retired_blondielovespink

That should be 3 non-EU players above. As opposed to 5 once you enter the League.

retired_steffani

lol cheers m8 GL+KUTGW as a Reading fan i expect some nice attackig football he he he

retired_blondielovespink

Reading 08/09 Season Update

We took over the side in 7th place, board expectations of making the playoffs, and my own hope was to avoid them altogether by making 2nd place, which was 9 points off. I mentioned that we did not have a right sided mifielder to speak of. That was entirely true, we had two D/DM(RC)s, neither of whom had a pace above 9. I started burning up the transfer wire for depth in midfield and loanees to cover the right flank.

I also had my best DC and my starting right back poached on me within 2 weeks of arrival. My best addition originally was a DMC from Ajaccio AC, making use of my French contacts. In my 2nd set of loanee midfielders, I finally found a quality right midfielder who would stay with the side. A 27 year old who had somehow been buried at Dundee.

Anyway, we did crush Oxford 3-1 in the Van, then we lost 1-3 ourselves to Wimbledon. After the match, I got our best player on the side, who'd been out with injury, an AMC/L whose name was similar to the Caped Crusader's. And he played like a super hero too. As soon as he went into the lineup, we rattled off 19 unbeaten. Including two 6 match win streaks and only 2 draws, with one of those draws being the back end of the South Section Finals of the Van against Luton, whom we already had a 4-1 aggregate lead on from the 1st leg. I sent the reserves and backup first teamers out and just watched to try to keep the score level, which we did, a 1-1 draw sending us into the Van final to play Nottingham County as New Wembley.

The streak was punctuated by the single most amazing performance I've ever had by a striker in the game against Southport. We gave up the first goal on our 1st shot against. And while I'm still grinding my teeth, the barrage starts. I had free transferred in a 30 year old striker who appeared to be quality for lower divisions, but in his previous 5 matches, he only had scored 1, though he rated well enough. This day he had a natural hat trick--in the 1st half! :eek: He finished the match with 5 goals on 6 shots in a 6-1 laugher at Southport. He finished the season with 10 goals in as many matches, so he, needless to say, never showed this stunning form again, though his 8.0 season average rating wasn't anything to sneeze at. When the streak finally stopped with a 0-1 loss to Portsmouth, we had clinched a playoff spot and we were only 1 point out of 2nd, in 3rd place, with goal difference on both the front runners, and a match in hand.

In the Van Final, we displayed our dominance with a 2-0 win over Nottingham County punctuated by a freekick bomb from Batman(tm). He finished the season with 15 goals and 11 assists from midfield.

We turned back to the league and won our match in hand 3-1 at Ipswich, 2 goals coming through a former Arsenal youth player with a name similar to an OT prophet, he and Batman(tm) both made the 2nd division select team. That put us in 1st place on goal difference--after being 12 points out when I took over! We won our final two matches 2-1 over Watford and 1-0 over Blackpool to hold on to our advantage, winning the Second Division on goal difference. A whopping +45!

Queue up the Queen again: Reading wins the double, Van Trophy Champions, Second Division Champions.

The good news is, of course, promotion. Also I've brought in some quality for next season. I managed to coerce the Little Italian to join me from Auxerre, I signed 2 quality goalkeepers (I was actually forced to loan a keeper for part of the season, as my #1 keeper needs competition for his position to play well, and the only other keeper on the side was utter garbage. I also signed a good young Scot from Falkirk. I also Bosmaned in another Striker from Aberdeen who rates highly, as one of my key strikers is 35, and 2 others on the wrong side of 30, a good, younger, striker is a necessity.

The bad news, my predecessor was an idiot. He had a quality Aussie left winger, and I played him almost every match when I took over, he scored 5 and assited on 6. But the former coach rated him a "backup." So he's gone on work permit problems for missing too many matches. My left back was poached by a Premiership side, which also cost me the side's regular captain. So I'll have an entirely new left side of the formation, an entirely untried left back, and my left wing rotating between last season's deputy and the little Italian.

Also, my training facilities were rated "good" for the 2nd Division. On promotion, I asked for an investment in youth development. The board told me "We do not feel that is necessary." Tightwads. I have no intention of yo-yoing between divisions because because the board has no commitment to the side's future. Seeing as we have several players on the wrong side of 30, we need to find youth. My scouts turned up a couple potential gems, but if we don't have the training facilities for them, what's the point?

My 25 match unbeaten streak with International teams came to an end with a 0-1 loss to Germany in Berlin (yeah, I love it that the FA can't schedule friendlies against anyone else). I had intentionally fielded a lineuup with players I had questions about to get a look at them. Two of them popped up with 5 ratings. If they can't motivate themselves against the Germans, in Berlin, they didn't need to be on my National Team, so I booted them from the pool. We continue to dominate our Qualification group, our goal difference is +16, 21 scored, 5 conceded. As soon as we clinch, I'm going to start adding some youth to the pool, as the French Team is full of players on the wrong side of 30 as well. And we need to find some 25-27 year old stars to bring some vitality to the squad.

My current reputation is #1 in England (world class) #15 in the world (the very top "superb"). A couple of interesting Premiership opportunities came open, but I don't want to leave until I know this side is safe in the 1st. For the record, Auxerre finished in 7th, nearly 18 points back of Lyon, they also crashed out of the 2nd Round of the Champion's League.

Anyway, the bottom line is, Reading with the Double!

retired_blondielovespink

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************** ********************************************** English Second Division - Sunday 3rd May 2009********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2008/9 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st C Reading 46 13 8 2 49 17 13 4 6 45 32 90 2nd P Bury 46 14 4 5 45 32 12 8 3 37 28 90 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3rd Pl Rotherham 46 16 3 4 41 19 10 7 6 33 23 88 4th Pl Wimbledon 46 15 3 5 47 31 11 3 9 40 31 84 5th Pl Portsmouth 46 12 7 4 42 28 11 4 8 37 32 80 6th Pl Torquay 46 12 7 4 42 27 9 8 6 33 28 78 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7th Notts Co 46 12 6 5 46 30 10 5 8 40 36 77 8th Swindon 46 11 9 3 49 24 7 6 10 33 39 69 9th Southport 46 11 5 7 37 32 7 9 7 19 20 68 10th Scunthorpe 46 14 4 5 33 16 5 6 12 23 37 67 11th Watford 46 9 8 6 32 28 8 5 10 31 33 64 12th Chesterfield 46 13 4 6 39 26 5 4 14 22 42 62 13th Ipswich 46 10 8 5 35 23 6 5 12 27 39 61 14th Mansfield 46 14 3 6 42 25 3 7 13 19 39 61 15th Hull 46 9 5 9 34 29 7 7 9 32 37 60 16th Huddersfield 46 10 8 5 33 27 5 5 13 27 49 58 17th Oxford 46 11 5 7 31 23 4 7 12 26 41 57 18th Hartlepool 46 8 5 10 33 34 6 7 10 33 35 54 19th Blackpool 46 9 4 10 22 23 4 6 13 15 32 49 20th Swansea 46 8 6 9 27 33 4 3 16 21 42 45 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------21st R Plymouth 46 6 6 11 30 41 6 3 14 29 46 45 22nd R Port Vale 46 8 5 10 40 47 2 4 17 25 51 39 23rd R Northampton 46 6 6 11 19 35 3 6 14 14 38 39 24th R Cambridge Utd 46 6 5 12 21 31 3 5 15 20 39 37 </pre>

retired_blondielovespink

BTW- Torquay promoted from the playoffs.

retired_blondielovespink

Wimb,

I think you can see that I brought attacking football to the fans of Reading. I got no fan's rejoicing notes from either winning the 1st or winning the Van, however. The Board is delighted, but I haven't formed a rapport with the fans yet, which is very odd, I normally do that within the first 3 months.
---------------------------------

Preseason 09/10- Reading/France

Well, the short one first, France is still undefeated in its qualifying group, we defeated Albania 6-1 in Albania and Georgia 2-0 at home. I haven't received a message confirming passage to the World Cup yet, so I'm still playing the regulars. I've got matches against Slovakia and Norway coming up in September. The FA is "pleased" at my performance, which is the best I've ever seen an FA get. (Does it actually ever get better? Maybe I'll know after the World Cup.)

Now, Reading, the board has given me its directive for the season, "Battle Bravely Against Relegation." We are "rich" after our share of the TV money for the 1st Division, but the board is keeping half the funds locked away, so I only have a 13.75mil transfer kitty. (That's still in Euros, I'll be switching to pounds for the next update, so you're aware.)

I sent one coach packing, and I have an Italian set to join us. I've brought in some younger, quicker players to play fullback and to provide depth on my flanks. I've also added a 25 year old Scot striker who shows promise to go with the 26 year old Scot central midfielder. He's rated as an MC, so he'll float between Batman's(tm) position and the DMC position, providing cover at both. The Little Italian will serve, as always, anywhere across the whole of midfield, though he will primarily be serving in rotation on the left wing.

I nearly brought in my original striker from my first few seasons at Toulouse. He's now 30 and has just left the club. But I decided against it as I already have too many players on the wrong side of that number already. The fans voted my now 36 year old striker their player of the year. So I can't get rid of him. But I did make him a player/coach (a decent coach, btw), and drop his expectations to "squad rotation." He's happy with that. He'll serve in much the same way the Knight did at Auxerre. A 5th striker to come off the bench and play 30 minutes a match when one of the starters isn't playing up to snuff or to take his place in rotation when one of them is injured.

I added a lot of youth to the reserves, and cleared out most of the 25+ players who I thought would never play from there. I have my eye on a couple good looking front runners. And I have a couple excellent rated backs as well. Hopefully I'll be able to give them a look in some Cup matches.

I've scheduled friendlies against 4 Conference teams strictly for fitness purposes, Hull, and then sides from the SPL and IPD to round out the preseason list. 7 friendlies ought to have the side match fit by season's beginning, as well as have sorted out who out of my new signings will contribute from Day 1 and who needs more seasoning.

What are my expectations? I'm shooting for 12th in the first season. I really have no idea if we're good enough to do that. I think we are. A good, solid, midtableocrity first season returned to the 1st Division would serve me well. Especially if we could mix that with a good Cup run along the way too. We shall see.

retired_steffani

lol we are a hard bunch to please, he he kutgw bud, in the game and on the thread, truely gr8 reading my fave story on here (and not just cos its about the mighty R's)

retired_holden

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by shawng1:
I sent one coach packing, and I have an Italian set to join us. I've brought in some younger, quicker players to play fullback and to provide depth on my flanks. I've also added a 25 year old Scot striker who shows promise to go with the 26 year old Scot central midfielder. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well Iajafer will be impressed anyway

KUTGW Shawn. Best of luck for the new season

KingsbayYHPE

Impressed? Not by a 25y/o! Wait 'til he's 40

(Bloody new page )

retired_blondielovespink

40? Criminy, his manager is just over that. The Scot midfielder has some skill, though he lacks determination and work rate. So he'll need someone pushing him, and will best serve in squad rotation. Though he may see more time than that if Palace turns their interest in Batman(tm) into more than the occasional annoying scout.

BTW, I saw that screenie of your "promising youngster." Hilarious.