Tripoli SC – 2012/2013 – A bad start… by my standards.

We were obviously league champions going into the new 2012/2013 season. This meant we would be playing within the Lebanese Super Cup (similar to the community shield) and continentally.

I had a poor transfer budget once again, the bookies had us down to place 4th. I told the board that I believe I can ‘challenge’ for the title, but cannot guarantee emerging victorious.

Since teams don’t have youth squads or reserve squads in Lebanon, any yearly regens are taken in by the club immediately. I do not have the option to either sign them or not. This has left me with a ton of players who are rubbish and I cannot offload. Luckily their contracts are only a year long. To release them on a free, it will cost me around £2,000 each. Which we simply cannot afford.

As can be seen, I only spent £2,000 of my available £6,000 budget. Didn’t feel like I really needed too many upgrades as a lot of players within my team are youngsters and will improve in years to come fortunately.

I signed Fadi Ghosn last season, but opted not to renew his contract since he wanted a ridiculous amount of money. I also tried to offload the wages of Bassam Assaad to Safa. I sold Al Shemmari and Al Dosari to Khoyol on a free since they were regens I didn’t need. I tried to offload my others for free but nobody wanted them unfortunately.

Pre-season went okay. Drawing against Homenmen was annoying. It was also very frustrating to draw 3-3 against local rivals Mahabbah Tripoli. We were 3-0 up until the 87th minute. Then they made it 3-1 in the 88th minute. Then 3-2 in the 90th minute. Then miraculously 3-3 in fergie time. I was fuming after the match.

Another frustrating match was our second of the season. We lost 2-1 away from home against Ahli Saida. We gave away a 1-0 lead to lose the game. We were the better team, had more possession, shots and so forth. However it wasn’t meant to be. Ahli Saida had 5 shots throughout the match with 2 on target. The 2 shots on target were goals, and what was even more frustrating was the fact that both of their goals were headers from corners! Frustrating.

Our second loss was against Safa. Now, I am really frustrated with the Lebanese FA with this. The Super Cup is basically similar to the Community Shield – which I think is played at Wembley. Nevertheless, wherever it occurs it ensures that both teams have a neutral advantage. For some reason the Lebanese FA decided it was an appropriate idea to hold the final at Safa’s home stadium. Which gave them a home advantage. In all honesty, with our performance we didn’t deserve to win the trophy. However I’m certain we would have most likely played better if we were at a neutral stadium.

Other than that, bring on the future. We’ll see what happens.

I really want the Lebanon National Team job… however Theo Bucker doesn’t really seem to be getting fired any time soon.