Hello friends, i am coming into my fourth season with Thurrock. After the disappointment of missing the play-off spot last season, i am determined to strengthen my squad to challenge for the title this season. My board expectations has been pretty average for this year as they only expect us to finish in mid-table position. Thus i don’t have any transfer fee available, i had already expected that since the club is 200k in red. But what i didn’t expect is that they only provide me with a small wage budget of 2.8k/week. It was few hundred lower than last season. Anyway i told the board that we will have a top-half finish and they increase to 2.9k/week. The current wage is well over this amount so definitely i need to release some players for new players to come in.

Even though i was given such a small budget, i had no choice but to accept it. Before the start of the new season, i had already identify my transfer targets and offered them a contract. Most of them agreed to sign for my club so i was pretty delighted about it. The signings were concluded before the budget was given to me. If i were to sign players after the board decision, i don’t think i will be able to sign any good players as the board will inflict a salary cap on new players. The new signings will definitely cause the wage to increase over the budget, but i think if we can won promotion to the league 2, things will definitely get better as we will have higher attendence resulting an increase in revenue.

SQUAD ANALYSIS

Goalkeeper- There won’t be any new signings as i think Scott Tynan and Joe Woolley are quite competent at this level.

Left Back- I had a good left back in Robbie Threlfall, Matt Paine will be the back-up. So no new signings required.

Right Back- Olly James and George Francomb  perform quite well last season, they are young and i believe they have room to improve so no new signings for this position.

Central Defender- Troy Archibad-Henville and David King will be the first team regular. I will be releasing the 2 back-ups so new players will be brought in to replace them.

Left Midfielder- I do not have any players who is natural in this position last season. I had been using Matt Paine as left midfielder so this position is the first priority that i should sign.

Right Midfielder- Robin Shroot is the only recognized player in this position. I will sign a new player as a back-up.

Central Midfielder- Kevin Macdonald and Josh Falkingham did very well last season, with Simon Heslop as the back-up and David King and Robin Shroot are both comfortable playing in central midfield so i am quite satisfied with what i have.

Strikers- Like left midfielder, this is another important position that i need to bring player in. Jack Jeffery had already left the club and Antoine Sibierski will be following him out as i won’t be renewing his contract. I need to sign new players for this position to partner Paul Hakim.

Below is my transfer news…

Players in & out

I released 3 players this season, beside Antoine Sibierski the other 2 players are the backup central defenders. I am not too pleased with their performance, they had been making a lot of mistakes when coming in. Jack Jeffrey and Phil Anderson were released last season so this will at least free up some wages for new players. In total i signed 8 players including 1 loan. There were 2 central defender, 2 left midfielder and 4 strikers. Let me present my most important signings to you.

Steven Leslie will be my new first choice left midfielder. Decent pace and good technical attributes. He learnt his football trade in Shrewsbury Town and join them as a schoolboy in 2004/05 season. He was released last season and once my scout informed me about him. I quickly made my move and was delighted by his decision to join us. I believe he will be a hit for us. Another new signing will be his deputy and his name is Marley Watkins. His acceleration and pace is better than Steven Leslie, so definitely will be a competent backup.

Frederic Veseli is a swiss youth whom my assistant manager think that he will grow to become a good league 1 player. He was released by Man City and was consider not good enough to wear the Blues shirt. I snap him up and really pleased that he will be joining us for this season. At the moment he will be the third choice central defender but if he did well in training, i will give him a run in the first team to improve his skills.

Another exciting hot prospect wearing Thurrock shirt will be Ignasi Miquel who is a Spanish youth plying his trade in England. Arsenal, club famous for signing good young players is his former club. If he was able to catch the eye of Mr Arsene Wenger to make a move for him, definitely he is someone worth signing. He will be the backup for either David King or Troy Archibad-Henville, but i will give him a chance to show his ability probably in FA trophy games and the less important games.

Next important signing is Izale Mcleod, some of you may know him as he was a former Charlton player. He has fantastic pace and acceleration, in this level there are not many defenders who can catch up with him. I anticipate big things from him and i hope he will bring us a lot of goals this season.

Marc Richards is another striker who i had signed this season. He will be teaming up with Izale Mcleod to give us a new look front line this season. Since i had a pacey striker in Izale Mcleod, i felt that Marc Richards will give us a different dimension in front. I am looking to employ him as a target men or advanced forward who need to hold the ball and bring his team mates into play.

Another 2 players are Thomas Hitchcock who is a young prospect. He was a former Blackburn Rovers player who has good pace and decent finishing attributes. He will compete with Paul Hakim for 3rd choice striker role. Kiernan Hughes-Mason is a player you will be familiar with, i loaned him last season and he did really well. He scored 12 goals for us. I really love this player, but the reason i wanted to loan him again is his ability to play in the right midfield position. He will fight for the first team place with Robin Shroot.

With the new players in place, i hope that they can gel into the squad fast. I am very excited by the new players who had joined us, i hope that now we have a squad capable of challenging for the title this season. Dear friends, what do you think about the new signings that i had made? Are we able to gain promotion to the league 2 this season? Please give me your comments.

Thats all for the pre season updates, i will post the friendly results and the games played in August together as i don’t want this post to get any more longer. See you in my next post, Thurrock-Friendly and August results.