The first was to ensure that I spent funds reasonably. The reality is that my club had a negative bank balance even with the huge revenue streams I received from winning the Prem and the CL. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't afford a big money signing this year.
The second focus was around Babel and Stevie G - I needed a replacement for Babel as I suspected that he would want to leave the club soon for a new challenge. In addition, Stevie G was starting to get old and I would need a replacement to act as cover in the short term with a view to taking over his slot in the long term. But who could I sign with limited funds?
Luckily for me, our new chairman (if you recall, we managed to kick Hicks out in 2009/10) came up with some additional capital! Together with the sponsorship money and season tickets, our club was not only back into the red, but we had a decent transfer kitty as well!
I like my new chairman :)
Unfortunately, right at the start of the transfer window, Aquilani decided that he wanted a new challenge. Which was a bit of an upset primarily as he was a pretty important player for us.
Lying git - why did you request a transfer if it was so hard for you to leave!
Anyway, time to get started on the transfer market. Which isn't as easy as you would think. The problem is that most players are prohibitively expensive if they are good (you may recall that I spent over GBP40m for Papastaphopoulos who was a CB - imagine how much an attacking player would cost!).
Luckily for me, I knew that I would be looking for a left winger a while ago so I had been keeping tabs on players who might be available and who were able to play in that position. A massive stroke of good luck enabled us to pick up Mesut Ozil for GBP20m which is an incredibly good price considering how good a player he is.
Ozil actually plays best as an AMC but his quality means that he can play AML better than Babel
And the great thing with Ozil is that he can also cover for Gerrard if necessary!
Originally, Ozil was going to be my only new big signing. However, another piece of good fortune would shine on me.
Rumors that I was interested in Wesley Sneijder - I wasn't
A rumor came out that I was interested in Sneijder. The truth was that I wasn't looking to buy him but had scouted him as part of my normal scouting process. However, after the rumor came out, I realised that I could purchase him for a relatively small GBP15m. For a player of his quality, the price was just too attractive and not long after, Sneijder joined our ranks.
Another quality signing - this is shaping up to be a great close season!
Alas, fate would play one more cruel trick upon me. While I benefited from the rumor mill in signing Sneijder, the rumor mill came to bite me in the ass when a couple of clubs showed their interest in Skrtel. I publicly ruled out selling him but alas, by Monday morning, he was in my office asking for a transfer.
Although annoyed, I wasn't too upset as Ian Jones had been doing a fantastic job and I felt he was ready to step up to the first team on a full time basis.
If I ever find proof that someone tapped him up, I will go legal!
As the pre-season draws to a close, this is the look of my squad.
As you can see, I have a pretty huge squad. Part of the reason for this is that I have put a real focus on youth players (new names you see in the team which I haven't talked about are generally people who came up through the youth system or people I bought as youngsters). The other reason for the large squad is that I want to challenge for a couple more cups this year and hence, need some more decent players (even if they are a bit young).
After those screenshots were taken, I made one more new signing. Initially, I had tried to get some experienced CB but they were all looking for guaranteed first team action and I wasn't willing to offer them that. In the end, I had to settle for buying another youngter.
2 comments:
15mil for a 29 year old attacking player? Surely you won't get more than a couple of years out of him before he starts going downhill stats wise?
Basically, yeah. I'm looking to get 3 good years out of Sneijder followed by another year or two as backup.
It may seem expensive but considering how much players cost in this game, its a price which I'm happy to pay. Particularly when you realise that using the money to buy two or more squad players isn't going to improve the squad much at all (other than at CB, squad depth is not so much of an issue at the moment).
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