How I Won You The Manager by Zoran Furlan

The Story of Dino 48:
 
First of all, I want to say that I dedicate my YTM 07/08 win to my loving father Toni, who died just 8 days after my son Dino was born, in August 2004. He was a genius at statistics and combinatorics. All the talent I have comes from him.
 
The Story of Dino 48 is one of success, as a result of talent, hard work, self confidence and of course Lady Luck!

 
I was not happy when I realised the rules had changed for 07/08 season. I knew I would have less time for FF than earlier seasons (mainly because preparations for moving house), but, on the other hand, I had a strong will to try again to win YTM.
 
After the first 5 rounds of the season I had 42 Top 1000 teams, which was good for me, but where was Dino 48? It was outside the Top 1000, 48 points from the top.
 
The starting eleven for Dino 48: Van der Sar - Toure, Riise, Arca, McCartney - Downing, Malbranque, Koumas - Rooney, Berbatov, Bianchi
 
After round 7 the situation for Dino 48 was even worse: 76 points behind leader, 65th position out of all my teams.

For round 8. I spent my first two transfers: Arca to Lescott (Arca was injured) and Bianchi to K Jones (Bianchi not playing in MAC first 11).

3rd transfer I used to change goalkeeper for round 9.: VDS to Reina (I think VDS was injured).
 
So, after 1/4 of the season Dino 48 was 92 points behind leader, and 19 points away from 1000th position overall.

But yes, from round 9, there was a one way ticket for Dino 48: from practically nowhere to the top!
 
My 4th transfer was a midfield change for round 10. Malbranque to Elano (I think it was more of a tactical transfer, to make it easier to buy Ronaldo in the near future). Toure scored and got a clean sheet, Elano scored, Rooney scored twice and Dino 48, for the first time in the season, came in to the Top 1000 at 836th place, 85 points behind the leader.
 
Many people said that number 13 is unlucky for some. But, it seems that number 13 is the lucky one for me: Downing out Ronaldo in and Rooney out Adebayor in! Round 13 was the time when I decided that all my Top teams must have Ronaldo. Adebayor had also prived himself os the No1 striker for Arsenal. Ronaldo scored twice, Adebayor once and Dino 48 came in the Top 400, just 60 points behind leader.
 
7th change I made for round 14: Riise to Gallas. Riise was uncertain in Liverpool starting 11 and Gallas immediately paid off with 12 points!
 
Next change I made was for round 15: Elano out, Kranjcar in. Elano was injured and Kranjcar came in, I think, more for patriotism reasons
 
After round 17. Dino 48 made it in to the Top 200, mainly thanks to Gallas (13 points). Still a huge 53 points behind the leader though.
 
Another player who scored immediately after I transferred him in was Dempsey in round 18. Koumas out. 138th place overall, 46 points from the top.
 
Finally, after half of the season, Dino 48 reached the Top 100: 95th place, 39 points from the top. 6 transfers left. 6 of my other teams were better than Dino 48 at this point. But, it was a moment when I started to spend more time to analyze options and strategy for Dino 48, somehow I felt that this team is something special…
 
Dino 48 at the half way point of the season looks like: Reina - Toure, Gallas, Lescott, McCartney - Ronaldo, Kranjcar, Dempsey - Berbatov, Adebayor, K Jones
 
What can I say about round 20? Absolutely fantastic! 4 goals from Berbatov and 10 points from K Jones pushed Dino 48 in to the Top 50, just 25 points behind 4 leaders who shared 1st place, including another of my teams, Sara 149 (finished 121st at the end of the season).
 
For round 22 I made my 10th transfer: Toure to Sagna. Toure was on his way to the African Cup of Nations and I wanted to have a more flexible situation for future transfers (after this change the value of my team was 58m).
 
Dino 48 continued to climb up the table and after round 25 made it in to the Top 20 at 12th place overall, 26 points behind leader and for the first time Dino 48 was my top team!
 
After round 26 the situation was even better: 5th place overall, 23 points from the top, 5 transfers left, but… what can I do to make something extraordinary, to be more different from the majority of other teams at the top of the table?
 
Answer was: Torres!!! Berbatov played in the final of the Carling Cup and I thought he did OK but I needed somebody else who had potential and who was not in many other top teams. I remember that I had some doubts about the transfer, and I said to myself: “be brave, if you feel this is right move, just do it!” And I did it a few minutes before the deadline. Torres gave to me incredible 44 points in the next 4 rounds!!!
 
But, I was not satisfied with how my team was. I recognized Dempsey as a weak link and so transferred him out. On the other side, Gerrard was the player I wanted in my team. But, for that move I was forced to make 2 transfers at the same time, because of the budget. So, I made a decision to change Gallas to Laursen and Dempsey to Gerrard for round 28. That move left me totally satisfied with how my team looked and I knew that with a little luck I will fight for the top positions until the end of the season.
 
After round 29. R Macilraith’s team maddenedbycleaning and Dino 48 shared 1st place and that point was the start of a heroic battle between these two teams until the end of the season. I spent some time working out who was in Macilraith’s team and I found out that we had just 4 different players: I had Reina, Sagna, Kranjcar and Adebayor. He had Howard, Vidic, Fabregas and Santa Cruz.
 
In the next 3 rounds his different players were 20 points better than mine and after round 31 Dino 48 was in 2nd place, with Sagna injured.

With just 2 transfers left I thought that my chance of winning had started to disappear. What to do? Kranjcar did not perform well, not enough points from them. Spend 2 transfers, buy J Cole and Hutton or Wheater… It was Saturday March 29, one hour after Midnight when I clearly saw one name: Matt Taylor!!! I speak with myself: “Hey man! Last season you transferred him out and that stupid move cost you 1st place. Taylor is a good player, he can score goals, you need points. But, Bolton played Arsenal… So what! M Taylor likes to score against Arsenal…” To do it or not to do it, that was a question. Finally, I put out all facts and reasons and said: it is a destiny, if dear God wants me to win this season I must do it! And I did it: Sagna out, M Taylor in!!!
 
And he scored. Not once, but twice against Arsenal. I’m again in the game! 4 points behind, one transfer left, 6 rounds until the end.

And another thing. Vidic is injured, but it seems that Macilraith did not transfer him! What’s going on, is he without transfer??? I didn’t know that. I know now: he was out of transfers at least from the time I found out his team!!!
 
Lady Luck, thank you, especially for: Kranjcar goal in round 33, Vidic and Fabregas injuries and above all: 3 goals from Adebayor from the bench against Derby in round 36!!!
 
Two rounds left, 8 point lead, one transfer left. Buy Santa Cruz? Or not? Save last transfer for last round? Is he out of transfers or not?

I decided to keep my remaining transfer for the last round!
 
Round 37. RSC scored twice. But, thanks to Reina and M Taylor I increased the lead to 14 points!
 
After all the sleepless nights, I’m so close. But I knew it was not over yet. Now, I have no right to make a wrong move with the last transfer!

Monday, May 5th. News about Fabregas, he is injured for 3 weeks. Hey man, I’m so, so lucky!
Saturday, all day: calculating my options… I realized that the safest move is to buy Vidic, because he can score, keep clean sheet…

Sunday around 2pm I made the final decision: if Ronaldo, Gerrard, Torres and Adebayor will play, I will transfer out M Taylor and buy Vidic! And I did it just like that. In the 85th minute of a football match, when a team leads 2:0, the logical move is to bring on a defender for a striker to protect the lead. So, thank you my precious M Taylor, but you must come out
 
What can I say at the end? Nothing too smart. My dream came true and I feel great. And how good it would be to do two years in a row….

I still didn’t beat ideal team - so, it seems I have some unfinished business to do!

Please enjoy competing against me in the next YTM season and try to get the perfect team! One day, somebody, will do it.

Thanks and best wishes.
 
Zoran

Editor’s Note: Just to confirm that Randal Macilraith (2nd overall with “maddenedbycleaning”) made his last four transfers on 8th December 2007! They were: In - Fernando Torres, Martin Laursen, Steven Gerrard and Tim Howard. Out - Petr Cech, Elano, Wayne Bridge and Didier Drogba.

Tags (click to view more!): Torres, Berbatov, Gerrard, Gallas, Adebayor, Vidic, Fabregas, Petr Cech, Didier Drogba