|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| A new era begins at KoC |
So, we've had the Ultimate League top flight era, we've had the relegation era but now a new era is set to begin at Knights. We've had quite the journey from a lower division side all the way up to being Ultimate League title contenders but ultimately we now find ourselves almost back where we started, in the lower divisions. We are once again facing off against the likes of Roma Eterna and Worcester Kings along with many new names.
After five consecutive relegations you would think that a losing mentality has set in and while there is a large element of truth to that, the fact is that we came so close to surviving in Division 4 last season and must now put that commitment to the test in Division 5. The players' mentality needs to change, they need to believe now that they can compete. If they can do that then we can halt the slide of consecutive relegations and stay up in this division. The manager is looking to stabalise the side for 2 or 3 seasons until the youngsters grow into players who can actually compete with the standards you'd expect from this team.
We took a big hit in strength last season with the retirements of Aquiles Santamria and Pierre of Hesslink so the manager has decided to sign two placements, Rufus Willman from an unknown Major League club and Matias Danileson from Final Space in the Classic League, managed by a manager we have faced in Private Leagues in the past in RebelRebel so this is the second time on the game Aperson has bought a player from one of RebelRebel's teams (the other was in a private league in a team which has since been deleted). Both signings are free kick takers which temporarily solves the issue of the team having no free kick specialists following Hesslink's retirement. Although, as pointed out by other managers there is no outright free kick specialist among the youngsters in the team.
Don't think the manager hasn't been aware of that all this time. He explained in a manager conference that his idea is that having a hard shot player of 3 bars higher skill level is better overall than having a free kick taker of that skill level because of the level of performance they can bring to the team outside of that field. 16/4 free kick takers are incredibly expensive, we missed out on one (Lesley Inglethorpe) in our first season of the rebuild so we turned towards a much less expensive range and found Gicu Elen. Season 50 has come around now and Elen is a 21/11 valued at 21 million econ. So while his free kicks may not hit as hard as some, he has the potential to frequently play over 20 bar games consistently after he peaks.
The club would like to announce their squad numbers for the new season. No changes in shirt number but the vacant 4 and 6 shirts have been taken by new signings.
1 Ivan DRAGANESCU
2 Gicu ELEN
3 Matts LAGERGREN
4 Rufus WILLMAN
5 Cuthbert SHARROCK
6 Matias DANIELSON
7 Kylian MBAPPE
8 Bert SALLQVIST
9 Peter VELCEA
10 Severino MOTTA
11 Raymond HARGREAVES
13 Preston GRAINGER
17 Roberto MOTA
19 Silvio SBACCANTI
21 Dani MASSA
22 Daniel URS
Speaking of the squad, can we talk about the change report for a moment? While it wasn't quite as good as we were hoping for with multiple players having got quite a bit of DV, Gicu Elen, Matts Lagergren, Daniel Urs and Roberto Mora all double jumped. The best comparison for this team is to now compare them to the exact same stage in the last rebuild, which for this manager is Season 33.
Season 33
1 GK Geo Dihor 36/12
25 GK Ant Connolly 19/6
22 DF Marcus Aggenfjord 35/11
5 DF Eustace Chapple 34/10
16 DF Aquiles Santamaria 21/9
2 DF Pim van der Kruis 21/10
4 DF Ibrahim Qamara 18/5
15 DF Nathan Thompson 18/4
6 MF Glenn Carlton 37/10
18 MF Edmund Hansman 36/9
13 MF Sergei Kvyatkovsky 35/11
8 MF Alvito Roma 21/9
11 MF Raymond Hargreaves 21/9
21 MF Pierre Of Hesslink 19/6
7 MF Ray Tataw Eta 18/5
10 FW Celso Mota 21/9
9 FW Endira Zubeldia 18/5 |
Season 50
1 GK van Drãgãnescu 21/10
13 GK Preston Grainger 21/2
5 DF Cuthbert Sharrock 36/10
6 DF Matias Danielson 35/11
2 DF Gicu Elen 21/11
3 DF Matts Lagergren 21/11
22 DF Daniel Urs 18/6
11 MF Raymond Hargreaves 38/13
4 MF Rufus Willman 34/11
10 MF Severino Motta 21/10
17 MF Roberto Mora 21/10
19 MF Silvio Sbaccanti 20/8
8 MF Bert Sällqvist 19/7
9 FW Peter Velcea 33/10
21 FW Dani Massa 21/10
7 FW Kylian Mbappe 19/6
|
I know which one I think looks better... though the first one still turned into a pretty decent team whereas we may never see how the second one looks at it's peak.
Anyway, opponents for the new season. We have only ever played three of these teams before and one of them was in a cup match at at time when we were a Division 3 side. Stoke Town are our first opponents of the season, when we last played them in Season 38 we needed two goals from Pierre of Hesslink to win the tie and they had scored from Catalin Mera.
This time around we don't really have the tools to be able to compete with Stoke properly and we expect them to be one of the promotion favourites as they have a very strong squad. There's a clear top four in this division at first place, Aberdeen Bankies, Roma Eterna, Stoke Town and Worcester Kings are all competent outfits, the others are who we need to beat to stay up!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|