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Stromson — And next up is…(really? again?)

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Greetings once again my dear friends! As you read (maybe?) yesterday, I’ve decided it would be in the best interests of our collective sanity if I were to bid a fond (ish) farewell to Wales. Afan Lido is a team I’ll hold dear, and I may one day return to guide them to Champion’s League glory, but it would simply take far too much time to make an even halfway interesting story. BUT! But but but, before we say goodbye, we need to at least see how our season panned out!

Did we manage to win the title? Were able to overcome the dominance of the «big» three of Neath, TNS, and Llanelli?

We sure did! We carried our unbeaten form nearly to the end of the season before finally recording a pair of losses after having already secured the league. Neath kept it close for most of the season, but we saw it through to secure The Lido’s first ever Welsh title! Now for the next question…were we able to avenge last years defeat in the Welsh Cup final?!

Not so much. :( We put up a good fight, but I’m convinced Campbell’s sending off ultimately prevented us from mounting one of our patented second half comebacks. Still, losing the Welsh Cup is of minor consequence (for one, we won the league, and for two, I’m leaving). On the bright side, check out the top three average ratings for the league:

Score! I’ll miss Shane Williams, that’s for sure, and my defenders performed admirably. Odd that none of my strikers showed up, but I guess they did tend to be fairly streaky.

 

 

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Now for the inevitable: Where am I (really where are WE, since you guys are a part of this too) heading next? After spending far, far, far too long researching leagues, weighing pros and cons, and making a custom Portuguese league (changed all the team names to cell phone companies), I think I’ve finally, finally decided on where to play next:

Do you get it!? I’m going to Ukraine! See, U-Crane, the crane’s neck forms a «U» shape…yeah? Right? Okay…I’ll admit that wasn’t nearly as funny as if I’d chosen Turkey (there were some great photos for that one), but I was strapped for ideas. The league has always held a certain appeal to me, and I’ve been fascinated by the likes of Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv. So who have I chosen to lead Ukraine to glory?

None other than the mighty, the unstoppable, the unbelievable, the supremely talented….

 

…Helios Kharkov?

If you’ve never heard of them, I can hardly blame you. They’re a new team with less than a decade of existence to their name:

They’ve advanced quickly through the ranks since their inception, but have been languishing in the Persha Liga (our second tier) since 2005. My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to earn promotion to the Premier League and see if I can’t rattle the bars on the big boy’s cage. This won’t be easy by any stretch, especially when you take a look at our budget:

Now this could be a challenge! Even Blue Square N/S teams have larger wage budgets than this, and the Ukrainian First League is of considerably better quality. I have plenty players who would love to play for me, but their wage demands range from £300-£1200 (aka, most of my budget)! We already have a tiny squad, and my assistant doesn’t seem overly optimistic about our depth:

None the less, the board are expecting a mid-table finish, and I’ll need to do my best to secure that (lest I find myself unemployed within the first three months of this story. I thank you all for your continued support, but if you’ll excuse me, I need to go spend the next three hours scouring Ukraine for players willing to join us for free…

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