The side is together and ready for their first taste of action, the squad is made up of 17 players, all too good to play in the league they are in and will be looking to move up the tables as quick as possible. The side looked like this:
Goalkeepers
Timoteo Alya is the key man between the sticks and will be looking to keep the ball in front of him at all times, keeping control of his defense as model professional keeper should do. The second in command if anything happened to Timoteo is James Doran.
Defenders
Jaylen Hardy the light hearted defender will command the right hand side, Midhat Ingram and Ashley Vin are the utility players capable of playing anywhere along the back line. Clifford Merrill will ply his trade on the left and in the centre will be Foster Qasim. The key player of the defense Cyril Gamil, from Liverpool will hope to pull his side up by not letting the ball past him and pushing those attackers out the way the key brick in the wall.
Midfielders
The oldest player of the team at 26 is Korrine Shafaqut who will play in the defensive midfield role. Along the left and centre of the field will play light hearted play maker Sultan Wilson. The man in the middle of the field that will hope to have everything played through him will be Darren Tyron. Playing more attacking roles will be Adbul-Aziz Elric who will play down the right along with Roberto Reece who will also play centrally on the other wing will be Merlyn Conor.
Attackers
The guys who will look to take advantage at the lower league goalkeepers and blundering defenders will be powerful strikers Neo Ralphie, Ron Roy and Wolf Tolly who will be the player who will hope to top the goalscoring chart.
The first bit of business to do at Abu Simbel was to find a new manager someone who will be responsible for the club for the next couple of seasons, the adverts had already gone out in the papers. The chance of working with such a talented bunch of players kept the chairman busy whittling through the applications that came in from far and wide. The guy who won out had already a little management experience and been working with an experienced manager as well, he was the Dave Jones’s number two at Cardiff City, Terry Burton. A former youth coach at Arsenal, manager of Wimbledon in 2000 for two years. Burton has very good scouting talents, which will surely help him in bringing in new players and he days as being a youth coach has made him a good candidates working with this bunch of 17 year olds. Not the best tactically, so lets hope that the sheer talent of these players will be enough to win the games at this level.
Before the season began Burton only saw it fit to bring one player in and that was Lee Ellington who arrived from the little village of Staylebridge. Not much of an improvement or addition to the squad to be honest with you, the only attributes that he can offer the side is great pace and acceleration and a decent enough finishing for this level. But the 27 year old striker will struggle to see any first team action this season and the only area that lacked any depth was the attack and for such a young side the reputation isn’t there to attract many bigger names.
Worcester were chosen to host a momentous occasion in The Pharaohs history, St Georges Lane would be the first league game ever for the club and Worcester definitely read the script. Rovers dominating the game and taking their first win 3-0. The next game would be even bigger, allowing the people of St Helens their first chance to watch a game in the giant Abu Simbel stadium, Hyde would this team be part of the history at Ramesses Rovers and again the script was written all for them and 4 goals without reply went past Dootson and Rovers were already top of the league after two games. That is really how the majority of the season went, but what could you expect when you have some of the best players in the world playing in the Blue Square Conference North. Although not everyone read their lines and Workington became the kill joys beating Rovers for the first time, Matthew Berkerley upsetting a good run of wins, hard to take for the Rovers when there isn’t much else you have experienced. But Ramesses bounced back and The Rovers too strong for this league, won it with ease, totaling 96 points, 15 clear of Kettering. Kettering were able to get themselves up joining Ramesses Rovers as they performed well in the play offs.
With the dominance it will be no surprise to know that there were very few players that didn’t actually play well, Neo Ralphie and Ron Roy both finished first and second in the goal charts scoring scoring 61 league goals between them. These are two great strikers and good on them, but what is a surprise was the lack of time given to Wolf Tolly who only had 8 (3) appearances meant to be the best striker in the spine of the side his stats even though the AI had altered them a little still suggested he should command some first team action. But Terry Burton really didn’t believe in the rotation system and there was a few of the great players that spent the majority of the time on the bench and he decided to play the best eleven players on a regular basis, the professional players didn’t even murmur a whisper.
Due to FA rules and other such things, Ramesses Rovers were only involved in one cup competition this season and that was the FA Trophy. Before The Rovers could go anywhere in the competition though they had to qualify in the 3rd round of the cup. Woodford United being the next in historic first times for the club, the first game was played out at home in front of 10,023 fans and Ramesses put on a show Reece and Tyron putting their names on the scoresheet in the first half to complete the game. Workington, who had already concreted themselves into the Ramesses history books, were waiting in the first round of the FA trophy. Burton’s side this time didn’t make any mistakes in progressing into the next round, Wilson scoring early on before an equaliser late in the game looked to push Ramesses all the way, but Ron Roy made sure on the 87th minute that the Rovers went through. Hayes & Yeading United next an easy 3-0 win before a tie against Aldershot. Ron Roy, Ralphie and Wilson seem to be the only players putting the goals away in the competition and good job to that they all combined to win 3-1. Elric bucked the trend scoring a brilliant long range shot from outside the box to complete a 3-0 win against Histon. York City a team from the league above and pushing for their own promotion were to take on Ramesses Rovers in the semi final over two legs. In both legs York were defeated comfortably Ralphie scoring a hatrick while in York to secure a game against the university boys of Cambridge in the final, another one for the history books in the first season visiting Wembley. Rovers dominated the game holding the ball for 72% of the time but Sean Thomas was able to hold strong until just before the half time break when Darren Tyron put the ball into the back of the net, the only goal of the game was enough to see the first piece of silverware the first in what is hoped to be many treasures to compare with the Abu Simbel in Egypt.
The backroom staff that consisted of managers that were in search of jobs quickly moved around, Steve McLaren was installed as Terry Burton’s assistant manager while Jose Mourinho was poached by West Brom taking up the chance to be their Youth Coach and Billy Davies joined up with Wigan to scout players for them and in the process became the most expensive export of the club to date at £30,000.
The clubs financial position although stronger then the rest of the league isn’t looking too good for the long run, at present they are ranked 24th richest club in England but the graph is going in a downward trend. The AI seemed to want to put some sort of wage structure in place. Within the editor each player was earning around £1,000 per week. But from the start of the game other contracts were put in place and captain Shafaqut became the highest earner taking home £25,500 in basic salary. Meaning by the end of the season the club wasn’t bringing in as much as it was spending on wage and a £8 million in losses in the first season halved the bank balance of the club.
Financial Summary (New Window)
Once June came along and the season looked over Burton decided what players he wanted in the side, he choose players from higher up the league in order to add some experience to the squad, Australian defender Chris Coyne became the record buy at £250,000. A young defender in the shape of Joey Waterhouse arrives from Wigan 19 and looks like a work house of player, a good signing and time is on his side. Another full back Julian Kelly also arrives from the Premiership, Kelly started his professional career at Reading can play on both wings and looks like a quick player but I feel nothing more then squad fodder as Burton starts to build a reserve side. Paul Lloyd came from Morcambe and looks rubbish to be honest with you and from judging from his picture doesn’t seem to have any eyes, that will be a problem if he is playing up front, I hope he can see the post before colliding with it. Colin Daniel was last to arrive, another player to play on the left hand side, this time in midfield, he looks mentally strong but not much else stands out from the 20 year old.
In other news there has been somewhat of a lot of movement in management in the Premiership a poor season by Arsenal seen Wenger sacked and replaced by Aguirre while rivals Spurs won 3rd in the Premiership taking The Gunners Champions League place. Harry Redknapp got himself into a relegation battle and as a result was replaced by English Under 21 boss Stuart Pearce. Winning the Premiership was Manchester United, Milan retained their Champions League title this time beating Real Madrid in the final. Bolton surprised everyone and took the FA cup while Tottenham secured the League Cup. The JPT was won by Luton and Sentanta Shield went to the other university side Oxford.