Hello everyone and welcome to Season 4 of my Football Manager Story featuring the Vancouver Whitecaps. If you remember from last season we won the MLS Cup for the third straight season as well as reaching the final of the Club World Championship where we narrowly lost to Inter Milan. This update will commence in January 2014 and will feature all the pre-season activities.
Before I continue on, a word about the “Moneyball” project. At the end of season two I noticed all the MLS player stats were wiped clean on December 31st so this time I exported my shortlist in mid-December thinking that they would reload historically in January – duh no!!! Lesson learned. In order to keep the stats the best way is to print them. I like to print to Web Page and then copy that into Excel for easier sorting
The bottom line is Moneyball won’t really be useful again until mid-season unless I can remember how good a player was. Another reason to have a notebook handy like Johnny and Darren to archive the player stats!
January 2014
The first order of business for the pre-season proper was the MLS Super-Draft and Supplemental Draft. We ended up not participating in the draw as we were way down the selection order and the only player of interest was selected by Columbus.
By the middle of the month the international window opened for MLS clubs which saw two new arrivals to BC Place. The first was Venezuelan midfielder Jesus Hernandez who will be replacing Philippe Davies whom we traded to San Jose for striker Adam Payne (no stats available)
As for Hernandez his almost 42% pass completion ratio immediately caught our attention as well as his overall technical attributes.
JESUS HERNANDEZ
ADAM PAYNE
Our third signing was former EPL and NPower Championship player Scott Sinclair who had most recently been released by Cardiff City. Sinclair has been struggling in the past few seasons though I think the 24 year olds career can be revitalized in the MLS.
The arrival of Hernandez and Sinclair caused a squad registration problem in that we had gone over budget with international slots. As we had a good keeper in Loris Karius the consideration was to sell the older GK Edson. But then we got a fantastic break as both Jarju and Salinas became Canadian citizens and so the problem was solved!
Before the month was over I was offered the Republic of Ireland job which I accepted – well I do have a County named after me!
There are a couple of friendlies already set up but my main task will be qualifying for Euro 2016 and we were drawn in Group E against mostly Eastern European nations including Romania.
February 2014
This was a very quiet month aside from several bids for DMC Gershon Koffie who caught the interest of several Swedish clubs.
We began our pre-season friendlies recording three straight wins with Jarju scoring two goals in his first start as a striker which allows for Galloway and Villalobos to play in midfield. It was also exciting to see Galloway score in every game too.
Not so exciting was to see the value of AML Russ Tiebert, who just a year ago was valued at $1.2 million and was now worth just $85,000.00. I guess his low crossing percentage really affected his stock price!
March 2014
The month started off with my first game in charge of Ireland and the long trip to Lithuania was well worth it as left winger Aiden McGeady produced a memorable hat-trick in a 4-2 win over our hosts.
On arrival back in Canada it was squad registration day in the MLS and we had run out of time to trade Tyler Hemming and so he was waived along with two reserve players who didn’t make the cut.
By mid-month Shea Salinas was on the move as we traded him to Houston for a 2015 2nd round draft pick and that essentially completed the picture of how I wanted the squad to look for the upcoming season aside from Tiebert whom I’m yet to offload.
Vancouver 2014 Squad (new players in red)
The only real change to the starting eleven is the inclusion of Scott Sinclair over Tardelly. That was a hard choice and “Moneyball” will prove whether I’m right or not once a couple of months stats are available. Edinho is in a slightly more defensive role this season allowing the younger Galloway to run around whilst midfielder Jarju is pushed up front, retraining as a striker as he showed some aptitude for the role in pre-season.
| Position | Starting Eleven | Rotational | Position | Reserve |
| Goalkeeper | Edson | Karius | GK | Sylvestre |
| Right Back | Draper | Sarkodi | DL | Melia |
| Left Back | Ferrari | Williams | DC | Rochat |
| Central Defender | Cuesta | Rodriguez | DC | Sacco |
| Central Defender | Opara | Henry | AML | Tiebert |
| Anchor Man | Koffie | Ostoloza | AML | Paul Van Os |
| Central Midfielder | Edinho *Captain | Hernandez | ST | Payne |
| Adv. Playmaker | Galloway | Villalobes | ST | Hudson |
| Left Winger | Sinclair | Tardelly | ||
| Right Winger | Nagbe | Kramer | ||
| Centre Forward | Castillejos | Jarju |
We finished off pre-season with a fine set of results ensuring we have good morale to start off the 2014 campaign.
So that’s it. Vancouver are set for another season of Major League action and hopefully we can also get back into the NACL as well.
Thanks for taking the time to read this update and I look forward to yor comments.
Darren Smith
4 мая, 2012 at 12:01
Some very nice signings there Kevin, I am a big fan of Sinclair in real life and can’t wait to see how he does in America. As for the Ireland job I think its a good move and certainly feels like it has spiced the story up a bit so good luck there.
Kevin
4 мая, 2012 at 12:28
Thanks Darren
I don’t think the Canada job will come about anytime soon so Ireland looked like a decent stop gap. As for Sinclair I think he will leave defenders for dust in the league. I’m excited to see how he does.
Dan
4 мая, 2012 at 12:57
Hey Kevin,
Scott Sinclair is a great player and should do really well in the MLS along with your other signings. Good to see you take an international job too, looking forward to seeing how you do with Rep. Ireland.
Kevin
4 мая, 2012 at 17:35
Hey Dan
I was delighted that Sinclair signed immediatly though I forgot to metion he’s a Designated Player so his full salary doesn’t go against our budget. I’m looking forward to Ireland as well.
TheZiggy
4 мая, 2012 at 14:32
It’s good to see that you’ve not made many changes, which I feel is a good thing. Too many people go insane, feeling they have to make an insane number of changes, often just because they have a transfer budget and feel they should use it. Stability I feel is the real key to at least maintaining the level of the team, and hopefully by small changes and development from the players you have, stepping up even further.
Scott Sinclair should be a success for you. For some reason in the game, he seems to struggle at Premier League level, when I think he ought be better. However, in the MLS I think he’ll terrorise the defenders no end, so we will hopefully see him contributing a lot during the season.
Kevin
4 мая, 2012 at 17:41
Hi Ziggy
Having a very small allocation of transfer funds keeps the activity at a minimum though Philly just dropped a cool $2.4 million for a Mexican. Even though I’ve won the league three times I still don’t get how the money is dished out for transfers?
Sinclair should be phenominal based on early indications.
saltwater
4 мая, 2012 at 18:02
Looking forward to the progress of Sinclair, he should make waves in America. I also look forward to Ireland, as that could could be a real challenge on the arison.
Good Luck Kevin.
Kevin
4 мая, 2012 at 20:10
Hi saltwater
Sinclair is my best signing to date so I’m certainly looking forward to see how he does as with my Ireland job too!
pedro roriz
4 мая, 2012 at 18:17
hey kevin, nice seeing you taking charge of ireland! they have a solid team. i think you have to be careful with croacia but, aside from them, your group is not that difficult. good luck!
i’m sorry if you have already explained this in the last posts, but i just don’t know anything about the mls league, so i will just fire up the question: you TRADE players between teams? you mean like a moneyless operation?
best of luck!
Kevin
4 мая, 2012 at 20:35
Hi Pedro
Greetings from Canada!!
As for your question there are a lot of trades between teams. some straight swaps others involve a cash payment and even others that involve draft allocation slots for the following or futre seasons. It can get very complex but interesting at the same time. Teams get awarded an allocation of cash for their transfer budget and that’s complex too :)
Johnny Karp
4 мая, 2012 at 20:02
Congrats on the Ireland job, that should be a quite exciting side in your career. Hernandez looks good for your team and Sinclair should go a solid job as well. Good luck for the season!
Kevin
4 мая, 2012 at 20:15
Thanks Johnny
The Canada job seems quite elusive in this save so I thought Ireland would suit me nicely. Sinclair should be awesome in this league.
Laxeyman
4 мая, 2012 at 20:04
Good signings Kevin, I like the look of Sinclair, his pace should rip up the MLS, hopefully he can bag lots of goals and assists. Hernandez looks a good player too, and your pre season results were excellent, so all looks set for a successful campaign :) Good luck!
Kevin
4 мая, 2012 at 20:25
Hi Laxeyman
Once i saw Sinclair’s pace it was a no-brainer to sign him though I was surprised that he came to Canada so easily :) Hernadez was a pure «Moneyball» signing.
Tegar Triemanudigdo
5 мая, 2012 at 00:36
Congrats mate! You got yourselves a national job! And it’s Ireland nonetheless and I have feeling you have the ability to raise them up, although there are still many strong nations there in europe.
I’m looking forward on the next chapter.
Kevin
5 мая, 2012 at 09:05
Hey Tegar
As there seems to be little hope for the Canadian job, Ireland looked like a good fit for me so hopefully things will go well.
CsAtlantis
6 мая, 2012 at 06:00
Sinclair looks really strong for the MLS, he will bring some Premier League experience to the strong and is still only 24 (is he a DP?)
Payne looks quite okay but might need to improve on his finishing, I think Jesus would be 42 passes completed per game instead of 42% which you wrote? :P
Congratulations on getting the Ireland job Kevin and good luck for next season
Kevin
6 мая, 2012 at 08:49
Whoops…that’s the trouble having too many things open at once. Yes it is 42 completed passes per game :)
As for Sinclair, he is a DP and should beocme one of the MLS’s leading players in my mind. Payne is not tht great, I just needed to get rid of Davies :)
Ana Garcia
6 мая, 2012 at 19:27
Good luck on the Ireland job!
Jesus Hernandez look really promising and real good passer of the ball by the looks of it!
I saw you have Romania in your qualification group, I wonder who Johnny will be supporting! :)
Good luck Kevin, am really glad to see you writing again.
Kevin
6 мая, 2012 at 20:36
Thanks Ana
A mid-week change of heart and probably for the best too. I like Hernandez for hi youth and as a replacement for Edinho whose attracting too much attention from his native homeland.
Martin - F.M.J.S
9 мая, 2012 at 10:10
Hi Kevin Apologies for the late reply I explained in my latest post why But Congrats on the Ireland Job hopefully you can bring success to them and put yourself in the front line for the Canadian job when it comes available. As for the new signings they look great, good job keep it up. :D
vaibhavc
15 мая, 2012 at 17:26
Great job on getting the Ireland job, that will be an interesting one. Scott Sinclair will be a great signing for the MLS!