So I introduced the save, the progress we've made so far, but I actually said nothing about the club itself. Let's change that, shall we?
Tokyo Verdy were founded in 1969 under the name Yomiuri FC. Despite being the most successful team in Japanese football history they currently play in the J.2 League and in are the shadow of rivals FC Tokyo. They share their near 50,000 capacity stadium, the Anjinomoto Stadium, with their rivals a la Inter/Milan, although they do occasionally play home matches at other Tokyo based stadiums.
Throughout their history Tokyo Verdy have won 25 titles, although some came under the Yomiuri name, and most came during the amateur era while they were based in Kawasaki and named as such, Verdy Kawasaki.
Their most notable titles include:
AFC Champions League 1988
JSL Division 1/J.1 League 1983, 1984, 1986-87, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1993, 1994
Emperor's Cup 1984, 1986-87, 1987-88, 1996, 2004
JSL Cup/J.League Cup 1979, 1985, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
From the height of their powers in the early 90s came a steady decline that led to an overall finish of 15th of 17 in 1997. Between poor results and an effort to become 'Japan's team' with high salaries for ageing stars, the support from the city of Kawasaki began to wane and in 2001 the club returned to Tokyo in the city of Chofu. Despite making the move back to Tokyo to take advantage of a potentially untapped fan-base, by the time they made the move rivals FC Tokyo had established themselves as a J1 outfit and were regularly pulling in a higher attendance than Verdy.
In 2005, Verdy won the Emperor's Cup, their first trophy in 9 years and the first in Tokyo. However, that season they also recorded a league finish of 17th from 18, meaning that in the 2006 season they were in the odd position of playing in the AFC Champions League whilst in the second division.
As of now, the club are bouncing up and down the J2 table, recording finishes of 20th, 8th, 18th, 5th, and 6th in recent years.
But of course, we know how the next 4 years are going to pan out for Verdy!
MEET THE SQUAD
So with 4 years of progress made, let's take a look at the squad that will lead Tokyo Verdy into the 2023 season. (Please scroll left and right to see the whole squad, unfortunately the arrows are tough to see as I can't change their colour)
Goalkeepers
Centre Backs
Wing Backs
Centre Midfielders
Attacking Midfielders
Strikers
I'm finally happy with the way the squad is shaping up. We've been able to move away from relying on free agents and loans to improve the quality on hand, and instead spent some of the money we've earned to offer slightly higher wages and attract players such as Ali, Cacace and most impressively Billy Gilmour.
A club of our stature really has no right to get a player like Billy, but Chelsea were in an odd situation of letting his contract run into it's last 6 months while also transfer listing him and trying to get £28m for him. We threw everything we could at him, and thankfully sealed the deal, massively improving the squad but also giving us a very desirable asset when he inevitably wants to move back to Europe.
The squad is larger than I would usually like to run, but that's a consequence of a certain J League rule that I found out about the hard way. Players get a one game ban after collecting two yellow cards, so suspensions are rife! In the first couple of seasons that meant relying on players stepping in that either lacked any ability at all or were decent players having to play out of position. Now we have at least two players for each role plus a couple of useful utility players, a fact which while stand us in good stead as we compete on multiple fronts.
So with an introduction to the save and the side done, it's time to crack on with some action! There's a big campaign ahead, and we'll have to be at our best to maintain the progress we've been making.
I have one more post in mind before I bring some season 5 action, so keep an eye out and follow me on Twitter if you don't already, each new post gets announced there.
Thanks for reading.
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