Cambridge United: League One Preparations

Hello friends and welcome back as I bring you all the news from The Abbey Stadium as the club prepares for a new season in League One following our promtion last year. I’ll be breaking this post into a month by month update with obviously more details as the transfer window opens.

May 2012

With promotion to League 1 secured and the season ended things were very quiet around The Abbey Stadium. Our finances were given another boost as we received £250,000.000 from the Premier League payout scheme.

Aside from going through the process of renewing staff contracts the only other piece of news was that I picked up the League 2 Manager of the Year Award.

June 2012

I’d sent two of my scouts to the Euro 2012 Championships but they had failed to report anything back not that I was really expecting them to anyway. Domestically, myself and Assistant Warren Neill were reviewing potential targets and going over scout reports and by mid-June the only signing we had made was a back-up for ML Karl Moore in Alex Smith from Fulham on a free transfer.

With the first transfer of the summer taken care of it was time to meet the board and set out the seasons expectations. As you can see the £1,000,000.00 transfer budget remained in tacked so I chose “Avoid Relegation” which also boosted my salary budget from £26,000 to £41,000 per week.

Towards the end of June the board decided to sign a deal with Huddersfield to be our parent club and they immediately sent 23 year goalkeeper Jakub Jesionkowski on loan for the entire 2012/13 season. He will be a great back up for Martin Hansen.

With over 50 goals conceded last season the back four was going to be our main priority to strengthening the team and so before the month was up we had splashed nearly half of the £1,000,000.00 budget on CB Rhys Bennett from Bolton Wanderers. Additionally from Blackburn came Grant Hanley on loan until the end of the season.

July

As in the past things usually get explosive at the beginning of the month as I like to bring in any new players before the pre-season friendlies begin and this year was no exception. A total of nine new players arrived at The Abbey Stadium, some who had returned on loan such as Will Keane, whilst Jacob Walcott we snapped up on a free transfer. Many of the names will be more than familiar to you so I’ll highlight those that perhaps are not as common.

Starting at the back I found this young Turkish goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet in the lower French divisions and although he lacks in mental and physical attributes he could make a very reliable third string keeper for sure.

Victor Palsson was released by Liverpool and will slot into the back four to begin with though may find himself in a midfield role where he’s equally as comfortable. With good determination, work rate and tackling he should do just fine.

As my tactic is left flank based I wanted another decent LB and found Victor Fernandez from Spanish side Celta who were willing to part with him for £150,000. With good pace, acceleration as well as a half decent cross he should fit the bill quite nicely.

On the opposite side of the park comes Brendan Moloney who has been a bit of a journeyman in the lower leagues spending most of his time with Nott’m Forest. Quite good physical attributes and can put in a good cross or two when required. He’ll most likely be fighting for that starting spot with Jonathan Brown who we picked up from Hearts.

In the middle I’ve added a little Central American flavour with Gabriel Gomez who has won over 70 caps for Panama. The oldest player on the team by far but I think his experience and good all round attributes will factor into him making a telling contribution this season. At least I hope so!

Players Out

That completes a look at the transfer activity that now makes my squad a very multi-cultural looking as well as most players being in and around 21 years old.

Pre-Season

Our friendlies went very well indeed and we managed to get through those unbeaten and at the same time bring in some good gate receipts when playing continental and South American opposition. Striker Will Keane was in terrific form bagging nine goals in the seven games we played.

A quick look at the finances reveals we received a large sum of money from the TV rights package and overall  the books make positive reading.

Finally then our next months fixtures which sees us begin our League One campaign at home to Dagenham followed by a tricky encounter with Millwall in the League Cup.

Thanks very much for reading and I hope your Tuesday has gone well. It’s 5:30am for me so mine is just about to start with a walk to the subway!