Kevin’s Story: Cambridge United

Hello friends and readers.

As you may remember about a week ago my NEW computer crashed leaving me well fed up though I did manage to get everything working again without goingback to the store but  my Cambridge game had gone. The thought of starting yet another new game was not that appealing as my Wrexham save had also ended the same way. I was on the verge of giving up altogether until on a USB stick I found a back up file of my Cambridge save, game time February 2011.

I put the game in «holiday mode» and let it run until the end of the season and  Cambridgecame out champions again. Unfortunately we lost the FA Trophy final this time around to Luton Town. So, if it’s okay with everyone I’ve decided to start my League 2 campaign again as I wasn’t that far into the season when the crash happened.

Here’s the final table (second time around)

I’ll resume this story with the pre-season build up and then for the next little while my posts will be more consolidated rather than match reports as it’s nearly May already and I have to make some progress in this game before FM 2012 comes out!! So, back to the story….

After taking a few weeks off following our title winning season it was back to the business of running a football club and preparing for a new campaign in League 2. The biggest issue to deal with was in the finance arena as the salary budget was way above what we could realistically afford.

We did secure a new sponsorship deal which will greatly improve the overall financial situation and was much improved on our current kit deal.

During the month of June Assistant Manager Warren Neill and I reviewed our shortlist of potential targets for the upcoming transfer window but then had to sit back and watch other clubs make offers and slowly that list shrank. Finally the TV package came through and that bolstered our ability to do some wheeling and dealing.

As the board wasn’t  that flexible with the money I set the season as expectations as consolidate which netted £35k in transfer money and £26k in salaries which was almost a 30% increase. Not bad.

We had a very busy transfer window with most of the players arriving before our first friendly game giving them some time to settle in at The Abbey Road Stadium. I also offloaded many youngsters and some reserve players but picked up a very nice £40,000 for central defender Mustaphe Traore who went to Rochdale. I was expecting a fan back-lash but nothing happened.

Here’s the transfer activity and most of you will be more than familiar with many of these players so I’ll only highlight a few of them for you.

I’ll start off in midfield with American Will Packwood and Spaniard Joan Angel Roman both of whom will be good rotation players supporting Shane Williams and Harry Pell who I brought in from Bristol Rovers.

With N’Goma, who was prolific last season, Fofana and Danny Wright up front I felt Ionly need one more player and came across this young Turkish striker Nadir Ciftci who looks to be quite talented for a 19 year old.

A last minute signing was Will Keane from Man United who as you will see further down made an immediate impact in the two pre season games he played in and could end up forcing out Danny Wright.

My last player to highlight is a Spanish defender from Ana’s old team Real Union. My assistant highly recommended him and at a salary of only £375.00 a week he is well worth it and may even start ahead of Darren Lough.

We had a very productive pre-season and I chose teams that would bring in gate receipts of around £10,000 each time with the exception of Morecambe.

The bookies have us at 6-1 to gain promtion this season though to be honest I’d rather be more of a long shot then surprise everyone!

Lastly our season begins at home to Tranmere before taking on Swindon in the League Cup.

Thanks for taking the time to read this special update and I have now saved everything to a 4GB flash card…just in case. :)