2015
PMW HITS BACK
PMW
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| PMW treated Gino Ginelli to a session at his local health club sort of place |
Gazzetta Dello Sport - Special Italian Edition
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| Top 100 Italian based manager rating's - some manager declined to give a photo |
Squeaky bum time
Last night Levante went into action at home to Udinese looking to win their third game on the trot against Italian oponents. Having beaten Torino 2 - 0, and Atalanta 5 - 2 in their previous two games, the Spanish side were full of confidence.
That confidence looked well placed too, as Levante went 1 - 0 up from a free kick with the first attack of the game on 9 minutes. Angel Romero’s delivery was finished off by Jelle Vossen for his third goal in two games.
The next twenty minutes passed with a booking for each side, and a couple of half chances, but nothing too much. On 31 minutes however, Mate Simao was put through by Diego Souza, but Orestis Karnezis, the Greek in goal for Udinese, was equal to the Mozambique midfielders effort.
Four minutes later it was John Ruddy’s turn to make a great stop at the other end. The Englishman denying Manuel Iturra with a fine save.
There was still time for one final chance before the whistle. A Levante corner was sent over, with Vossen the man again connecting with the set piece, but he failed to beat the keeper.
The second half started quietly, but just past the hour mark John Ruddy was called upon twice within a minute to keep Udinese out. Levante failed to heed the warning signs however, and a couple of minutes after the double save, Ruddy was beaten by a 69th minute free kick from Jonathon Viera.
Things got worse for the Spaniards two minutes later, Manual Iturra making up for his miss in the first half and putting Udinese ahead. Levante didnt give up though, with Vossen clipping one over & N’Jie forcing a good save late on, but the home side were unable to force an equaliser.
The bottom of the table is now very tight and looks like this.
Levante’s next three games see them take on Feyenoord on Thursday, Celta Vigo next weekend, and then Villarreal. Parfitt knows that his side cannot afford to lose any of the games, and really need a minimum of 7 points from the three fixtures to give any kind of realistic hope for the run in. However, with Malaga and Hertha to play as well, the club know that they still have their destiny on their own hands. Levante have also lost 12 points from leading positions so far this season, which would have seen them in the play off places had they shown a little more defensive character.
This is not lost on the gaffer, who recently splashed out a club record £11m to bring Gareth Barry to the club. Some thought this was a very high price for a player of Barry’s age, but Parfitt feels the experience is needed in a dog fight, and also has his eye on another defensive acquisition. There is also a midfielder known to be interesting the club, but nothing will be happening with that at the moment as the player in question is currenty serving a transfer ban.
1-1- stalemate in Lille
Can Gana inspire Villa to 3 points against former club Lille?
In team news, manager Rahul has revealed that captain Micah Richards has been left behind in England along with few other key players such as Sanchez, Djuricic (who scored the winner in the first round) and Sinclair. Along with Veretout, they have all complained of minor niggles which is why no risk has been taken with them. Villa have a well-disciplined and grounded squad which means these losses can be dealt with. In-form striker Kozak will definitely start though. Rahul did not reveal anything else about the team. When asked about his opponent Lille, he praised their defensive solidity in recent games but acknowledged them as a difficult rival and held faith in his own players to eke out a result.
This game will also have significance as it has been announced that 'Le Marseillaise' will ring out through the stadium as a mark of solidarity and respect for the victims of the Paris terror attacks. It will be an emotional moment for the fans of Lille, their players and our French contingent of Cissokho, N'Zogbia and Veretout (back at home).
Lastly, Idrissa 'Gana' Gueye, who is tipped to be the anchorman today, will be making his return to the club where he spent 5 years at. It is expected that he will get a rousing welcome as he steps on to the pitch, in recognition of his services. We hope the occasion will motivate him to fire us to victory.
Come on you Villans!
THE THURSDAY BLOG - SEASON 1 No 1
Hello everybody and today I am starting a weekly blog that will take my real life and issues and also life in the Top 100 with Club Brugges in Division 5. There may also be a look at other stuff around the game world mainly anything that has caused an interest to me, but not necessarily to you since it’s my blog.
In this blog things probably won’t be that exciting since I will introduce the main people in my life, them being my family and my girlfriend (don’t judge me, it’s not something I’m proud of but the heart is a strong thing) as well as what interests me and what I do. I will then, as mentioned before, go o to this game world, which I hope will be a bit more interesting. I do guarantee though that as the weeks go on, it will be entertaining and I base that on the fact that my life is one big soap opera.
So let’s get this party started. You all know me as Gino. You just know me as another guy that plays my first love in entertainment, Soccer Manager. I have played since 2008, and it was my stepson that introduced it to me. I always remember playing in my first ever league as Derby County in Division 2 and after a couple of seasons winning promotion to Division 1, of which I was shit scared lol. I was convinced I would struggle near the bottom but actually done reasonably well and was delighted to finish 8th or thereabouts. I actually remember looking at this gold membership thing and thinking that the game was good but, me being Scottish and miserable, I would never pay real money for it. That actually lasted for just over 2 years before I decided that the international game looked good and I paid for a year’s membership (I think). Turns out the international game was boring but I enjoyed the gold worlds. The rest is history, and despite thinking of quitting a couple of times, I am still here. What you will find as I do this weekly blog is that I tend to go off subject a lot. For those who are old enough, if you can remember the Two Ronnies on television and Ronnie Corbett on his big chair, he used to do the same thing so be prepared. Back to me, and I have been with my current wife, Alison, for almost 12 years. The kids are hers but you would think they were mine by just the way they act. They love me to bits and to be honest, I really wish they were mine such is my love for them. I work for McGill’s Buses as a bus driver. It’s a job that one day you can hate it but the next day you love it. My mood tends to go with the weather. When it’s nice and sunny, I love the job but when it’s wet and miserable, it’s not so good. I will tell you more about it in later blogs. My favourite sports, in order, are NFL, football and tennis. I love American football and I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. I went to see them at Wembley last year and it was a great experience. One of my ambitions is to go and see them in Dallas and it is an ambition I will realise. Football and Derby County are my number one club. I’m also a big Rangers fan. The tennis, I just like in general but for obvious reasons, I like to watch Andy Murray.
My family consists of my wife, Alison, stepson, Stuart(22) and stepdaughters Elise(21) and Janene(18). This blog will be completely honest and nothing will be dressed up to make it sound good. I say this because Stuart is an asshole. He is also the most boring person you will ever come across. There is only one subject he ever talks about - himself! He also is the type that uses 100 words when 1 will do. The biggest mistake you can make is to ask him a question. He then goes on for ages about nothing and how it affects him. Seriously it is zzzzzzzzz after 2 minutes.
Elise is a very strong willed person. She knows what she wants and can be quite difficult to handle. She will feature many times in the blog as she is hilarious in a dumb blonde sort of way but can also be quite rude. There is hardly a dull moment when she is about.
Janene is almost the opposite. She is short on self confidence and cries a lot. Recently I have noticed a change in her and she can be quite a feisty bird now. She is naive in life’s challenges and although she is 18, she seems more like 15/16. Her advantage is she is stunning. Taller than me at about 5’ 10’’, long blonde hair and very slim. I don’t stand beside her when she is dressed up to go out as she wears heels and is over 6’ when she has them on. I feel like a dwarf.
Alison, my wife, has pain issues. When she was younger she had operations in both knees and they are still not right today. She can walk ok but if she is on her feet too long then she suffers for it. She is a nurse but she no longer paces the wards, instead having a 9-5 sit down job working for Atos and doing assessments for folk claiming disability.
The only other person close to me in my life is my girlfriend Gemma. I know I shouldn’t even have one but she is special to me. The thing that may have some of you thinking I am out of order, which I would understand, is that she is 22yo. That is 30 years younger than me. I first met her when she was 16 and she came on my bus and we got to know each other but that is a story for another week.
So that is the people in my life and I think that is enough to bore you about my personal life for one week. Next week will be a bit more of what has been happening in my life and a couple of stories from the past that should tickle you. I aim to have some pics to go with my talk but I will have to ask my wife and daughters for permission to put their pics up.
BRUGGES, BELGIUM: Life in Brugge is comfortable. We are lying third in the table despite some erratic form which I suppose doesn’t say a lot for the competition. At the moment we seem to be winning every second game but that will have to improve if we want automatic promotion. At the start of the season I sat with the chairman and we decided that this would be a season for building a team, getting the right players in and planning for the future assault on this league created by Frank Hirst. There is no doubt that we have exceeded expectations, rolling along quietly, managing to avoid any nominations for manager of the month. I mean, why is that? Is it an anti-Belgium thing. Does Frank just not rate Belgium and their clubs. There was a token focus on our derby with Anderlecht but even for the pre match interview, Frank turns up with a big hole in his tights. I know they talk about climbing Frank’s ladder to reach the top but surely this is not what they meant. Anyway, the interview actually went quite well if awkward. Maybe if Frank is allowed back into Belgium, he can wear a nice suit with suspenders.
We have some good players here at Brugges. Apart from Belgians, we have players from 13 different countries making us a multi-cultural club. We decided that for meetings and get togethers that every player should be able to speak the same language as then no one could have the excuse of saying they didn’t understand the instructions. It flopped at the first hurdle as I didn’t know how to speak Hebrew. We eventually settled on Australian. I managed that as it is very similar to English but I still need to work on my accent. I am trying to arrange elocution lesson with Michael Hudson but he is hard to track down. People have said to me to try the bush but I thought that was just too personal.
Our newest addition to the club is French striker Yohan Mollo. We hope to give him some playing time tonight in Argentina, where we take on Independiente who is managed by nikolas NIKKIS nikolaou. We have had a few meetings in the past but I am not sure of my record against him. Three points is the aim but it will be tough since they lie in 7th place and have promotion ambitons of their own.
We arrived in Argentina last night and the only thing on the players minds was to get some sleep after the long flight from Belgium. I agreed that they should get some sleep and then we would meet up for dinner. As it turned out, I couldn’t manage to nod off so I went for a walk along the corridors of the hotel. I didn’t get very far as my attention was drawn to quite a noisy sounding room. I thought, wait a minute, that is Javier Aquino’s room. He was bunking with fellow Mexican Carlos Fierro, one of our youth players. What was going on? They were all meant to be getting some sleep. The door was unlocked so in I went only to be met with the sight of the whole fucking squad playing strip poker with three senoritas. The first thing that came into my mind was to shout ‘BEDDOWS!!!!’ Surely this was his doing but then I thought, it can’t be Beddows as he would be in France with AC Milan. Ok, how do I handle this. I mean how dare they have a game of strip poker and not invite the world champion, me!! I had the last laugh however as when the senoritas lost, sparking a lot of excitement amongst the squad, they turned out to be senor’s haha. Down came the panties to reveal meat and two veg. Hahahaha, I was in stitches and so nearly were the senors, only in a different kind of stitches. They were chased out of the room by some angry players. If only they could translate that rage to the pitch then we might be top of the table. The whole situation will be dealt with when we get back to Belgium but the guys should expect some hefty fines.
So tonight, the players owe me a big performance and I am expecting a win and nothing less. I will have a couple of glasses of wine after the match with nikolas to help console him after the defeat.
Next week I will let you know how the game went, how I dealt with the players when we got back home and all the latest news from the inside of Club Brugges.
Well that’s me for the first of my weekly blog. Apologies if it was a bit boring but really this first one is just to lay down the foundations for the future ones.
Thanks for reading and I wish everyone luck for tonights games. I will be back with number 2 in the series next Thursday. Until then hope everything goes well for you in whatever you are doing the coming week.
Ciao
Breaking The Silence
When I came into this game world, I decided to keep my head down and to stay silent so I can 100% focus on pushing Zenit upwards enough to be considered as contenders for promotion. However, since I suffered my first defeat at the hands of Smiff’s Sporting, I’ll be expressing my thoughts & opinions by posting on the blog more often.
I would first like to thank my predecessor Stephen [Beddows] for leaving behind a team that’s in a good enough league position, a team that performs well in my style of play & for making a few good signings, for example Petersen & Lodeiro, who I plan to use in my plans for next season. On the other hand, I do question some of his transfer activity, buying some players as well as selling others, but I’ll be able to make-do with what I got.
I honestly never knew that I would go undefeated for 9 games from the start of my spell at Zenit, which makes this club serious promotion contenders this season, given our current position. Therefore the first aim this season is to gain a promotion spot & with our next game at the Petrovskiy against FC Schalke 04, who sit one place & one point below us, it’s simply make-or-break time.
WBA - Update
WBA -
Surprise to me but being shortlisted for the manager of the quarter has propelled WBA into play offs and the signing of Gomis has proved inspirational as he has scored 14 goals in 14 games he is amongst a group of players I signed who come under a certain strategy.
The size of the club means we cant wait for the really young players to develop so we look for the next big star who Is playing currently and the team is doing well but from clubs not recognised as much.
See below for this seasons new men who are on the cusp of the first eleven and hopefully by next season will step up. Particularly Matt Richie who I believe is a fantastic player and underrated.
WBA now have a settled formation and team and look forward to the end of the season and hope to be in the play off and keep there current form up.
| CAMARA, Abdoul | AM(RL),F(RLC) | Angers SCO | 25 | 85 | ||||
| GARCÍA, Dani | DM,M(C) | SD Eibar | 25 | 85 | ||||
| DOS SANTOS, Mauro | D(RC) | SD Eibar | 26 | 84 | ||||
| DELORT, Andy | F(C) | SM Caen | 24 | 83 | ||||
| AHMEDOV, Odil | DM,M,AM(C) | FC Krasnodar | 27 | 87 | ||||
| GOMIS, Bafétimbi | F(C) | Swansea City | 30 | 89 | ||||
| PEREYRA, Mauricio | M(C),AM(RLC) | FC Krasnodar | 25 | 86 | ||||
| KUIPERS, Bas | D(LC) | SBV Excelsior | 21 | 80 | ||||
| MLADENOVIĆ, Filip | D,DM,M(L) | BATE | 24 | 85 | ||||
| VOLODKO, Maksim | D,DM,M(L) | BATE | 23 | 80 | ||||
| ALEKSIEVICH, Ilya | M,AM(LC) | BATE | 24 | 83 | ||||
| COOK, Steve | D(C) | AFC Bournemouth | 24 | 84 | ||||
| RITCHIE, Matt | AM(RLC) | AFC Bournemouth | 26 | 85 |
League Tables Looking Tight in Division 4
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | League Form | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Hamburger SV | 27 | 16 | 2 | 9 | 57 | 47 | 10 | 50 |
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| 2 | |
Sassuolo | 27 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 55 | 37 | 18 | 48 |
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| 3 | |
Beşiktaş JK | 27 | 14 | 4 | 9 | 46 | 43 | 3 | 46 |
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| 4 | |
Atalanta BC | 27 | 12 | 8 | 7 | 35 | 27 | 8 | 44 |
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| 5 | |
Girondins Bordeaux | 27 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 62 | 49 | 13 | 43 |
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| 6 | |
WEST BROMWICH ALBION | 27 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 44 | 40 | 4 | 42 |
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| 7 | |
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Genoa CFC | 27 | 12 | 5 | 10 | 48 | 31 | 17 | 41 |
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| 8 | |
Hellas Verona | 27 | 12 | 4 | 11 | 52 | 47 | 5 | 40 |
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| 9 | |
Chievo Verona | 27 | 12 | 3 | 12 | 43 | 39 | 4 | 39 |
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| 10 | |
Hertha BSC | 27 | 11 | 4 | 12 | 45 | 42 | 3 | 37 |
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| 11 | |
1. FC Köln | 27 | 10 | 6 | 11 | 33 | 36 | -3 | 36 |
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| 12 | |
Torino | 27 | 10 | 5 | 12 | 41 | 47 | -6 | 35 |
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| 13 | |
Celta Vigo | 27 | 10 | 5 | 12 | 31 | 43 | -12 | 35 |
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| 14 | |
Udinese Calcio | 27 | 10 | 4 | 13 | 45 | 48 | -3 | 34 | ||||||||||||||
Manager of Quarter 3
Click Read more to view the Manager of the Quarter Shortlist…
Gursimran Brar (Bayern Munich)
| League | A | Dortmund | 4-0 W |
| League | H | Roma | 2-0 W |
| League | A | Juventus | 0-0 D |
| League | A | Paris SG | 3-2 W |
| League | H | Tottenham | 4-0 W |
| League | A | Chelsea | 3-0 W |
| League | H | Lyon | 2-1 W |
| League | H | Liverpool | 4-1 W |
| League | A | Real Madrid | 0-1 L |
| League | A | Monchengladbach | 3-0 W |
| League | H | Napoli | 2-1 W |
| League | A | Fenerbahce | 3-0 W |
| League | A | Everton | 1-1 D |
| League | H | CSKA Moscow | 1-0 W |
| League | A | Monaco | 2-2 D |
| League | H | Spartak Moscow | 1-1 D |
| League | A | Leverkusen | 3-3 D |
| League | H | Zenit | 2-1 W |
| League | A | Basel | 2-1 W |
| League | H | Southampton | 4-1 W |
| League | A | Leicester | 3-0 W |
| League | A | Crystal Palace | 1-2 L |
| League | H | Newcastle | 1-1 D |
| League | A | PSV | 1-0 W |
| League | H | Swansea | 1-1 D |
| League | A | Cruzeiro | 1-0 W |
| League | H | Sunderland | 2-0 W |
Heath Brown (West Brom)
| League | A | Olympaicos | 3-0 W |
| League | A | Torino | 3-1 W |
| League | H | Hamburg | 2-3 L |
| League | H | Hertha BSC | 2-3 L |
| League | A | Atalanta | 3-1 W |
| League | H | Genoa | 3-2 W |
| League | A | Udinese | 0-3 L |
| League | H | Besiktas | 4-3 W |
| League | A | Feyenoord | 2-2 D |
Mark Phelps (Flamengo)
| League | H | Dinamo Zagreb | 4-0 W |
| Cup | A | Aston Villa | 2-0 W |
| League | A | Club Brugge | 2-0 W |
| League | H | Santos | 1-1 D |
| League | H | VFB Stuttgart | 4-3 W |
| League | A | AZ | 2-3 L |
| Cup | A | Lokomotiv | 1-1 (P) W |
| League | H | Dynamo Kiev | 1-2 L |
| League | A | Sao Paulo | 1-0 W |
| League | H | FK Partizan | 1-0 W |
| League | A | Twente | 2-2 D |