Hello friends, after last season’s 11th place finish in Blue Square South, my board is quite happy with my performance and i was offered a new 3 year contract until 2013. For the upcoming new season, my board has set a target of a mid-table finish, i told them i can achieve that but inside my heart i hope my team will perform well enough to at least achieve a play-off place.
This come down to whether i can sign the right players to achieve the goal of promotion. Before i introduce my new signings, i will give a in-depth introduction for each position of my current squad.
Goalkeeper - Currently i have 2 goalkeepers, Scott Tynan is my first choice and Joe Woolley is the back-up. I am quite happy with both of them, they should be able to perform in this level.
Left back - Phil Anderson is my first choice left back and Matt Paine as the back-up. Matt Paine can also play as left midfielder. He will be my left midfielder so i need to sign one more player for this position.
Right back - Olly James is my only recognized right-back, so i definitely need to add one or two players for this position.
Central Defender - Currently i have three central defenders Nathan Bunce, Chris Saunders and Lewis Walker (he is signed in March last season), need to add one more player as Nathan Bunce is getting old and his training attributes is dropping everytime.
Left Midfielder - Matt Paine is the first choice and Alex Smith is the back-up. If i can find players better than them i will sign them to replace these 2 players.
Right Midfielder - Chris black(signed last season) is my first choice and Matt Bodkin as back-up. I will sign if there is better players available.
Central Midfielder - Simon Heslop is my playmaker and Wayne Graves is the ball winning midfielder. I need to sign two or more players for this department as i am pretty short of players in this area.
Forwards – Currently i have 2 strikers David Knight and Jamie Garry. By the way David Knight is voted as fans player of the year for last season. I had let go of my top scoring striker for the last season David Bryant, he is very inconsistent so i decided to find someone better. I will sign at least one or two players for the two strikers position.
One of the targets this year is to find a parent club, however my board yet dismiss my request again seeing no point in linking with another club. I am facing the same problem as last season in signing good players. I try to offer contract to a lot of players but nobody is interested in joining us.
I will introduce the players whom i had signed so far, to date i had signed seven players, three from last season and two from loan. Let me introduce them one by one.
Lewis Walker is signed in March last season. I wanted more pace for my central defence as Nathan Bunce is getting old and lack of pace. I don’t know whether it is due to his high aggression, he can really cause a chaos in opposition defence during corner taking. I hope he can give me another supply of goals in set-piece.
Chris Black will occupy the right side midfield position, i am going to employ him as a winger as his physical attributes is quite good, but has very low crossing ability. I will advise him to cut inside more often.
Thurrock supporters should be very familiar with David King as he is my loan signing last season from MK dons. When he is transfer listed, i act quickly to snap him up for free. He is delighted to join us as he totally enjoy his loan spell during the time here and Thurrock is now listed as his favorite club. What i like about him is that he ia capable of playing in several position, but i will employ him as a central defender alongside Lewis Walker.
Eddie Oshodi is a loan signing from Watford, he is a young chap whom my coaching team believe that he is better than Phil Anderson, so he will be my first choice left-back this season. I hope he will enjoy his spell here.
A former player from St Albans, his team was relegated from the Blue Square South last season. I give him another shot in this level, i hope he will be able to prove himself he can make it.
Another of my loan signing, Harry Crawford is a striker loan from Southend. My coach team think he has the potential to be better than Paul Hakim. I hope he can supply me some goals this season.
Last but not least, Jack Jeffrey is a former West Ham player who is young and wants to prove himself. His attributes is pretty average for the technical, mental and physical side, but i hope he can develop well in training to become a good striker for my team.
Paul Hakim and Jack Jeffrey will be my first choice strikers for this season, Harry Crawford, Jamie Garry and David Knight as back-up.
I still hope to conclude a few signings whom can bring us to another level, until then i need to stick with what i have to compete in the Blue Square South. The players whom i bring hardly stir any surprise from the media, that’s why they predict us to finish 16th for this season. The odds is also firmly against us as we are placed 40-1 to win the Blue Square South. They predict that we will be in for a long relegation fight, but i had already proved them wrong last season, i will make them eat their words again.
In my next post, i will bring you my friendly results and hopefully some more signings.
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Not having played with one of the lower league teams, it's hard for me to judge how good those signings are.
Will be interesting to see how they perform, and good luck for the season.
I hope they will do well for the team. As i always into lower league management,i find that it is much more difficult to sign good players compare to FM09. I can get the team promoted in my second season in FM09, hope i can do the same here. I am enjoying my game in FM10 so will keep on playing even if results does not go my way.