To celebrate, or perhaps while celebrating, his 39 birthday Taribo West has signed a one year contract extension.
The 2013/2014 season will be West's 21st as a professional footballer. He will turn 40 before the season's end.
I wonder if he is still attempting bicycle kick goals. I also wonder if he ever got one of them into the back of the net.
Well, well, well, it seems that the CM gods are smiling down on Millwall.
Although we are now even on head to heads, Roma have dished up some humiliations to us in the past. Beating them in the Super Cup went a little way to restoring some pride at The New Den. And beating them in the World Club Championship Final was cause for huge celebrations in South East London.
But those scars from the early defeats haven't faded. Hopefully a mid week win will be enough to knock them out of the CL at the second group stage. Maybe then we can consider past wrongs have been righted
First time I've received this message.
Normally I wouldn't select a player with multiple issues but we wrapped up the league title in April and I've had my first team players in cotton wool to preserve them for the Champions League and the FA Cup Final. We won the latter, securing the domestic double, and we play Milan in the CL Final in a few days time.
Anyway, Mr Prieto was promptly put on the transfer list and we already have a couple of offers. We're gonna make a good profit as he arrived as a free agent two years ago. Interestingly, I asked the coaches for an assessment shortly after he arrived and they said he was having a positive effect on the team.
Has anyone ever seen a bicycle kick goal? I've seen plenty of attempts but they are always way off target.
What impact does it have on player's physical attributes if the fitness coach has lower attributes in coaching outfield players and coaching goalkeepers?
In season I don't usually meddle too much with the training schedules. I set them to basically the default setting at the start of the game, e.g. Shooting Training = Medium Fitness, Medium Tactics, Medium Skill, Intensive Shooting. I recruit the best coaches I can attract and that best match my system and assign them to training as best befits their attributes.
However, at the end of last season as my Fitness Coach's contract expired I offered the vacant coaching role to one of my scouts. Although his attributes in Judging Ability and Potential were high his scout reports lacked detail. His Determination and Discipline were in the mid teens, and he was high in Youth, Tactics, Motivating and low teens in Man Management. He was Fitness Based but he only had 8s in Adaptability, Goal Keepers and Outfield Players.
In the back half of the season I noticed that some of my players were declining in their physical attributes, Acceleration, Pace, Stamina, Strength, much earlier than I expected. 29 year old John O'Shea was declining like he had turned 32. As I looked into it other players seemed to be declining early, too. No longer was I having to manage the physicals of players in their 30s, now players in their 20s, too.
I modified the Fitness Training, leaving Intensive Fitness but upping Tactics, Skills, and Shooting to Medium. I have managed to stabilize, and in some cases reverse the decline but I've had to rotate large numbers of players through Fitness Training for half the season.
Am I right in thinking this is decline in player's physical attributes is due to the Fitness coach? Unfortunately he still has another 3 years to run on his contract. I've unassigned him now and set the Assistant to Fitness. Should I start looking for a new Fitness Based coach?
Which is more important for various positions? I assume acceleration is more important than pace for a goal keeper but what about for other positions? And is that correct?
Would a CB with Acc20 Pc13 be more effective than a CB with Acc13 Pc20? How would it compare to a CB with Acc17 Pc17?
And what about other positions? Full backs, strikers? Midfielders?
I'm mangaging Millwall into season 08/09. Earned promotion at the end of the first season (runners up) and have been in the PL every season since. We have qualified for Europe at the end of each completed PL season (mainly Champions League).
So far, so good, right? Kind of. We've won the FA Cup and the Charity Shield but that was early on. We've made a League Cup and UEFA Cup Final but were runners up in both. We have always qualified for the 2nd phase group stages of the CL and made it to the QF twice but never get any further.
Last season, 07/08, we would have won the league except that the keeper, Thomas Sorensen, who had been virtually insurmountable, suddenly and inexplicably lost form. We lost or drew games that we should have won. And it wasn't because I fell for the press interview trap (I learned that lesson last time I played, around 5 or 6 years ago).
Is the game trying to get me to move on? I'd like to collect some more silverware before I go but it feels like the game engine won't allow that to happen. I've got a pretty good squad, I'm the third highest ranked manager in England and I have a decent reputation internationally, the dressing room is happy, players think I'm competent and are happy to stay at the club. Yet I've got half a dozen or so players who don't want to discuss contract extensions.
Add to that some inexplicable losses this season such as 3:1 away to bottom placed Stoke despite having almost 50% more shots on target (8-11). Their keeper had the game of his life, he'd been on our list but the coaches advised putting him on the transfer list as he hadn't progressed in his time with us (he still hasn't progressed, btw). And then a 2:4 home loss when Sorensen, again and out of the blue, put in a stinker and I had to sub him in the 41st minute.
So, what do you think? Am I just being paranoid or is the game actually out to get me? Should I keep knocking at the door or should I move on? There's a good chance that Spurs will be looking for a new manager soon. Leeds is also a possibility. Last time I played Millwall it took a lot longer to build them up but I took them to many titles once we got into striking distance.