Cambridge United: Pre-Season build up 2016 / 2017

Hello friends and welcome back to my Cambridge United story which sees us back in the Premiership at the first time of asking. In this report will be the build up to the new season plus some extra news to do with my management abilities sandwiched somewhere in the middle…so no scrolling down :)

June: 2016

With the euphoria of being promoted back to the Premier League well and truly over the players were sent on a well-earned break whilst the rest of us got on with running the business end of the club. First off was the latest financial report which by the end of the season saw us lose a staggering £9 million. I’m not even sure where that went too?

In preparation for the new season I sent a couple of scouts off to Euro 2016 where striker Jacob Plambech got injured representing Denmark in a 1-1 draw with England. Meanwhile things were very quiet domestically though I did see a few players of interest sign for other clubs. By mid-month Mariano Blanco caught the attention of foreign clubs but to my surprise he signed a new contract with us though two days later he was interested in a move to Olympic Marseille.

The final week the month came and the all-important meeting with the board to discuss expectations for the new season. We had just been handed a whopping £34 million in TV rights so I was expecting a healthy sum and wasn’t disappointed by the offers on the table. In the end I played it safe and opted for “attempt to avoid relegation”.

The same afternoon Liverpool terminated their link us due to being in the same League. Armed with my biggest transfer budget ever my assistant manager and I now started the build up for the new season in earnest. I will definitely have to exercise some control with my spending!

July 2016

The month started off with the board offering a new contract of £21,000 per week which I accepted.

Portugal went onto win Euro 2016 though the scouts I sent off to the competition didn’t provide any realistic transfer targets

As always there was a fair amount of managerial casualties following the tournament including the England position which was awarded to Stuart Pearce. I applied for the Sweden vacancy – nothing ventured, nothing gained and I got it!!!

I was quite shocked and so I will find myself leading this Scandinavian nation into the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. Here’s the group we are in as well as the Swedish FA’s expectations.

Back to Cambridge and with my largest transfer budget yet – a cool £24 million and a salary budget of £275,000 per week I was hoping to be able to attract some better quality players which sadly was not the case over the first few weeks of July. However, I was happy enough to bring back three loan signings from last season who are now permanent Cambridge players; those being Steve Parker, Giovanni Ferrara and Sean Power. The “big” signing I was looking for was still eluding me as we entered into our pre-season fixtures which started off badly.

Following the game at Sheffield Wednesday I was dealt a crushing blow by Chairman Paul Barry who accepted an offer from Valladolid for my young Danish striker Jacob Plambech who was integral to my Premiership survival plans. Bollocks! (My apologies for the profanity but this is FRUSTRATING)

Transfers: Part 1

Below are the players arriving at Cambridge before or during the first three pre-season matches.

At left back is 21 year old Ayhtami Lopez who we acquired from Arsenal. He has some decent speed to him and is a great tackler but more importantly some flair to add to my left flank tactic which will hopefully set up Driver and Webster further up the field.

On the right side of midfield arrives Dume Candau from Deportivo and will play a supporting role to Sean Power. Dume is not world class by any means but has good technical abilities.

Lastly, a rather silly impulse buy; as I was thinking about my trips to Exeter years ago and sure enough I went and purchased striker Mark Ingram from the Devon club. I’m not sure what to do with him – perhaps loan him out?

August 2016:

Transfers: Part Two

With plenty of money still available I decided to go to IKEA – well actually the national pool of players for Sweden and came up with two decent strikers as I wasn’t happy at all with my front line.

First to arrive was Agon Mehmeti whose previous club was Dinamo Bucharest. In real life I work for a global company for AEGON so couldn’t resist the name. Good speed, finishing and mental attributes will mean he will be my new poacher.

Joining Agon on the front line is Linus Hallenius who has been playing in the Turkey for the last couple of seasons. I liked his physical attributes as well as scoring ability so he will set up as my deep lying forward.

Also on the front line will be Harry Kane who never quite lived up to expectations at Spurs so when he was offered I jumped at the chance to get him.

My final signing needed to be a rotational player to go into the central defence area and I found Jason Naismith up at St.Mirren. I think he fits the bill perfectly and hopefully will develop into a stronger player to replace the aging Luna.

Pre-Season Results: Part Two

Things dramatically improved over the next three games with the new arrivals and so the squads morale has certainly bounced back.

In the end I did practically spend all my budget so I will try and offload some other players before the transfer window closes. Here then is the complete picture just before the opening game of the season.

Looking Ahead:

Well we definitely need to do something about our finances as we have plummeted into the red quite seriously to the tune of over £2 million

As far as the upcoming season goes the bookies give us no chance whatsoever though I’m hoping to avoid a repeat of our first EPL season.

Finally then our fixtures which begin at home against Spurs with Harry Kane starting?

That’s it! Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments.

Cheers!

Kevin