Hello Everyone and welcome back to the next installment of my Swindon Town story. We left off last time with Swindon winning the play off final and being promoted to the Barclays Premier League.
Following our momentous victory over Crystal Palace we all took a well earned break for a couple of weeks. My Assistant Manager Peter Shirtliff and I had our eyes on some players whose contracts were expiring for our venture into the Premier League but we knew we couldn’t approach anyone due to the boards’ salary restrictions. Peter had also terminated our ties with some minor West Country clubs so as to avoid unnecessary obligations for pre-season warm up games. Arsenal though terminated their link with us too.
The news came through at the end of June that we had received a whopping £29,000,000 windfall from TV Rights at that the board was handing over £11,500,000 for transfers! We could hardly believe it as not too long ago we only had £100,000 for transfers. I also told the board that my goal was to avoid relegation and keep Swindon in the Premier League.
My plan for the pre-season had always been to sign players as early as possible in order to give time for the team to gel and in case I wanted to change my tactics. The end of June turned out to be a very frustrating time with the words “rejected” and “no intention of” being heard down the phone almost every day. £11,500,000 to spend and no one of any quality will come to Wiltshire. Okay, so it is full of ancient stone monuments, druids and funny carvings on hillsides but it’s not all that bad…surely?
With the hope of any free signings all but gone we finally got a breakthrough with the transfer budget and the first to sign was John Fleck from Rangers for £4.2 million. Although the board didn’t seem too pleased with the price I felt at 19 years old he had a lot to offer and hopefully would answer some of our goal scoring questions. Slimane Sissoko who was on loan with us last season also became a full time Swindon player from Stade Rennais. He’s very a useful rotation forward. Also Tomasz Sokolowski a DMC joined from Anderlecht, filled one of our targeted areas for improvement. Manuel Da Costa and Ben Amos completed the day one signings and so I felt we were finally making some progess By then end of the first week of July Liam Ridgewell, Darron Gibson and Victor Palsson had also joined the ranks so all was going to plan with getting players in early. Our first pre-season game was against Dagenham on July 13th so that gave plenty of time for the squad to work together.
Transfers: The Ins and Outs of it….
Key signings:
John Fleck
Tomasz Sokolowski
Liam Ridgewell
The pre-season results went surprisingly well with only one defeat which happened on our mini tour of Holland though for that game our very rusty back ups made the starting eleven. I was very pleased with the result against Arsenal having been 2-0 up against a full strength Gunners but we succumbed to their relentless pressure. We ended pre-season with a nice result over Yeovil and finally Fleck got on the scoreboard. I’d been playing him in the AML slot but with inside forward instructions but decided to move him to a strikers position against Yeovil which had an immediate impact allowing him to bag two first half goals. I’m not sure now if I’ll go in search for another winger and change my starting front two as Fleck played so much better?.
Pre-Season Results:
During our trip to Holland we also found out how the bookies rated us for wining the title. not much chance at all it seems so we could be in for a very long season.
Up next then is our first Premier League game which is away to Everton who won the Coca Cola Championship and then at home to Manchester United. Not an ideal start but we’ll have to live with it.
Johnny Karp
6 февраля, 2010 at 12:11
Well done Kevin, some good signings there. I believe that Fleck could express his talent as a striker or an attacking midfielder, my advice would be not to sacrifice him on the left wing. Good luck!
Kevin Mayo
6 февраля, 2010 at 13:12
Hi Johnny
Thanks for the advice which I’m going with and employing Fleck as a striker whilst seeking out some back up for the left flank. It’s just after 6.00am so off out for coffee and then on with the Premier League!
Laxeyman
6 февраля, 2010 at 13:13
Some decent signings there Kevin, good luck this season! Fleck is a pretty good signing, but I agree with Johnny that you should use him through the middle, rather than out wide.
Martin
6 февраля, 2010 at 14:11
Good Signings Kevin, I Hope The Board Can Be More Generous In The Futire Too!
Kevin
6 февраля, 2010 at 14:29
> Laxeyman, thanks for the advice about Fleck
@ Martin and Laxeyman I’m quite pleased with the signings. I took my time this past week rather than rush into the transfer market. My board is always stingy with the salary including my own. Just like real life then :)
Lye
6 февраля, 2010 at 14:32
Hi Kevin, John Fleck can be a very useful signing, he is amazing in FM09. I hope he can perform well for you, i agree with the rest that his best position is in the striker position.
Liam Ridgewell is not consider world class but i think he can do the job for you. Man Utd will pose you some problems but i think your team has a great chance against the rest of the opposition in August. Good luck.
TheZiggy
6 февраля, 2010 at 15:41
The signings look pretty good. Fleck should do a great job as a striker. As Lye points out, Ridgewell is now world class, but he should still do a decent job for you.
I think you should have enough quality in the team to avoid relegation without too much trouble. In the first season it’s all about getting results against the teams that will be struggling near the bottom. If you’re achieving that, you can set the targets higher, and hopefully pull off a few surprises along the way.
Majk
6 февраля, 2010 at 18:07
Hopefully your tactics are better than mine was with Millwall. I had a bit more to work with when it came to wage budget and transfer kitty. Still I only ended up in 17th.
So I wish you all the luck Kevin! Do wonders this season and you’ll do us all proud.
Kevin
6 февраля, 2010 at 22:05
Hi Everyone
Have been offline for a while so I really appreciate your support and positive feedback. I probably haven’t got the best squad in the league and so will try and have to get the best out of them though I went for players that had good to high «determination» attributes. Figured that might help to stay up.