retired_perilousfaith

This one is looking nice and detailed
KUTGW! :thup:

retired_mwilson

Thanks for the encouragement Flying_Fin. I will try to update every couple of days and see if it leads anywhere.

retired_milla0225

Sounds strangely familiar Rustyman ! I bet you are glad to get the team's 'pen pictures' out of teh way, that's always a beast of a post to actually get typed in.

retired_mwilson

Yep, chesterfan2. Getting the squad profiles out of the way when you know that you looking to get rid of some of them takes a bit of effort.

retired_mwilson

As he stood on the eve of his first competitive game as manager of KVC Willebroek-Meerhof in the Belgian 3rd Division A, Jules Jackson pondered how far he had come since in the less than 4 weeks since he had stepped off the plane.

Management Moves

The first thing Jules endeavoured to do once he settled in was to get too grips with his playing and coaching staff. The players he evaluated early and although throughout the pre-season his views on the players were impacted by their performances in friendly games, his initial impressions stood and his quite early decided on his starting team and the main substitutes. What too more time to resolve was the coaching staff the previous regime had left him with.

Staff
Jules had followed up on his initial promise of offering existing staff new one year contracts on the same wage and surprisingly all of them had accepted the offer except Jean-Pierre De Bakker, his assistant manager. Jules understood why De Bakker refused the offer, he had an existing 5 year deal and saw no reason to change that simply because a new manager had been hired. This was going to lead to friction at some point in the future as in Jules view Jean-Pierre had a cushy 5 contract for someone with minimal coaching knowledge, irrespective of his experience. For the moment though, Jules could not afford to rock the boat. He needed everyone on-board to start the season so that the supporters and management could see that he was building a cohesive team atmosphere at the club.

Having only had one other coach, a physio and a scout on the payroll, Jules decided to go hunting for staff who were at a loose end and could help improve the squad. His previous contacts at Sports Unlimited helped as they had a European network which also had ties in Belgium. A few ads in the right publications and within weeks Nicolas Wanet joined as a coach and David Temmerman and Said Tahiri as physios. His seach for one or more scouts to help him get a better feel for the players in and around drew a blank however and Jules was resigned to simply leaving the advertisement out there to see if it drew any interest.

The new staff arrivals had a mixed background but all shared the common characteristic that they were unemployed when they received the offer to join Willebroek and so they were on board within weeks.. Nicolas Wanet was only 25 but had realised early that if he was to have a future in football, it would be on the coaching side rather than as a player and he eagerly hung up his boots when the offer from Willebroek came to rescue him from having to look for a real job. David Timmerman was a 43 year old journeyman who hung around the lower reaches of Belgian football without any real hope of advancement to the big leagues. However, his love of football kept him in the game and broke the monotony of a day job as a worker in a truck factory. Said Tahiri was a 32 year old well educated medical professional with a love a football who jumped at the chance of being involved with a real football club even though his day job as a physiotherapist earned him more than the combined wages of all the coaching staff at the club.

Player Movements
As he had realised after a couple of days watching the players in training, the squad needed a couple of central midfielders, probably one starter and a youngish backup and after scouring the lists of free transfers available, trials were offered to a number of candidates leading to Hugo Zeghers, an 18 year old central midfielder who had played non-league football the previous year joining on the 22nd of July. He was joined by Sebastian Rassart, a 25 year old DC/DMC who had played for Tubize in the Belgian second division the previous year on the 26th of July. Rassart was being payed like a first teamer and the holding midfield role which Jules envisaged for his 4-4-2 was his to lose. Jules saw Zeghers as a backup to the first team, someone who he hoped would develop in a year or two into a starting role. Another shortcoming which Jules had spotted in the team makeup was the lack of any real backup for either of the fullback roles. This was not helped by the club getting rid of a couple of wing players before his arrival. Jules tried getting in a couple of players to fill these roles but as of yet his efforts had led to nothing.

Much more positive was the player transfers out. While Jules had never actively shopped any of his squad, it was no secret that there were a number of players who he wouldn’t shed any teams over leaving. Much to his surprise, it seems that a number of teams were interested in his players. When the first offer came in for Kristof de Voeght, Jules had decided to negotiate to see what clubs were willing to offer. When multiple offers of 60K came in, he had not hesitation in accepting the bids. De Voeght was a decent player to have in the forward rotation but Jules was convinced that at the level of competition Willebroek was in, 60K would buy a definite starter. Also, 5 players in the forward rotation was probably one too many.

A second offer for Steve Hercor also for 60K was also accepted and after that Jules was satisfied to cease selling until he had strengthened the squad. With the board being generous in reserving 90% of player sales for the transfer kitty and the existing transfer budget, Jules found himself 120K to use for player purchases if he so desired. He was however determined to keep the majority of those funds until the winter break by which time he would have had enough time to gauge the quality and depth of his squad and to also assess potential transfer targets.

retired_mwilson

Pre-season Games

With all the backroom manoeuvring, the pre-season friendlies came and went with few memorable moments although they did largely serve to confirm Jules’s initial assumptions about his team and the appropriate playing style.

Saturday 16/7/2005 – friendly at home vs Seraing Rul
A nice easy game to get started with. Seraing Rul are an amateur non-league and as such it is a good run-out for the players to shake off the summer break cobwebs. For this one, Jules allowed Jean-Pierre to take control of the squad as he was more interested in observing the players than actively managing them at this stage.

The game ended in a 0-0 draw but was far from boring as Willebroek attacked while Seraing Rul played on the counter attack. It was clear that both sides were rusty although Jules was a bit surprised that his team could not score against a team clearly its inferior. He wrote it down to lack of sharpness and swiftly moved on to the next match.


Thursday 21/7/2005 – friendly at home vs Zwarte Leeuw
For the second friendly, Jules decided to take over the reins himself. While Zwarte Leeuw was another amateur non-league club, the fixture held special significance as they would also be the opposition in Willebroek’s first competitive match of the season in the Belgian Cup. For this match, Jules decided to go with his first choice selection in his preferred 4-4-2 formation, the only troublesome choice being the partner for Pascal Vande Gucht in central midfield, however he eventually settled on Murat Kocat as being the best of an indifferent bunch.

The game ended up being a 5-0 thrashing of Zwarte Leeuw in which the final score was probably flattering to the losers. Willebroek dominated all aspects of the game which was strangely frustrating to Jules as he couldn’t decide whether the performance was a one-off or whether it accurately reflected the gap between the two sides. The goals were well spread throughout the squad though and with Jules having made wholesale substitutions at half-time, the whole squad got a chance to enjoy the win.


Sunday 24/7/2005 – friendly at home vs Club Brugge Reserves
The friendlies were now coming thick and fast but this match held special significance. Club Brugge was one of the top two clubs in the country, Anderlecht being the other, and even their reserves should be to good however for a club at Willebroek’s level. The match was however devalued as Club Brugge had a player sent off before the 10 minute mark and after that it was difficult for Jules to make a true assessment of where his team and the match ended in a harmless 1-1 draw. The match did however provide an opportunity to scout the Club Brugge reserves and youngsters and a few of them caught the eye with Jules filing their names away for future reference.


Wednesday 27/7/2005, friendly away to Leopoldsburg
With the friendlies coming thick and fast, the match against Leopoldsburg took on special significance as they were a team that were nominally at the same level as Willebroek. Leopoldsburg plied its trade in the Belgian Third Division B but were also considered relegation battlers and it was not beyond the probabilities that the two teams might meet in the relegation playoffs at the end of the season.

The match itself was the first game where Jules felt happy. His team won 3-1 away from home against a comparable opponent and he had his first impression of his new buys Rassart and Zeghers in action. His felt comfortable with Rassart’s performance and felt that he and Vande Gucht would form a solid central midfied pairing. Zeghers’ was young and raw but held the promise of improvement which was all that could be expected from a free pickup.


Saturday 30/7/2005, friendly at home vs Mons
Mons was a club who plied their trade in the second division, only one level above in the league structure but a world away in terms of resources and talent. With a professional team setup and players on loan from the top-flight, some of their players were rated as being more valuable than the entire Willebroek squad. Jules decided to adopt a cautions approach to the match, playing on the counter attack as he imagined his team would have to do against a fair proportion of its league opponents.

The game ended in a 1-0 win for Mons but Jules wasn’t disappointed as the virtual full house meant that the club coffers were being filled nicely and his squad didn’t appear overawed playing opponents at a higher level.


Thursday 4/8/2005, friendly at home vs Lierse
The final pre-season match was against First Division opposition in the form of Lierse and while Jules wasn’t expecting much in terms of a result, he accepted the fact that this would be a money spinner for the club which it proved to be with another near full-house. Games like this while saying little about the status of the club provided more income through the gate than half-a-dozen regular season games.

The match finished in a 2-1 win to Lierse but the paying public received their money’s worth with Willebroek battling bravely until just after half-time when substitute Carl Meseure was sent off in the 56th minute which Lierse immediately took advantage of with another flash hot Ivorian scoring the goal. Willebroek battled bravely to hold the rampaging Lierse until the 86th minute when Huygens scored the equaliser out of nothing and Jules, caught up in the excitement of the moment was screaming to his players to get back to try to hold on to the draw. Unfortunately, one of the Lierse youngsters who came on as a substitute scored in the 89th minute to save face for the first division opponents.

Looking back at the pre-season, Jules had to give his assistant Jean-Pierre some credit. The man might not be a very good coach but he did know how to arrange pre-season opponents, starting with some easy amateur opposition to start off with, moving on to some comparable opponents and ending with a couple of money spinning games against popular top clubs. He hope the man had some other hidden talents to justify his excessive 5 year contract.

In addition, he learnt a few more things about his squad. Laurens Melotte was the star of the season in central defence. Jules still had his reservations about the youngster being able to hold up over the course of the season as a central defender but to know, he had performed beyond expectations. Tom de Craeke had proven to be a professional on either wing and was someone the rest of the team looked up to and would be given the captains armband. Jelle Gerrits proved to be a rock in central defence besides Melotte and overall, Jules felt that his club had reason to approach the team with confidence. While Willebroek weren’t likely to challenge for promotion, Jules felt they were likely to perform better than the press and pundits were predicting.

Jules had quietly built up his wish list throughout the pre-season and going into the season this was as follows:

1. A quick and agile experienced defender to partner Gerrits in the centre of defence allowing Melotte to move to fullback and thereby creating some depth at fullback;

2. A fullback to either start or serve as primary backup to the current players in that position;

3. A creative midfielder to counterbalance Rassart and Vande Gucht in central midfield;

4. A young winger to back-up both wide midfield positions, and;

5. A targetman type stiker to serve as focal point for the team when things weren’t going that well or for those matches on wet and muddy pitches in the middle of winter where the passing game Jules wanted to play might be less effective.

While this was not exhaustive, Jules felt if he could fill 3 out of the 5 needs, they would be well on the way to mid table mediocrity.

retired_kristinb9184

I like this story. Surely you're not REALLY hpoing for mid-table!!!

retired_mwilson

Thanks for the feedback will_coleridge. About my expectations, at this stage I really don't know. At times promotion from the bottom rung of various leagues hasn't been a problem in the first year. However, I have had a couple of occassions in Italy and more than one in Spain where it has taken me at least 3 seasons to get my first promotion.

With Willebroek, I am hopeful of challanging for the promotion places in my first season but as I haven't had a chance to judge the quality of the opposition yet, I would accept mid-table if it was offered to me.

retired_mwilson

August 2005

06/08/2005 away vs Zwarte Leeuw, 3rd round Belgian Cup
Jules approached the first competitive match of the season with some trepidation. While his team had thrashed Zwarte Leeuw in their friendly encounter, this match was different. Friendly results could be thrown out of the window, especially in cup competitions where unpredictability was the order of the day. The match itself quickly demonstrated that his fears were unfounded. Filled with confidence after their good pre-season, the team picked up where it left off the last time it met Zwarte Leeuw. Jan Huygens scored two goals before the break, both from headers, one from a corner and another from a free kick.

When Huygens completed his hattrick in the 56th minute, the game was effectively over. Jules Jackson then rang the changes bringing off Huygens, Rassart and Vergeylen and replacing them with de Bilde, Meseure and Van der Heyden respectively. At this stage of the match, the important thing was to get some match practice for the bench players, especially de Bilde who had only recently resumed training after a chest injury which kept him out for 3 weeks during the pre-season. The rest of the match was largely uneventful other than for the dismissal of one of the opposition wingers in the 80th minute for a dangerous tackle. With the first win under their belts, both Jules and his team approached the coming week with a lot more confidence than at any stage during the pre-season.
Willebroek 3 – 0 Zwarte Leeuw

One thing the first real match of the season had brought home to Jules was the need for a good bench policy. Jules hadn’t realised (with everything else going on) than only 4 match day reserves were allowed in the Belgian Third Division. This meant that with one position going to a goalkeeper, the 3 remaining reserves needed to very flexible to cover all eventualities. In addition, the match squad had to have 2 under-21 players which wasn’t a problem as one thing Jules Jackson had concluded, was that he was going to try to develop some youth at the club as the current squad profile was too heavily weighted to older players.


Sunday 14/08/2005 at home vs K Lyra TSV, 4th round Belgian Cup
With the Belgian Cup eliminations in full swing during the month of August, the next match on the agenda was against Lyra, another amateur club with similar resources and squad as the previous opponents Zwarte Leeuw. After having observed the differences in quality in the previous match, Jules was quite confident of a relatively easy match, especially as Willebroek was playing at home and the match conformed to his expectations. An goal in the 26th minute by Kevin Stukens (starting due to the injury to Giles de Bilde) promised to open the floodgates but stout defending by Lyra threatened to keep out Willebroek until half-time.

However, a double strike late in the half by Stukens (42min) and Jan Huygens (45min) meant that the match was effectively over by half time. This gave Jules the opportunity for some squad rotation and he brought on de Bilde for the second half to give him some match practice. The second-half opened with a scare with van Gestel scoring for Lyra almost immediately after the resumption which caused Jules to question his decision to bring Stukens off. However, normalcy was restored a almost immediately as Huygens grabbed his second a minute later. With the brief scare over, Jules Jackson decided to tighten the defence and the rest of the match was played out without much incident.
Willebroek 4 – 1 Lyra

With the first couple of competitive matches out of the way, Jules was looking forward to facing some competition at the third division level in the next round, however, the fates weren’t to kind in the draw and instead Willebroek would be facing R Excelsior Virton in the 5th round, a club from the Belgian second division and as Jules had seen at first hand during the pre-season, there was a world of difference in quality between the Belgian second and third divisions.


Sunday 21/08/2005 at home vs Virton, 5th round Belgian Cup
With the huge increase in the quality of the opposition, Jules decided not to chase the game against Virton. Instead he unvealed the counter-attacking version of his preferred 4-4-2 with the wingers playing more conservatively and only one out-and-out striker in Huygens. As expected, the match turned out to be a nail-biter for Jules with Virton attacking with little repect for Willebroek’s attacking capabilities. However, this was justified as Willebroek’s only attacking forays proved to be long balls to Huygens hoping he could make something of it.

Half-time came and went scoreless, largely due to the inaccuracy of the Virton attack but it seemed inevitable that the expected Virton goal(s) would come. When the end of normal time was reached without the scorers being threatened, Jules smelled his opportunity. He switched back to his normal 2 man attack with a relatively fresh Smolders having who had joined Huygens during the second half being moved from a withdrawn role to a more traditional striking role alongside Huygens.

Extra-time did not proceed as hoped for Willebroek as even with two strikers up front, the quality and condition of Virton was such that they virtually starved Willebroek of possession. However, on a more positive note, Virton in turn was not proving to be as attack-minded as during regulation playing time and both teams seemed to be playing out time for the penalty shootout. However, with less than a minute to go, a poor clearance by the Virton goalkeeper led to Tom De Craeke whipping in a cross to the near post to Smolders. It seemed like a routine clearance for the Virton central defender, who attempted to head the ball behind however due to fatigue, lack of concentration, whatever, his judgement was off and he headed the ball just inside the near post for an own goal. The crowd and players were momentarily still, seemingly not able to believe what had happened, before bursting into the biggest cheer the Willebroek ground had heard in years. With Jules waving frantically for all his players to get behind the ball, the match restarted and was ended by the referee’s whistle after a couple of passes by the Virton players who seemed not to be able to comprehend what had happened to them.
Willebroek 1- 0 Virton

retired_mwilson

The end of the transfer window had also brought a couple of reinforcements to the Willebroek squad as Jules tried to develop some inexpensive depth at the club. The windfall from the sale of De Voegt and Hercor would be not be spent before the mid-season break by when Jules would hopefully had had enough time to make a better assessment of where the money could be best spent.

Joeri Schouppe, a 24 year old DC/DM was purchased from non-league Gerardsbergen for the grand sum of 1000 euros. Jules hoped he would be able to provide backup for his existing central defenders and central midfielders. While Schouppe was not a world beater, he had good pace, a little flair and should be a tackling machine at this level. While not a starter when all players were healthy, Jules envisaged him as a permanent presence on the bench ready to replace any flagging defenders or midfielders.

Jeroen Driessen, a 23 year old AM RC/FC was signed as a free transfer to serve as insurance against another injury to Giles de Bilde who was looking increasingly injury prone as he got older. While Jules held no inflated expectations for Driessen, he felt that the player could serve as decent midfield and forward backup for the squad.

In addition, 2 youngsters were signed as free transfers as Jules felt it was important to build a good youthful and cheap backup presence for his relatively thin first-team squad. Denis Odoi was a 17 year old central midfielder schoolboy who was looking for his entry into the semi-professional ranks. He showed good pace and a bit of flair during his trail which was a primary reason for offering him a two year deal as a young prospect. Gert Vanasselberghs,a young goalkeepre had been a youth trainee at first division Lierse but had been cut in the off-season and as Jules had determined that Thomas van Coillie had no future at the club, he hoped to develop Vanasselberghs as the 3rd string backup.