archived posts
Stromson — Afan Lido: Preseason 2012/13
Hello all, and welcome back to another Afan Lido update! I’m going to try something marginally different with my writing style this time, and will be doing this from the perspective of my manager…let me know what you think!
When last we spoke, we’d managed to pull off the (seemingly) impossible, and rocketed up to a safe mid-table finish. The result of our tactical shift caught just about everyone, myself included, off guard. The sudden success means our board is now expecting us to replicate the feat for this season. I’m not thrilled about that kind of pressure but who are we kidding, it’s Europa or bust this season!
I sat down with Jason (my Assistant manager) and we reviewed the squad stats for the year. We had a few key individuals that clearly had a future at our club, but several that weren’t looking quite as promising. I hate to say it, and I hated even more to actually do it, but we had to cut loose some dead wood. By the time we finished, we’d paired ourselves down to four starters and five backups…yikes! We’ve had our work cut out for us this off season as a result, but I think we’ve done a reasonable job at strengthening the squad. Let me show you who we’ve managed to bring on board:
This is a young lad one of our scouts spotted while he was visiting family over in Cambridgeshire. He happened to catch this guy in action during an exhibition match, and saw quite a lot of potential in him — I have to say I agree! We brought him in and put him through his paces, and he performed admirably. I feel confident he’ll be our starting keeper this season.
I can’t quite place it, but this fellow seemed oddly familiar when his scouting report slid across my desk. He’s young and has some pretty tremendous potential, so I’m willing to give him a chance. Now if I could only remember where I’d seen his name before…
I nearly missed this talented young lad — his report had been stuck to the back of Sean’s! He needs some experience under his belt, and he’s awful wobbly on his legs (must be a puberty thing), but I think he’ll mature just fine.
I’m not to sure what I was thinking when I brought Luke onboard, but it was probably a decision I’d made after a night at the pub. Talent wise he’s Danny Taylor’s (my incumbent) equal, just three years younger. Far as I can tell they have roughly the same amount of potential, so I’ll most likely just try ’em both out until I find one I like.
This gangly sumbitch is probably the best player I’ve had since I left Seattle! He’s a little on the slow side, but he’s packed full of talent and even has some room left to grow. He’s going to be our anchor in the midfield, and I’ll probably turn to a bottle of gin and weepy love songs if he gets hurt.
Jason insisted that we needed some help here, so I caved and brought Jordan on board (not before I was bribed with some free beers though). Still…I think I like this guy. He has some skill, and his technique isn’t too shabby for someone his age. White man can’t jump though, and I think I’ll need to get him started on improving that.
Sweet Moses I have a striker! More than one actually, but I found (okay, my scouts found) Steven first, so I’ll mention him first. He’s smack in the middle of his prime, and while he wasn’t able to hack it in League 1, Wales should suit him rather nicely.
Another striker, it’s a miracle! I don’t know who we paid off to befall this good fortune, but by golly I’ll take it. Just entering the peak of his career, Ashley (no comment) looks like he could be quite dangerous in our humble little league.
A third striker, who’d have ever believed it? The real trick was bringing multiple options (one can never be too careful with these things), and I view Sam here as being more of a backup option should one of our starters find himself on the lam.
So what do you think? Not too shabby of a squad if I do say so myself. My biggest concern will be how they play together, and I’m not thrilled about having basically rebuilt the squad from the ground up. I’m expecting the early going to be a bit rough, but we should stabilize by midseason and make a healthy run toward a top 6 finish. I’d say the title is still fairly out of reach, and I’ll be pressuring the board to upgrade us to full on «Professional» status (after all, why I am earning all this money if not to make us more competitive?). We’ll see how that goes…
Lastly, I managed to get one of my scouts to record our game against Carmarthen. Someone thought it would be brilliant to put a live mic on me for the session, so forgive me if there is some foul language here or there…
Thanks for reading all, and let me know what you think of the new style! I’m still working to get the game running smoothly in 3D mode, but at least with 2D working I’ll be able to continue the story without any issues. Adios amigos!