Harrumph...

Daily updates become pretty difficult when the FML server is down for maintenance work all day, and there's a UEFA Cup Final on tonight... Aye, before I moved to Sheffield in '99 and caught the Blades bug, I was indeed a dirty Hun. I still have the blue shirt somewhere and I may have to dig it out tonight...

So what to talk about today? Well, it was going to be my Blades news or general GW4 news today, so the GW4 news is that there is no GW4 news today. Wow, this blogging is easy!

Seriously, I'll try to do some general chat, give an impression of what life is like in GW4, tomorrow. Luckily I have earth-shattering news of great importance regarding the Frecheville Blades, and I can even remember what it is (mostly).

After yet another torrid season, where relegation seemed a real possibility until I miraculously started winning (see every season played so far, bar the qualifiers - at least that's how it feels!) i decided I'd had enough of Briand underperforming and Fredy Montero and Jose Barrera being crap (£3M I spent on that Barrera!), I decided to have a clearout. Briand and Barrera have left unceremoniously for £3M each (rofl at Andy Coburn buying Barrera for £3M, hehe), while Wesolowski (going for £650k), Shikabala (going for a stunning £750, a £600k profit in 3 weeks), Greg Halford (£650k) all heading out when their auctions end too. The wage bill has been slashed by tens of thousands of pounds, with able reserves able to step in whilst I get replacements.

The principle I'm working to is that it's not worth wasting big money on certain positions - full backs and defensive midfielders, for one. There are plenty of quality players going cheap in these positions. So Wesolowski and Halford have been replaced by players who will do almost as well (if not better, neither had excelled at the club) for nearly a tenth of the cost. And that lets me invest money in more key areas - the big news yesterday was the signing of BILLY SHARP from Christopher Priestley's 780 FC for £2.05M + Fredy Montero (market value £950k). He got a beautiful assist in his first game, a lovely one-two for Foster Amadi to smack home from 15 yards. More will surely follow...

That means I now have Gary Cahill (who was on loan at Bramall Lane earlier this season) and Sharp in the side - bizarre after Sheffield United's down-and-up season in real life that two of the players featured this season would be so in demand in FML... Anyway, do I now push on and sign more Blades? Do I go for the promised land - I promised myself an all-Blades side before the end of the beta, is now the time...?