Inter Prepare for Milan Derby

This isn’t just a typical derby for Inter fans, nor their manager. The Good Doctor has gone 3 games undefeated and has lifted his side form the drop zone and has declared, with one game to go this season, that he has no intention of falling back into it.


“We are out now, but our goal difference doesn’t make us safe so we can’t depend on 1 point. We need to play to win and that is what I intend on doing tomorrow night!"

The Good Doctor faces a very tough challenge ahead of him as in a cruel twist of fate, his survival hopes fall on his teams performance against fierce rivals AC Milan. TGD admits that this shouldn’t have been the case:

“Realistically, the team have unperformed this season and had they played to expectation, this game shouldn’t be anythign more than a local derby game, the fact that survival also hangs in the balance is due to lackluster performances on the pitch this season but I am confident we will be in the top flight again next season and will be performing at a much higher level”.


Dortmund All Change Regardless of Division

Dortmund boss Lee Reynolds spoke to the media briefly ahead of a crucial final league game away to Bayern Munich which will ultimate seal Dortmund’s fate.
Boss Reynolds Dortmund side are only out of the relegation zone on goal difference and only a win will guarantee Division one football next season. “We know what we have to do, the players are focused and are looking sharp. Bayern are a tough proposition on their own ground but we must not freeze and go there with confidence”
Reynolds was quizzed on player movement next season and said that there will be change regardless of what division Dortmund will be in. “We are looking to change a number of players ahead of the new season regardless of what division we are in. The squad was not the best, a number of deals were very poor in my eyes and affected the balance of the squad. Raheem Stirling and Neven Subotic are the only 1st team players unavailable for any deals, loan players will be made available once they return”




End of Season Player Awards

With 2 days left to go till the final game of the Season, the Top100 players were out in force to celebrate the Top100 Player Awards…


Div 5 YPOTY

The night began with Division 5 Young Player of the Season with 3rd place being picked up by Youri TIELEMANS of Anderlecht with 9%, who even though he only played in 6 games this season, he shone with 3 TOTW apps and will be hoping for more game time next season. 2nd place with 12% was Issiaga SYLLA (Standard Liege) and the runaway winner was Lenny NANGIS of Independiente with 76% after 12 goals in his 29 games this season.


Div 5 POTY

In 3rd place of the Division 5 Player of the Year was Giovani DOS SANTOS of Sao Paulo with 9%, 2nd place was Dirk KUYT of AZ who only joined from Division 4’s Feyenoord mid season, but managed 12 goals in his 16 games and 8 TOTW apps. The winner of the Division 5 POTY was Marko MARIN of Dnipro, who probably edged out Kuyt due to playing the full season in Div 5.


Div 4 YPOTY

3rd place of Division 4 YPOTY was Héctor BELLERÍN of Besiktas (on loan from Arsenal), who has helped the Turks to promotion. 2nd place was young goalkeeper Yvon MVOGO of Chievo with 12% of the vote amassing 9 clean sheets and 6 TOTW apps and the runaway leader was Domenico BERARDI of Sassuolo who was directly involved in 21 of Sassuolo’s goals this season and was a big key in their ptomotion.


Div 4 POTY

The voting for Division 4 brought out 3 runners up to the award, Bafétimbi GOMIS (West Brom), John RUDDY (Levante) & Luís PIZZI (Hamburg) all with 18% of the vote. Gomis will still be hoping for promotion and to add to his 17 goals in 22 games, Ruddy, will be hoping to cement survival for Levante after a terrfific season between the sticks and Pizzi will be hoping Hamburg can win the final game to take home the Division 4 title. The winner of the award was Francesco MAGNANELLI of Sassuolo who managed 21 goals & 13 assists this season from the centre of midfield.


Div 3 YPOTY

Jetro WILLEMS finished 3rd in Div 3 YPOTY with 19% and has been 1 of their shining young stars, but still needs 1 more big performance to keep them up in Division 3. 2nd, with 25% was Aleksandar MITROVIĆ of Newcastle who helped Newcastle to promotion to Division 2. The winner of Div 3 YPOTY was Jean-Paul BOËTIUS of Basel who was involved in 11 goals in his 13 games this season.


Div 3 POTY

3rd place in Div 3 POTY was Papiss CISSÉ of Newcastle who managed 9 MOM’s in Newcastle’s promotion season. 2nd place went ot League Winners, Sunderland’s Andrea PIRLO (28%) who’s ageing midfield partnership with Gerrard showed that experience was needed to win this league. And the award for Div 3 went to Fernando LLORENTE of Ajax with 42%, who are still not safe, but his direct involvement in 30 goals this season shows just how valuable he has been to Ajax this season.


Div 2 YPOTY

Jonathan SILVA of Sporting Lisbon came in 3rd place in Div 2 YPOTY with 6% and will be hoping he can push Sporting over the line in the playoffs. 2nd place was Hakan ÇALHANOĞLU (38%) of promoted Leverkusen, but 1 more big push is required and the hope that Fenerbahce may slip up. The winner though, was Ross BARKLEY of Everton, still needing playoff victory for promotion, but his involvement in 25 goals is the reason for this accolade to go onto his CV.


Div 2 POTY

Division 2 POTY was the tighest of all the awards with a tie for 2nd place (with 21%) between Hernández XAVI of relegated Sampdoria and Stefan KIESSLING of Leverkusen at the other end of the table. The winner, just edging out these 2 with 24% of the vote, was Téofilo GUTIÉRREZ of Sporting CP who will need to be on fire in the playoffs to help Sporting CP with promotion.


Div 1 YPOTY

3rd place in the Division 1 YPOTY with 5% of the vote was Emre CAN of Liverpool, whoo need a win and results to go their way not to get relegated. 2nd place was Raheem STERLING (10%)of Dortmund, who also require a win to keep their Division 1 status. The runaway and deserved winner was Memphis DEPAY of League Winners with a whopping 80%, Manchester United, who was directly involved in 31 goals in 31 apps this season.


Div 1 POTY

And now for the main award…in 3rd place was Zlatan IBRAHIMOVIC of PSG with 7%, who in spite of his 19 league goals still require a victory for Div 1 survival. In 2nd place was Júnior NEYMAR of Real Madrid with 29% of the vote with 21 goals for the Galacticos. And the Winner of the Division 1 Player of the Year, with 61% of the vote was Lionel MESSI of Barcelona who managed a whopping 11 TOTW apps in only 30 games, but Barca still require a victory in the final game to finish in the top 4.


Division 4 Permutations & Predictions

Top Three

The automatic promtion spots have all been confirmed, although as yet any of the three sides already promoted could still win the league. As things stand, the automatic positions look like this.

Pos Team P GD Pts
1 Moved Up Hamburger SV (P) 37 11 67
2 No Change Beşiktaş JK (P) 37 15 66
3 Moved Down Bob Groucho Sassuolo (P) 37 24 65

The final day fixtures are as follows.

Sassuollo v Hamburg
Villarreal v Besiktas

As we can see, a massive fixture in Italy, whilst second placed Besiktas travel to Spain for a game which could have huge reprecussions at both ends of the table.

Play offs

The play off zone only has one side 100% guaranteed, with Bordeaux able to play whichever side they wish. Genoa, West Brom, Koln & Udinese all have to get something to confirm their place in the end of season lottery.



4 No Change Girondins Bordeaux 37 13 59
5 Moved Up Frank Hirst Genoa CFC 37 17 57
6 Moved Up karl atherton West Bromwich Albion 37 -1 57
7 Moved Down 1. FC Köln 37 6 56
8 No Change Udinese Calcio 37 5 55
The final day sees the sides play the following games.

Torino v Bordeaux
Levante v Genoa
West Brom v Olynpiacos
Atalanta v Koln
Udinese v Espanyol

Relegation

At the bottom, the relegation positions are mostly decided, although the order, and indeed the final spot is still to be decided.

14 No Change Hellas Verona 37 -1 46
15 Moved Up LEVANTE UD 37 -9 46
16 Moved Down Málaga CF 37 -11 46
17 Moved Down Villarreal CF 37 -9 43
18 Moved Up Feyenoord (R) 37 -16 42
19 Moved Down Hertha BSC (R) 37 -10 41
20 No Change Olympiacos (R) 37 -26 40

The sides at the bottom face off as follows

Celta Vigo v Verona
Levante v Genoa
Malaga v Hertha
Villarreal v Besiktas

Some massive games up and down the division on Thursday night, so who can cope with the pressure, and who is likely to fall at the final hurdle?

In the race for the title, will Sassullo beat Hamburg, And will it be enough if they do? Will Besiktas get the win in Spain and send Villarreal down? 

How will the sides involved in the play off and relegation fights pan out? The predictions for the final day are as follows.

Sassullo v Hamburg - Home win
Villarreal v Besiktas - Draw

Torino v Bordeaux - Home win
Levante v Genoa - Draw
West Brom v Olynpiacos - Home win
Atalanta v Koln - Away win
Udinese v Espanyol - Draw

Celta Vigo v Verona - Home win
Levante v Genoa - Draw
Malaga v Hertha - Home win
Villarreal v Besiktas - Draw

Should the results pan out as predicted, Sassuollo would clinch the title at home, whilst Hamburg would slip below Besiktas, with the Turks remaining second thanks to a superior goal difference.

The play off zone would see West Brom finish 4th on 60 points, Bordeaux remain on 59 points, Koln move on to 59 points also, and Genoa finish on 58 to take the final play off spot ahead of Udinese on 56. 

At the bottom, the forecasted results would see Verona remain on 46 points, Levante going above them on 47, Malaga wind up on 49 points, and Villarreal go down with a respectable 44 points.

Of course, this is all just conjecture based on a combination of current form, the size of the prize on offer for the various winners and losers, and the strength of the XI each side is likely to field in the fixture. For example I would fully expect Bordeaux to rest most, if not all of their outfield players as they are already confirmed in the play offs.

All will be revealed on Thursday, and a Levante end of season review will be forthcoming at some point of the holiday period regardless of the outcome on Thursday night.



D3- permutations ahead of the final day!

With the league already wrapped up in Division 3, one might think that there is nothing to look forward to ahead of the last game, but that is not the case. 7 teams are still in the running for the promotion play-offs and 6 teams can still get relegated, making it an exciting last day.

League Winners: Sunderland (69 pts, GD- +15)
Confirmed promotion: Newcastle (2nd, 64 pts, +15), Lokomotiv Moskva (3rd, 63 pts, +11)



Promotion play-offs:

4. Shakhtar Donetsk (H, v Leicester)- 59 pts (+17)
- Guaranteed play-offs spot, and will finish 4th with a win/draw. Even if they lose, their superior GD should see them finish 4th.

5. Lille OSC (H, v Basel)- 56 pts (+11)
- Definite qualification with a win, which will see them finish either 4th or 5th if Donetsk lose. If they draw, there is a chance that qualification may boil down to GD, in which case their superior GD should see him through. However, if they lose, they will need one of Hoffenheim and Boca to lose/draw in order to squeeze through.

6. Aston Villa (H, v Swansea)- 56 pts (0)
- Similar to Lille, however their GD means that they are unlikely to finish 4th. Even if they win, they will go through as 6th if Lille do not drop points. If they draw, Hoffenheim's negative GD should see Villa go through in the scenario that 3/4 teams are tied on 57 points. However, if they lose, they will need one of Hoffenheim and Boca to lose/draw in order to squeeze through.

7. Boca Juniors (H, v Sunderland)- 54 pts (+7)
- This is where it gets tricky. A win will see them through either 5th, 6th or 7th based on other results, even if Hoffenheim win (due to their GD). If they draw, they will need Hoffenheim and Palace to drop points, in which case their GD will see them go through ahead of Hoffenheim. Stoke's negative GD means that if they win in this scenario they are unlikely to pip Boca. If Boca lose, they will need Hoffenheim to lose, Palace and Stoke to draw/lose. Even though a Hoffenheim loss will see Cruzeiro move level with Boca, their GD should allow Boca to go through.

8. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (H, v Cruzeiro)- 54 pts (-6)
- Owing to their GD, a Boca win will not allow Hoffenheim to go through even if they win. As a result, if Boca drop points, Hoffenheim are in with a chance. If they draw, they will need Boca to lose, and Palace and Stoke draw/lose. If they lose however, they will not make it unless Boca lose by a 13 goal margin at the least, which is next to impossible.
Hence, their fate is dependant on Boca's result.

9. Crystal Palace (A, v West Ham)- 52 pts (+8)
- Can only go through with a win along with Boca and Hoffenheim losing/drawing, upon which they will go through on GD (if either/both teams draw)

10. Stoke City (A, v Ajax)- 52 pts (-5)
- Similar to Palace, but their negative GD (relative to Boca) means they will need Boca to lose and Hoffenheim to lose/draw, upon which they will go through on favourable GD against Hoffenheim. All this is only if Stoke win.

11. Cruzeiro (A, v TSG 1899 Hoffenheim)- 51 pts (-8)
- The team with the least chance of going through. Can only go through with a win, after which they will need Boca and Hoffenheim to lose. In this only scenario, results may allow Cruzeiro's GD to move ahead of Hoffenheim but Cruzeiro will have to win their game by a 15-goal margin to ensure qualification, which is next to impossible. Realistically not going to happen.

Relegation:

Confirmed relegation: SC Internacional (19th, 39 pts, -7), West Ham Utd (20th, 33 pts, -18)

13. FC Basel (A, v Lille OSC)- 47 pts (0)
- While on first glance it may seem like they will go down, this is not the case. Southampton are unable to go ahead of Basel, while 16th placed PSV play 17th placed Dynamo Moskva, meaning both  cannot overtake Basel. Hence they cannot go down.

14. Ajax (H, v Stoke)- 44 pts (1)
- The best of 4 teams tied on 44 points, Ajax could benefit from their favourable GD. A point will secure safety, but even if they lose, they will have to lose by a huge margin, a margin which will put their GD below the losing team of the PSV-Dynamo clash. Given the gap in GD, Ajax have realistically secured safety. Even if they draw, their GD will keep them above the winner of Dynamo-PSV and Southampton.

15. Leicester City (A, v Shakhtar Donetsk)- 44 pts (-4)
- Similar to Ajax, but more likely to go down if they and PSV lose. Given the gap in GD between Leicester and PSV is only 3 goals, if both teams lose, only if the margin of the Leicester game is more than 4 goals more than the margin of the PSV game, Leicester will survive. If it is 4 goals more, Leicester will stay up on the basis of scoring more goals than PSV. If they draw, they should still finish ahead of Southampton and one of PSV/Dynamo (if one of them wins) or both (if both draw). Easier to just get a point though.

16. PSV (A, v Dynamo Moskva)- 44 pts (-7)
- In between Leicester and Dynamo. If they win, they will stay up, however if they lose, they will need Southampton to lose/draw and one of Ajax and Leicester to lose by a margin that will put PSV's GD above one of them. Specifically, Leicester will have to lose by a margin of more than 4 goals in order for PSV's GD to be more than Leicester, Exactly 4 and PSV will still be below Leicester due to Leicester scoring more goals over the course of the season. If they draw, due to GD Ajax and Leicester will have to lose, while the Southampton result will not matter.

17. Dynamo Moskva (H, v PSV)- 44 pts (-15)
- If they win, they stay in D3. If they draw, Leicester and Ajax will have to lose (no draw, as Dynamo's GD is the worst of all) and Southampton lose/draw. If they lose however, they will go down unless Ajax or Leicester lose by a margin that will put Dynamo's GD above one of the two teams.

18. Southampton (A, v Lokomotiv Moskva)- 42 pts (-13)
- First, they have to win. Second, they will have to depend on other results (using this very loosely). Given their very poor GD compared to Ajax, Leicester and PSV, Ajax, Leicester and one of PSV and Dynamo will have to lose in order for Southampton to survive. This is the simplest, most obvious scenario. Even if one of Ajax and Leicester draw, Southampton can survive, however the PSV-Dynamo game will have to provide a winner.



GAME TO WATCH: Dynamo Moskva v PSV

* All this has been done mentally, I apologise if I have made any mistake and caused one of the teams to lose as a result :P, however, I am unsure mainly for the relegation teams. 

Milan Wars: Episode 2

Milan manager Stephen Beddows is due to give a press conference tomorrow evening to discuss his teams chances v city rivals Inter Milan on Thursday in the SM Top 100 Game of the Day but has released this poster ahead of the crucial showdown with a win securing SMFA Shield football for Milan and a defeat potentially relegating Inter… READ MORE










Division 2 , the last gasp.

Division 2 , the last gasp.

Fenerbache are already promoted, this leaves

Sporting secured a play off spot by taking a point from Porto, where as Fiorentina deified the odds and the so called experts such as Todd Uncious and Lord Archbishop Desmond Tutu to beat their Turkish rivals.

Porto now visit 9th place Schalke who will need to compete in the last game if they have any chance of a play off spot. Porto have a tough choice, go for a win an blow the play offs  Schalke have to play to win, so I go for a Schalke victory.

Porto to end on 65 pts

Fiorentina realistically still need to win as a loss and a Porto draw will drop them to the play offs. A draw is only good enough if Porto fail to win,. Napoli are realistically fighting it out with Schalke for that last play off spot. So expect a tough battle. Still Firenze should be celebrating in the Uffizi and the Duomo come the next game

Prediction Fiorentina also end up on 69 pts.and second spot.




Division 2 the view from Firenze

Division 2 the view from Firenze


With 2 games left any one of 7 clubs have a chance of automatic promotion.


Fenerbache are already promoted, this leaves

Leverkeusen
Porto
Fiorentina and
Sporting all with a chance of second spot, in addition Napoli, Schalke and Everton have an outside chance of 3rd place if the fixtures are friendly.


Leverkeusen look firm favourites for 2nd
They surely will beat Spartak Moscow who's season is already over and then play lowly Benfica.
There is no reason to believe they won't max out on 72 points.

Porto play Sporting today, with Sporting on apalling form a home win looks on the cards,
They then visit 7th place Schalke who will need to compete until the last game, this could well be a loss so I predict ,
Porto to end on 67 pts

Fiorentina , was Fenerbache, both sides on decent form, suggest a draw is on  the cards.
Then a tough but must win game against Napoli, a must win in the North vs South all Italian clash.

Prediction Fiorentina also end up on 67pts.

Sporting look set to lose out, if they lose against Porto another tough game in Germany is on the cards with a point at best on offer.

I predict they end up with 62 pts
As for the chasing pack
Napoli should beat Galatasary to finish on 61pts , Schalke could well beat Wolfsburg and Porto to end up on 64pts and Everton have 2 relatively easy games with at least 4 pts on offer , leaving them with 62.
Final table
Fenerbache 74pt
Leverkeusen 72pt
Porto 67pt
Fiorentina 67
Schalke 64
Sporting 62
Everton 62
Napoli 61
Time will tell, but in order to qualify automatically , I really need to beat Fenerbache toniight. Sporting could be the shock if they reverse their recent run of form but in reality that will only let in other sides. Schalke must be the most likely of the 58pt crew to have an outside chance.

Good luck to all.



Top 100 Under 21 Cup Quarter-Final Draw

Good Evening and welcome to the live coverage of The Top 100 Youth Under 21 Cup Quarter-Final draw.

The games should be scheduled to be played on Saturday 19th December 2015. A reminder that it is the job of the home team to organise the matches.

After Saturday’s thrilling action we have 8 teams remaining but there as ever with SM is a slight controversy in the draw with Flamengo having beaten Juventus convincingly but they ‘cheated’ by bring on ‘over-age’ players and as a result will be disqualified shamelessly… meaning Juventus will pass to the Quarter-final in their place.

Read more:

TEAMS: (and odds)

ACF Fiorentina 10/1
Paris Saint Germain 3/1
Juventus 15/1
Man Utd 5/2
AS Monaco 2/5
Athletico Madrid
Tottenham Hotspur 8/1
Fenerbarche 5/1




THE THURSDAY BLOG Season 1 No 4

Good afternoon guys and it’s Thursday which means time for blog revelations haha. This blog could become the new WikiLeaks on the Kinnear family. I can already see me being taken away in cuffs or having to flee to Russia to go into hiding but I will not stop blogging no matter where I am. Anyway enough with the fantasy world and let’s get to the real one.
It seems like I am in the bad books this week and have been accused of being rude and ignorant after Janene, the youngest daughter, thought it was a good idea to have a boyfriend. At 18 years old she is free to do as she please but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. When she told us, I didn’t say anything, not a single word. Of course there was a bit more going on inside my head as I played out the scene where she says she is only joking. Anyway, the rude and ignorant part came when, for some strange reason, she brought the boyfriend home. Of course, Alison said it was a good idea to bring him into the house so she could meet him. I, on the other hand, couldn’t think of anything positive about this and decided to have an early night and have some time on the laptop. That’s exactly what happened and all was going to plan when the dreaded call came thundering upstairs and straight to my superman hearing ears. I actually do have very acute hearing. I can hear plenty things that no one else in the family can and things like me asking the kids to turn their TV down is usually met with they can hardly hear it and if they turn it down then they would be as well turning it off. So,back to the visit of the boyfriend. The call came up ‘Gordon, are you not coming down to meet Janene’s boyfriend?’ My obvious answer should be ‘No I am busy’ but the words coming out of my mouth were along the lines off  ‘Erm, yeah ok I will be down soon’.



 Ross or Russ

This is not a great idea as I know I won’t handle it very well. If any boy thinks he is going to kiss my daughter and I am going to congratulate him then his head is in lala land. A few minutes past and the shout of ‘Gorrrdonnn!!’ comes up again so I decide it’s time to go down. Down into the living room I go and the wife, eldest daughter Elise and Janene are there, and of course The Chancer. Now here comes the alleged rude bit. Janene says ‘Dad, this is Ross’ and I say ‘Hello Russ’. Maybe my hearing isn’t as good as I thought, or was that a deliberate error. Only In know :)’. So he actually has the nerve to speak to me and says ‘No, it’s Ross’. Wait a sec, he is actually correcting me in my own house!! So there it was ‘No, it’s Ross’ and my instant reaction is ‘Whatever’. That was the rude bit according to my wife, the two girls, the six dogs and the four pups. Even the characters on the TV seemed to stop and look at me. At that, it was time for a hasty retreat upstairs. Alison followed soon after while Elise was going to her bed. Janene took Russ, Ross or whatever into her bedroom. Erm what!!!! Alison says it’s fine, they are only watching some TV. I said ok. Sitting using the laptop makes time fly by and before I knew it, the time was twenty to one in the morning. I went to the loo and I could hear that he was still here. Time for my text messaging skills to be put into action. I send a text to Janene saying ‘Are you taking the piss? I think it’s time Ross was going home’ Again I was slaughtered for saying that and that she was 18 and grown up now. I beg to differ. I know she is 18 but inside she is more 15/16. A few minutes later and he was away home. I know I might have seen a bit harsh and I am sure that you think I was OTT but I don’t trust teenage boys. I get plenty on my bus and I know they can be twats. Maybe Ross will be different and it will work out ok but he also knows now that he has work to do to win me over.

It’s not been a great week. My relationship with my young girlfriend came to an end. The thing that led to this is probably pretty stupid but I will explain. As I have said before, she increased her working hours for the obvious reason of needing more money. That was fine, in fact I thought it was great, but it did mean that the only chance I would get to see her properly would be a Thursday. So on Monday we were messaging and after a while I asked her about this Thursday. Her reply didn’t thrill me. She said she was going to the gym on a Thursday as she was trying to lose weight and that was the only day where she had free time because the kid was at nursery. So when do I see you? She said she wasn’t sure but we would work something out. I told her Thursday was always our day and she said ‘I know but do you not want me to look better for you’. No, I don’t care how you look, I would rather see you. This escalated and it turned into a full blown argument which at the end we decided we should at least take a break. I said well, if you would rather go to the gym than see me then I didn’t think she was as dedicated to me as I was to her and therefor it’s not worth carrying on. So that was it. Now, we have broke up before and then get back after a few weeks but this time I am not going to do that. It’s time to concentrate on the wife and stop being a cunt.

That will do for the real life events although there are a couple of other things that would have made the page but I will keep them for another day.

A week ago I decided to quit Soccer Manager due to the changes that were made. I explained on this blog my reasons for doing so. I didn’t realise, however, that thanks to a Mr Beddows that the blog would end up on twitter and facebook. Normal views of this blog have been around 35-40 but last week’s explanation for quitting had 130 as at today. SM decided to bring back the old interface for a while at least until, I believe, they sort out the new interface and the bugs that it had. Now, I don’t know if, in fact I doubt, my blog had any influence on their decision but I do believe they have read it. I tend to think that the backlash from so many players took them by surprise and they brought back the old interface to try and stem the flow of people quitting the game.
So where are we now? The old interface is back, but it is not the same. While I am pleased to be able to carry on with the old one, on the laptop it looks like it is zoomed to 120% and is too big. That is a very minor thing though and there are other more concerning stuff.

At least they seem to be listening for now at least

I feel the transfer market is dumbed down. I don’t like the fact that an 88 rated player, for example, has a set price. The only way his value will change is if his rating goes up or down. I don’t think this is fair to the small clubs who will not get any advantage of buying a good player when it comes to selling him on. A player they buy for 2.4m is still only going to be worth 2.4m even though he could now be the best player in the team.
The new match engine they say has been introduced doesn’t seem a lot different to me. Playing against an unmanaged team is still much the same with a good percentage of the games seeing the unmanaged side having their keeper as man of the match, with an outstanding display, as you lose 1-0 despite having 99 shots at goal to their 2. The red card, as mentioned last week, still doesn’t seem to have affect on the game with most of the time it being an advantage to go down to 10 men. I have not noticed what the differences are yet so I will sit on the fence concerning it at the moment.
Looking at what people are saying about the new interface, it seems to be geared towards smartphones and Ipads. Are laptops being phased out? Are tablets taking over as the thing to have now? For this reason I am going to give the new interface a try on the Ipad. For all I know this could be the difference maker and I might get to like it. As of today, I have 33 days of gold membership and I have decided that I will not be renewing unless I change my view of the new game drastically. I will not be quitting altogether though as I will almost certainly keep on 3, maybe 4, custom worlds including Top 100. The Ashclowbel will be another and the Brookfield Premier League is one I enjoy a lot.

Life in Brugge is good. The club are sitting in an automatic promotion spot with just one defeat in the last 7 outings. The players are totally focused on the job in hand with still up to 15 clubs having a decent chance of getting a play off place at least.
On the downside, we had a bit of a bust up at training on Monday when Domingues Claudemir took exception to a tackle from Sven Kums. Kums has only been with us for 3 weeks and I feel he has been trying to hard to impress. Anyway, a bit of a scuffle developed and although it was handbags at 20 paces, I did need to intervene and have a word. I brought them both into the office where I explained that we all need to be on the same page if we are wanting to win promotion without going into the lottery of the play offs. I avoided fining either of them but did tell Sven he needs to calm down a bit and just let his play do all the talking. In the end I have decided to keep Kums on the bench for tonights game at home to Dinamo Kiev to let him know that, while we can let this one go, I will not put up with indiscipline. Hopefully this will lead to Kums showing us why he should always be in the starting XI every game.
Talking of tonights game, we entertain Dinamo Kiev who are managed by Grant Cameron. While I have not spoken to Grant personally as far as I can remember, I know that he is a very tough opponent and that my guys will have to be on top form to get anything from the game. Dinamo are currently just inside the play off spots but have struggled recently with just one win in their last six games. Form points to a win for us tonight but if players such as Yarmolenko, Veloso and Dragovic hit some form then it could be a tough night for us. I am sure it will be a great game for the fans and they will be supporting us the whole 90mins. We won 1-0 in Kiev earlier this season but there were spells in that match that is was all hands on deck as we defended for our lives. On another day we could easily have lost 3 or 4-1 so we know how dangerous this team is.

recent action from our 3-3 draw with Dnipro

Our youths made a great start to the inaugural Youth Cup when they took on and beat Borussia Dortmund Youths 2-1. The young boys in our defence have to take the majority of the credit for this win as they tackled and dived in on the more talented Dortmund players as if it was the Cup Final itself. We won the game in the first half hour with Latvian striker Sabala giving us a 12th minute lead and 20yo midfielder Reuten adding the second on 25min. Reuten is a young prodigy of ours and was born in Genk. He is improving every time he plays and we have high hopes for him. After his goal, Dortmund were stung into action and they controlled the game from then on. It was then that our defence stood up and they managed to restrict Dortmund to an 80th min goal from some unknown boy from England. Raheem Stirling or Sterling, something like that. Not been rude or dismissive but I doubt that boy will get any further than the Dortmund youth set up.
Next for the youngsters is a trip across the border into France to play Paris Saint Germain. This will be another big test for them and if they come away with a replay then it will be a great achievement. I might travel with them and take in the delights of Paris.
To finish up I once again have to congratulate Stephen Beddows on his televised draw for the 2nd Round of the Youth Cup. I seen he took my advice about the cameraman and the work was much more professional. As a bonus we also had a change in front of the camera where Stephen’s daughter made the draw. Again, it was much more professional than the geek making the draw the last time.

Well, that will do from me today and I hope you all enjoyed reading the Thursday blog.
A s always, thanks for taking the time out of your lives to read this and I will be back next Thursday with the latest news on all that has happened in real life and in fantasy land.

Ciao