archived posts
Stromson — Afan Lido: Let’s have a chat (2012 midseason)
I do sincerely hope the day has treated you well, and since many of you won’t be reading this until morning, that you enjoyed a restful nights sleep. I’ve gathered you all here to discuss a very important issue I’ve encountered with Afan Lido. That is to say, the Welsh league is starting to make me feel…
I’ve come to a realization; one simple fact that simply cannot be ignored for any duration of time — Wales sucks. Not the people per say (in fact they seem quite friendly), but as a football league, they just can’t be helped. Not by me, not by Excessive magic, and not even by Sir Alex *censored* Ferguson. It saddens me to say it really, I genuinely enjoy playing as Afan Lido (it’s an awesome name, who wouldn’t enjoy it?), but there are a few unavoidable hiccups:
1) It would take somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-40 years to achieve any kind of European glory with a Welsh team (example: http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/lower-league-managers/66662-theyll-dancing-streets-tns-tonight.html). That guy took it 17 seasons before emo-quitting out of frustration (who could blame him), and that was starting with the best team in Wales.
2) I’m concerned that by about the 7th or 8th season, you lot would start to look awful bored of watching me destroy the domestic league and become Belly Flop Champion (it’s a real thing) of Europe.
(From Front to Back: Darren, Excessive, Johnny)
3) I’m concerned that after 10-11 seasons, I would start to look awfully…
(Crazy)
4) I’m concerned that by the time I finally won the Champion’s League with Afan Lido, I’d look out my window to find….
(Oh geez, I don’t have any gas sir, I swear I don’t…well, at least not the usable kind)
So of course that begs the question: How are you doing in Wales now? Or it’s more sinister twin: You just want to quit because you suck, don’t you? Neither would be entirely out of line…
Not too shabby with only 11 games to play, and we look to be entirely in control of our own destiny (which of course is to win the Welsh Premier League, and venture forth to our Champion’s League doom!).
So what to do in this most unfortunate of situations…well I’ve done us all a favor (or not?) and compiled a little video of me rambling aimlessly for roughly seven and a half minutes…enjoy!
Assuming you’ve watched the video (you didn’t, did you?), you should now have a rudimentary idea of what’s going on inside my head…
Okay okay, let’s be serious for a moment. As promised, here are the leagues I’m looking into (in no particular order, at least not really):
— Portugal: We need an honest Portuguese story (sorry Alex) to revive the poor Iberian stepchild. They seem to languish and fade away in most FM saves that I’ve seen, and that’s just not okay (Ana may or may not have dibs with her Pentagon challenge).
—Netherlands: You don’t see too many stories here, and they’re just good (or bad) enough to make a splash in Europe on a fairly regular basis (same thing with Ana here).
—Belarus: Have you ever seen a story there? Yeah, me either. I’m considering this nation solely so I can shout «GOOD MOOOOOOOORRRRRRRNNNIIINN BELARUSSIA» at the beginning of every post.
—Romania: Similar to Belarus, except I haven’t thought of a cool catch phrase for it just yet (I’m putting the Rome back in Romania?).
—Switzerland: So I can beat Young Boys with Grasshopper (oh gawd, the implications).
—China: Whoa, Asia! It would be the coolest thing ever if I could turn China into one of the dominant footballing forces in the world (do the Asian clubs have reputation boosting?), but I also hear they have good tea (and dragons, you can never have too many dragons).
So there we have it friends, this where I stand. I’d love your thoughts, comments, suggestions, concerns, bitter hatred, or anything else. Perhaps maybe, just maybe, third times the charm?
P.S. — I might start doing updates in the vein of this post, I think it’s kinda fun, no?