Notts County Second Season — The Transfers

Hello folks! After the triumphant promotion to Coca-Cola League One last season we had to prepare very well to face the better opponents that we’ll have to face this season. The board was happy with the achievement and they thought a top half finish in League One would be enough. I felt confident and I told them that we can get promoted to Coca-Cola Championship! They gave me a very good transfer budget for that, 7.5 million euro!

As I said in the previous post I felt that we don’t need to buy too many players but I also wanted to build for the future and get some interesting youngsters in the squad. The result was that I bought… 13 players and another one on loan. Some of these players will be loaned out this season hoping that they will become better players for the seasons to come. I decided to sell some of the players in the squad, it was a natural decision considering the team’s progress.

Now let me introduce some of the most important signings, you can find details about every player in the squad in the newly created current squad page, it will be updated every time I sign a new player or sell a player from the squad.

The new left back that I brought in is Charlie Mulgrew, a tough Scottish defender with a great left foot. He is also very strong and tall and I hope that his technical abilities will make the difference when needed. I was happy that I could get him for free from Aberdeen, it was a bargain I couldn’t miss.

I needed a pair of centre backs and believe me, it was tough to find some good pacey ones. I chased several targets but eventually settled for Marc Muniesa and Ritchie De Laet. Muniesa is a good Spanish prospect coming from Barcelona, he’s only 18 years old and I can see that he has a lot of talent. He could be a first team regular right away and I hope he will become a Premier League player with us.

Ritchie De Laet came from Manchester United and he was quite expensive, 3 million euro. I chose him because he can cover any defensive role, he could be quite important in a long season.

Go to the next page to see the other transfers.

For the right wing I chose a Polish player, Kamil Grosicki, he has great pace and I hope his technical abilities will improve a little. He could make the difference on the right wing with his pace.

I brought in a right/left winger too, French player Romain Gasmi. He is an experienced player for his age and he could provide decent cover for both wings.

I couldn’t extend the loan deals for the two midfielders I had last season from Man United, Corry Evans and Sam Hewson, so I had to reinforce the midfield quite heavily. The first midfielder that I signed was Jacob Mellis from Chelsea, a creative youngster that could have a good future ahead of him.

I also brought in another Polish player, midfielder Lukasz Piatek, a determined midfielder that could add depth to the squad.

Probably the best signing for our midfield is Giampiero Pinzi, an experienced Italian player from Udinese. He played a lot of seasons in the Italian Serie A and I think that he could become on of the leaders of our team.

Go to the next page to see the other transfers.

I only needed one more striker but somehow I managed to get two, both of them for free :) The first was Hungarian striker Adam Szalai from Real Madrid, a tall and talented lad that could add some strength to our attacking line.

The other striker is Tomas Pekhart, Tottenham‘s Czech youngster, a player with great talent and a good willingness to work for the team. He could become one of the key players for our team in the future.

Remember, you can see all the players in the squad on this page, I hope you’ll find it useful. My assistant manager felt that we had a solid team and I generally agree with him :)

We played pretty well in the friendly games, only lost two against Championship side Ipswich and Premier League outfit Wolves. We created lots of chances to score in each of these games but I was a bit concerned that we conceded quite a lot, I might have to take another look at tactic and tweak it a bit.

Our media prediction for the season was 7th but the bookmakers seem to believe that we can get promoted!

I am pretty satisfied with the transfers, I chased a lot of players during the transfer window but some of them don’t want to come to our team right now. Anyway, the squad looks pretty good in depth and quality, I think that we will be there, fighting for promotion. What do you think?

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