The Blizzard Football Manager League: Squads (part 2)

Today we bring you the second set of teams who will be competing in the inaugural (some say only ever) Blizzard Football Manager League. If you haven’t read our opening blog post, 13 bulging football brains, and a team made up by us poor schmucks behind the controls at Blizzard HQ, were each given £200m to bid against each other to construct a squad of 18 players to compete in the BFML. The first set of squads, showcasing the work of Messrs Lyttleton, Lowe, Sivertsen, Honigstein and Cox can be seen here, while Iain Macintosh has explained himself here.

Our friends at Sports Interactive are putting the finishing touches to our bespoke league, which will be kicking off shortly, but in the meantime the Blizzard office elves have been speaking to some of the managers, after the dust had settled on the bidding wars, to get their views on how things panned out.

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FC Musalona (Manager: Musa Okwonga)

Full squad: Fernando Muslera, Petr Čech, Raphaël Varane, Phil Jagielka, Daniel Carvajal, Andoni Iraola, Pablo Zabaleta, Sami Khedira, Javier Mascherano, Luiz Gustavo, Axel Witsel, Alvaro Pereira, Beñat, Jesús Navas, Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Klass-Jan Huntelaar, Neymar

Five most expensive signings: Neymar £30m, Hazard £29m, Mascherano £20m, Navas £18m, Khedira £14m

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Philippians (Manager: Philippe Auclair)

Full squad: Joe Hart, Branislav Ivanovic, Glen Johnson, Mapou Yanga-M’Biwa, Simon Kjær, Răzvan Raţ, Stephane Lichtsteiner, Victor Wanyama, Claudio Marchisio, Sven Bender, Santi Cazorla, Juan Mata, Ronaldinho, Alain Traoré, Yehven Konoplyanka, Karim Benzema, Mario Balotelli, Fernandinho.

Five most expensive signings: Cazorla and Mata £26m each, Benzema £17m, Hart £16m, Balotelli £14m

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The Blizzard – You sounded typically cool and collected during the bidding, and were the first of the 14 to complete your squad. You’re a natural at this, non?

Philippe – Actually, I’ve never played Football Manager before, so this is very much a step into the unknown for me and my squad, in which there are at least two players I didn’t want but ended up buying after my plan to inflate their value during the auction backfired rather badly.

The Blizzard – Ah. We see. Still, it’s not all that bad for Philippians. While we’re asking – where did that name come from, anyway?

Philippe - No, I was chuffed to bag Wanyama for a song (no pun intended). He’s a beast. And Fernandinho cost me peanuts, when I was expecting ferocious competition from the likes of Wilson and Coxy. The name of my team is supposed to evoke football’s days in Arcadia, when gentlemen deigned not to take penalty kicks. It boils down to a cunning plan to fool the opponents, of course, as I’ve got some right bastards in my squad.

The Blizzard - So your philosophy is more pugilist than purist?

Philippe - The team was built so that it could develop a quick-tempo, fluid and…no it wasn’t. My strategy, to start with, was Wenger-like, as in ‘Wenger of 31 August 2011’ (also known as ‘Santos day’ in Goonerville). I’d no idea as to how this worked.

I’m rather shocked at the amount of money I paid for a certain English full-back, for example. It was entirely Marcotti’s fault, which explains why one of my chief objectives will be a) to beat him when we ‘square up’ and b) to finish above him in the league table.

The Blizzard - A Franco-Italian grudge match? We like the sound of that. Do you fancy your chances?

Not really. Both aims should be rather difficult to achieve, as the bugger’s got a decent squad, hasn’t he? [We'll have the final squads in tomorrow's blog where you can judge for yourself]. The encounter with Señor Lowe’s team should also be rather messy: I pinched two of his targets from under his nose when he wasn’t looking.

The Blizzard - The French causing bother with their European counterparts – who’d've thought it? Merci, Philippe, et bonne chance.

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Delchester Rovers (Manager: Miguel Delaney)

Full squad: Wojciech Szczęsny, Dani Alves, Rio Ferdinand, Raúl Albiol, Mateo Kovačić, Gaël Clichy, Nuri Sahin, Mousa Dembélé, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Ashley Young, Viktor Fischer, Lisandro Ezequiel López, Neto, Wellington, Robin van Persie, Hulk, David Villa, Javier Hernández

Five most expensive signings: Van Persie £50m, Schweinsteiger £40m, Dani Alves £36m, Villa £22m, Hulk £14m

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Maccabi Steinberg (Manager: Jacob Steinberg)

Full squad: Júlio César, Anders Lindegaard, Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Ashley Cole, Dedé, Maicon, Gary Cahill, Michael Carrick, Alexis Sánchez, Ryan Giggs, Iker Muniain, Cristian Tello, Ganso, Yaya Touré, Sergio Agüero, Javier Pastore, Wilfried Zaha, Luiz Adriano

Five most expensive signings: Agüero £45m, Yaya Touré £40m, Cole £24m, Muniain £17m, Papadopoulos £15m

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The Blizzard – Go on then, Jacob, let us in our your strategy.

Jacob - Really, I was just looking to buy Yaya Touré and go from there, seeing as he’s essentially a team on his own. The rest are just decoration. Oh, and I heard Sergio Aguero was really good on the last game, so he was also a priority. He’ll get me goals. As long as Paddy Kenny’s the opposition goalkeeper.

The Blizzard - It can’t be just that simple, though? You’ve built up quite a decent squad to our untrained eye… What’s the tactical masterplan?

Jacob - We’ll probably be lining up in a Roy Hodgson inspired BOF-BOF-2. It is a historical fact that no side has ever scored against Two Banks of Four.

The Blizzard - So your side are destined for greatness, then?

Jacob - I’m not looking beyond Maccabi Steinberg for the title at the moment, but Wilson Spartak, Delchester Rovers and Audax Gab look strong. Honigstein has Messi. That’s cheating, really. The authorities should look at that, it’s not fair. I was gutted to miss out on the little man, obviously. And Stewart Downing.

The Blizzard - Let’s just say, purely for argument’s sake of course, that it all goes to pot. Who would you like to see down in the basement with Maccabi Steinberg?

Jacob - If I finish 11^th, I hope Zonal Marking finish 12^th, because Cox has gone and bought Samir Nasri and it’s always good to see him fail.

The Blizzard - Seems reasonable enough to us. Cheers, Jacob.

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