-Boro88
Our final installment of the team previews and offseason moves will cover FC Valinor, Barad-dur, and Gondor. We'll make a quick note that the Tol-in-Gaurhoth roster has been completed and so stay tuned in the coming days for an in-depth report on TIG, once we get the chance to interview their players.
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Let's start with FC Valinor, who seemed to breeze through the friendlies and their group last year. However, they stumbled in the quarter-finals, losing to Erebor in amazing shootout fashion. To most clubs and fans, a quarter-finals appearance would be positive, but for FC Valinor you couldn't help but get the feeling it was the Arda Cup or bust for them. And so last year was a fairly large disappointment. To rub even more salt in the wounds, rivals Real Valinor came away with the title. And in aspects of the sport that don't deal with tactics or on the field performance, but with management and public relations instead...heads start rolling when your rivals finish higher.
So, FC Valinor did scale back their budget slightly, but feeling pressure to keep up with Real Valinor, and energize their own fanbase, they yet again have a pricey salary, in what can only lay the expectations of "Arda Cup or bust" on the club in 2013. The major changes seem likely to be made in the back-field. As Curufin and Celegorm remain together still, and no one expects they will want to leave their positions as the team's strikers.
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Next up, Gondor, who lost in a shooutout in the octo-finals to Shire-Bree United. The higher-ups in the organization felt the team should have handled S-B Utd last year, but since that didn't happen, the Gondor Worker's Union is quite drastically cutting payroll. Interestingly enough, 1/6th of their entire payroll is tied up into one player. Granted, Anarion had a career year in 2012, and he was going to command a hefty price in the free-agent market. It might have even been worse for fans to swallow if ownership let Anarion walk. However, the skeptics will tell you they think Anarion reached his peak last year and to put your money on him having the same (or more) production is money ill-spent.
And here is often times parts of the game fans don't hear about often. With Sauron opening up his pocket-books investing in other clubs, and investing more into his Mordor teams (read more on this below)...there were credible rumors Sauron was making a strong bid for Anarion. Therefor, allowing Anarion to defect to Barad-dur, simply was not going to be an option for Gondor's owners. They had to pay a price to retain their king, and a price he probably deserves based on last year's performance. It means Gondor had to lose some key pieces (GK - Hyarmendacil and MF- Falastur), but formation and tactics are expected to stay the same, so now it's just a matter of seeing if Imrahil and some others can rise to the occassion to support their King.
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Barad-dur: As alluded above Sauron opened up his checkbook and increased the payroll of his Barad-dur club. Last year, Mordorians were perplexed trying to figure out Sauron's plans. Since he clearly had his hand involved in many Arda clubs, why couldn't he just consolidate his influence and focus solely on the Mordor teams for the glory of the Black Land? Both Mordor and Barad-dur were running on a dirt-cheap salary, which did not leave many fans happy, particularly after both Mordor teams failed to qualify in a group with rivals Gondor and Minas Tirith.
Sauron is by no means emptying his piggy-bank but with more money invested in Barad-dur and also with who he's signed, the fanbase is at least more positive with the offseason moves. Whether or not the positive attitude carries into the tournament will of course largely depend on the club's performance. Last year Barad-dur got a bit careless and lax in the back-field and Sauron wanted to address those issues quickly. By replacing the cheap Mumakil in the goal with hopefully the more trustworthy Grishnakh. But the bigger moves happened when Sauron was able to snag Alatar and Pallando away from Wilderland to provide a more stabile and reliable defense.