demoting McDonald to spectator status for this game. If it was the changes that made the difference, or the fact that Everton simply sucks now that they have let Earnshaw leave for Arsenal is open for discussion, but this game was won almost before it started. El-Hadji Diouf opened up the scoring as he exchanged passes with Toni, moved into the box, dribbled off a defender and smashed it in low behind the goalie. Toni would get his first of the season as he struck home a Karlsson cross to the box at 24. Just past the half hour mark Mulryne would cap off a brilliant move. El-Bawi found Karlsson with a 30 yard forward pass. Karlsson moved up and struck a low cross to the far post for Olivier Dubois who found Mulryne open, with plenty of room after he lost his man, to smash home for the 3-0 lead. Everton had no answer, they could not produce anything for the night, and as if to send the crowd home ecstatic, we capped off the night with another spectacular goal just before time. Ward found Diouf in the area with a pass along the floor. With no room for himself he fed Toni, who hit the ball left for Gary Hope who struck it back right to the far post for Mulryne to finish his brace and bring the packed stadium to their feets. Sunday 19th September 2010 Mansfield 4 (Diouf 7, Toni 24, Mulryne 31, 90) Everton 0 Hagberg; Hilton, Grini, Fredriksson, Karlsson (c); El-Bawi; Dubois, Mulryne; Diouf; Toni, Miller Subs: Phillips, Sykora (Grini 46), Ward (El-Bawi 78), Sani, Hope (Miller 66) As good as the display against The Toffees had been it also resulted in something not so positive. Man Utd contacted Philip Mulryne about a contract, and although I countered with a contract offer myself I can't depend on Mulryne staying. I expressed that although he might not be as vital to the team as he once was, he was still an important first team player, and that I would love for him to stay. If he decides to leave, the ongoing quest to add Alan Murray to the team will become more important than initially thought. In other news San Jose has shown up at the negotiating table explaining they want £6M for their phenom defender Henry Bell. I'm not ready to cave in just yet, and offer them £5.25M for his services. With the League Cup next on the calendar, it gave me the opportunity to give the backup players a chance and the new defense more time to settle down. I ran with Sani and Britton as wingers in my more usual 4-4-2 system and the team gave me a decent enough performance controlling the game. They struggled getting the chances to count though until Steve Phillips found Aminu Sani at the left wing with a pass. Sani continued up the wing, and into the box before he buried the winner behind Rovers goalie. This effort was enough to earn Sani Man of the Match honours and us into the 3rd Rnd of the League Cup. Wedensday 22nd September 2010 - League Cup 2nd Rnd Bristol Rovers 0 Mansfield 1 (Sani 72) Phillips; Hilton, Grini, Fredriksson, Karlsson (c); Sani, Hope, Ward, Britton; Toni, Ferguson Subs: Carter, Garcia, Tucker, May (Toni 73), Weatherston (Ferguson 73) Prior to our next match, against surprise leaders Wolves, Philip Mulryne agreed to a contract with Man Utd, which would see him leave us Dec 15th when the transfer window opens up. San Jose also accepted our bid for Henry Bell, and he was offered a contract with promise that he would be in the rotation and get plenty of chances to prove his abilities in our depleted defense. The match at Molineux was moved to Monday as it was to be aired Live on the tube. Over the weekend Bradford had taken advantage where other teams had failed moving them from 6th to the top leading up to this game. Wolves would win back the top spot if they could beat us, while a Mansfield win would result in us pushing them down to third as we would leap from 8th to 2nd. The same team that had demolished Everton started out hard pressing Wolves back on defense creating chance after chance. But as in the league cup we had troubles making them count. Wolves on the other hand could produce little, so overall impression from the TV commentators was that it was only a matter of time before we opened up the game with a goal. It finally came as substitute Ian Ferguson combined with Per Karlsson just five minutes from time and struck a nice shot on half volley past their goalie. We would hold on for a well deserved win, moving us up to the aforementioned 2nd place. Monday 27th September 2010 Wolves 0 Mansfield 1 (Ferguson 85) Hagberg; Hilton, Grini, Fredriksson, Karlsson (c); El-Bawi; Dubois, Mulryne; Diouf; Toni, Miller Subs: Phillips, Sykora, Ward, Sani (Dubois 67), Ferguson (Miller 67) Motherwell finally accepted the bids for Alan Murray when the bids hit £5.5M. I offered him a nice contract according to his demands as I told him he would be a first team fixture at Field Mill. Now all that was left was that it was enough to make him want to join us over Cheltenham, who at the moment are struggling in the other end of the table. Aston Villa emerged as rivals to sign Henry Bell as they offered San Jose the needed £5.25 for his services. Although Villa has history on their side I dont see them as a real threat as they reside in Division One, and counting in the report that Bell apparently wanted a move to Mansfield. Much to my delight Alan Murray decided to join us instead of Cheltenham, bringing in what can prove a vital part to replace the departuring Mulryne. Dubois capped off a nice month by being awarded youth player of the month. Nottm Forest manager Sven Svenorstrom was awarded manager of the month, but I like to think that with my move up the table that I was in consideration, although the lack of European competition probably didn't help. As expected Henry Bell accepted my offer, rejecting the attempt by Aston Villa. I'm now left to hoping his work permission will clear, and although I know it is not a clear cut case I have high hopes that his 10 caps over the last 2 years is enough to make the 19 year old American International defender a part of the team. Code: Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Bradford 6 2 2 0 3 0 2 0 0 5 1 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [b]2nd Mansfield 6 2 0 0 6 1 2 1 1 4 2 13 [/b] 3rd Wolves 6 3 0 1 4 1 1 0 1 2 3 12 4th Arsenal 6 2 0 1 3 2 2 0 1 4 5 12 5th Man Utd 6 2 1 0 8 2 1 1 1 2 1 11 [b]6th Tottenham 5 2 1 0 5 1 1 1 0 4 1 11 [/b] 7th Leeds 6 1 1 0 5 2 2 1 1 6 4 11 [b]8th Nottm Forest 6 2 0 0 5 2 1 2 1 7 6 11 9th Lincoln 6 3 0 1 6 4 0 1 1 3 4 10 [/b] 10th Chelsea 5 1 0 0 1 0 1 2 1 3 1 8 11th Middlesbrough 6 2 1 1 5 4 0 1 1 1 2 8 12th Liverpool 6 1 0 1 3 4 1 1 2 6 5 7 13th Newcastle 6 2 1 1 5 3 0 0 2 0 3 7 14th Blackburn 6 1 3 0 6 5 0 0 2 1 4 6 15th Ipswich 6 1 1 0 3 2 0 1 3 1 7 5 [b]16th Crystal Palace 6 0 1 1 2 4 0 3 1 3 4 4 17th Cheltenham 6 0 3 1 3 4 0 0 2 0 2 3 [/b] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18th Derby 6 1 0 1 2 2 0 0 4 2 8 3 19th Man City 6 0 1 2 0 7 0 2 1 3 6 3 20th Everton 6 0 1 3 1 7 0 0 2 0 7 1 Pos Player Club Apps Gls ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Marcus Benson Nottm Forest 6 5 2nd Justin Georcelin Liverpool 6 5 3rd Gary Teale Blackburn 5 (1) 5 4th Shaun Maloney Tottenham 5 4 5th Mohamed El Yamani Lincoln 5 (1) 3 6th Lee Cooper Middlesbrough 6 3 7th Robert Earnshaw Arsenal 6 3 8th Robbie Keane Leeds 6 3 9th Tony Watson Derby 6 3 10th Philip Mulryne Mansfield 6 3 Pos Player Club Apps Asts ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Lee Bowyer Leeds 5 5 2nd Sayed Abd El Hafiz Bradford 6 3 3rd Gary Fraser Blackburn 6 3 4th Per Karlsson Mansfield 6 3 5th Darren Harvey Man Utd 5 3 6th Stefan Winter Nottm Forest 6 3 7th John Richards Nottm Forest 6 2 8th Lee Chun-Soo Liverpool 5 (1) 2 9th Xavier Chiari Liverpool 5 2 10th Shaun Sparrow Lincoln 4 (1) 2 Pos Player Club Apps Av R ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Joe Dolan Arsenal 4 8.50 2nd John Curtis Leeds 3 8.33 3rd Bruno Létang Tottenham 5 8.20 4th Gary Teale Blackburn 5 (1) 8.17 5th Marcus Benson Nottm Forest 6 8.00 6th Robert Earnshaw Arsenal 6 8.00 7th Joleon Lescott Newcastle 5 8.00 8th Shaun Maloney Tottenham 5 8.00 9th Gary Neville Man Utd 5 8.00 10th Phil Edwards Tottenham 4 8.00 Pos Player Club Apps MoM ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Gary Teale Blackburn 5 (1) 4 2nd Sayed Abd El Hafiz Bradford 6 2 3rd Bruno Létang Tottenham 5 2 4th Darren Harvey Man Utd 5 2 5th Marcus Benson Nottm Forest 6 1 6th Mohamed El Yamani Lincoln 5 (1) 1 7th Patrick Agyemang Bradford 6 1 8th Damien Johnson Derby 4 1 9th Ian Nicholson Ipswich 2 (2) 1 10th Kenny Miller Mansfield 6 1
Awards and attendance updated for the premiership United were back at Field Mill, just after sealing the deal that would make Mulryne join their ranks. This time around they were hoping to leave with 3 league points in the bag. The first half was evenly matched with us having slight advantage in the chance department, but the teams headed into the lockerroom for the break without any goals being scored. When play resumed in the second half we came out on fire, pressing hard to get a goal creating several opportunities from and when Olivier Dubois was left with a rebound after 2 minutes United could not hold us back no more. We continued the inspired play that had brought us ahead, and El-Hadji Diouf should have doubled the lead after 73 minutes as Man Utd's goalie could not hold a Mulryne header. Diouf would get his reward five minutes later though as he found Dubois in the area with a chip that left Olivier with an easy task to finish his brace. 2-0 Mansfield. With the comfortable lead we made a double substitution to bring on debutant Alan Murray for Mulryne and Danny McDonald for Toni. McDonald needed only 5 minutes on the pitch to find the back of the net, and open up his account for the season, as he slotted home a pass from Dubois for the final score, 3-0 Mansfield. This win would bring us to the top of the table for atleast a day, with Bradford visiting Nottingham Forest at The City Ground the next day. Saturday 2nd October 2010 Mansfield 3 (Dubois 47, 78, McDonald 83) Man Utd 0 Hagberg; Hilton, Grini, Fredriksson, Karlsson (c); El-Bawi; Dubois, Mulryne; Diouf; Toni, Miller Subs: Phillips, Kerr (Grini 83), Murray (Mulryne 78), McDonald (Toni 78), Ferguson Forest defeated Bradford, so when Newcastle arrived four days later at Field Mill we found ourselves with a top spot to defend. We started out playing like we belonged in the top spot pressing Newcastle back to defend and on 8 minutes we would take advantage as Dubois and Diouf exchanged passes leaving El-Hadji with an easy finish to bring us up 1-0. We continued pressing forward, but Newcastle also had their chances. And with us not capitalising on our chances, Leon Knight was more than happy to balance up the score 2 mins into stoppage time of the first half. The second half was just underway as Hagberg committed the professional foul by bringing down Christian Arntzen in the box which reduced us to 10 men. Phillips came on for Toni to try and stop the following penalty from Rati Aleksidze, but could not. 2-1 Newcastle. Still down 2-1 passing the hour mark, I turned to Danny McDonald in hope for an unlikely point. With Miller coming off, Diouf was moved upfront again with McDonald roaming behind. 10 minutes lated the move would pay off as McDonald was left unmarked coming up from the midfield to slot home a rebound after Vulgaris could not hold a furious Fredriksson shot off of a Mulryne corner. We capped off an unlikely but, from the chances, a well deserved comeback win 10 minutes from time as McDonald fed El-Bawi who finished with a low drive after dribbling off a couple opponents. In the midst of this comeback we would suffer yet another casualty in defence as Roger Grini twisted his knee, and is projected to miss two weeks of action. Wedensday 6th October 2010 Mansfield 3 (Diouf 8, McDonald 71, El-Bawi 80, Hagberg s/o 46) Newcastle 2 (Knight 45, Aleksidze pen 47) Hagberg; Hilton, Grini, Fredriksson, Karlsson (c); El-Bawi; Dubois, Mulryne; Diouf; Toni, Miller Subs: Phillips (Toni 47), Kerr (Grini 77), Murray, McDonald (Miller 61), Ferguson
Textfiles updated again Hagberg was banned for 3 matches for his professional foul, and I thought this would be a good opportunity as any to give Phillips his chance, so Hagberg was moved to the bench for our Sunday game at Selhurst Park vs Crystal Palace. Leeds had moved up to first with a win Saturday, and we needed a draw to reclaim our top spot. Palace opened up the score behind former Mansfield player Andrew Martin after just 6 minutes. Our own game was not on target, wasting our chances and when Mike Batt doubled the lead after 32 minutes we had left ourselves with a mountain to climb. But our mountain climbing gear was left behind, along with all the good football we'd played so far this season, and when Martindale buried home their third for the night, it was all she wrote. The transfer-listed Peter Weatherston had agreed to contract with Birmingham prior to the game and would be leaving for St. Andrews when the transfer window opens up for a £1.1M compensation. Sunday 17th October 2010 Crystal Palace 3 (Martin 6, Batt 32, Martindale 79) Mansfield 0 Phillips; Hilton, Fredriksson, Gomes, Karlsson (c); El-Bawi; Dubois, Mulryne; McDonald; Diouf, Toni Subs: Hagberg, Tucker (Hilton 46), Murray (Mulryne 80), Britton (McDonald 69), Miller ****************************************************** Maybe the ones that say "Never change a winning team" are onto something. Phillips had been abysmal between the sticks, and McDonald who had been the here off of the bench last match did nothing this game when starting. I guess I would give this unit another go in the upcoming match with Hagberg starting his suspension when Derby arrives at Field Mill. TSV 1860 Munchen had apparently been following our success in the league and the difference Olivier Dubois had made to our change from mid table obscurity. Thursday before the Derby game they floored me with an offer of £10.25M for his services. I had never even been offered close to this much for any player before. But we didn't need the money, and as long as Olivier Dubois is happy to stay at Field Mill I'm not giving him up for any amount of money they throw after me. I quietly refused the offer, but that did not keep it from leaking to the media. Olivier is still happy to stay but I fear that this might change if a real big team is coming for him. For now I guess the best medicine I can give is act like a big club and win games that will keep me in the run for the championship. The following day I got a much welcomed phone call. It was an ecstatic Henry Bell who informed me his working papers had cleared, and that he would ready for practice the same day. For a big signing he proved enough the following days to make me include him in the team to face Derby monday. I would also give Alan Murray his first start. Not that I planned to stop using the departuring Mulryne, but better have Murray prepared for when he leaves. Leeds had put pressure on us just to keep up as they had won 2 days ago to open up a 3 point gap in the premiership, now it was up to us to close it down to 1 again, and move back into the 2nd place we had before the weekend. Monday 25 October 2010 Phillips; Fredriksson, Bell, Gomes, Karlsson (c); El-Bawi; Dubois, Murray; McDonald; Diouf, Toni We got off to a fantastic start as Dubois, in the first minute of the game, crossed to the far post. The ball passed everybody, and Karlsson picked it up at the right wing, crossing it right back into the area, for Toni to head home. The next 10 minutes Derby would press hard to tie it up again, creating four chances, the first 3 horribly wide, the fourth decent enough, but Phillips parried well. With that Derby ran out of gas, and would not produce anything for the rest of the game. We would produce plenty though, and 51 minutes into the match Diouf doubled the lead as he took a pass from Dubois. We would get another 7 minutes later as Toni found McDonald in the area, who capped off a brilliant goal making room for himself before thundering the ball home. Despite several good looks later, we could not find the net again, but we'll take a 3-0 win anytime. Mansfield 3, Derby 0 1-0 Toni (Karlsson, 1') 2-0 Diouf (Dubois, 51') 3-0 McDonald (Toni, 58') Subs: Carter, Hilton, Ward (El-Bawi 65), Britton, Miller Man of the Match: Luca Toni (10) Attendance: 17060 ****************************************************** 2 days later we were off to Highfield Road to play Coventry in the 3rd round of the League Cup. Although hoping to advance as far as possible I always find the League Cup as good as any to give my backups their chance to shine. Matt Carter would be getting his debut against his old team. Wedensday 27 October 2010 Carter; Garcia, Bell, Burns, Karlsson (c); Hall, Murray, Ward, Britton; Hope, Ferguson It is games like these you learn to appreciate quality strikers. While Coventry managed to put their only first half chance in the back of the net, we created plenty, but could only put 1 of 8 on target. They were playing decent enough so we continued pushing forward in the 2nd half. Burns had to leave with an injury after 66 minutes, with Fredriksson coming on. Still pushing for a goal Porter came on for Garcia at 74 as we changed to the 3-5-2 attacking formation. But it was not to be. we produced 13 chances over the course of the game, but could only direct 3 at goal, neither of which we could make count. With our departure from the league cup there will be no more games where I will have the backups playing, if they want a game now they will have to earn it the hard way. But I have to take some of the blame for this with running too many reserves out at one time. Oh, well. We will have another League Cup next year. Coventry 1, Mansfield 0 1-0 B.Roberts (41') Subs: Phillips, Fredriksson (Burns 66), Tucker, Sani (Ferguson 83), Porter (Garcia 74) ****************************************************** Burns' injury in the game was a twisted ankle that will see him miss about a month of action. The reserve game vs Arsenal yielded another casualty as Gary Hope pulled his hamstring, and is expected to be out for a month. Everton turned their attention to Durgham El-Bawi in an attempt to turn around their disasterous league start. The £4.4M offer was quikly rejected with El-Bawi being an important part of the team. ******************************************************
and there was no circling around it - a round was played in the chat, with a surprisingly good CM crowd too, as 5 of 6 premier managers guided their teams to wins and losses. There will be another chance tomorrow - with 2 big premier human games coming up in that round. Also worth to be mentioned is that textfiles has been updated prior to the round just played - a complete premier textfile update no less. (=textfiles=)
It has been a while, so it is time for an update: Tackles / Game (4.0+) 1. McElholm 5.8 2. Letang 5.8 3. Månsson 5.2 5. Kah 5.0 9. Briggs 4.7 10. Linighan 4.6 11. Grini 4.5 13. Evans 4.4 14. Bell 4.4 15. Wejsfelt 4.3 17. Mete 4.3 18. Moore 4.3 20. da Luz 4.2 25. Batelli 4.1 26. Hutchinson 4.1 27. Davidson 4.0 Dribbles / Game (2.0+) 1. Christensen 3.9 2. Chadwick 3.0 3. Young 2.9 7. Dubois 2.7 8. Winter 2.7 16. Morgan 2.1 18. Toni 2.0 (League games only, end of February) Textfiles also updated, including all premier teams (except Blackburn who is without a manager). Bradford appointed Brian Little as their new man in charge without me noticing earlier. Awards for February Manager - David O'Leary, Man Utd Player - Daniel Huber, Cheltenham Young Player - Olivier Dubois, Mansfield
June 2nd update complete. Moved up to June 8th, with news at the trollnet site, including boxes (as I uploaded more news for some) Will continue to move up now in chat as long as the video card is cool/cold enough, and after that I guess I will move up like I have done now a couple of days each time. For this to work (if neccessary) you need to tell me what to do when offline, so I can take screens etc to upload when offline (if my video card goes crap again I can not be have the game up while being online, and the old video card have some conflict with being online so...) stoneage anyone?
Season 11 up and running, first month completed, and due to the latest development at SI, there is a very good chance that we would get to season 12 too. Just FYI. And if anyone else is reading this thread: Season 10: Code: Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st C Leeds 38 15 4 0 34 7 10 5 4 34 22 84 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Nottm Forest 38 14 1 4 39 16 7 8 4 35 27 72 3rd Mansfield 38 12 5 2 42 20 7 6 6 25 21 68 4th Liverpool 38 10 4 5 32 17 11 1 7 32 25 68 5th Tottenham 38 13 4 2 36 16 5 6 8 19 18 64 6th Lincoln 38 11 4 4 31 17 7 4 8 26 23 62 7th Man Utd 38 13 5 1 31 14 4 4 11 18 36 60 8th Cheltenham 38 8 7 4 24 15 7 6 6 28 23 58 9th Chelsea 38 11 4 4 31 21 6 3 10 16 20 58 10th Bradford 38 9 6 4 29 20 6 5 8 22 22 56 11th Wolves 38 12 2 5 29 21 3 5 11 16 28 52 12th Crystal Palace 38 8 4 7 29 24 6 5 8 26 31 51 13th Blackburn 38 9 6 4 23 17 5 3 11 20 35 51 14th Arsenal 38 7 5 7 19 18 5 2 12 13 30 43 15th Middlesbrough 38 7 5 7 21 19 3 6 10 16 28 41 16th Ipswich 38 8 2 9 28 28 2 7 10 13 25 39 17th Newcastle 38 7 6 6 19 18 2 3 14 12 30 36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18th R Derby 38 9 2 8 28 32 2 1 16 11 47 36 19th R Man City 38 4 6 9 18 33 4 4 11 17 28 34 20th R Everton 38 6 2 11 22 34 1 0 18 8 46 23
As you said Castor I had you on holiday applying for better jobs, but I screwed up. You applied for a few, and Villa did not like, so I put you on not applying for more as you were doing not so good at the moment in fear of a sacking. Then Boro offered you their position, but the computer turned it down as you were not applying anymore (a previous applied job). So I put you of holiday and reapplied - but did not get the job again. Have continued running games for you and applied for both Newcastle and Blackburn for you. Newcastle did go another route, but Blackburn appointed you and expect a respectable position. You get £98M to accomplish that. So all in all it worked out good as Blackburn >> Middlesbrough I will fix you a Blackburn page when I get the time.
Cool. The last 2 weeks have been ultra busy, so I would have felt bad for neglecting the league had I not gone on holiday. I have been keeping an eye on things from the side though. 98M, I don't think I saw that much total at Carlisel
This is the best Bootroom article I have ever read: http://www.sigames.com/the_bootroom.php?id=122 Ok, so you won the English Premier unbeaten, took the Champions Cup with a 12-0 victory against Real Madrid in the big final, and have now 12 consecutive World Club Cup victories, scoring a 287-2 goal record in those twelve games. Oh, and those two goals were obviously not only in the first two seasons but also, should have been disallowed by those damn referees, shouldn’t they? Well, that’s fantastic, so, that makes you what? Like… I don’t know, greatest manager in the world? Sure, after all, you must be a genius, creating this fabulous tactic that did all this and… oops, what? Oh, it’s not your tactic?? You got it on the Internet? How interesting… so… hm, that’s… that’s very interesting. Ok then, I’m gonna have to restart this article all over again: Ok, so you did absolutely nothing, just got yourself a tactic on the web and watched your players winning 567 games in a row. In the seventh season, you actually missed the Champions Cup finals, because while you were in the MacDonalds down street, you thought you could win some time by letting your team play by itself. So, that makes you what? An idiot? Hm… let’s see… as a matter of fact, yes! And I say that not because you let a tactic you barely know play for you and win for you, but because you actually left your PC turned on for more than half an hour while you were in a MacDonalds! That’s a hugely unnecessary waste of energy!!! But that’s not the point. Many CM managers actually insist in playing that way. Surely it’s ok for you to download a tactic and use it in your team, as long as you study how it works, adapt it to your team, make tactical alterations from game to game or even just use it as a basis for a tactic of your own, which actually is completely different from this one. It’s also fine if you’re just a weekend-manager, who just wants to play once in a while with a so called “super-tactic” just to win a little and cheer up your amazingly ruined Saturday night. But to actually use a super-tactic, barely making modifications to it – changing the mentality of the team DOES NOT count ;-) – keep it in the team for 3.000 seasons and have the nerve of coming into message boards or even to tell friends and family that you are a great player, having 3 zillion titles, well, that is just intolerable! And yet, my God, how many of us actually do this unimaginable unspeakable act of devilish proportions all the time? Some even say that it’s not only about the tactic, they only win for there great skills in building the squad, negotiating players and dealing with the press. Well… that’s a huge load of crap. Obviously. Surely that’s all important but, once your dealing with a Manchester, even the worse manager will manage to have a great squad, etc. It’s nothing though, if you don’t position your team well in the battlefield. In real life, how many examples of that have we got? Real Madrid, Barcelona… You know, I, as a webmaster in the Brazilian CM Scene, hear many excuses from super-tactics’ users for being super-tactics’ users but some of them, well, are really something! One of my favorites, I guess would be… “Yeah, but I hate building my own tactic, so I download it!” Oh c’mon! Fine, be a cheater, lie to everyone about your “skills” as a manager, but to say that you hate building tactics? From the moment you say so, you’re also saying you hate CM. Either that, or you don’t know what CM is. CM IS TACTICS. Most of all, tactics! Perhaps in CM4 this will change a little, with a great new training system, but CM will always still be tactics. The rest is fun and very important for the game, but the game IS YOUR TACTIC. It’s the essence, and when you don’t like, or don’t play the essence, you just can’t be considered a CM player. The Brazilian and Portuguese CM Scenes, those of which I know very well, are famous for promoting and developing huge CM online championships. Especially in Brazil. And for that, super-tactics end up to be amazingly discussed in message boards, etc. People play in these tournaments with downloaded tactics and have the nerve of actually winning! Obviously, a victory with no credit at all, and a waste of time for those who spend hours and hours practicing and developing brand new tactical resources. Not only that, it ruins a whole work of a tournament, creating a completely unrealistic final result, giving the title for someone who may not even know what CM is! Super-tactics are stuff almost never seen in real-life if you think about it. Most great teams on history were a combination of Peles, Ronaldos and Fergusons (ok, awful example, but you know what I mean right? Good!). Never, anyone was ever able to develop a unique tactic that would bring Forrest Green for a Champions Cup title in three seasons! Four seasons perhaps, but never three! So maybe that’s something that could be avoided in future versions of CM: the possibility of super-tactics actually existing. It’s tough though, considering how many combinations of tactics there are and will be in CM. Of course, in CM no tactic works perfectly for longer than a season, since other teams do learn to play against them. But then, you just get yourself another super-tactic and begin winning again. Can you imagine Alex Ferguson stealing Sven’s tactic to use it in Manchester United? Well, I certainly can! ;-) So here I am today, in an appeal, or better yet, a request for people to stop using super-tactics in tournaments. And if you use it only for yourself, don’t come bragging later saying that you’re good because that’s a lie and you know it. No, they shouldn’t be abolished from the Scene. But should be used for good! For peace matters! Not war!!! And… oh right, this is about CM right? Ok, so… ok, they should be used for matters of practicing, learning and studying CM and it’s tactics. But to play CM, you can only say that your playing CM if you built you own tactic.
Yeah, that is a good article. I wish more would take it to heart, but then they would never win, and winning means everything doesn't it? Someone will always take the easy route and cheat, as they would suck without doing so. And they should know it deep inside too, but probably just ignore the feeling. And yet they question why they never get the respect they obviously not deserve!
I grabbed the latest textfile, if you want to update. I'll need another update after the 19th game, or the turn of the New Year, whichever one is more convenient, for a big "half-season" update. Also, I plan to finish the first phase of CL play, second round of the UEFA Cup, and the first two months of league play later today. P.S. - Super Tactics make things boring.
