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Cup Final Interview

Written by irREDucible

Former Cup winners The Red Flag flies at dawn... are in the final again.

1 Your team, The Red Flag flies at dawn... is facing Thought Police's Unfortunate Victory in the Cup Final (R13) on Tuesday. This is your third cup final, denying Ville Warriors in s46, and losing 1-0 in the final to Jol-lification in s48. It looked as though your team may have peaked with two demotions from the Premiership in the last 3 seasons, but you are still in the frame for repromotion, so is this an Indian Summer or are you now on track to win Cups and the Premiership?

First of all, a little correction: I've only reached one final. The game against Jol-lification was a semi. I think it's fair to say that this is a brand new, rebuilt, team compared to the one that started in that game. Fingers crossed, the current lot still have at least 2-3 seasons left in them. Premiership I don't think so, those guys at the top of it look very strong, but maybe I can nick a cup somewhere along the line. Hopefully next week )).

2 If you have a favourite tune of 2014, please provide a link to vimeo/utube/soundcloud for us to listen, but an old timer's classic tune would be just as good?

How old, would this do? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtfgnaZKUkA)?

3 You took over your team on 11/12/06, taking 8 seasons to get promoted to IV, and then 8 more to get to the Premiership where you've spent several seasons, achieving a best finish of 4th. That's a record many managers would envy, so what is the secret to the speed of your rise through the hattrick pyramid?

Having a good training plan is key, and with hindsight I'd have done things very differently. I wouldn't have trained normal strikers, but instead would have gone all out for defensive forwards. I realised too late their true value, and actually watching Phi's Fire blitz the prem for five seasons in a row I couldn't help thinking, 'well red if you were smarter you could have been there, you too trained striker, passing and then pm, but you should have trained them on the same players'. Instead, I trained normal forwards, sold them off and then trained IM's. My 'secret' has always been to have more midfield than the opposition: I've never been a fan of CA and whilst I've tried pressing and other high-def tactics I didn't really like the results.

4 If a fan wanted to buy you a pint, which pub would it be easiest to find you in, and what's your poison?

I used to like the Perch in Binsey (http://binseystmargaret.org.uk/images/perch.jpg) before they made it into a ghastly gastro-pub. It had some nice local 'produce'. The Cumberland off Dundas street in Edinburgh (http://upload.spottedbylocals.com/Edinburgh/normal/cumberland-bar-edinburgh-(by-anson-clark).jpg) is nice too, especially if you measure your drink in drams. Usually I go for real ales however, you never quite know what you will get )).

5 This season, Benno was voted in to be the England U20 coach. After 10 games he's 2nd in group 11 on 21pts a point behind Montenegro and a point ahead of Vietnam. Do you follow the Friday night National game action, and what do you make of all the recent front page attention to our U20 England set-up?

I follow them intermittently. That's about as much as I can say. I bookmark the matches on HT-live, but I am not always interested enough to look at the table. I think Benno's done well and is still hanging in there, and he's avoided winding people up for no reason which is a very welcome bonus. As for front-page attention... it must have passed me by.

6 What skill are you training at the moment and what stamina percentage are you currently using and why?

I train experience with a little winger on the side. Stamina % is variable, but will go up as my best players age. I think that getting up to the top leagues is the easy part, staying there is harder, because you need to constantly replace ageing players and pay wages. Winger is a good training regime that does not interfere with having to compete too much, whilst exp doesn't need stamina, doesn't need assistants, doesn't even need playing out of position, only thing you need to worry about is injuries really.

7 You currently pay for platinum supporter, with a second team in Armenia (123163) , a league you share with a bots 3 locals and platinum 2nd teams from managers in Switzerland, Argentina and Italy. Why Armenia, and will you be continuing with platinum supporter at the revised prices when your existing supporter runs out?

Two of them are actually very good managers who managed both national teams: Irish_Dream from Italy beat Hairy's England 3-1 at home and m_p_n claimed the scalp of France with a 3-0 defeat for the U20 back in the olden days of 2007 or 8 when countries like Armenia were comparatively much weaker to the rest. That's why I moved to that division. As for why Armenia, well, that's where my family comes from, and plus I wanted to help with the U20 by producing youngsters, and indeed my former YA keeper Haro Takesyan and current home-grown wingback Aris Bozoyan are decent candidates for the next campaign. Since I help with the U20 on top of that by training defenders, I am kinda locked into keeping paying for platinum, which I will keep doing. I've already renewed once at the new price.

8 According to our research, a red flag is a warning signal; something that demands attention; an emblem of anarchy and defiance; and an emblem of socialist revolution. "We Fly at Dawn" we understand to have some literary significance. If you decided to do a rebuild, would you consider changing your team name to "White Flag. We dive at dawn"?

Yeah, it's about keeping the red flag flying through modern times. I haven't rebuilt yet, so we'll see. The reserve team's name is probably more interesting, Khachatur Abovyan was a famous Armenian writer who vanished 150 years ago. My grandfather grew up in the same street as Abovyan in the 1920'.

9 Please tell us how/where you met your other half (or last conquest), and how he/she feels about your hattrick addiction?

At a Tolkien student club around 10 years ago. She's learnt to live with Hattrick over the years.

10 According to your head to head stats, you've played your cup final opposition 4 times over the last 18 months, all in Premiership fixtures. The first of these meetings was a nil nil draw, and the other 3 were won by the side with home advantage. Neither side has home advantage on Tuesday. It looks pretty even on paper, so will you be setting a conditional sub if it is a draw after 119 minutes to bring on a keeper who will dive the correct way for each of the opposition penalties (as Tim Krul did on Saturday for Holland in the WC quarter-final).

I am more thinking of Faryd Mondragon's WC cameo at the age of 43 here. Abernethy MacVarish is of course a star for the club, with many games under his belt, as player and as coach, so perhaps one last game in the cup wouldn't be such a shabby thing. Perhaps when I go 3-0 down he can come on. I am supposed to be the underdog here, remember, that's why I get to do this interview ))).

11 What was your favourite movie of 2013/14?

I didn't see much and what I saw wasn't inspiring. But a watched 'In the loop' by Armando Ianucci, from 2009 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226774/) , a few weeks ago, that was brilliant.

12. With the World Cup semi-final (Brazil vs. Germany) on Tuesday being broadcast at the same time as your cup final, what will you be watching, and who do you think will win the world cup and why?

Probably both at the same time. I kinda fancy Argentina, Messi has been growing in influence throughout the tournament, and may peak at the right moment. But it's really close between the four teams.