Hello eveyone and welcome to my pre-season update. Yes, I am still in charge and it looks like I won’t be leaving anytime soon now that I’ve weeded out some trouble makers.
With the squad away on vacation it gave me a good opportunity to go through the players dossiers and begin to asses those who will be around next season or not. It soon became clear that there were a few key players responsible for the clubs disharmony and they will be placed on the transfer list. My only real concern once compiling the list was that I could be losing goalkeeper Alex Smithies
The financial situation was also troubling as the salary budget was over by 13,000 per week and that would restrict any new signings until players had been off-loaded. The chairman though had provided a much needed cash injection to bolster day to day operations as the graph below demonstrates the club was on the slide.
The board then set out their expectations for the season and I was handed a £50,000 transfer budget which I was actually hoping not to spend straight away but instead add to this by capital gained from the selling of players. Additionally any players leaving should also help trim the payroll as well.
The club Chairman Dean Hoyle also negotiated a link with Wigan which to be honest I wasn’t that excited about it.
A quick review of the World Cup which saw Holland win on penalty kicks and finally getting their revenge over Argentina after losing the final to them in 1978. Yes the tournament back then was fixed by the Argentine government.
Here then is the transfer activity up until July 31st. I do have some other targets in mind there still maybe one or two more players leaving. As you can see from the players leaving I got rid of the Clarke “mafia” as well as Antony Kay who were behind most of the trouble at the club last season. I was unhappy that Muniesa wanted to leave but thought it was better to let him go rather than have someone who could start planting the seeds of disharmony.
My only expenditure to date is on striker Morten Neilsen whom I’m looking to use to replace our own Lee Novak who spent most of last season in the reserves and never lived up to his first team billing.
The other two players I’ll highlight for you is young striker Anthony Mouguena and defender Arnaud Mendy both of whom will most likely rotate in and out of the first team.
Finally here’s a 16 year old that showed up in my batch of new players and could prove to be a very useful out on the left wing as he’s quite fast and a good crosser of he ball too.
Here’s a quick look at our financials at the end or the pre-season. They are much improved!
We remained unbeaten throughout pre-season giving both Auxerre and Burnley a run for their money on their visits to The Galpharm Stadium. I was happy to see that Neilsen scored in his first game as well.
With some very tough teams in League One this season we’ve been giving quite long odds to get promoted and will start our campaign away to Watford who dropped down from the Championship.
That completes the pre-season report so wish me luck for the new season.
Thanks for reading.
Ana Garcia
2 мая, 2010 at 14:50
Good Luck!
Some good signings and a cash injection by the looks of it you neeeded!
33-1, but am sure with a bit of luck along the way you could be pushing top 6.
Laxeyman
2 мая, 2010 at 15:25
Some good signings there Kevin, hopefully you can push for the play offs or even automatic promotion this season. Good luck!
Lye
2 мая, 2010 at 16:32
Hi Kevin, its a shame that the board can only allocated this limit amount of transfer fee for your transfer. But i guess the financial condition is quite bad at the moment. The signings that you made are young and should be squad players. But you already have a good squad of players and after getting rid of the bad eggs, i hope you will do well this season. Good luck.
P.S I like your youth Andy Nowlan from the acadamy. He has the potential to become a sensation or even a future england international with some hard work in training..
Johnny Karp
2 мая, 2010 at 17:44
Well done Kevin, you balanced the books well and hopefully the dressing room harmony will bring better results. That youngster looks very promising, you could have a real gem at the club. If he’ll stay clear of injuries and also have some regular first team football then he could become a top player for the club quite fast. Best of luck for the new season!
Majk
2 мая, 2010 at 17:55
Good luck! It’s tough managing with such a small budget but you seem to have made some wise choices and the youths look good, especially Nowlan. He’ll become a real gem of a player.
Joseph
2 мая, 2010 at 19:09
Nice transfers, I think you can secure a play-off place especially if you avoid the dodgy start. What happened to the Tottenham story by Damian that was here this morning?
Kevin Mayo
2 мая, 2010 at 20:46
Ana…thanks for the comment, I hope to beat those 33-1 odds!
@Laxeyman…I’m glad you like my signings and with a little luck I’ll get to the play-offs
@ Lye, yes I was focusing more on squad players as I felt the body of the team was already good.I’ll put Nowlan straight into the reserves rather than the youth set up.
@ Johnny, thanks a lot. Good finances and harmony were important to me as I hope this will turn into good results. Nowlan does look like a gem and already showed some promise in pre-season
@ Majk, thanks for your comments and I’m please you like my new players.
@ Joseph, I’m pleased you like those signings and I hope to do much better this season