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It really takes a bite out of your bottom line when you have to pay out bonuses for winning the league and cups. We shell out around £114,000 but I’m more than happy to do that.
As the game resets itself for the new season I take a hit on board confidence. This is because I’m no longer getting credit for all those wins. It bothers me not as I’m still Untouchable but only at 90%.
With the departures of Day, Carroll, and Duckett we are down to one Highly Influential Player, that being Chick Legg. Hopefully Jefcoate will graduate up from the Influential Player group. I’m hoping that O’Shea is in one of those groups by the time I have to pick the new Vice Captain.
Little-used David Donaldson moves on to Tranmere, who just got themselves back into League Two. We made a whopping £800 off the move.
On 5 July Nixon takes a walk to Barnsley. I don’t recall approving this transfer as it included a friendly and I had already set up all the friendlies I wanted for the pre-season. I’m surprised it was only £3,000. I don’t drink so it couldn’t have been that. I doubt I’ll ever figure out what happened.
Oh danggggg. On 14 July Wrexham declare their interest in Macey. This is an unexpected development. I hope he doesn’t want to leave.
Millwall, in the Championship, arrive at Brockwell Park on 19 July with a respectable offer for Paul Taylor. An initial fee of £2,500 along with £3,000 in two installments, £2,000 more after 10 league matches, £2,000 after 10 league goals, and 40% of the next sale. Things are a bit crowded at striker and Paul wants to go. I say yes and play the waiting game. I have to wait over a week but he finally agrees on 27 July. Good luck, Paul, you’ve been a wonderful player here.
Pilcher comes to me on 20 July saying he wants to go to Blackpool. They haven’t made an actual offer for him of late so I ask Macey to flex his captaincy and convince Pilcher to drop the matter for now. It works. So of course four days later, Leeds, now in the Premier League try to low-ball us to unsettle him.
On 23 July I put Kemar on the Loan List as I want him to get Premier League experience because he’ll stagnate if he stays with us. He of course gets upset but I explain that it’s just a loan, not a permanent move, and I need to do this for his development. He agrees with me.
I need one, possibly two, left backs and let me tell you, nobody worth a darn wants to come to us. I also need a defensive midfielder and a striker for the U18 squad and I’m having no luck there. I’ve scouted over 50 players.
Back in early April I mentioned signing a youth striker named Mark Marshall. I finally made an offer of £1,000 for him on 8 July. I just wasn’t finding any good youth strikers and need one in the U18s as I only have one there. I promised him we’d get promoted this year and offered £300 per week; he agrees on 10 July.
Youngster Ibrahim Agu picked up a gashed leg in training on 9 July which leaves us thin on the right wing for the next 6 to 14 days, and Mark Marshall hasn’t signed yet, so I go hunting for a trialist. My search parameters are “Unattached” and “Accomplished at either MR or AMR.” I found this chap.
He agrees not four hours later and I now have 4 weeks to determine if he’s worth keeping around. Now that I know that a squad’s personality can rub off on a fellow squaddie I’m not worried about his 7 Determination. I’m very happy to see that he is “very well suited to Southern Premier football” and that he “could improve a lot in the future.”
Of course 10 hours later Mark Marshall signs. :-D
I can’t seem to find a U18 DL worth a damn so I finally pull the trigger on this left wingback Steve Pike. I sure hope he can learn DL. It costs me £2,000 to lure him away from AFC Telford. I think once O’Shea has finished mentoring Nightingale, Pike will get some love.
He signs with us on 13 July. I don’t immediately elevate Rice to the Seniors as I need him on the bench for the U18 match on 14 July.
I also need another trialist at central midfield. I offer Unambitious Glyn Davies who looks promising. If only I could find a mentor for him. Oh dang. Turns out he’s already suited for Conference South and can improve a lot. Now I need a mentor in the midfield! By 25 July I decided to make a permanent offer. In his four matches he’s rated 9.3, 8.3, 7.5, and 7.3. Pretty impressive.
Trial Day is announced on 16 July so I send my chief scout to take a gander. The scouting reports come in four days later and all of them but one are super expensive (£35-50k p/w) and/or have significant gaps in their game. The one who was good just wouldn’t get playing time to justifying bring him in.
Scouting meetings take place at 2345 every other day. At first I think the late night delirium has gotten to me when I see this kid available for a free. I could use an extra left winger and super-sub for the left side...
My scout thinks he’ll ask for £240 per week, max, so I offer £250 for two years when I notice he came up through Chelsea’s academy, figuring he’s gonna get lots of interest, so I want him to sign quickly. Sure enough, four hours later Chester, in the Conference North, make an offer. Dammit. A couple days later, League One side Bristol Rovers offer Wharton a contract. Our chances of landing him plunge. Maybe if he signs with them I’ll try to take him on loan. He signs on 25 July but goes immediately into their senior team. Drat.
Knowing I didn’t have any true defensive midfielders in the U18s I offered a trial to a youngster who’s already on a £5 per week youth contract with a team at the same level of the pyramid as Brixton. On the 50th anniversary of man landing on the Moon I offer him a professional contract. Nathan Kingdon has the audacity of telling me he doesn’t want to play at Brixton so I have to make him an “amazing”offer. Dude, I’m doing you a favor plucking you from obscurity! Still, I make him a standard offer for Brixton. If he accepts, I will owe Halesowen £5,000 with another £8,000 possible in other clauses. Yes, I’m starting to flex Brixton’s Sugar Daddy status about. He agrees on 23 July.
This training camp I try not to have too many patsies. I schedule the usual weaklings but add some Conference South, Conference National, League Two, and of course League One Swindon due to the mystery trade of Nixon.
Seasons tickets sold should be around 400, which is better than last year’s 230. Tickets prices went up to £8 from £6 last year. Still a bargain. By 21 July the numbers are up to 387 so we’re getting closer but my assistant also notes that another 100 are expected to sell. That’d be great to have close to 500.
We are 1-5 odds to get promoted and 3-2 odds to win the division. If my math is correct, and it rarely is, the Southern League Premier Division sees the top two teams getting promoted to the Conference National League South.
In similar news, on 31 July I have to decide on win bonuses. The middle tier for winning the league is £75k and the domestic cups is £375k. That’s a lot of money. I opted for the highest tier of the league, £105k, but opt for the low end on the cups, £225k.
Let us look back two years to our batch of youth players who made up the bulk of the initial squad. I never really planned for them to be around for a long time as I expected “real” youth academy graduates and spot signings for leadership and mentoring would be the way we formed.
GK: Robert Webb, Carl Friend. Both are still with us, with Webb in the Seniors and Carl in the U18s. I hope to off-load them soon.
DR: Tom Johnstone, Peter Maguire. Tom started a couple of matches for the Seniors early in our first year but was sent down to the U18s when Shadi Al-Ziod arrived. He’ll get more starts this year in the Seniors. Peter started a lot of games for the Seniors but he’s gonna be sold off as Tom and Kevin Parker have higher potential.
DL: Kevin Parker, James Jefcoate. Kevin has been a wonderful utility player at full back the first two years and will start at DR this year. Jefcoate split time starting with Al-Ziod but now will be our primary DL.
DC: Ricky Spearing, Robert Carroll. These two gents were the rocks in the center of our defense for two years but they drew attention to themselves and now are playing higher up the pyramid and in Scotland. We only got £10,000 for them combined but I think the game engine did a better job of figuring out “reality” for transfers in the 7th level of English football.
DMC: Connor Smith, Simon McAdam. Connor started many games for us defending in the middle of the field but as more midfielders came in he didn’t get as many starts. I’ve moved him to DC to be our third or fourth choice there. Simon kind of had a similar trajectory but I’m looking to offload him now.
MC: Terry Barlow, Teddy Cullen, David Donaldson. Terry was another stalwart in the midfield but too lost playing time as other, better MCs came in. Teddy got some time starting but David got less. They are both gone and I hope to move Terry soon.
MR: Steve Pearson. He was a beast for us for one and one-third seasons but £20,000 from Brentford was too good to pass up.
ML: Daniel Duckett. Another beast on the wings but got two whole seasons in before going to Swindon for £10,000. I had forgotten he got 36 assists for us in our first year.
ST: Paul Taylor, Ben O’Donnell. Paul was a good player for us, having some good streaks of scoring. Ben had an amazing inaugural season with us getting 38 goals, eclipsed only by Captain Eddie Macey. Brighton’s offer of £45,000 was way too good to turn down.
Our initial batch was amazing. If our youth academy ever produces great defenders eventually Parker, Johnstone, Jefcoate, and Smith will too depart.
After our last friendly I’m going to start training three new formations just to make our fight a little bit harder. Despite that, and having let a lot of regulars go, I’m still optimistic we’ll be able to win the league.