Meet the Second String

By: Daryl | December 4th, 2008

So Finnish minnows Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS for short) challenged me to a friendly. In February. At their place. My first thought was – why? And my second thought was – no. But when I tried to reject their proposal for me to travel to Finland and back between Premier League games, I was informed by the mystical FM overlords that this was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Not Godfather style, but seems I agreed to an “arrange friendly” clause when I signed Zambian attacking mid Chanda Mwamba from RoPS for 140k. Proof that if something seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

There was no way I was sending the first team, not with a game just played against Stoke, and another against Everton on the horizon. But this was a good chance to give some of my second team a run out. Took a lot of moving players from reserves to first team, but here’s what I eventually sent to Finland:

Reason for the 4-3-3 is that I have no other right mids beyond Jonas and Danny Guthrie. Something to think about for the future.

I’m assuming RoPS are one of your fishermen/teachers/postmen part-time footballer type teams, because they were truly awful. The final score on a mudbath of a pitch was 5-0, and apparently the RoPS goalkeeper’s part-time job is drummer from Def Leppard because every shot went straight through him.

Goals came from Mascio, Feghouli, Dzagoev and two from Mwamba once he came off the bench to revisit his old buddies. Weirdest sight of a very weird night was Mwamba celebrating scoring against his old team like he’d just won the World Cup. Clearly he doesn’t have very fond memories of RoPS.

I learned a fair bit on this odd little field trip though. Including:

John Fleck is much better at left mid than up front.
Sebastian Abreu isn’t going to do much for me
Punishig Oba Martins by making him travel just to play five minutes isn’t big or clever.
But it is funny.
Alan Dzagoev and Sofiane Feghouli have still got it
I need another another right midfielder.
Italian midfielder Mascio might be injury prone
Vaclav Kadlec has a better eye for a pass than any 16 year old has any right to.
Cesar would make an excellent left wingback
Chanda Mwamba celebrates like a madman
But most importantly… Always check the clauses before signing off on a transfer