Vauxhall Motors Story: preparing for League One

Hello dear friends, it’s time to prepare my Motormen for League One! We did pretty well last season, finished second in League Two and got promoted, but I admit that I would have wanted to grab the title. Anyway, we got promoted and that was another step in our journey from the lowest league to the top of English football. There’s still a long way to go though and League One will be an important hurdle in our path towards glory.

As expected the board didn’t expect more than a scrappy relegation battle. I told them that we can grab a top half finish and they handed me a transfer budget (yay!) of 35,000 pounds and a nice weekly wage budget of 23,500 pounds. I was quite satisfied with those figures, no complaints.

The promotion odds were published and there was nothing surprising there, everybody sees Vauxhall Motors finishing last. They should learn from past mistakes though, we always were predicted to finish last and… you know the outcome! ;)

Before signing new players and staff my main concern was to improve the club’s assets, the pitch and the training facilities. The board finally had enough money to grant my requests so we will play on a perfect pitch at Rivacre Park! The training facilities will be improved for the first time since I took charge and that’s a big step forward.

And now let’s move to the juicy part: the transfers! You might remember me saying that I won’t bring in too many players this time. Well, I couldn’t resist! I brought in 16 new players, five of them on season-long loan deals and three of them for the future (they have already been loaned out to other teams to help their development). Six players were sold and I’m happy to say that we even got some money from two sales, 130K for Fraser Kerr and 10K for Julius Gombala. As you can notice we made only free transfers again and most of the loan players are also free, no wage contributions from us (except one player).

Now let me present you the squad, step by step.

Goalkeepers

I did try to find a new goalkeeper but since there were no appealing targets I decided to keep Martin Hansen for another season and James Dunn as a backup.

Right Backs

Jacob Hronec remains at the club for another season but he will have to face tough competition from this new kid I brought in, 18-year old Ken Harris. He joined us from Manchester United and although he is not very quick I believe that he is a good prospect given his mental attributes. His stamina should also prove to be quite important during the busy period of the season.

Left Backs

This department was totally revamped because I found two much better left back than the ones I had. My first choice is 20-year old Alex Billington, a former Blackburn player with great speed, determination and also with pretty good technical skills.

Billington will have to compete for a first team spot with 18-year old Grant Baddeley, a former Manchester United player who seems to be a quick lad with superb mental attributes. I think that this one could become one of the club’s top players in a year or two.

Centre Backs

I wanted to bring in just one more centre back since we already had Daniel Pappoe, Derrick Williams and Oliver Nicholas. First I wanted to bring in an experienced defender but when I received a scout report on Mervin Simon I didn’t have to look further, I signed him instantly. He is a former Arsenal player and all my staff members believe that he could become a good Premier League defender in the future. I surely hope they are right :)

The squad presentation continues, go to the next page to see our midfielders and strikers!

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Right Midfielders

I decided to keep only Pietro Palladino, a long-serving player at our club, and I brought in two new right wingers. First there is 18-year old Darren King from Tottenham, a good dribbler and also a hard working lad.

The other new right winger joins us on loan all the way from Paraguay from champions Guarani. First I wanted to buy him but the club wanted 100,000 pounds and I couldn’t afford that. Then I tried a loan move and they agreed, we didn’t have to pay anything but we will cover his wages (at 50 pounds per week that isn’t a problem). Carlos Bogado is already a youth international and I think that his dribbling will do some damage in League One.

Left Midfielders

For the left side of my midfield I decided to keep only Jacob Walcott, a player that did well last season. He will have to compete with two new players, one signed on a permanent deal and one on loan. The one that I signed on a long term contract is former Manchester United player Keith Higgs, a versatile player that can provide cover on both flanks.

My first choice left winger joined us on loan from Blackburn, his name is Jason Banton. His great speed and determination make him an ideal candidate for the first team spot while his flair might make a difference in a game or two.

Central Midfielders

I had a few problems when it came to the middle of the pitch. I was keen on buying an African midfielder, the deal was already agreed for 20K but unfortunately he wasn’t given a work permit. I decided to keep four of my old central midfielders and bring in two more, it will be quite crowded :) The players that remained at the club are: Peter Leven, Nathan Rooney, Matthew Ball and Shane Williams and they will have to prove that they deserve to wear the Motormen shirt until January, the weakest one will be sold then. Mark Brown joined us on a free transfer after being released by Liverpool, a hard-working and determined kid with good set piece attributes.

The other new central midfielder joined us on loan from mighty Manchester United, I doubt they will agree to sell him anytime soon. Graham Howson is a perfect free kick taker at the age of 18 but his other attributes indicate that he might be an extremely reliable choice this season.

Strikers

Darryl Duffy and Omar Koroma will stay at the club for another season, they earned new contracts after scoring around 50 goals between them last season. They will have tough competition for a place in the first team though, no less than three new strikers. First we have Dale Hills, an interesting prospect that joined us on a free transfer after being released by Arsenal. He has decent attributes overall but he’s only 18 years old so I hope we’ll see him developing well at the club.

Luke Williams joined us again on loan from Middlesbrough, he spent three months with us last season and scored five goals in 12 appearances back then. He can also provide cover as a right or left winger but I hope that he can establish himself as a first team regular.

Last but not least, Mark Cullen, a striker that joined us on loan from Newcastle. He is kinda short but very quick and hard working, a player that could serve us well throughout the season.

I also brought in a few new coaches to improve our training sessions and I’m quite pleased with the perspectives, we have 3.5 stars for most training categories. Our scouting network was improved as well, we have 11 scouts that travel the world to find the best players for us. We have a pretty big squad, 27 players to be exact, but I will be looking to reduce that number to 25 once I’ll have a better idea of who deserves to be here and who doesn’t.

The friendly games went well enough, seven straight wins including a pleasing one over Championship side Bristol City. Darryl Duffy scored no less than seven goals but I was happy to see that another 11 players found the back of the net during the summer friendlies.

We’ll start with some pretty tough fixtures in August as we’ll meet Championship side Newcastle in the League Cup and league favorites Charlton 10 days later.

That’s about it for now, I’m eager to start playing the August games and see my new players in action. Thanks a lot for reading folks, I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts about the new signings.