The only loan player that I brought in is George Thorne from West Ham, a good strong utility player that could help us a lot during the long and tough season. The only midfielder that I kept at the club from last season is Al Bangura, he had a great second half of the season and was a key man for our promotion.
In attack Omar Koroma will have to team up with new signing Mohammed Tchite, you already knew about him from the previous post. I also decided to keep youngster Peter Singh and brought in another young promise, 18-year-old Welsh striker Mark Simmons from Arsenal. He shows some good skills for his age and I hope that he might develop into a good player if given enough first team football.
The great news is that I finally had a worthy player in the yearly youth intake! Neil Hayter is a 16-year-old striker that popped up this summer and I guess he might see some first team football right away!
So, I have 25 men in my squad plus one on loan plus the youngster from the under 18 team. The squad appears to be on the young side but we also have a few experienced players that could help the team during the very likely difficult times.
Here’s what my assistant manager had to say about the squad. I agree that our weak spot is the left back position but I don’t think there’s much I can do about that right now. We’ll try to hold on until January and then see if we can make some improvements.
The odds are against us again, you get 80 pounds if you bet just one on our promotion :)
The friendly games went very well but most of them were against weaker sides. The only tough friendly was the one against Arsenal and I was very pleased with the team, we managed to fight back from 1-0 and 2-1 down and got a prestigious 2-2 draw!
So there you go, that’s how I prepared my team for the Championship… My aim is to build a solid foundation for the future, that’s why I brought in quite a few youngsters. It is a risk as they might not perform very well right away but I think that we can stay up this season and then try to get promoted next term. I am a bit concerned about the wage budget, as I said we’re almost 20K over the weekly wage payroll and I’m quite curious to see if the board will cause some trouble. As things stand the club has around 1 million pounds in the bank but the board refused to increase the wage budget. By the way, they didn’t find me a parent club this time either…
Thanks a lot for reading, I’m looking forward to an exciting season!
Kevin Mayo
30 августа, 2010 at 18:04
Hello Johnny
That was a very active off-season for you and some really decent finds that you have drawn in from around Europe. Coloccini is still pretty fit and should do you well whilst snapping up Mancini will be terrific as a back up. I’m gald your goalkeeper decided to stay as he’s really good.
Johnny Karp
30 августа, 2010 at 19:59
Thanks Kevin, we’ll see how all of these new faces will blend on the pitch.
Darren Smith
30 августа, 2010 at 18:23
Hey Johnny, some good signings there. Coloccini is a fantastic centre back and hasn’t lost his legs yet. The rest will do a good job in the Championship and you dont seem too short on numbers. I reckon you’ll be in with an outside chance of the play-offs. Goodluck for the new season mate
Johnny Karp
30 августа, 2010 at 20:00
Thanks for the confident prediction Darren, I can only hope that you will be proven right yet again :)
hils
30 августа, 2010 at 18:31
Fantastic signings Johnny,Your squad Fits to your Way of play brilliantly. Watch out For Relegated teams from the premiership,otherwise their are not many teams that could be a threat to your play off push (or promotion push)!!!!!
Johnny Karp
30 августа, 2010 at 20:01
Thanks for your optimism Hils. There are quite a few strong teams, not only those who got relegated last season but also some of those who got relegated two or three seasons before.
Laxeyman
30 августа, 2010 at 20:12
Hi Johnny, some good signings again, you have a lot of youth and some of them are quite exciting prospects. Mancini should be good too. With odds of 80-1 I would certainly put a cheeky £1 on your team. Good luck for the season, I think you’ll make the play offs at least.
Johnny Karp
31 августа, 2010 at 08:04
Thanks Laxeyman, I hope you’ll make 80 pounds :)
Sears
30 августа, 2010 at 21:07
Hi Johnny,
I think you signed some exciting youngsters there, as well as some talented experienced players. I think you’ll finish in a play off spot, although I think you have a good chance for a automatic spot. Goodluck!
Johnny Karp
31 августа, 2010 at 08:04
Thanks Sears, you’re quite optimistic!
Lye
31 августа, 2010 at 01:40
Hi mate, some promising youngster there. The experienced players may be able to guide them through. Hopefully you can have a good season. If you have a good start, i think you will achieve a play-off spot at least. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
31 августа, 2010 at 08:05
Thanks Lye. It will be difficult to have a good start with 16 new players in the squad but I hope they’ll settle in quickly.
hils
31 августа, 2010 at 08:03
Johnny i started a game with Hereford and we are 24th in the league after a 5-0 loss to Morecambe and lost to crystal palace 1-8 in the league cup. Should i stick with them?
Johnny Karp
31 августа, 2010 at 08:32
It’s entirely up to you but I would stick with them if I was you. How did you concede all those goals?
hils
31 августа, 2010 at 09:19
Dont Know,are goalkeeper is the only player who performs well in matches.
hils
31 августа, 2010 at 13:10
im really proud of hereford,we won a competitive match,the score…… 4-0 against cheltenham!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
31 августа, 2010 at 17:05
Great, well done!
mariano
31 августа, 2010 at 14:43
Good signings!
Coloccini used to play in my team in real life(San Lorenzo), he is going to do great in Championship.
Mancini was my favourite right winger when playing FM 2003:)
Good luck!
Johnny Karp
31 августа, 2010 at 17:04
Thanks Mariano, I think that every team must have at least an Argentinian and a Brazilian :)
Jean Paul Borg
31 августа, 2010 at 18:19
Hey Johnny, you have made a lot of young signings as well as experienced ones. I think you should be able to manage a top half finish like you told to board you will ;)
I have got to say Ouch! for the wage budget. I would tell the younger players to learn from experienced one if you haven’t done that already.
Johnny Karp
1 сентября, 2010 at 08:00
Thanks for the suggestions Jean Paul. I will have to see which of the youngsters are worth keeping and then assign any tutors for them.
Cal
1 сентября, 2010 at 17:27
Some great signings you have done well even with a lack of money
Johnny Karp
1 сентября, 2010 at 17:46
Thanks Cal.