Dorchester Town Story — Preparing For League Two

Hello folks and welcome back to the Dorchester Town Football Manager 2010 story! It’s been a while since the last update, I was quite busy and I’m very happy that I finally managed to complete the preparations for the League Two season. As you know we got promoted from Blue Square Premier at the end of last season, now I had to bring in better players to face the professional teams in League Two.

The club’s financial status was a bit better, we were only around 50 thousand pounds in debt. I wasn’t expecting to have a transfer budget but I have to say that I was hoping for a higher wage budget. When you get promoted every player receives a 25% raise so our wage bill went through the roof and the board offered me a very low payroll budget to attempt surviving in League Two. I told them that I could bring the team to a top half finish but the new wage budget was just over what we were spending at the time.

The club officially turned professional but I can’t say that my board of directors turned pro. I made a request for a parent club again, I received the same response: «the board doesn’t think that we need one»! Our pitch was a total mess so I asked them to relay it. Their answer was shocking: «the pitch at Avenue Stadium does not need relaying»! OK, I understand that you don’t have money but don’t tell me that it doesn’t need relaying, just tell me that you don’t have the money to do it!

I was quite disappointed with their attitude but I guess I’ll have to live with that. I had to clear some of the wage bill so I sold quite a few players during the transfer window. I brought in more than 100 thousand pounds for the club but nothing came back into the transfer budget, not a penny! I also released the new bunch of worthless youngsters from the yearly youth intake and went on searching for free transfers and loans. By the end of August I managed to bring in 13 new players, 9 transfers and four loans.

Now let me introduce the most important new signings. We surely needed a better goalkeeper and when I saw that Romanian Daniel Tudor was available on a free I made him an offer right away. He’s 37 years old now but he still has good skills and loads of experience. He was a backup goalkeeper at Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni a couple of seasons ago and last season he played the game of his life in the Champions League last year. The first choice goalie was injured so he was sent between the sticks for the Glasgow Rangers vs Unirea Urziceni game at Ibrox Park. He had an awesome game, saved a penalty kick, and the team eventually earned a fabulous 4-1 victory. He will be my first choice goalie and maybe he will remain at the club as a goalkeeper coach later on.

I also brought in a good hard working Scottish midfielder, Simon Ferry, released by Celtic. He never managed to play a single game for Celtic in more than five seasons but his attributes might make him an essential player in our midfield.

The first Australian that joins our club is midfielder Chris Herd, the transfer was possible because he also has the British nationality. He has been at Aston Villa since 2005 but never managed to play in the first team. He will probably be a backup in midfield but I hope that with some first team football he could develop into a good player.

I kept only two of my strikers, Biagini and Dabu, so I needed another pair to make things work upfront. The first striker that I bought was Omar Koroma from Gambia, an African player that also holds a British passport. He has some experience in the Championship, he played for Watford, Southampton and Portsmouth. He should be a decent defensive striker in my tactical set up but I guess only time will tell. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

I had to go abroad to find another striker and I finally settled for Polish player Szymon Kazmierowski, a strong lad with good all-around abilities. He played for Polonia Warszawa last season and managed to score eight goals in 23 league appearances, I hope he’ll improve that percentage in League Two.

The best of the players that I brought in on loan is English regen right winger Andy McKay, a 17-year old player from Manchester United. He has great potential and I hope that he will be able to develop well at Dorchester since he will be given lots of opportunities to play first team football.

My assistant thinks that we have a problem with the right back role and I agree with him. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a good right back and since we are already over the wage budget I guess we’ll have to do what we can with the available players.

My assistant arranged a tough set of friendly games for us and I am satisfied with the results overall. There were just two disastrous games, the defeat against Blue Square South side Bath and Championship side Bristol City. The other games were quite pleasing and I am proud that we managed to beat Championship team Nottingham Forest and League One outfit Bradford.

The odds are against us again but we’re used to that…

Here’s my 24-man squad, a multinational team with players from all over the world. I still couldn’t manage to bring in a Brazilian player although there were a few interested. They were not given work permits so I guess I’ll have to wait until next season. The starting eleven should be something like this: Tudor — Hoyte, Carolan, O’Brien, Daprela — McKay, El Kadi, Ferry, Rosalia — Koroma, Kazmierowski. I guess I will sell one of the backup wingers at some point but I can’t decide which one at this point.

The first month of the new season will see our debut in the Carling Cup, we will have to face League One side Coventry. As for the league games, I hope to get at least nine points out of the first five games.

That’s how our pre-season was my friends, thanks for reading. Again, I’m not sure what to expect from the new season but I hope that I’ll be able to keep my promise to the board and get a top half finish. Where do you think we’ll end up?