The Wildcards, Fluxton, The Midlands
Fluxton Rovers
The club with no plan at all, which is itself a kind of plan.
The club
Fluxton Rovers were founded in 1912 when two rival works teams could not agree which of them should exist, and settled it by tossing a coin over the name. Both teams then merged anyway. The coin is in the boardroom, mounted, and it is not a joke to anybody at the club: Rovers have taken decisions by lot ever since, including, on two documented occasions, the appointment of a manager.
The football follows. Fluxton do not have a philosophy, an identity or an approach, and the club is straightforward about it. Each duel is decided fresh, on nothing. A Rovers defender who contained politely all first half may spend the second half flying into everything, and there is no read available, because there is nothing to read.
What this buys them is that nobody can prepare. Opposition analysts arrive with nothing usable, opposing reciprocators end up mirroring noise, and grudge-bearing sides tend to spend an hour punishing Fluxton for something a different Fluxton player did. What it costs them is any ability to build a run, and everyone at The Scatterdome knows which of those is the bigger number.
On the pitch
Rovers decide each duel on a coin flip. Half their challenges are patient and half are reckless, distributed with no pattern whatsoever across the ninety minutes. It makes them impossible to model and impossible to trust, including for themselves, and it is why Fluxton can look like the best side in the league for twenty minutes and like nothing at all for the rest.
Cooperates or defects on a coin flip. Nobody has a clue what it will do. More on Random.
The Scatterdome
The Scatterdome, 26,700, so named after a 1960s roof design nobody has ever defended architecturally. Seats are unreserved in two of the four stands, the kick-off end is drawn before the match, and the club changes the pre-match music by ballot.
The supporters
Fluxton fans call themselves the Wildcards and treat every result as a draw from a hat, which makes them the most cheerful away following in the league. Their best-known banner reads WE DON'T KNOW EITHER.
The manager: Chance Delacroix
A journeyman winger at seven clubs, then a coaching career of similar variety. Appointed at Fluxton after a shortlist of three was settled by drawing lots, which he knew about and accepted.
Delacroix is the most entertaining manager in the league to interview and the least useful to quote, because he genuinely does not know what his side is going to do. He is not being coy. Fluxton's method removes the decisions from him on purpose, and he has made peace with a job description that stops at the touchline.
What he does control, he controls well. Rovers are fit, they are technically sound, and they are the best-briefed side in the league on opposition tendencies, because Delacroix believes the only edge available to him is knowing what everyone else will do while nobody can know what he will.
He is honest about the ceiling. Rovers cannot build a run, cannot be relied upon for a fortnight, and cannot promise their supporters anything at all, and Delacroix says so plainly, which is why he remains popular at a club that has given him very little to work with.
"I can tell you the team. I cannot tell you the team's mood, and neither can they."
Approach: Prepare the players, then decline to constrain them.
Squad
| # | Player | Pos | Apps | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rafa Rossi | GK | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Iris Fernandes | LB | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Cole Hughes | CB | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Sofia Bardsley | CB | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Mateo Cunningham | RB | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Lucia Radcliffe | LM | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Declan Ainsley | CM | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Ada Ward | CM | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Kasper Bennett | RM | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Rania Fletcher | ST | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Jack Holloway | ST | 0 | 0 | 0 |