Vauxhall Motors Story: Preparing To Win The Third Consecutive Title

Here we go folks, it’s time to get the Motormen prepared to win the Premier League title for the third time in a row and maybe get another shot at the Champions League and the Carling Cup, the only trophies that we had not won yet. There also is the Club World Cup too but we won’t have a chance to try that competition for now. Last season was nice, we won the Premier League and the FA Cup but we came really close to the Champions League but unfortunately Man City beat us in the final. I know you’re curious to see the new players so I’ll stop the introduction here, let’s see those new faces!

Not so fast though, first let’s see how much money I had to spend. Well, I had the biggest amount yet, no less than 69 million pounds for a title promise!

The club is doing pretty well these days, we’re in the «richest clubs» top 20 and I guess that is quite remarkable for what used to be a semi-professional club 10 years ago.

Alright then, let’s finally see the transfers! Not the new faces yet though, first we’ll see the old faces that left the club. If you look at the list you might notice that you don’t know most of those players and I can’t blame you, most of them never played in the first team! However, we managed to get no less than 66 million pounds for these players! Only two important first team players left the club this summer, centre back Louis Laing and striker Wellington Paulista, the rest of the bunch are fringe players like John Fleck or youngsters from the reserves that I thought were not going to reach their potential. I made some calculations on these players that I have sold this summer and guess what, I paid around 11 million pounds to bring them all in! So now I managed to get six times that amount, not really «youth to gold» but surely «youth to a bit of cash» :)

Now’s the big moment, the new players! I spent a staggering 91 million pounds on 14 new players but only four of them will be playing first team football next season, you will meet them shortly!

The most expensive signing in the club’s history joins the club from Liverpool for no less than 35 million pounds, his name is Danny Wilson and most of you surely know him from Darren‘s story. He is the best centre back in England at the moment and I was determined to pay up to 40 million for his services, I think that his presence will make a very big difference next season. Oh, and the Liverpool fans were quite angry when the news hit the papers :)

The right back area has been a bit of a problem for the last couple of seasons but now I think we have secured the future with Gary Warner, an 18-year old English full back that joined us for 12.5 million pounds from Everton. He will be a backup player for now but I believe that he can become irreplaceable pretty soon.

We already have a great right winger in Leandro Velasco but I wanted to bring in a youngster that could grow in his shadow and French wonderkid Moustapha Gueye seemed the perfect candidate. I did try to buy him last summer too but I didn’t have the money back then, now I gladly paid 8 million pounds to Standard Liege for a player that could become a sensation very soon.

Last but not least I needed a new striker since I decided to part company with Wellington Paulista. There were several candidates but the price tags were quite large for all of them, all except one: 21-year old Argentine Lucas Cuello. I paid 10 million to Dutch club Vitesse for him and I believe that he’s worth the money given his great skills and speed. This lad could become more than a backup for Parana and Zé Carlos.

I have another player to introduce before moving on, the most expensive youngster that I ever bought: 17-year old Iain McManus. He is dubbed the next Michael Owen and I paid no less than 12.5 million to Liverpool for this kid. I believe that it’s a good investment though, this boy can become a lot better than Owen, that is if he’s not as injury prone as Michael was.

Here is the full 24-man squad for this season, you can click the player names to view their profiles:

Goalkeepers: Luis Guilherme, Jack Butland

Right Backs: Julian Marino, Gary Warner

Left Backs: Pierre Touya, Hans Larsson

Centre Backs: Danny Wilson, Marat Bykov, Javier Godoy, Mervin Simon

Wingers: Leandro Velasco, Tiago, Abdallah Yaisien, Moustapha Gueye, Walid Mechergui

Central Midfielders: Marcos Fernandez, Robert Ackermann, Indio, Radek Vecera, Graham Howson

Strikers: Zé Carlos, Parana, Lucas Cuello, Ibrahima MBow

The friendly games went fairly well although we missed all the players that were away at the Copa America. Some lads from the reserves managed to step into the spotlight, I believe that a few of them will make reasonable backup players starting this season.

Even though we have won the last two titles the bookies still can’t believe their eyes, at 12-1 I would put at least half of my fortune on the Motormen :)

Before you ask, I have the answer: I have become a club legend :)

Before wrapping up I have to fulfill a request from Erick Wolf, you asked for Zeli Ismail’s profile and I give you that plus the career stats. ;)

There you go my friends, I hope that you have enjoyed this post. What do you think about my new players? I’m quite curious to find out! :)