Bury FC: Preparing for the Premier League 13/14

Hi everyone, I am going to bring you the pre-season report before the start of the Premier League.

We recieved a massive 40,000,000 pounds for tv rights! I was starting to get excited about my budget ;-)

This lead to the board decided to expand the stadium by 750 seats. Firstly I though, what is the point? If they are going to expand it, then they should expand it properly! By this I mean by 3000 seats +. Anyone agree?

However, the board didn’t want to upgrade training and youth facilities which are much more importantant than expanding the stadium. They didn’t even relay the pitch! Which has still been ‘VERY POOR’ since the day I joined the club. I’m starting to hate my board grr!

Transfers Out & In

We recieved 1,000,000 pound for players departing. I must say thank you to Dennis Cagara, Michael Doyle and Daniel De Ridder who served us very well, however there time at the club came to an end :-( We recieved 825k for Caleb Folan, which I regard as good business. He signed as a free transfer for us a season before and was a complete flop! There wasn’t any space for Johnathan Page in the squad so the best option was to loan him out.

I didn’t want to risk anything so I told the board that I can avoid relegation. They gave me a budget of 24m and my wage budget was set at 90k which I later increased to 155k.

A lot of players joined the club! 4 for long term prospects (Jese, Markov, Neal, Roberts), whom will be sent to reserve squad straight away. The other 12 will be part of the first team squad of course. The biggest fees were both spent on strikers. 3.6m was spent on Deniran Ortega and 6m (!) was spent on Nicklas Pedersen. I hope they repay the fee with goals. You will be able to recognise Kevin Long (Played for me in L1) SWP, Frank Lampard, Jamie O’hara and Paul Robinson. I signed different type of players in this window, some that are young, some that are very experienced in the PL, a few players with English Nationalities. Hopefully all this will blend together and hopefully it will save us from relegation.

Our new keeper is 33 year old England international Paul Robinson. He is a very experienced keeper and had long spells at Tottenham and Blackburn. He is just the keeper we needed, a commanding English experienced keeper that should keep the defence on their toes! He does lack pace, however I don’t think this attribute isn’t that important for goalkeepers.

The right back position will either be taken up by Matthew Bates so we didn’t have to worry about that position so much, but I did bring in three center backs in this window and if the Bates does fail, Kevin Long can easily fill the RB position. However i plan to use him as a first choice defender. Kevin Long played under me in the League 1 and he has made massive improvement since them days and he is still improving! He cost me a small fee of 1.2m which is quiet suprising.

The other two new center backs are Christopher Mfuiy and Victor Laguardia. Mfuiy was bought for 950k and is 24 years old. He plays for the same nation as Yves Makabu Ma Kalambay, DR Congo so he already has a good freind at the club. :-) The other Center Back, Victor Laguardia was bought for 1.8m from Zaragoza. He is spanish and only 23 years old.

Christopher Mfuiy

Victor Laguardia

I also bought in two new LB’s. The main left back is Guilherme who joined us on loan. A future fee of 4m has been agreed.

Hector Alvarez is the other LB. He is spanish and one for the future. Spanish youngsters usually turn out good so i’m hoping he does the same! My scout thinks he will be a ‘leading star’ for Premier League sides in the future. I certainly hope so! He cost us 1.9m

Now moving onto the midfield, Amine Linganzi was one of our first signings. He came from Blackburn on a free transfer and he will play the DM role.

We signed two other central midfielders also. These names should be familiar to you. Frank Lampard joined us on a free transfer after being released by Chelsea. Just look at his attributes! He lacks pace and yeah he probably is 35, but what a player to have in your squad!

The other central midfielder is Jamie O’hara. He was realeased by Tottenham and I am very pleased to have signed this person!

Moving onto the attackers now, Shaun Wright Phillips joined us on a free transfer from Manchester City. He will also bring experience to our side and he is English.

My new LW is a new signing that Man UTD bough recently and they loaned him out to us for 6 months. He has huge potential and is only 18! However will miss the first two months of the season through injury :-(

Finally we spent most of our transfer budget on the our strikers. I just hope they will perform.

Nicklas Pedersen

Derni Ortega

And now I bring you the full squad of Bury FC:

I tried to organise as much friendlies as I could so the team could blend. I would say pre season was alright.

Now you have seen this update, where do you think we will finish this season?

Anyway, thanks for reading, take care, Sayam.