January 2009 Archives

Chester City's draw against Lincoln City was a well-earned point, given the threadbare squad Mark Wright had at his disposal, owing to injuries and suspensions.

City's squad is not plentiful in numbers at the best of times nowadays, and the lack in depth was sorely highlighted by a midweek Cheshire Premier Cup defeat, where a bunch of youngsters City seemed to cobble together willy-nilly, mixed with a couple of recognised faces, ended in a 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Crewe, who were able to field several first-team players. It was an out and out rout.

Still, despite the woeful result in the week, Tony Dinning must've done something in that match to prove himself worthy of being in the starting XI for Saturday's encounter. Fortunate for him, fortunate for the team, as his little free-kick provided the assist for Anthony Barry's super 25-yard strike.

Youngster Ben Jones was also able to get a little matchday experience toward the end, even if it was a bit of a surprise for him to be picked to come on ahead of Paul Rutherford.

Overall, the hard-fought point was convenient, especially with other sides below winning and leaving Chester now 15 points clear of the relegation zone. A few more battling 'moral victories' will be required to ensure safety in League Two for this season though...

With there being a lack of action both on and off the pitch at Chester City right now, I've been spending the week taking part in a successful virtual experiment that could see the club gain promotion by the end of this season.

Yes, I've been playing Fifa 09 on my PC, one of the better football games to come out in the past few years for the platform, and took charge of Chester City in manager mode, with the hope I could last longer than any of the real-life gaffers this decade.

Now, I should point out here the game isn't *totally* realistic. The stadium is almost always full to bursting, Paul Taylor is still in the squad (although, luckily for the purposes of this experiment, he sustained a cruciate ligament injury early on and missed the rest of the season), and no matches are called off due to frozen pitches. Oh, and the board kept reminding me to play Tony Dinning because he was a 'fans' favourite'. Make of that what you will.

Anyway, I went on to act out almost a carbon copy of recent managers' efforts, in that I started out strong, collected about 30 points and put myself in play-off contention, before taking one point out of seven games as my exhausted squad tumbled down the table. So far, so very City.

Luckily, the January transfer window opened, and here is where the secret of my (and hopefully the real life Chester City, if anyone from the club is reading) success began. Searching around the market, no player would come to the club on a permanent deal, so I searched the loan market instead.

And there he was. An £870,000 superstar who was happy to be paid just £2,200 a match during his time from January to the end of the season.

His name was simply Léo, a 16-year-old attacking midfielder from Fluminense in the Brazilian league. Right-footed, and - get this - an impressive sprint speed of 71% and acceleration of 69%, because that's what scouts look out for, they can rate how quick a footballer is in percentage points.

Since the successful loan deal (I'm not quite sure how he adapted moving from Brazil to the UK in winter, but he seemed to cope quite well), Léo scored no less than 60 goals as Chester soared up the table, the fans delighted to pack into the stadium and help fund another tier on the Vaughan stand (it was more real than the proposed development at the Deva will ever be, I suspect). The club eventually finished a comfortable 11 points clear at the top of the table and won promotion to League One.

As a bonus, the club also won the FA Cup, thrashing Nottingham Forest in the semi-final 6-1 and narrowly beating Chelsea in the final 2-1.

In conclusion, I urge Mark Wright and Stephen Vaughan to track down this Brazilian star of the future and sign him before the end of this month. The only thing that's standing in the way, as far as I can tell, is just easing the wage cap bill be removing Mannix, Butler, Dinning and Johnson. After that, you may as well start making preparations for expanding the trophy room...

A new calendar year means only one thing for football clubs these days, and that's the opening of the transfer window, and with it the chance to rejuvenate flagging squads with an injection of fluid talent to bolster the team's chances of improving their league position.

At least, that's how the theory goes. With a club such as Chester City, the focus is more on retaining a decent enough squad to last throughout the rest of the season. Manager Mark Wright is all too aware of how quickly form turned in January 2007, when several key players left the team, with some shining in their subsequent roles.

The main two from that month had to be Jon Walters and Roberto Martinez. The former was brought in on a free and was sold to Ipswich for a tidy sum that could yet top £400,000 if Walters is sold on to a Premiership club this month.

The move was a big stroke of good fortune for City, of course, as Ipswich only saw how good Walters was when the teams played out two matched in the FA Cup fourth round. City were very lucky to be in the competition after Bury were thrown out for an ineligible player- an experience Droylsden have been able to share recently after they were expelled for the same reason (ironically, with on-loan City player Sean Newton).

Roberto Martinez became manager of Swansea City in February 2007, and a quick peek at the league table says they are settling in nicely mid-table in the Championship, having been champions of League One the previous season with him at the helm.

The main task for Chester City this month, therefore, is to hold on to players such as the in-form Ryan Lowe, promising star Damien Mozika and young talent such as Paul Rutherford.

However, with a decrease in attendances potentially constricting the wage cap limit on the club even further, the squad may have to offload a few names it would want to keep.