Flying High
We're getting close to promotion!
China Locomotive
This one wasn’t even close.
One of my assistant managers recommended that we start both Parra and Rovaglia as strikers, and that we stick Suphanat Mueanta out on the left wing. I thought it might be good to put Delfi back on the right wing to see what he could do.
The result was a huge victory, much bigger than I had ever expected.
Rovaglia wound up scoring 4 goals and getting an assist. Mueanta had 2 goals of his own, and Parra contributed 1.
Younes Delfi wound up with the Player of the Match award, as well as the Player of the Week award, for his 3 assists and excellent contribution.
We’ve now won 35 straight league games. If you count our Chinese FA Cup run, we’ve won 40 in a row. We show no signs of slowing down at all. This has been an amazing season, much better than I ever anticipated.
And the real crazy part is the fact that these players are so young.
Devastating Injury
It’s bad enough with Juan David Torres out for another two months or so. I received word of a training injury that hurts even more.
Camil Jebara, our great 20-year-old Swedish left winger, is out for 8 to 10 months with damaged cruciate ligaments.
This is one of those injuries that might completely derail his career, and there sadly isn’t anything we can do about it. We do have other players who can play his position (Mueanta, for example, as we saw in our last match). However, I fear that Jebara will never be able to make up for the lost training time, and that he might never be the same again.
I stuck him on the under 21 roster. It will take him some time to heal, and then we’ll take a look and see what his future is like at this club.
Month in Review
We’re losing money each month, but we’re still a rich club anyway. Most of that money lost comes due to player wage expenditures, which isn’t a huge issue. We’re still far below the allotment the board set.
The board is happy in general, but remains lukewarm about our match performance. They also aren’t thrilled with my transfers, mostly because of the young players with questionable potential that I continue to sign. I think that this investment will pay off in the future, however, and I’m not going to give up my quest for wonderkids.
The supporters are much happier, though they are also very critical of my transfer decisions.
Ye Jie is currently the closest we have to a squad leader. There’s good unity on the squad, but still not too much by way of cohesion. We’re slowly pushing our general squad personality towards something more professional, which will hopefully start showing through once we reach the summer transfer season.
Taiyuan University of Technology
We’re heading out to Taiyuan for our next match.
A win here might clinch promotion for us, assuming that Jiangsu FC lose. Yes, that’s right: our new rivals are currently in second position. If we crush Taiyuan and they lose, we’ve clinched promotion and can relax a bit.
We’ll still play every game like it’s out last, though. I’m not going to take it easy.