The Apprentice Task 1 - Reading between the lines

by **Afro** Tue 10 Jul 2012, 9:05 pm

First topic message reminder :

It is preseason and the new rich owners of Reading have decided that Brian McDermott is not the man to take the club forward, and your team have been recruited to oversee the plans that will ultimately see them stay up in the Premier League.

You will find a suitable new manager and have been given £20m for buying players to achieve this target. The cost of player purchases will be those on http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk plus 20%. You can raise further funds through players sales – the price you will receive will be http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk less 20%. Loaning in a player will cost 20% of their TM value. A player who is not contracted, will be free to join you at no cost.

You will present your new manager and squad list (with details on all ins and outs), plus any other innovative ideas you have that will help the quest of staying up. This should be posted on this page no later than midday on Tuesday 17th July.

You will be judged on which team makes the best, most innovative and most realistic choices to keep Reading up.

The teams for the first task will be:

Hero
Nando
Mouse
Cherries

Sodhat
Viva
Olly
Brahma

I suggest both teams set-up a team page each, assign a project manager and pick a team name. I will be watching…

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 12:57 pm

Questions for The A Team

Firstly, you might want to check who the owners are as you are writing a report for them...

1) Who was your project manager?

2) Was he a good project manager?

3) You have decided to use a prescribed training schedule from the FA. Should a Premier League, professional outfit be using a more tailored, targetted approach to training?

4) We have released McLeary when we have only just signed him - should we not give him a chance to prove himself?

5) You have chosen to use 4-4-2. Is that a risk given the quality of midfields in the Premier League?

6) You also mention a new stadium - is the Madejski not a relatively new stadium itself?

by sodhat Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:05 pm

Questions for Read Hot Chilli Peppers

1) Who was your project manager?
Olly was the PM for this one, chosen by consensus.

2) Was he a good project manager?

I believe he was, he was directive without being too bossy and worked hard to pull all the information together on time.

3) You have released players for free - what is the benefit of that? Could we not keep them outside of our 25 man squad?

We could have done, but according to the rules of the task we couldn't get any cash for them so the only way to get them and their wages off the books was to let them go for nothing. There seemed no point bloating the squad with these players who weren't getting games time either, and they may have been disruptive to harmony if they became disillusioned.

4) We have released McLeary when we have only just signed him - should we not give him a chance to prove himself?

Maybe, but if the new regime wants a particular target achieved you have to be ruthless in achieving it. We got better in than McCleary in my eyes.

5) Why would Benayoun join Reading given his previous clubs and his history with West Ham?

We offer first team football, proximity to his living arrangements in West London and to be fair he isn't really an Allardyce type of player... I'd like to think his ego isn't too big to come to Reading, after all he has played at Santander and West Ham before so he isn't averse to smaller clubs, and he hasn't been given the chances in the past few years. We will promise him chances.

by Fernando Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:06 pm

BigFellasAfro wrote:Questions for The A Team

Firstly, you might want to check who the owners are as you are writing a report for them...

1) Who was your project manager? - Cherry

2) Was he a good project manager? - Haven't heard from him since Saturday

3) You have decided to use a prescribed training schedule from the FA. Should a Premier League, professional outfit be using a more tailored, targetted approach to training? - The training is to gain fitness before the season starts once we are fully fit then we will work in different training methods.

4) We have released McLeary when we have only just signed him - should we not give him a chance to prove himself? - Whilst we would of liked to given him a chance he was never going to be able to compete with the quality of the signings we have made so we set him free to where he would gain 1st team experience, we don't like to ruin players careers by leaving them in limbo

5) You have chosen to use 4-4-2. Is that a risk given the quality of midfields in the Premier League? Whilst it's a gamble Guthrie and N'Zonzi are work horses and rarely tire so it was a risk worth taking and over a long season we're going to need 2 up front or we're not going to score enough goals to survive in the league their is no point defending at 0-0 when we need 3 pts.

6) You also mention a new stadium - is the Madejski not a relatively new stadium itself? The Madejeski Stadium is almost 15 years old, We need to move forward with the times, Most stadiums are relatively cheap to build nowadays like Arsenal's Emirates stadium cost 300m , If we can build our own stadium with the revenue that we would get through more season ticket sales and just in general would be able to pay it self off quickly

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:11 pm

To all three of you - who did and didn't pull their weight on this task? ( I have followed both teams and now my opinion, I just want to hear yours)

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:12 pm

BigFellasAfro wrote:To all three of you - who did and didn't pull their weight on this task?

I think everybody on my team contributed, and that's what I tried to allow. Sodhat, TwisT, Viva and Bull all did there bit, which helped get us to our final presentation. Also everybody gave there opinions, and everybody was vocal in what they wanted to see

by sodhat Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:14 pm

BigFellasAfro wrote:To all three of you - who did and didn't pull their weight on this task? ( I have followed both teams and now my opinion, I just want to hear yours)

Everybody seemed to do what was asked of them in my opinion. It was a very ego-less process.

by Fernando Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:15 pm

BigFellasAfro wrote:To all three of you - who did and didn't pull their weight on this task? ( I have followed both teams and now my opinion, I just want to hear yours)

It went pretty well to be fair we were all organized then everyone disappeared since Saturday , We obviously knew OTW was gone for a reason , no idea about Hero/Cherry though. I wrote out our presentation this morning with help from Nadeem he's been pretty handy thumbsup

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:16 pm

Difficult choice if Read Hot Chilli Peppers lost then. A bit easier if the other team lose

by Bull Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:31 pm

) Who was your project manager?
Olly

2) Was he a good project manager?
Yes very good project manager

3) You have released players for free - what is the benefit of that? Could we not keep them outside of our 25 man squad?
we needed to release them due to there wages which where being taken up.

4) We have released McLeary when we have only just signed him - should we not give him a chance to prove himself?
we thought that there where better players to get instead of him and that we could improve from his position.

5) Why would Benayoun join Reading given his previous clubs and his history with West Ham?

He would get first team football and would get to play unlike at Chelsea and are style of play suits him better then west ham.

by nadeem2099 Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:34 pm

Questions for The A Team

Firstly, you might want to check who the owners are as you are writing a report for them...

1) Who was your project manager?
Cherries (supposedly)

2) Was he a good project manager?
IMHO no. He was not giving enough instructions out and was not online enough.

3) You have decided to use a prescribed training schedule from the FA. Should a Premier League, professional outfit be using a more tailored, targetted approach to training?

The FA training schedule is beneficial to our team as it helps the players from overworking and succumbing to an injury.

4) We have released McLeary when we have only just signed him - should we not give him a chance to prove himself?

We feel that he won't get many minutes here and it would be best for both parties that he join another club.

5) You have chosen to use 4-4-2. Is that a risk given the quality of midfields in the Premier League?

Obviously our formation will vary from opponent to opponent but the 4-4-2 is a tried and tested formation which when used correctly, can win matches.

6) You also mention a new stadium - is the Madejski not a relatively new stadium itself?

The Madejski is a good stadium for a championship side. We are a side playing in the EPL. We need to show our intention to our fans that we have ambitions too.

by Trebs Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:49 pm

1) Who was your project manager?
Cherries

2) Was he a good project manager?
Not really, he was probably the best option we had due to the absences of other managers, myself included. He took a very Laissez-faire approach.

3) I will take responsibility for this as I wrote it. The training system of the FA is to get them into shape. This is a tried and tested system. We can get the fitness of the players up, then later on, as mentioned, we give them a more targetted approach, giving goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and attackes a different style.

4) Maybe that was an oversight on this task. We have tried to improve the squad though.

5) The main formation we will play is a 4-4-2, but in recent years, the success of attacking teams such as Blackpool, Swansea and Norwich has been through attacking teams. We have the players to change the formation as and when necessary.

6) I cannot really comment on this area of the task, this is something I did not know about until now.

by Bull Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:50 pm

Laissez-faire? so he refused to get involved with business?

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:51 pm

Thank you for all of your answers, I think I know where I am at...

by Trebs Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:52 pm

Laissez-faire, as in he took a relaxed approach and let everyone off the leash to do their own thing

by sodhat Tue 17 Jul 2012, 1:54 pm

TheBrahmaBull wrote:Laissez-faire? so he refused to get involved with business?

Someone does GCSE history...

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:07 pm

Thanks OTW.

I think a literal translation of Laissez faire (leave it alone) is perhaps the most appropriate.

I was impressed with the output of both teams in this task, although one team clearly worked better than the other as a team.

Read Hot Chilli Peppers -
I liked your choice of manager and see Alan Curbishley as a good option. my only question mark with him is that he has been out of the side for a good length of time.

The players you brought in were good choices, giving you a solid spine to the side. However, I did spot a contradiction that you were going for continuity from last seasons successful side, but at last count there are only 4 players in your starting XIs who played last year at Reading.

I also feel that McLeary should be kept on for a bit longer. The budget was not stretched to mean that the money was needed, and if required in January he could have been released then. However, that is just my approach.

I also am not sure about you releasing players for free, but your justification for doing so makes me see that it was a thought out calculated decision.

You extra ideas above the squad and manager were also excellent.

You worked well as a team, with everyone contributing from what I saw, with excellent leadership from Olly. Well done

The A Team
Your output was also excellent, although I did have my doubts as to whether anything would arrive at one point. I feel that the only reason your submission was of a suitable standard was due to certain individuals and not the whole team.

I liked your Berkshire Cup idea, always good for getting supporters in the mood.

As with the other team, I would have kept McLeary for exactly the same reasons.

I too like your choice of players and felt that of the two sides, your player selection was the better. I particularly liked bringing in Fletcher, who seems the perfect player for a battle to stay up

However, you didn’t work as a team and you were let down by your leader, who quite frankly did very little leading, and what he did do was usually prompted by OTW.

The additional stuff was good, but I feel that in this aspect, the other team outperformed you

So my decision is...

by TwisT Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:14 pm

Questions for Read Hot Chilli Peppers

1) Who was your project manager?

Olly

2) Was he a good project manager?

Everything was clearly organised and structured well. He took control, listened to opinions and acted upon them as well as making his own opinions heard.

3) You have released players for free - what is the benefit of that? Could we not keep them outside of our 25 man squad?

If they are not needed, why would we keep them on the books and pay their wages? Surely that is bad business sense. Cut the losses.....and use the money from it to recoup gains.

4) We have released McLeary when we have only just signed him - should we not give him a chance to prove himself?

Maybe, but there have been many instances over the years of new managers/owners coming in with fresh ideas and a different approach than the previous era. McLeary was not in our plans. You only need to look at the Andy Carroll situation to see that this is a regular occurance

5) Why would Benayoun join Reading given his previous clubs and his history with West Ham?

Would Benayoun really care about that? Doubtful in my opinion. He is at the back end of his career and needing game time. In the end it is about his current needs now. He is on the bench at best at his present club, so why would he turn down a PL team that offers regular football for him?

by Bull Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:15 pm

sodhat wrote:
TheBrahmaBull wrote:Laissez-faire? so he refused to get involved with business?

Someone does GCSE history...

indeed i did ! Very Happy

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:26 pm

I am going to award this task to Read Hot Chilli Peppers.

I felt both teams submissions were excellent and very difficult to separate. Ultimately two things swung it in the winners favour and that was the quality of the additional innovative ideas and the lack of contribution from particular members of the losers (Mighty is excluded from this as he let us know he was off and before he went his contribution was as good as any across both teams.

As is my perogative and as he seems absent from the task, I am not going to ask the PM to choose who to bring back in this once, but I am going to pick for him.

Cherries and Hero are both coming into the boardroom and both face the chop...

by sodhat Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:29 pm

Well done team

by Bull Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:31 pm

whats are reward Afro?

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:39 pm

Cherries and Hero, you have both been consipicuous by your absence in this task.

Cherries, your performance as a leader was woeful and from what I saw, most of the leading was coming from OTW. However, Hero has asked to be fired due to workload and that has just saved your bacon.

So cherries, you live on to fight another day, I will be watching closely and you either need to raise your game on task 2, or pray that your team carry you to a win.

It is with regret that I say Hero.....you're fired!

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:39 pm

TheBrahmaBull wrote:whats are reward Afro?

You get 5 minutes alone to reward yourself

by sodhat Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:43 pm

BigFellasAfro wrote:
TheBrahmaBull wrote:whats are reward Afro?

You get 5 minutes alone to reward yourself

That's pretty generous for a 16 year old. That'll leave like 4 minutes 30 seconds of time to just sort of rest, or think.

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:46 pm

This is Bull we are talking about.

I think resting might be the better of the two options

by Trebs Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:47 pm

Afro, will it be like the UK Version where teams mix up after each task or like US where they stay the same?

by sodhat Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:47 pm

I was quite interested by their choice of McCarthy as manager, what did you make of that one?

by Fernando Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:49 pm

onlytreblewinners wrote:Afro, will it be like the UK Version where teams mix up after each task or like US where they stay the same?

If stays the same we're be down to 3 next week Laugh

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:53 pm

Well done team clap

Afro just out of interest - who would you have fired from our team if we lost?

And Cherries, how on earth you are still in this I will never know Laugh

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:56 pm

I will be shuffling up the teams and Olly - that would firstly depend on who you brought back and secondly, I'm not telling you.

Task 2 will be up later this afternoon, meanwhile I am interested to hear your own thoughts on each others results

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 2:58 pm

I can't believe we missed Hoilett for a free transfer Shocked

by Trebs Tue 17 Jul 2012, 3:04 pm

I think they were similar in some respects, I think we did a job that was just as good but there was no teamwork at all

Would be good if there was a shorter time limit on the tasks? I was thinking about it all weekend and feeling I should have done more. Maybe if you set a deadline to hand it in on Thursday/Friday?

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 3:08 pm

onlytreblewinners wrote:Would be good if there was a shorter time limit on the tasks? I was thinking about it all weekend and feeling I should have done more. Maybe if you set a deadline to hand it in on Thursday/Friday?

What do people think about this? We tried to tie the deadline into the quietest part of the week with other league deadlines of tactics and voting etc

by Fernando Tue 17 Jul 2012, 3:09 pm

Let's face it apart from Tactics we don't exactly do much around here Laugh

So might aswell do it at end of the week

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 3:11 pm

onlytreblewinners wrote:I think they were similar in some respects, I think we did a job that was just as good but there was no teamwork at all

The conversations that you were having were quite similar, although you are right that in your team, there were clearly members who pulled their weight and those that didn't

In Olly's team, they were constantly on the go, with new posts appearing all the time. To start with, the post counts were similar, but your team's dropped after Friday.

I also agree with the responses to questions from Olly's team that they all seemed to contribute well.

by Trebs Tue 17 Jul 2012, 3:12 pm

Well, I'm not here most weekends now till the Sunday night

by **Afro** Tue 17 Jul 2012, 3:13 pm

Fernando wrote:Let's face it apart from Tactics we don't exactly do much around here So might aswell do it at end of the week

This next task will be Tuesday to Friday and we can see how it works. I am on hols next week, so that might fit in well

by FIFA Diva Tue 17 Jul 2012, 3:57 pm

WE WON!!!

Well done our team we were just too good on the night and the nights before.

Team A you have the right to suck our man sausage.

by Trebs Tue 17 Jul 2012, 3:59 pm

Thanks Viva, would love to heart

by FIFA Diva Tue 17 Jul 2012, 4:01 pm

Mighty

I don't like sucking man sausage but if I had to suck it .... I would suck yours

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