Life in Football Manager

It was more or less inevitable that when news got round about these great players at Ramesses Rovers that the bigger clubs were going to get their scouts round as quickly as possible and then there cheques even quicker, when the start of the season began all the founding members of the squad left for top English clubs, even Lee Ellington, leaving for Myspacefaceballclub.co.uk side Ebbsfleet. We will of course keep track of the careers of those founding members of the squad to see how they fair, but the upcoming season is just like starting again for the side as one team leaves another bigger one comes in, so many in fact that Burton now has a reserve side to call upon if needed. Even though Burton had nearly £18 million to spend on players he kept the budget down and spent only £375k, I think though he will find it hard to splash the cash and attract those types of players to the lower reaches of English football. To tell you about all the new guys that have arrived into the squad this season would take a life time and I don’t think you want to waste your time me listing the players so below is the new first team, a new team page will be created for the future. A few notable signings though are Delroy Facey the well traveled striker who only a few season ago scored 37 goals for Tranmere and 40 at Rotheram, so surely he can have an impact in the Blue square Premier, his partner in crime a rebel without a cause James Dean, a tall striker who is good in the air which should have some sort of advantage. Captaining the new team will be Chris Coyne with 33 year old Kevin Hunt.

Players Out (New Window)

Players have now begun to find themselves coming through the youth system coming from towns outside of St Helens, Ormskirk and Runcorn. The one youth player to watch is Neil Simpson if he develops well with a PA of 169 could be a fantastic attacking midfielder, but with his unambitious personality will he push himself? Burton has been able to keep the average of the side down even though bringing the new players in, the average age of the squad is 23.2.

News behind the scene is that Burton was able to replace Steve McLaren, in came an international staff member, Holland coach Rob Witschge a really good looking ass man as long as he is not asked to pick the team. But he is more then suited to looking after the youngster of the squad and identify which ones are going to make it.

Ramesses First Team (New Window)

Ramesses Rovers had definitely seen a lot happen around the club over the last season and a bit. The new season will be something about getting the club back on track. The young talent is all gone and now it is about bringing in new players and using the money gained to develop new talent at the club and take them further up the league. So the board obviously kept plans realistic for this season, consolidate the club and let it settle down before they go in search for another promotion, the press were in the belief the club would be in a relegation battle come the end of the season. The squad looks fairly average for the league they are in now, but with plenty of potential in the players that they have got it will be Bultler’s challenge to release it.

The first two games of the Blue Square Premier were unfortunately both away from home, not something that a newly promoted club want. Kidderminster were the first up and took a 2-0 win before a poor Altrincham managed to come from 2 down to earn themselves a point. But once back at Abu Simbel Rovers couldn’t have wished to play anyone better then Burton another relegation favourite. a 2-0 victory brought the morale of the side back up as did the 3-2 win against Northwich. During the season Abu Simbel definitely was a temple for The Pharaohs as they didn’t lose many games at the ground during the season and playing out to an average 25,493 supporters it is no surprise the the opposition crumble under the pressure. But away from home it wasn’t till the end of September that the team registered a win, Ramesses on their travels only actually won 5 games in the league. It was home form that kept the side up in the league and the team finished safely, midtable in 11th. Definitely what they were looking for and will give the team a chance to develop for the next season and challenge for more.

Blue Square Premier (New Window)

The two players who were getting the goals for the side were Delroy Facey who hit 20, I am sure that the majority of them probably came from within the air, because statistics wise Facey should never have hit that many goals, he was firing above his bar. Also was James Dean who scored 11 goals and as a result they were the two best players in the side this season. But there was a big gap between the performances of the strikers and the rest of the squad the biggest disappointment was the regular first team players were averaging around 6. Even worse Julian Kelly finished with a rating of 5.64 from 47 games the lack of depth keeping him in the side, but when he is getting paid £33,500 per week you expect better.

Talking about wages it is just astonishing how much some of these players are taking home each week, how did anyone negotiate a contract for £62,000 for a player of Facey’s quality, specially when he is listed as a backup player. The wage structure is totally messed up in this game and only Neil Simpson in the first team earns under £14,000. It is no surprise to see that again that the team made an £8,000,000 loss, a jump of £11 million in wages has really hit the books and value of the side is falling like a lead balloon. Only the £12 million made by the sale of players meant that the side were staying a float. If contracts are not re-negotiated or players gotten rid of the team will soon see bankruptcy. By the looks of it the game doesn’t handle lower league side well who have got money to spend. Also I have heard of many problems through the scene about problems with finances, also noticing it myself on my Arsenal game that my Gunners and Liverpool bank balances started reducing over the seasons even after league success I was given around £15 million to spend each season. It seems as the game doesn’t take into account how much the team will actually be getting paid in the future and instead using the current bank balance to help set the wage structure. I am not going to bail out the side just yet, I want to see how the side will cope with the financial difficulties on such a dramatic scale.

Whose getting paid what? (New Window)

Wage Structure (New Window)

Finances (New Window)

Even though non of the previous FA Trophy winners are at the club at the moment the current breed started off the competition well first starting with Accrington. Facey and Colin Daniel both scored in the second half to turn around the game after going behind early. Tamworth next and again at home James Dean was quick out of the gates and scored within the first minute with a fantastic long range effort. A late goal from Boucaud decided the tie and setting up a game against Altrincham who were sitting bottom of the conference, Facey scored the only goal in the first away game of the competition for the club. But defeat came to the hands of Kidderminster Harriers who had already recored a comfortable win in the first game of the season. At Abu Simbel, Rovers were lucky to take a 2-2 draw and send the game to Aggborough were a poor away form continued and Gavin Caines scored in a game which dogged Ramesses with injuries. The debut in the Satanta Shield started off badly, against a side that Ramesses should have beat, AFC Telford. It was a closely fought game, but the result didn’t reflect that. If the game was played out in St Helens once again there would be no doubt that the goals would have been reversed and Ramesses would have took the 3-0 victory. But this wasn’t too be and Telford were the side that was able to convert the chances.

The European Championships were played out during the summer of 2008 and in this version of the competition England were able to reach the last eight, losing to finalists Spain who were eventually beaten by world champions Italy. The 31 year old Luca Toni was the star of the show while Silva showed Europe what he can offer. The Premiership has really opened up and allowed other sides in the top 4 Chelsea took the league and by 7 points. While Newcastle and Spurs broke into the top 4. Manchester United failed to reach any European spot, Pompey, Bolton and Southampton all joined the Championship. Arsenal had a disaster of a season finishing 13th only a FA Cup win against Southampton takes them into Europe.

The guys who left the club during the summer all of them found themselves with regular first team spots. James Doran was in the sticks for Arsenal and with their poor season for The Gunners Doran couldn’t perform either and gaining the worse average performance from the players along with Wilson Doran’s team mate. The three strikers enjoyed the best season Ralphie scoring 23 goals in his debut for Liverpool and Roy taking 21 to help Chelsea win the league. Merrill the left back had an amazing season in his position finding that he can play up the field as well and contributing to setting up 12 goals from left back. Ralphie and Tolly both make up the pairing at Liverpool, Tolly who failed to gain a space in the Ramesses squad is now keeping Torres out of the Liverpool line up. International careers for the English players also kicked off and Capello capped all but Tyron, Doran and Wison. Alya took a regular spot between the sticks and has earned more caps then any other player, but the squad of greats still couldn’t take England to an international final.

Original Ramesses squad (New Window)

So even though problems are ahead at Ramesses concerning money, Bulter might look to spend the money while it is available to them, pushing for promotion and hopefully some extra money that the professional leagues will give him once he reaches the Coca-Cola League Two. But he will need to do some work in the transfer market to do that and hope he can bring some good youth players in.