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Post by Sonic on Mar 14, 2006 0:07:58 GMT
Coffs, have you noticed with frienldies for Internationals, that they don't perform near as well as during competitive games.
I think we need to swap tactics, as I have no trouble keeping goals out, but have trouble getting my strikers hitting open goals. It's extremely frustrating. They move the ball around nicely put just can't finish off moves. I can dominate possession in other teams halves as well, as well as shots too. The good thing I have now is that I'm playing a 3 at the back in a new tactic.
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Post by coffers on Mar 14, 2006 8:53:44 GMT
Oh, I've certainly noticed haow bad the players can be in friendlies and internationals. But more so friendlies. My lot seem to have given up after winning the League cup, they have been playing like dustbins since.
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Post by Moo on Mar 14, 2006 9:15:58 GMT
I never worry about the reserves, but it is always nice to see the U18s doing well.
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Post by coffers on Mar 14, 2006 9:19:32 GMT
The away trip to Charlton did prove tricky, we lost 3-2 and robably deservedly so, mainly because of defensive incompetance. We had the lead twice but Rochembach leveled twice with long range wonder goals, the winner was scored 5 minutes from the end. A couple of my players received a public tonge lashing from me for their inept performances over the last few weeks. Both admitted they had been under-par and would attempt to do better.
An inmprovement was seen in the next game at home to Birmingham, we won 2-0, it wasn't great but it was a win. The nervousness could be seen throughout the team though.
Man City away was next, they were 2 points behind us, a win would put daylight between us, playing ultra-defensive we held the line well and Nugent gave us the lead on 70 minutes. Unfortunately Citeh equalised in injury time which pissed me off no end. To be honest Citeh deserved to win, but we defended well for once and purely for that I thought we deserved all the points. We're still in 3rd place, City are still 2 points adrift and then comes Spurs a point behind them. We have Chelseas at home next, they are in 6th place 6 points behind us.
With 6 games left to play it's all in our own hands, but we are faltering, the overall lack of quality is beginning to take it's toll.
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Post by coffers on Mar 14, 2006 13:18:05 GMT
We battled to a 1-1 home draw against Chelsea, having taken the lead early on, we allowed Lampard to lump a shot in soon after. How we kept them out for the rest of the game is a mystery. Next we traveled to West Ham who will almost certainly be relegated. As is the norm with these sort of games they battled as if their lives depended on it but a free kick 11 minutes from time gave us the all important Goal to secure a close win. Next up Fat Sam came a knocking and gave us a much harder game on our ground than we had on theirs, mind they did manage to keep 11 men on the pitch this time. It didn't do them any good mind, as a goal in each half gave us a vital 2-0 win. With three matches to go the table looks like this (Moo will be happy that Newcastle are almost safe from relegation, Beardsley has almost done them proud): ![](http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/4184/prestonleague4kc.jpg) For the remaining games we have a trip to Norwich, followed by home games against Newcastle and Tottenham.
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Post by Moo on Mar 14, 2006 15:20:44 GMT
Only 5 defeats in their last 17 games is great form for Newcastle, well done Pedro, lad!
Oh, you have to play them soon, bugger. They may have to win both of their other games to stay up then. If they don't, it would be a shame as it was a hell of an achievement.
Puts your third place into the shade, Coffers, a poor effort. :cab:
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Post by coffers on Mar 14, 2006 15:31:52 GMT
An away trip to Norwich ended in the same fashion the FA Cup trip ended in defeat, but this time we held it to 1-0, it was disappointing all the same. Next we had a visit from Newcastle who despite their previous good form to drag themselves out of the bottom 3 had stuttered in the previous game and I hoped to pile on the agony, so I told Beardsley that he should seek alternative employement, I'm not sure if it unsettled the skunks or not. They played hard but we took the lead a minute after the break. Newcastle missed a penalty with 5 minutes to go and we stormed down the other end an punsihed their mistake to grab a 2-0 win. Which puts us in a nice position to claim a Champions League Spot, especially as Citeh went on to only draw their game in hand over us. With one match to play both Citeh and Spurs can overtake us, if we win or draw our last game we should finish thrird. If we lose by more than one Spurs will over take us and so could Citeh. We have Spurs at home Citeh face Fulhm at home. At the other end; Newcastle are away to Arsenal and Blackburn are away to Everton. The League: ![](http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/4485/prestonleague8qr.jpg)
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Post by Moo on Mar 14, 2006 15:51:31 GMT
Cheers Coffers. :moop:
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Post by coffers on Mar 14, 2006 15:53:14 GMT
I'll tell you what, I'll taunt the other two for you now and claim Beardsley can still save you. ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png)
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Post by Moo on Mar 14, 2006 15:57:25 GMT
Gee thanks, although I suppose a point might be good enough.
Who do Fulham have?
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Post by coffers on Mar 14, 2006 16:20:54 GMT
They were away to Citeh and the taunting worked as far as your two fellow strugglers went they both lost, but so did you against Arsenal, you even had a man sent off. Sorry. Even worse news Moo, Sunderland are coming up the other way. ![](http://www.geocities.com/jacquesdebohun/smilies/moop.gif) As far as the Preston vs Spurs game went we started badly going a goal down inside 7 minutes but Nugent pulled a goal back on 10. The Spurs went on to tear us apart, that bloke Keane again. We went in at the break 3-1 down. I questioned the teams passion to win the game. It worked they gave their all in the second half and the striker we got from Southampton banged in 2 goals to ensure we drew the game 3-3 and claimed 3rd place as our very own, only on goal difference mind you. It still gives us £10.75M in prize money though, that'll please the board. The Final table for 2008/2009: ![](http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/9041/prestonleague0nb.jpg)
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Post by Moo on Mar 14, 2006 16:41:50 GMT
:moop:
Excellent work, Coffers, Preston in the LAC qualifiers? Who'd a thunk it? :thumb:
You'll have to keep me informed of how things go with the Toon, it would be niteresting to see who goes out and comes in. I assume that because you're a few years in 2009 that most of the current lot have gone. Apart from Dyer who is still injured and Chopra who thinks it might just be his year, again.
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Post by coffers on Mar 14, 2006 16:58:23 GMT
Moo: Currently the ones I know of that are still there in the 1st team are: Given, Ramage, Babayaro, Parker, Emri, Milner, Luque and Owen. Ameobi has spent the season in the reserves moaning continually that he should be in the 1st team.
Chopra is at Sheff Wednesday and Dyer is in your reserves.
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Post by coffers on Mar 14, 2006 17:12:03 GMT
AT the end of season awards do, Preston striker Dave Nugent was named Player's Player of the Year, Henry was 2nd and Cisse 3rd.
Our On-Loan striker from Arsenal won the Player's Young Player of the year award. My Left winger came 2nd in the Player's Young Player of the Year award. Nugent and my Left winger were in the Team of the season and I had a Centre back on the subs bench for that too.
I obviously came 3rd in the Manager of the year awards.
Villa beat Porto 1-0 after extra time in the Euro Cup Final.
Sunderland beat Arsenal 2-1 in the FA Cup Final. :humb:
Our Reserves finished 12th out of 14 in the reserves league. The U18's finished top of their league by a street winning all but 4 of their games, they also won the U18's Cup Final beating Middlesbrough 3-0.
So a damned successful season if I say so myself. We were playing to near enough full houses all season, even when the ground capacity was incresed to 30,750 in early December, which bodes well for the future.
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Post by Sonic on Mar 14, 2006 22:55:24 GMT
Oh, you have to play them soon, bugger. They may have to win both of their other games to stay up then. If they don't, it would be a shame as it was a hell of an achievement. That turned out to be very prophetic. Nice work there on the third place and the cash cow to come. Now's your chance to raid Newcastle and get their 'stars', what with Dyer languishing in the reserves :cab: Sunderland coming up, and beating Arsenal in the FA Cup :cab: Moo, in my game, Chopra is a club favourite, and has his name on the clubs favourite list. Speaking of LAC, I saw a Maltese side in the group stages. That would be a hell of an achievement. Oh, and Coffs, how much protection are you giving your central pairing? That could be why your conceding too much, that or your way too attacking and getting caught out. That or their personal instructions aren't defensive enough. That or they aren't good enough, or at least one of them isn't.
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Post by coffers on Mar 15, 2006 9:26:24 GMT
And now I have a dilemma, BMX Flyer arrived along with a few bozzers, Preston are putting in under-soil heating with the cash cow, they paid out £4.1M to shareholders and gave me a transfer budget of £7M. I raided the unattached kids list and have a ridiculous number of U18's on the books along with what the youth academy produced. We need at least 1 decent Central midfielder and a Right winger. We also need another decent Centre back, we might have managed to sign a decent Right back, time will tell. £7M isn't really enough to bolster the squad for the LAC competition. I really need to offload a lot of deadwood, but nobody is biting unless I cut the fees to stupid levels. But the real dilemma is Manchester City have offered me a job, in real life it's a no brainer, I'm on £8k per month at Preston, Citeh are offering £80k per month plus a £14M transfer pot, they are also in the LAC due to their 4th place finish. Looking at their squad though, it looks somewhat threadbare and all the decent bozzers have gone. ![](http://www.geocities.com/jacquesdebohun/smilies/moop.gif) Do I take it? I've delayed the decision for a week, whilst I contemplate my options. Sonic: the goal leakage is probably down to protection, but when I give it we stop scoring. ![](http://www.geocities.com/jacquesdebohun/smilies/moop.gif) So more than likely I need better players in the areas I mentioned above.
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Post by Moo on Mar 15, 2006 10:00:07 GMT
Moo: Currently the ones I know of that are still there in the 1st team are: Given, Ramage, Babayaro, Parker, Emri, Milner, Luque and Owen. Ameobi has spent the season in the reserves moaning continually that he should be in the 1st team. Chopra is at Sheff Wednesday and Dyer is in your reserves. Owen relegated? ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png) I reckon they'll all be sold bar Ramage and Babayaro and whatever is in the reserves of course. Parker is the one I would go for out of that lot, he always plays well for me. As did Luque, before I sold him to Barca. Or it may have been Real Madrid, I forget.
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Post by Moo on Mar 15, 2006 10:05:32 GMT
Dilemma 1 - you're going to have to be very canny in the market to get what you want in with only 7m to spend. Of course you could try and sell one of your good players to generate more cash, but that's risky as you don't know if the replacement will be good enough.
Dilemma 2 - the cITEH job? You have to seriously consider the jump. The stadium (and revenue from it) and reputation will get the players in you need to pad the squad. Then an assault for next season on the Euro places for sure.
I don't blame you for taking your time with this one, it's a bit of a tough one. GL!
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Post by coffers on Mar 15, 2006 10:20:11 GMT
If I take the Citeh job, my ambition stat might just rise above the rock bottom level that it is currently on, ie. 1. All my other stats are rated at 20 at the moment.
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Post by Moo on Mar 15, 2006 11:02:58 GMT
Bragging? :checkit:
You could be right, of course, but I have never really given that stat much thought.
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Post by coffers on Mar 15, 2006 11:46:28 GMT
A clearout has started, one duff centreback, who was ok in the Championship, is going to Cercle Brugge for £35K and it looks as if a striker bought for £5k in the January transfer window is on his way out to Doncaster for £1M, his value is really £2.1M but he wants out and there was no interest at that price. Then the Citeh Offer came around again and I accepted their terms, but only after saving a backup of the game before accepting. City will have to pay Preston £275k compensation. I'll now have to go through all the palaver of sorting out some decent backroom staff again. Just when I'd got that side of things settled for Preston. Oh well that's what they're paying me for. ![](http://www.geocities.com/jacquesdebohun/smilies/grin.gif)
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Post by Moo on Mar 15, 2006 11:54:52 GMT
You jumped? How could you? You tart! Etc, etc...
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Post by coffers on Mar 15, 2006 12:37:11 GMT
For money, what else? ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png)
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Post by Moo on Mar 15, 2006 12:38:38 GMT
Oh aye. ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png) KUTGW!
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Post by coffers on Mar 15, 2006 14:14:56 GMT
Something strange has happened regarding my scouts. When I look at Citeh's staff list I can see the staff as they should be. When I go to Player search/scouting, I can see and assign all the Preston scouts as well as ours.
I presume this is a bug as looking at each scouts details indicates that they are still employed by Preston?
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