Cm93 Ed3 Issue 570
Stephanie Dejoode
I can't even pick the lowest side in real life, as the game doesn't reflect real life - every league has 20 teams and some teams are in the wrong division. Aldershot, Maidstone and Halifax were expelled, folded and relegated from Division 3 in 1992 or 1993, but you can't pick them.
I'm tempted to pick my hometown team Brighton, but instead I go through every team in Division 3, looking at the value of their players, squad size, stadium capacity and staff reputation and picking the worst club in the game.
The Bees are steeped in non-league history: they formed way back in 1888 and were founder members of the North London League in 1892, but they actually only lasted 14 years. Two other clubs merged to continue the Barnet name, and they founded what is now the National League in 1979.
Over the decades, they gradually went from amateur to semi-pro to finally achieving promotion to the Football League under Barry Fry in 1991. Only 2 years later in 92/93, they actually got promoted to Division 2 despite transfers bans, a crazy chairman constantly sacking and rehiring Fry, and not paying wages nearly leading to expulsion and bankruptcy. In-game however, they're in Division 3.
Stan Flashman, who is probably second-in-command to Zap Brannigan. It ended badly with the multiple Fry sackings and near death of the club, but he was the guy that brought in Fry and into the football league in the first place.
Andy Pape - 32 - 10k
After failing to make it at QPR, Charlton and Crystal Palace, he'd been at several non-league teams and obscure Danish side Ikast FS before joining Barnet in 1991.
Hakan Hayrettin - M C - 24 - 100k
Been here a few years, but signed for a Turkish Premier League side... then quickly resigned and stayed at Barnet when it was revealed his Turkish Cypriot parentage would mean national service during a war if he lived there.
Brian Marwood - MA L - 32 - 100k
A veteran who has been top scorer in the top league with Sheffield Wednesday and won the title with Arsenal will make his debut for Barnet this season.
Norwich Team Coach John Deehan comes in as our Youth Scout
For League Scouts, I bring in Nottingham Forest team coach Ron Fenton, Plymouth Team Coach John McGovern and Rochdale Team Coach Jimmy Robson.
You may be thinking "ok he's clearly experienced in this game and is doing all the tricks to win every game", but I've no idea how this all happened! I'm playing mainly with the original squad in a 4-2-4!
Other than winning the league and promotion, the biggest story was our giantkilling of Premier League champions and leaders Manchester United in the FA Cup, after a replay, extra time and a long penalty shootout.
LOAN: Paul Wilkinson - 29 - A RC - 500k
A 3, G 1, AvR 7.33
Another loan coup despite the 2m-rated player wanting to join a "better" club than Boro. He'd already scored 5 in 17 D1 games with an average rating of 6.47. He was being targeted by several Premier League clubs, but they didn't move for him. Shoehorned into the right wing, Boro brought him back after he scored his first for us.
After beating Man Utd on penalties in last season's FA Cup, we did exactly the same against Everton. They needed a late equaliser at our ground and we had to come from behind at Goodison after being dominated. A 120th-minute Tony Cottee chance was tackled, so again we drew 1-1 twice. Our new goalkeeper Smith was the hero with 3 saves in the shootout, including Cottee's.
It took 8 games for us to lose, when Birmingham converted their only 2 shots. Our response was to score 3 goals in the next 4 games in a row. But we went through a tricky period of only 5 wins in 10 games, including a Stockport loss with 2 disallowed Stockport goals, an injury for one striker, a sending off for our captain and another striker, and a late winner.
Promotion confirmed with 3 matches to go and title confirmed with 2 games to go, both earlier than last season, I played the last couple of games with other players and still kept 6 cleans sheets in a row at the end.
We scored 3+ goals in exactly half of our league and cup games. 2 of our strikers were the top 3 goalscorers in the league, with a new signing in 4th from his old club, and another attacker in joint-5th. Our front 4 scored 69 goals altogether.
Players who disappointed last season stepped up, but both our older goalkeepers were replaced and a couple of big name midfielders were sold. I bought a goalkeeper, a couple of defenders, a midfielder and a striker. All 21/22 years old.
Before I could loan in 2 more players, I was reminded of another rule I learned last season: there's a time limit. You can only sign or loan so many players per week, then you 'run out of time' before the world was connected by the internet. Alex Ferguson's beeper can only go off so many times a day.
Karl Ready - 21 - D C - 100k
A 10, G 3, AvR 7.3
I thought for a long few minutes on whether to buy Ready or loan someone getting higher ratings. I invested and you see it paid off big time despite breaking the wage structure earning quintuple the others. Got injured for 14 weeks, but I've signed a goalscoring defender and captain.
Carl Hoddle - 29 - M C - SOLD
A 3, AvR 5
Three '5' ratings in a row was enough to leave him out the side, but then it looked like we were going to be a Division 1 side, and he wasn't going to be anywhere near that level. Ironically, he was signed by a D1 side, but he only played twice as they were relegated. His ratings? 5.
I was not expecting this at all. With Chelsea, Wimbledon, Southampton, Bolton, Middlesbrough, Derby, Palace and Coventry in this league, and their million-pound players, I though we'd finally be aiming to avoid relegation.
We turned it on at the right time, winning our final home games against title rivals Middlesbrough, Palace and Derby, before a pitch invasion at WBA after winning 4-1 from 1-0 down and sealing promotion to the promised land.
A genius substitution and tactical change helped Barnet get our first ever taste of Europe by making it out the English section of the Anglo-Italian Cup and facing Italian opposition, only losing 1 game.
With the lowest attendance by far in the Premier League and no real transfer budget, I'll have to rely on the players I've previously invested in, and the Barnet D3 OGs, to keep us up... Or win the title again!
We immediately saw the benefits of being a Premier League team by the standard of opposition in pre-season. After walloping two relegated sides, we beat Feyenoord and Lazio, matched Valencia and PSG, and only lost to Dortmund with 10 men.
Even former players played a part: Fulham's ex-Barnet-captain Sorrell helped our second-XI with an own goal in the league cup... but Chris Bart-Williams, my Man Utd player in the other dimension and current Man Utd player in this one, scored a penalty to help United draw with us and stay 2nd. We also loaned Warhurst, who I signed for Man Utd previously.
Halfway in and after 3 understandable losses in a row, I looked to bring in loans. Rather than all in one go, I fed them into the team every week or 3 (as loans tend to get recalled). With relegation obviously not a concern, and happy to finish wherever, I only bought a couple of lower league players for half a million total, as it was wiser to save up for the big players next season and beyond. Still, my young Division 3 striker punt scored 11 minutes into his debut and in his first 3 games.
With 2 suspended defenders and another cup-tied, I specifically loaned a couple of non-cup-tied players... unfortunately, the game decides that they're cup-tied despite not playing in the FA cup before. Ironically, we won the cup anyway after a replay, getting revenge for Villa knocking us out in the Coca-Cola Cup when they dived for a penalty.
Captain and poster boy Haag was injured early in the final and the team choked, especially goalkeeper Smith who had a rare bad game. Baddeley dived for a revenge penalty, but Close's pen was saved. The team saved it though and we made it right in the replay, despite another saved Close penalty.
We started well, with me getting Manager of the Month, but then only got 3 wins in 13 league matches. But we remained dark horses for the title behind champions Liverpool. The scousers spent all season choking, and while we picked up points with a late surge, it was Crystal Palace who leapfrogged us both to win a shock title.
I only added one player, but it was another ex-Man-Utd-dimension striker to join Dyer: Robbie Fowler, who was our best player. I had been saving to buy Spurs' interdimensional United legend Sol Campbell, but never had enough money. Maybe next year.
Europe provided exciting moments. Shaun Close scored Barnet's first ever European goal - that's some journey from the fourth Division to Europe! Against Sampdoria we were losing 2-1 on aggregate, but only needing one more away goal, Sampdoria scored in the 79th minute... but it was disallowed. Fowler scored in the final minute to send us through on away goals! Against Sofia, 2 disallowed Barnet goals, 1 saved Barnet penalty and a Sofia red card came in just the first half hour. We dominated, having 22 shots to their 4 in the 2nd leg, yet lost 4-0 on aggregate.
I'm tempted to do the old 'bid 1 more than rivals to get the player' trick, but I think that's on the level of a cheat formation, so I'll only resort to it if we need to do a 'CM 93/94 Part 3 - trying to win the European Cup by any means necessary' thread. At the moment I'm playing fair by matching bids, not buying players who I know are good but aren't performing in-game yet etc.
I changed the tactics to counter-attack to prepare us for European football (as it seems to work well against the 'continental' style they all play) and gave the highest win bonus every game. One, or the other, or both, saw us straight to the top and myself Manager of the Season (with 6 Manager of the Month awards too).
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