Smurph Posted June 13, 2012 Author Share Posted June 13, 2012 ...and so... ...it was away to Russia for face Spartak Moscow in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final. The same as Schalke beforehand, a good result here and it makes it a whole lot easier. We needed to start brightly. Excellent result. 2-0 gives us some leeway for the home leg but we still need to put in a good performance. Pereyra scored early with a header from a Ritter free-kick and cool Cuhna placement into the bottom corner finished it off. Home leg now. We should have won that but their goalkeeper was the man of the match by far. Their goal was from a corner and I was getting really nervous towards the end, but Cuhna settled the nerves at the end, and we progress to the final winning 3-1 on aggregate. I didn't put much effort into this update 'cause not a lot happened and it was really just a routine win. We were in the final, though, and who do we face? None other than Manchester City. As was leaked by Widge, if I were to reach the Champions League final, I was going to stream it live (probably on Justin.tv) and see how it goes. I don't know quite how to do this though so I'm going to look over it tonight and see what I can do. I'm tempted to do this for the Europa League final too but I might do a test for the game against Juventus. What I'm going to ask is for one or two people who are free tomorrow afternoon (probably around 3pm - the first 1/2/3 people who can say they can make it) who can tell me if it works. If it does, I can stream the Europa League final after the Euro games to everyone on the thread and I'll provide a link and you can watch the game against Manchester City. I think that after it's done it will still be available for people to watch on-line and hopefully bask in my glory. If the Juventus idea doesn't work, I'll just spoiler the f**k out of it, and then try and find a way in order to stream the Champions League final but that won't be for a while yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Lanarkshire Jag Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 lol wut He's implying you can see into the future Go Smurph!! Onto the Western Front Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 He's implying you can see into the future Go Smurph!! Onto the Western Front Well turns out I was right... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Lanarkshire Jag Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 Well turns out I was right... Gotta have faith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 13, 2012 Author Share Posted June 13, 2012 As was leaked by Widge, if I were to reach the Champions League final, I was going to stream it live (probably on Justin.tv) and see how it goes. I don't know quite how to do this though so I'm going to look over it tonight and see what I can do. I'm tempted to do this for the Europa League final too but I might do a test for the game against Juventus. What I'm going to ask is for one or two people who are free tomorrow afternoon (probably around 3pm - the first 1/2/3 people who can say they can make it) who can tell me if it works. If it does, I can stream the Europa League final after the Euro games to everyone on the thread and I'll provide a link and you can watch the game against Manchester City. I think that after it's done it will still be available for people to watch on-line and hopefully bask in my glory. If the Juventus idea doesn't work, I'll just spoiler the f**k out of it, and then try and find a way in order to stream the Champions League final but that won't be for a while yet. There has been a change of plan. I'll try and stream the Champions League final if we ever get that far, but for the Europa League final there will be two videos. The first half and the second half. To add a shit load of drama (and the fact the software I downloaded only allowed me to make videos for ten minutes at a time) and it saves me having to footer about with all the spoilers and goals and stuff like that. There will be commentary provided and I'll add stuff to go alongside it probably - maybe. I'm quite looking forward to it now because I haven't done it before, and the tests that I did last night seem to work well, but we'll need to see how it goes. I don't know when the first video will be posted. I'm really quite nervous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Lanarkshire Jag Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 There has been a change of plan. I'll try and stream the Champions League final if we ever get that far, but for the Europa League final there will be two videos. The first half and the second half. To add a shit load of drama (and the fact the software I downloaded only allowed me to make videos for ten minutes at a time) and it saves me having to footer about with all the spoilers and goals and stuff like that. There will be commentary provided and I'll add stuff to go alongside it probably - maybe. I'm quite looking forward to it now because I haven't done it before, and the tests that I did last night seem to work well, but we'll need to see how it goes. I don't know when the first video will be posted. I'm really quite nervous. The test video's were really good and will only get better when you practice about to see what you can and can't do. You should definately do the EURO 2012 "alternative" commentary since you beat the commentators hands down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 13, 2012 Author Share Posted June 13, 2012 Right, we're here. Finally. The first half. An absolute shit load of effort went into this. I've had to play the final twice (the first result will be revealed at the end of season report) and whilst I was trying to edit the video (it actually didn't work, so I record the recording and do sound again) the laptop shut down completely, losing the final result because I completely forgot to save the game. So, I played and recorded again, but I forgot the audio, so I had to record the recording and do the commentary again. It took fucking ages. I can't promise it will be worth it, but I've learned from the mistakes I made and if we ever reach the Champions League final it will run a lot smoother. So, without further adieu, the first half. Only the one and a half hours behind schedule (though, I was wanting to post it at 4pm, but I said 10pm on here) I recommend that you turn the volume up a little and try and watch the video in full screen so you can see the teams and stuff. The second half should be posted soon. Within the hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 I see you enlisted Andy Murray to do the voice-over for the video, Smurph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 13, 2012 Author Share Posted June 13, 2012 Only the best for you guys. The next video should be up within the hour, according to YouTube. I had to attempt to encode it THREE times before it actually worked. This idea has been a complete and utter disaster for me and those awake just now. The morning/afternoon people will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 14, 2012 Author Share Posted June 14, 2012 ...and there we go. The second half. What a complete and utter disaster this was! I'll post a full end of season update (nothing fancy, just the normal style) tomorrow afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted June 14, 2012 Share Posted June 14, 2012 That was rather easy in the end! Well don Andy Smurph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordieBoy80 Posted June 14, 2012 Share Posted June 14, 2012 Loving the frustration, "He's put it fucking wide !!" This has been captivating since day 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 14, 2012 Author Share Posted June 14, 2012 End of season review; 2022/2023 Another season done. We'll start off with what we just won, which of course was the EURO Cup, or the Europa League, as you'll know if you watched the two videos, or decided to not watch them and just scroll down to this update. Either way, we won it, so there. 3-0 was an excellent score. We were the better team throughout and were unlucky not to have won by a bigger margin, but 3-0 is still a very good score for a European final and it was really quite comfortable. As I did say before, though, this was played twice because my laptop shut down when I was editing the videos and I had to start afresh. What was the first result, I hear you ask? We were 5-0 up at half time, 7-0 up, and then conceded two corners. It was some f*cking game though. When I was recording it there was nothing I could really comment on apart from how much of a shafting I was giving them. Maringá had scored four goals and had a rating of 10.0. I've NEVER seen someone score that highly before. It was amazing. Alas, the game was lost, and we won 3-0 in the official game, but at least I know we can hammer anyone on our day. So, league business now. Where I left off, we had just lost to Inter and they had climbed above us in the table. and the Empoli result didn't look all that promising. In fairness, we did have a weaker squad out because of lack of fitness for the bigger players, but we should have done a better job than that. A very good win against Juventus followed. We took the lead twice, but they pegged us back, until Maringá stepped up and got the winner late on. Routine win against relegated Frosinone. Would Inter f*ck up? No. And it wasn't really surprising. But we finished runners up to a squad who (again) broke the record amount of points in a Serie A season and have also beaten the goals scored tally. Any other season and we could have probably won it. We were also in three different competitions towards the end, so we probably has to sacrifice one, which I'm glad it was this as we've already won it! We're in the Champions League for next season, anyway. That's what counts. The Coppa Italia. We beat Palermo 4-0 in the first leg, effectively finishing the tie off, so I put out a slightly weaker squad. We went on to lose 1-0 (I think...) in the second leg, so we went into the final after beating them 4-1 on aggregate. It was our old foes, Parma, who awaited us in the Stadio Olimpico. YAS! Another trophy to add to the ever growing cabinet. Benoit Le Moal was a 105th minute substitute. What an impact he had! It was a fairly even game but I don't know how the score remained 0-0 for so long! This popped up afterwards Great feeling to get some recognition for how far I've taken the club in the 13 years I've been in charge. Five promotions with only one relegation, three league wins (A, B, C2), one Super Coppa, one Coppa Italia, one Europa league and one diddy cup for the teams in C2! They all count. The only cups I've entered but yet to win are the C1 (which doesn't really bother me) and, of course, The Champions League. We play Arsenal in the European Super Cup in September, so that's another one I'd like to win. I hope I can get my status up from icon to legend. If only we could participate in the Tennent's sixes... Another season done. Let's look at the players. Mazzon played every single one of our games this season. Conceded just the 35 goals in all competitions and an amazing 33 clean sheets. In the Europa League, he played 17 times, and kept 13 clean sheets. You cannot argue with that. Man City offered €22.5M for him. f*ck off. In defence, we started with Kaká, Pereyra, Reinaldo and Leonard for the most part. 20 goals amassed between the centre backs is magnificent and really helped us. Fans' player of the year Leonard grabbed a goal and got quite a lot of assists too. Kaká was superb and really improved as a player since his season last year. Looks far more assured. Trotta, Keric and Raiola started and came off the bench a few times and all three are very good back-up players to have. Defence were brilliant this season and I still expect them to improve. I might buy a new centre back and try and sell Pereyra. There's a few I have my eyes on. In midfield, my favourite position, defensive mid was mostly covered by M'Vila or Poli when he came in January. Both played solidly in the position and soaked up all the pressure. Not much more I can add, and they grabbed a few goals and assists between them which is good to see. Both players contracts expire at the end of this season and both are ageing, but I guess I'll see how they fair this season. Dolci came off the bench an incredible amount of times, but he scored a few, assisted a few, and not too bad for the worst rated player in my squad. Another decent season for him, but I may be looking to sell. I don't know yet, but he's been with the club for years. Anthony Ritter. I... I... I can't even begin to explain quite how significant he was to the squad this year. LOOK AT HIS ASSISTS. 36. One more and I could have make a Clerks reference. Not to be, but that is still incredible. A lot of them were from corners, but he grabbed a lot from midfield too. He blew Ledesma's assist record out of the water. Six goals isn't too bad either! Really, all of midfield was excellent. Hauck, Salles, Toplek and Leite were brilliant. Salles and Toplek obviously missed large parts of the season but still made an impact when they were fit. Leite did a very good job when he came in January. Midfield is where we dominate, though. I don't expect there to be any changes in this position. I love all the players too much. Up front, they all scored a massive amount of goals. None of them really ran away with it. Maringá finished top goalscorer but only 7 above Cunha, and 8 above Hain and Le Moal. This is obviously a very good thing that when one doesn't perform well, someone else steps in, but I'd still like someone to score a Bakambu or Sanogo amount of goals, amassing something like 40/50. I can't really complain, though. I'm unsure whether a new striker will be brought in. I might look to sell Le Moal, TBH, but I do have (ex) youth players who are more than capable of starting now who have been on loan for most of their careers. We'll see. And that's that. Another season done and more trophies won. I still have my eyes on that Champions League trophy, though. She will be mine soon. Pro Vercelli's Croatian club captain, Mario Toplek, lifting aloft the coveted Europa League trophy for the first time in the clubs history. Toplek, in his second spell at the club after signing from Napoli [the club he left for], had this to say about the win. "My English is not very good, but the manager has taught me few words from his home in Scotland. f*cking YAS" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldojag Posted June 14, 2012 Share Posted June 14, 2012 Big mad Smurph bot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 Pre-season 2023/2024 After the Europa League win, we wanted bigger, nay, we needed bigger. Our sights were focused on the Champions League trophy. I'll start, as always, with those who left. A few loanees as per usual and a few lads moved away permanently. Benetti was good for a while but he hasn't progressed as well as I wanted him to. We made a €750K loss on him but he's been at the club for years. Fratti, our top scorer in 2021/2022, leaves to join Málaga. He really never played last season making two substitute appearances and scoring nothing. Sold him for double the price we had paid for him. Keric goes for a massive €15M. He was good, aye, but we're fine in the centre of defence* so I thought I'd let him go. An amazing price for him. Signed for €650K four seasons ago, a profit of €14.35K was made. Amazing. We also say Aguero leave for €7.5M. He, again, never progressed as well as I wanted. He was out with a broken leg last season but he didn't appeal to me during pre-season. Money money money. We had a €50M transfer budget but I spent half on it on this guy. Welcome to the club, Antonio. A massive €27M was spent on the centre defender from Werder Bremen, and although he's *only* three and a half stars (our best players are four, but everyone I've scouted who plays for a top club is four) so he's not the best we could have got (but our reputation is still quite low so it's hard to attract the very best), but he's still excellent, and he demotes Pereyra to the bench. Him and Reinaldo should make an excellent partnership. That was it. Just the one newcomer. I didn't want to change the squad too much and I reckon it's good enough - honestly - but only time will tell. I can always buy people in January if I need to. Pretty much unchanged. I never managed to get Ambrosi or Esposito on loan this season so they'll come in and make a few appearances, but other than that - and those transfers - it is the exact same playing squad as last season. I've put the nations in so you can see where they all come from. I'm disappointed in the lack of Italian players. I would have liked more, given how much effort I put into the youth system, but none of them came big. All the big international players don't want to come to the club, although we do have a lot of internationalists. How did pre-season go then? Pretty damn good. The games against Verona and Elche were when the reserve squad played and they were all right but I was disappointed about losing the latter. We dominated the rest of them, essentially, and it was very good to beat Bordeaux and Atletico so emphatically and keep clean sheets too. We also participated in two finals. The Italian Super-Cup v Inter Milan. Very, very good win, but again we were wondering why we couldn't win by more goals. Completely dominated it though and that's another trophy added to our collection. The second time we have won this. The European Super Cup v Arsenal. Delighted with that one. Toplek scored from a free-kick but they got back into it just after half time. It went to extra time and Leonard was sent off (for diving - never seen that before) but captain Mario Toplek scores again from a direct free-kick. Really, really pleased with this result because Arsenal are a team that are always in about it, and of course, they won the Champions League. Lookin' good. We were also told our group for the Champions League next season. Second seeds this year! Manchester United will be tough but we know we can beat them. I expect us to beat Twente and Sparta Prague fairly comfortably and progress to the last 16. So there we have it again. Looking forward to this season. Season 2021/2022 was horrible but season 2022/2023 has filled me with confidence again and I'm really looking forward to it kicking off. We've made a great start so here's hoping it can continue. Forza Pro Vercelli. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lichtieforlife2 Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Are you not going to die soon? How old are you? Also how are Scotland doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lichtieforlife2 Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Have i started for Genoa yet? (Very few people will get this...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 Are you not going to die soon? How old are you? Also how are Scotland doing? 38, but the D.O.B is eight years wrong. It says 1985. Scotland are currently 31st in the world rankings. They have won the Four Associations tournament on one occasion (2013) and that's really about it. I haven't paid too much attention to be honest, but they were 18th in the world two years ago. Have i started for Genoa yet? (Very few people will get this...) You're still in the U20's I'm afraid. Are you actually allowed back on the forum now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lichtieforlife2 Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Don't think so sucks... Btw this is the second thread I check when I come on p&b after the Arbroath close season thread, it really is a thing of beauty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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