Chester Pre Season 2012-2013
Hello folks, sorry for the long interruption, I had a lot of work to do and I had very little time for my favorite game, Football Manager 2009. In the last episode of the story you shared the joy that I felt after achieving promotion from the Coca-Cola Championship to the Premier League. It was an unique moment for our players, our board and our fans, everybody was ecstatic. Maybe everybody except me. I was worried because the club’s financial situation was still pretty poor, and I doubted that we could survive in the Premiership with the current squad. The board was optimistic though, the decided to invest into expanding the stadium.
Our chairman came to the rescue, he injected a large amount of money to keep the club afloat.
The month of June ended, and so did my worries. We received the Premier League TV rights money, the largest sum our treasury has ever seen.
Our board expected us to fight bravely against relegation, I told them we could do it. They offered me the largest transfer budget I ever had, 19.5 million euro!
Due to our promotion to the Premier League we had to cancel our link with our parent club, Manchester United. Another big European club was interested into forming a link with our club: Juventus Torino. I also persuaded the board into making a link with Polish club Korona Kielce, which would allow us to send players that don’t have a work permit on loan until they’ll be able to gain Polish citizenship (three years). I already had my eyes on a few Australian youngsters…
The bookmakers were not very optimistic: they gave us 2001 to 1 odds to win the title. The media prediction? Obviously, 20th out of 20 teams.
With all that money available I began working on the transfers. I sold most of my players because I felt they didn’t have what it takes to survive in the Premiership and I bought a lot of new players, some of them experienced, many of them young promising players. The fact is that there were no players left from my first Chester squad, the one that gained promotion from League Two to League One. The last of the mohicans, James Chester, was sold to Derby for 950 K.
I bought 21 players, almost an entire squad. The most expensive and maybe the most promising is 19 year old regen centre back from Uruguay, Esteban Martinez. I bought him from San Lorenzo for 4.6 million euro and I was thrilled that he signed with us because he had offers from all over Europe. I think that he will be one of the best defenders in Europe in only a few years.
Another important signing for me was strong defensive midfielder Drissa Diakité from Mali, with French citizenship. I signed him for free from Nice and I hoped that he will be an essential player in our midfield.
And last but not least, I had to get a fast striker that could maybe take advantage of our conter attack opportunities. With little money left I chose to sign former Aston Villa player Luke Moore. I bought him from Dundee United for 325 K hoping that he will finally show his talent at the age of 26. He was a promising youngster a few years ago and I felt that he didn’t show his real strength until now.
That’s about it. The Premier League season is about to begin with high hopes for us and maybe with the fear that we can’t cope with our illustrious opponents. I’ll try to give some courage to my lads, I’m sure that we can avaid relegation and build a bright future for our club. What do you say, can we make it?