2015/16 PRE-SEASON
Transfer Activities
As you can see, I have been relatively busy in the transfer window. The players in the "Out" section are either unneeded players who ran out of contract or youth players leaving on loan; nothing more. However, there was one more player leaving the club but not mentioned in the list: Kelle Roos. He didn't have that high of a potential anyway and my assistant recommended a mutual termination of Roos' contract, so I figured it's in the best interest of both parties; we can give the
chance
to another player with better potential and we don't waste his time hoping to displace Lee Grant when he can play many more games in another club.
Out of the six loan players I had last season, four have returned to their parent clubs: Leon Best to Blackburn Rovers, Omar Mascarell to Real Madrid, Jordon Ibe to Liverpool, and Tyler Blackett to Manchester United. Though they were useful in their own ways, I'm not offering them the chance to stay permanently for different reasons. Best's wage was too high though he didn't play as well as the other strikers, Mascarell and Ibe weren't anywhere near first-team Premier League quality yet, and the resurgence of Mark O'Brien meant I don't really need Blackett anymore.
As for the players coming in, there was one particular plan that I had in mind: expand the squad. Premier League is going to be much tougher, so I need more firepower in case my main players become unavailable for one reason or another. Gianluca Chimenti, John Banks, and Robbie Bateman are all young players with great potential who will play in the development teams for now. I'll explain the rest one by one.
Luke Samuel Garbutt
I'm sure you already know him if you've been following my story. I made his move permanent and for 5.5 million, he's my biggest signing in this transfer window and I think it's justified. A solid choice at left-back last season, he has a sterner test coming up for him: being a first-team regular in the Premier League.
Ryan Colin Shotton
This isn't actually my decision. When I arrived, his status was still a loan player, but he already had a transfer arranged to go through in this transfer window. Anyway, he made a good partnership with captain Richard Keogh, so I won't complain.
Diego Sebastian Laxalt Suarez
I decided to give Jamie Ward a competition for next season. Also, since Ward isn't getting any younger, I might as well look for a young left winger. Therefore, when I saw Internazionale released Diego Laxalt, I picked him up for free. His stats are actually comparable to the level of our squad, so he would be a great addition.
Andrea Belotti
The 21 years old Italian striker is a more than capable replacement for Leon Best, but the player I want him to specifically challenge is Chris Martin. He showed me last season that even though he had a pretty good goal tally, he can be inconsistent. Therefore, Belotti can capitalise when Martin's form drops and maybe make the Advanced Forward position his own if he plays well enough.
Micah Lincoln Richards
Oh, Micah Richards, whatever happened to you? He was once touted as the next England right-back but Manchester City doesn't seem to give him any chance and he finally went out of contract. He kept falling behind in City's pecking order now that City have Pablo Zabaleta and Bacary Sagna. I want to give him that chance to restart his career, especially since Kieron Freeman's form wasn't very encouraging. He's probably going to be my first-choice initially, but I expect him to keep his performances up. Now that he's free from the **** that is Manchester City, I really hope he can at least rediscover his form that earned him the hype.
Jak Alnwick
The young English goalkeeper is signed to be an understudy to Lee Grant, but I truly believe Alnwick can surpass him. He has a great potential to be a great Premier League 'keeper in the future and all he needs is a proper tutoring, which he will definitely get in Derby County.
Marco D'Alessandro
Signed on loan from Atalanta, he is going to be a backup for Chris Eagles. If Eagles is unavailable, I won't have any natural replacement for him, hence the rationale of this signing. He may not be better than Eagles, but I think D'Alessandro can do enough to fill in if he's not playing. I won't expect him to kick Eagles out of the starting XI, though, but I won't rule it out either.
Luca Castiglia
How did I sign THREE Italians?
Anyway, similar to D'Alessandro, he's loaned in purely to be a backup to Will Hughes. Sure, I have George Thorne who can play in Hughes' position, but there might be a time when I need to use both Thorne at DM and Hughes/Castiglia at CM in a midfield triangle, since I sometimes play 4-1-2-2-1. Anyway, it won't hurt to have a fifth midfielder in the team, right? Not to mention there aren't any good midfielders in the U21 squad yet. He didn't get to play much for Juventus, so I figured it would be easier to lure him in compared to other targets.
Pre-Season Matches
To me, pre-season matches are more about building fitness, although I still do expect a certain level of performance from the players. Great to see Andrea Belotti settling in pretty quickly by scoring four goals against Burton; that will give me something to think about regarding player selection. Other than that, a perfect record in pre-season would give my players the much needed confidence moving into the new season in a much tougher league.
Premier League, here we come.
