Here we are, preparing for the 4th season with Chester City. So far things went very well, we started in League Two in 2008 and now we are in Coca-Cola Championship, hoping to get to the bigger stage soon.
Last season we finished 11th, a very good mid-table finish if you consider that everybody thought we would finish last. Now I hope to battle for a playoff place, but it’s going to be tough. The club isn’t in a vey good financial position, with almost 1 million euro in debt. Despite that our board announced that they are going to expand our tiny Deva Stadium with another 2000 seats!
That was quite surprising but the news made me very happy. That could well mean that the board is beginning to think big. Or maybe not. There was another good sign in pre season, I finally managed to get 7 stars for each training category.
Unfortunately the board had very little money to give me for transfers, so I had to rely on free transfers again.
And the bad news were beginning to pile up. We were receiving offers for almost every first team player, and I didn’t want to sell any of them, I wanted to keep the nucleus of the squad intact. Unfortunately the board had other plans, they accepted a small offer for my young Austian regen left winger and I had nothing to do but watch him leave.
I was less sad though because I managed to capture the signature of young Argentinian midfielder Lucas Trecarichi from Sevilla, so I thought that my left side will be covered pretty well. His contract with Sevilla expired, so I jumped in and offered him a good deal.
In the meantime the board were very happy with my work, so the asked me to sign a new three year contract worth 150,000 euro per year. I accepted, not for the money but for the wonderful Chester fans and for my dream of bringing the team to the Premier League sooner or later.
But the happy days were not going to last for long. We received an offer for our star striker, Argentinian Federico Almerares. He was very important for us since 2008 when he joined the club and I didn’t want to let him go until we reach the Premiership. Unfortunately the board accepted the transfer offer from Boca Juniors. Federico wanted to go there too, so there was nothing much I could do. I was happy for him, but sad that he had to leave. He played one last match for us though, the home friandly against our affiliates from Northern Ireland, Larne. He showed our fans one last sample of his tremendous talent, he scored a hat-trick and we won… 10-0!
Although we received 2.6 million euro for Almerares the club still was in a difficult financial position. The media predicted we would finish 20th, just outside the relegation zone. The bookmakers thought that we has a slight chance of getting promoted though.
The last friendly game was a spectacular one against our parent club, Manchester United. We gave our fans something to cheer about, that’s for sure.
I sold 9 players and managed to sign 8 replacements. I wasn’t very happy of the squad I had, but I couldn’t do more with the tiny sums I had available for transfers. I signed dome pretty interesting players though…
Let me introduce you the most interesting signings for this season. I already told you about Lucas Trecarichi, the Argentinian left winger from Sevilla. Another good signing was Italian regen defender Ciro Lazzari. I signed him for free from Reggina because I was impressed with his physical attributes. He is 1.93 meters tall, 15 pace, 20 jumping, 20 strength. I think he will be a top class defender in a few years.
The next important signing was another young Italian regen, Alfonso Rossi, a strong defensive midfielder. I signed him for free because his contract with Palermo expired.
Last season our young Lithuanian keeper had quite a few bad games, so I searched for an experienced keeper that could give us more strength in goal. I finally decided to sign Czech goalie Jan Lastuvka, as he was out of contract.
These were good signings, but by far the best one was young Bulgarian regen Petar Shalamanov. I paid 60,000 euro to Levski for him, and that was almost my entire transfer budget. But I think that it’s well worth it. He is a midfielder that can play as a right, left or central midfielder just as good. Creative, with very good acceleration and technique, I think that he will be a superstar in a few years. I gave him the number 10 shirt, he will be my new favorite player.
That’s about it, pre season was over and I was hoping that there would be a good season ahead of us. And I also prayed for the transfer window to end soon because I didn’t want my board to accept other «too good to refuse» offers for my players. Let’s hope that the players that we lost can be replaced by the new ones.
