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Boring, boring longshots

Written by fetts

An interview with fetts, manager of the second best longshots team in England (for about the last 15 seasons) as they prepare for their first Cup Final appearance.

Last interview with fetts (18551)

It's been awhile since we spoke, and your long-shot project has already become a famous success, helping you win a lifetime supporter as England's first winner of the end of season supporter tournament. Please tell us a little bit about that, and about any lucky wins or close shaves you had along the way?
Well I think to win that tournament you need a lot of luck and I certainly had some. In the ladder stage I actually lost one of my early games and had given up hope. I logged on a few days later to a mail from Jackfreeman saying congratulations on qualifying! I was very surprised. In the knockouts the draw really opened up for me - I never faced any huge attacks or midfields. I faced a lot of LS teams, the last 3 games were all against LS sides. The final (12490739) was horrendous. We were big favourites but went 2-0 down very early. I turned off my laptop in a rage but logged back on at half time to see it was 2-2! Of course it went to penalties which was tortuous to watch. When the Bananaman scored the winning penalty the fetts household erupted.

Last season, your player Peter 'Papa' Johns (a quick) was called up for the England NT (383494940) making 5 appearances, scoring away against Latvia and scoring the equalizer in the away draw against Romania (who have progressed to Q3) at the end of the season. He cost £18,667 when you bought him age 17/36. What are your thoughts about this?
Papa is a legend of the club. Back in the early days he was renowned for scoring big goals at crucial times. The team was built on a very low budget; a lot of the players cost around the same. Him playing for the NT was amazing, I never thought one of my players would make it so that was fantastic. When I bought him he had weak defence and PM and solid scoring so to turn him into a Premier League and NT player was great. Unfortunately he has been injured for much of the season and will miss the final, a big loss :(

Last season you finished as the runners up to Shakhtar Donuts in the English Premiership. This season both of your long shots sides have struggled in the Prem, but you are meeting in the Cup Final. Last time you met in the Cup was in R6 of s60 and they won 2-0. The home side has won all the other meetings. Presumably you're both going to throw the kitchen sink at midfield with no real need for attack and defence against a fellow Long Shots team, do you think it will be a bit of a coin toss as to who will win?
Larry will win, because he is annoyingly good. Who knows what will happen though, if the ME decides to give me 3 longshots and him 0..... maybe, just maybe...

What's the last book you read, and would you recommend it?
The Quentin Blake Treasury by (funnily enough) Quentin Blake. My 4 year old daughter absolutely loves Mister Magnolia and his one boot. It's a boot, it's a boot! She and I both highly recommend it.

Your second team currently has two quick U20 England wingers Claridge (430917353) & Beedie (430605550). Will these players become part of the Albion project, or is your plan to continue training players for the U20 set up?
To be honest my heart is with the U20s and I love the early stages of training players so they will probably be moved on. Unless something fits in as i do get attached to players. The Lunatics have trained a load of players for the U20s and its thoroughly enjoyable.

So this training U20 players looks to be a doddle, if you train at 5% from age 17/0 what point do you increase stamina at and to what % in order that they end up having excellent stamina when Q1 kicks off?
There are lots of ways to do it, but I generally do 5% for 2 seasons and then increase it to 15% and then 18-20% 7 or 8 weeks before the start of Q1. Sometimes they need a late surge but it works quite well.

Last time we spoke you said you were 'dubious of Pochettino', and reckoned that people 'would start taking Kane seriously now' (after his performance against Chelsea on New Years day 2015). Yes. Quite. Bit of a tough scrap for the top 4 this season though?
Ha. He's been alright since then, huh? Spurs are odd, just when you think they are going places they fall back a bit. They have been jumped over quite dramatically by Liverpool and Chelsea have improved a lot too. Hopefully we will make top 4 but there is a lot of competition. Maybe we will win the Champions League.....

Some of the mates you mentioned (from the last interview) have discovered and are participating in WW games on the non-England ht forum. Some of the threads in there get more posts in a day than the NT manager's blog does in 24 weeks. You've been invited but not signed up, too geeky or too busy?
That is too much for me right now! I generally log in 2 or 3 times a week these days so I'm not sure I would keep up with that! Its great to see that much activity though. Those guys have really helped keep me motivated and logging in actually and I know they'll be cheering me on in the Cup Final.

With two long shots teams in the Cup final, many managers may see Long Shots as the best way to play this game, you've certainly had some success and Shakhtar has won the Cup and has been crowned the Champions of England consecutively. Have you any tips as to how to make it as effective as possible?
Be patient. It can be very boring at times. Get your players as early as possible and train them as they are very hard to find on the transfer market (and very expensive). But it is fairly simple, you just need to train 4 skills really - Defence, Scoring, PM and SP. If I (and Larry!) can do it anyone can. I think my initial 6 trainees cost me about £600k so we've done OK!

And finally, what's the best way to beat a long shots team? What set up most concerns you when you see the ratings of your opponent at the start of a match - do you look at m/f first or their attack rating %?
I just try to win midfield or get as close to theirs as possible. A lot of the time, as an LS team, there is nothing you can do as you're a one trick pony. To beat LS, is fairly straightforward, lots of attack and lots of midfield! But specs are important too as well as a good keeper. Generally I have playing against Pressing - generally at this level you only get 2 or 3 LS chances a game and are playing against good keepers so if 2 of those are pressed away you're going to struggle. More recently, Play Creatively seems to work quite well too.