Wrexham: NPower Championship Build Up

Hello friends and welcome back to my Football Manager Story featuring Welsh side Wrexham who had just won the League One title and now faced the prospect of life in The NPower Championship.

Before I go on the I apologize for the long gap between posts but these last seven days have been hectic at work as well as lots of delays on the subway which has created longer than usual days. Anyway….

Once the celebrations had died down following last season’s incredible double it was back to the business of running a football club. Our financial situation as usual was perilous having lost money over the last twelve months.

I also felt it was time to depart company with my Assistant Manager Barry Postlethwaite as he would not be up to the challenge of The Championship and he agreed to a mutual termination. Twenty four hours later I hired Kevin Pressman as my new number two.

Pressman’s first assignment would be to provide an analysis of the current squad with some pre-set parameters that I had provided. What was interesting to see was skipper Brian Gilmour propping up the table but this report also gave me a point of focus as well.

I already knew Alex Smith would need greater support on the left flank and that the central defence may require someone with a Championship experience. As well the right back position was practically void of a decent player and had been filled with loan signings for the last two seasons.

Pressman Report

June started off with some great news on the financial front as we secured a new shirt sponsor bring in a hefty and much needed £500,000 to the club.

My first signing of the off season was youngster Paul Reid who had been released by Spurs and whom my scouts were drooling over. I wasn’t so sure myself but threw caution to the wind and brought him onto the Wrexham books. The fans went crazy over the thought of him playing first team football in the future and increased shirt sales at the club shop!

** Reid would go on to break his leg in the opening pre season game against Portadown and would be out for 7 months

The rest of June was relatively quiet and in the last week of the month it was time to meet the board and set out the season expectations which I told them would be to avoid relegation. To my surprise they handed me a whopping £2.6million transfer budget and increased the salary budget to £73K per week!!

It’s great to have all that cash, the question is will higher caliber players be willing to come to The Racecourse Ground?

The bookies didn’t give us much hope of achieving anything and set our odds at 40-1 for the title.

After much thought I decided to adjust the budget and give more funds to salaries moving it up to £86,000 per week and thus started a flurry of transfer activity with six new players joining Wrexham in seven days!

The first of these was Nuno Camara, a young French striker who was released by Olympic Lyon and has good physical attributes as well as being a potential deadly free kick taker. Alongside my other French striker Baheng the pair could really work well together.

Billy Clifford who had been on loan with us for the last two seasons jumped at the chance to play for Wrexham full time after being released by Chelsea and he will be supported in the right back position by young Italian Alberto Massacci who was no longer required at Old Trafford.

To strengthen the back four even further Seb Hines joined us from Plymouth and his experience in the higher league will add value to what still is a very young back four.

On the left flank to support Alex Smith comes David Martin from Derby County. They no longer required his services and I thought he would more than suit my left flank tactic given his pace, dribbling and crossing abilities.

To add some steel to an already burgeoning midfield Espen Sogard joined us from French side Guincamp. Easily the oldest player by far in the squad Sogard is still in great shape and has all the necessary tools of the trade to create chances as well as act as “defensive wall” and can probably stay on the pitch all day long!

The second half of July was equally as busy at The Racecourse Ground with yet another five players arriving.

Although I have two left backs already I brought in two more who are a lot more promising than my current players the scouts insisted they were must buys.

Danny Potts who we loaned from West Ham last season joined us for £28,000 and will most likely take over the left back role from Darren Lough and Joe Bennett. His back up may well be Luke Garbutt who was with Yeovil last season on loan but was on Everton’s books before being released.

The right side of the field remains a problem until we broke our club transfer record paying £500,000 to the LA Galaxy for American Lewis Henderson. He’s definitely got some speed about him and Assistant Manager Kevin Pressman assured me he was a quality player. I hope he’s right.

As July closed Spaniard Mario Ortiz was brought to my attention and although I didn’t really need yet another midfielder the fans were absolutely delighted when his capture was announced from Racing Club of Spain who had just released him the same day.

As usual I’ve managed to get carried away in the transfer market and have ended up with an abundance of players in the left back and centre midfield areas which will surely mean having to off load some players as I’m really stretching the salary budget!

The pre-season friendlies went very well and we remained unbeaten though they were hardly quality opponents with the exception of Fulham who we beat 2-0 to the delight of the 10,000 fans that showed up for the game.

The season proper will start at home to Reading before heading to Rochdale for a League cup encounter. Following that comes three difficult games that could really have an effect on the season.

I haven’t fully decided yet but this could well be my last year at Wrexham. If the right offer comes along I may well be tempted to move on but we shall see what happens.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of the weekend.