Okay, I know what you are going to say, but I was offered this little Paraguay player Aldo Ledesma, for 210K, who can cover left back and left midfield, and I think I need a bit of cover there now Goñi is out for six months. I had a space on the roster, and only had one "foreign" player, so could easily roll Ledesma straight into the team.
1 Sep 21
Made a 7.7M profit during August - it'll be interesting to see how we go now the transfer window has closed.
Fingers crossed!
Captain (and supposed front line striker) Gontzal Ramos has been injured while on international duty. He's going to be back on the physio table for three weeks with a groin strain.
Talented left winger Keith O'Keeffe has ALSO been injured while away on international duty. I'm beginning to think that the left wing is a poison chalice position, as O'Keeffe also has a major injury; a broken jaw and his is looking at a two month lay off.
Calm happy thoughts.....calm happy thoughts!
Midfield dynamo Farver has also been crocked. Only out for a week with a thigh strain though.
Armendariz has been injured at training!! Out for ten days with a broken nose.
Günden has now been injured whilst on international duty. Three weeks on the sidelines with a twisted ankle.
These internationals are just troublesome!!! Young German goalkeeper, Stephan, who I am still trying to organise a loan deal for no shorter than the year, is out for ten days with a bruised thigh.
The upcoming home fixture against Elche should allow for us to bank the three points. In the last eight meetings, Osasuna has had the wood on Elche, with the score reading 5-2-1, with a heavy 5-0 defeat being handled to us in 2013.
I can only hope the news on the injury front is better!
Niclas Nilsson, the young Swedish striker who scored two goals on his debut, is now listed as "favoured personnel."
Midfielder Ruben Bottarelli has damaged his heel in training. Injections or physio?
We chose physio for a ten day stint off the park.
Three days before the fixture with Elche, we now have ten players injured. The next best (or should that be worse?) is Villarreal, with five.
With the injuries, I can still put out a fairly strong team. Nicholson has recovered, and will take the lead striker role, and Gorman wears the captain armband and keeps it steady in goal.
GK: Gorman
DR: Vajda
DC: Schmidt
DC: Luis Riuz
DL: Halberg
AMR: Faulds
MC: Ensal
MC: Wisker
AML: Ouattara
ST: Nicholson
ST: Nilsson
With the number of injuries, I decided to throw the ball around - "Overload" was the order of the day, which is different to my normal "Control". Also handed Wisker the Advanced Play-maker role in light of Farver's injury, and left Ensal as the defensive minded "Ball winning midfielder."
Nothing to lose, right?
12 Sep 21
Another sellout – I really need to convince the Board that the stadium capacity is woefully inadequate.
I agree that Steven Nicholson is the best player by a country mile in the squad at the moment, yes, I broke all the money out of my piggy bank to bid for him, and yes, I took advantage of a situation brewing at West Ham - as I did with Faulds - [as an aside, Faulds isn’t developing quite in the manner I want him too; the training seems to be sending his attributes south!] but based on his performance today, the price tag on the twenty year old striker will be money well spent.
We came out firing on all cylinders, and ran Elche into the ground with a high tempo game and ability to retain the ball. By the end of the first half, the game as a contest was well and truly over, with the score a staggering 6-0, Nicholson had five, and Elche had a player send from the field for a cynical challenge. I personally though that one of the Nicholson goals came from offside, but neither the ref nor Elche made a deal of it, so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut. Nilsson and Faulds were both proving themselves as capable link men who made goals for Nicholson, and my defensive line again, ran and tackled like their lives were on the line.
The second half was more competitive believe it or not! Even with a man down, Elche played as if the manager had lit a match under them. The goals we scored were fairly soft, with Ouattara catching the goalie off his line at close range, and then Nilsson also having a through ball from Wisker in the box.
8-0 win to us, and great entertainment for the home crowd.
After getting run off the park by my young Osasuna team, the coach of Elche has the gall to run to the media and say "I'm not sure about Osasuna, they might have enough to stay in the division, but there's a lot of question marks."
Only question mark I have it whether I can keep the squad fit!!
You are reading "2021, the Everest of the New Age".
