Hello folks, welcome to my fifth season with Dorchester Town! As you know our fourth season ended in glory with us winning the League One title and the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. Now we had to be prepared for the Championship, a much tougher league with far better teams than League One. Let’s see how our summer went…
The board didn’t show too much ambition this time either, they wanted me to battle to avoid relegation and I told them that we could go for a top half finish just to earn a few more pennies for the wage budget. The transfer budget stood at a staggering 7,000 pounds, there isn’t much you can do with that money in football. The club did get 1 million pounds in TV rights for the new season but apparently they have something to do with that money…
Anyway, as you know from the previous post I had already arranged four free transfers so I moved to selling a few players before the 1st of July. I offloaded another six players by the end of August and got a tidy sum into the club’s coffers, 1.6 million pounds. Only 10% of that amount came back into the transfer budget and I eventually decided to move that money into the wage budget.
As you can see from the image below I made only free transfers again and quite a lot of them, 15 new players joined the team plus another one on loan! I felt that the squad needed to be rebuilt almost entirely in order to compete in the Championship and I would have brought in even more players if the wage budget would have permitted that. The fact is that at the end of my «wheeling and dealing» on the transfer market we are almost 20,000 pounds over the weekly wage budget, that’s quite a heavy deficit.
Now let me introduce our new players. My strategy was to bring in mostly young players, under 21 years of age, players with potential that could become good assets for the club both on the pitch and also from a financial point of view.
I found quite a few talented lads in Italy and one of them was goalkeeper Davide La Rocca, a very talented 19-year-old keeper that was being monitored by big clubs like Barcel0na or Manchester City! I managed to snap him up right from under their greedy noses with a pretty big signing on fee, the lad surely bought himself a new car with that money :)
You might remember from last season that I already had a good young goalkeeper, Gabriel Nicolau, and I surely intended to keep him. We received an offer from Italian side Modena though and the board accepted it! I offered Nicolau a new contract but to my surprise he refused both my offer and Modena‘s offer! So he will remain at the club until 2017 when his old contract is going to expire!
Moving on to the defense, our new right back is Nemanja Rnic, a Serbian defender with good experience in the Belgian league where he played for Anderlecht. He seems to be a reliable player and he will have to compete with youngster Eddie Kelly for a place in the starting eleven.
On the left flank in defence we’ll have an Italian prospect, 19-year-old Angelo Rossini from Inter Milano. He already has a couple of youth caps to his name and some good potential for progress. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
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.