Hello dear friends and welcome to the Premier League! After celebrating the unlikely and unexpected promotion from Coca-Cola Championship me and my players along with the Dorchester Town board of directors had to prepare for the Premier League season, the first ever in the club’s history.
As you know our stadium had only around 600 seats and a capacity of 5009, an expansion was inevitable. The board announced that more than 7000 new seats will be installed and we will have to play away from home until the works will be completed, that’s until the 8th of January 2015! The board reached an agreement with Southampton to host our home games at St. Mary’s Stadium for a symbolic rent of 1 pound per year.
Between new sponsorships and TV rights he club’s financial situation improved dramatically once we got promoted, the club’s coffers saw more money than they did in the previous 100 years!
The board expected us to fight bravely against relegation, I offered them a mid-table finish for an extra 6 million pounds on the transfer budget and around 10,000 pounds added to the weekly payroll budget. I couldn’t hope for more money to be honest, I was quite satisfied.
There was a lot of work to do though, the pre-seasons reports from the staff were quite pessimistic. We needed to improve almost all areas of the squad and when we started spending that money didn’t seem too much anymore.
I had to offload nine of the players that worked hard for the promotion and some of those decisions were quite tough to make. You might be surprised to see that I sold two of the best players from last season, Coloccini and Tchité, but I think that I found better and younger players to fill in for them. In fact, the entire squad was rejuvenated in an attempt to build a solid future for the club.
We brought in 13 players plus another two on emergency loans. The basic rule was to bring in good players on free transfers and spend money only on good young prospects. Some of the transfer budget was moved into the wage budget but it still wasn’t enough, we’re around 30 K over the weekly payroll budget!
Now let me describe our new squad in more detail. I have made no changes in goal, the two goalkeepers that served us well last season were confirmed for another year at a higher level. Davide La Rocca will be my number one while Gabriel Nicolau will be his backup.
The big problem is in the full backs area, I didn’t manage to secure any of the transfers that I chased around all summer long so we will have to do with our full backs from last year: Nemanja Rnic and Eddie Kelly on the right flank, Angelo Rossini and Ryan Carolan on the left. I was a bit desperate though and I also brought in two full backs on loan from Holland, Kees Esseboom and Sjors Daemen. These two should provide good backup, hopefully.
Major work has been done to improve the middle of our defense: only one of our centre backs remained at the club, young Italian Francesco Tosto. I managed to bring in another three great prospects in defense, starting with 19 year old Chilean Arturo Bahamondes from Paris Saint Germain. I paid 5 million pounds for him and also offered him a very high wage just to lure him in because there were many big clubs like Barcelona and Bayern Munich chasing him. I was delighted that he agreed to join us and even more pleased when he was finally given a work permit after the appeal. He surely is a great talent and I hope that he will fulfill his potential with us. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Darren Smith
19 сентября, 2010 at 13:06
Hi Johnny, you have made some really bold moves in the summer. It may take a while for your side to gel, but your new like team are definately worth a mid table finish. Goodluck for the new season and Im looking forward to Dorchesters Prem debut
Johnny Karp
19 сентября, 2010 at 15:52
Thanks Darren, I hope that the bold moves will pay off :)
Laxeyman
19 сентября, 2010 at 13:40
Hi Johnny, you’ve made some impressive signings there, and your side looks like they can compete in the Premier League. You have a very young side and a lot of them look like they have exciting potential. This season is sure to be exciting, good luck!
Johnny Karp
19 сентября, 2010 at 15:54
Thanks Laxeyman, we have nothing to lose, that’s for sure! :)
Sears
19 сентября, 2010 at 13:46
Hi Johnny,
the new young team should have enough quality to stay up. Like you siad the main worry is the full back position, they seem quite weak, though there still young so they can improve over the course of the season. I think you can finish between 16th and 13th. Your side is only going to get better! Goodluck!
Johnny Karp
19 сентября, 2010 at 15:55
Thanks Sears, you pointed out my strategy exactly: we can only get better from this point on!
Jean Paul Borg
19 сентября, 2010 at 15:24
Hi Johnny. I have been impressed with your promotion from the Championship but I knew you could achieve a play off. I think you’ll do well to stay up, I think that you’ll finish from 10-17th position. I am concerned that you signed a bunch of Romanians. I think you should concentrate more on your coaching staff so that your youngsters can polish their skills quicker. I would advice bringing in first team coaches and youth coached, not general coaches as they won’t have enough time to deal with both senior and U18 or U20 squad. Good Luck mate, I am behind you!
Johnny Karp
19 сентября, 2010 at 15:58
Thanks Jean Paul. Unfortunately I can’t have too many staff members but I don’t really need youth coaches anyway since almost all of my players are with the first team squad. My reserves squad has only one player, the 16 year old Romanian defender while the under 18 squad is completely empty. Now about the Romanians, I would have signed Vietnamese players if they were good, young and cheap :)
Sayam Khan
19 сентября, 2010 at 15:37
Hi Johnny,
Very impressed with your signings especially Arturo Bahomendes, Liam Parker, Lulian Marin and Fran Merida! (arsenal factor :L)
And playing at saint maries does seem funny. And for once you got a budget! lol
I think you will stay up but it will be difficult for you, good luck.
Johnny Karp
19 сентября, 2010 at 15:58
Thanks Sayam, I know it will be difficult. Those four are among my favourites too :)
hils
19 сентября, 2010 at 19:21
Hi Johnny. Great signings there. Good luck facing europe’s finest!!!!
Johnny Karp
19 сентября, 2010 at 19:26
Thanks for the good wishes Hils!
Lye
20 сентября, 2010 at 02:49
Hi Johnny, quite a number of signings there and young too. I hope they will make a immediate impact. However i believe your current corp of players from the Championship should be able to survive in the Premiership. Some of the free transfers should be useful too. I wish you well in the Premiership. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
20 сентября, 2010 at 18:06
Thanks Lye, I hope that the youngsters will be strong enough to survive the clashes with the big boys in the Premiership.
Andries
20 сентября, 2010 at 16:43
Hey Johnny,
Good Luck in the big league! I love your signings Tamasi and Marin, i think they will become a great asset to your team. Hope you can stick it to Arsenal and Liverpool. Give them h@ll..
gr Andries
Johnny Karp
20 сентября, 2010 at 18:06
Thanks Andries, hell is what they’ll get! :)
bigbaz
20 сентября, 2010 at 17:35
this story got me hooked on this website all of u keep up the good work.
great acheivement you’ve done with dorchester, all the best in the prem
Johnny Karp
20 сентября, 2010 at 18:07
Thanks a lot for your kind comment and for the good wishes, I hope that you will continue to follow the stories.
Ana Garcia
20 сентября, 2010 at 21:23
I cant believe how much transfer money you got to spend!!
I guess thats the major difference between the premier league and la liga, huge amounts of money split evenly across all the teams.
I wish la liga has a similar structure rather than the bigger clubs getting the most of the tv money, anyways I digress!!
I like your signings and two Spaniards! Hope they do well!!
May take a while for your team to gel though, but at least they have a talented manager! ;)
Best of luck in the top league and dont let the bigger teams scare you, look at Barca and Hercules last week……
:(!!!!!
Johnny Karp
20 сентября, 2010 at 21:29
Thanks for the good wishes Ana. You are right about the Premier League money, I like that model too opposed to Spain or even Italy. Things might have changed in Italy though, they had some problems a few years ago because the small clubs wanted more money out of the TV rights and threatened to go on strike. Anyway, I expect no fear from my youngsters, they have to prove themselves against world class players and that should be an incentive for them to play well.
dami
21 сентября, 2010 at 17:01
good signings there johnny…I’m glad the board gave you a reasonable amount of money this season…
Hopefully there will be no international competition this season which will require your young players to leave…
btw-what happened to ryan carolan…is he still in your club cause i didn’t se him in the outgoing transfer list…
Johnny Karp
21 сентября, 2010 at 19:27
Thanks Dami. Carolan is still in the squad as a backup for the left back position. I promised that I won’t sell him unless he will desire to move and I’m keeping my word :)
Kevin Mayo
23 сентября, 2010 at 09:23
Hello Johnny
A good mix of signings and not bad pre season results either. I like the look of Iulian Marin whose excellent passing attributes could set up a lot of chances for you and Liam Parker is another of my favorites. Interesting to see if you do stray from your tried and tested «Notts Co» tactic but good luck in the Premier League.
Johnny Karp
23 сентября, 2010 at 18:32
Thanks Kevin. It will be a bit difficult to experiment with the tactics during the season but I guess I will try to do that in the cup games first.