June 19, 2010
Jonathan Hayes' loan has ended and he returned to Leicester. He wasn't as useful with Byron Moore on board with us last season than in his first loan stint the season before that. Might still be interested in bringing him back if Leicester still want to loan him out...
We've been designated as the "overachiever" of the Championship for the 2009/10 season. I guess that's cool, and not totally unexpected.
We've been ranked in 49th place for club values in England with a value of $10.25M.
June 20, 2010
Etienne Esajas has been voted Luton's Player of the Year by the fans. I'm pretty sure if Matt Moussilou had been with us the whole year he would have had the award. Will be interesting to see if Moose will be able to keep the pace for a whole season...
The Luton Town Best Eleven for 2009/10 goes as follows:
GK: Jimmy Nielsen (37 app, 0 goal, 6.76 rating)
DR: Ibrahim Tall (48 app, 0 goal, 7.19 rating)
DL: Laurent Montoya (31 app, 0 goal, 6.84 rating)
DC: Karim Touzani (43 app, 1 goal, 7.07 rating)
DC: Willie Kinniburgh (42 app, 1 goal, 7.00 rating)
DMC: Ferrie Bodde (43 app, 0 goal, 6.63 rating)
MR: Saulius Mikoliunas (38 app, 4 goals, 7.24 rating)
ML: Etienne Esajas (49 app, 4 goals, 7.33 rating)
AMC: Eric Skora (39 app, 9 goals, 7.15 rating)
FC: Vincent van den Berg (45 app, 14 goals, 6.89 rating)
FC: Matt Moussilou (18 app, 19 goals, 7.89 rating)
=== subs ===
Bartosz Bialkowski (13 app, 0 goal, 6.69 rating)
Sam Parkin (29 app, 9 goals, 6.86 rating)
Richard Hughes (38 app, 1 goal, 6.61 rating)
Byron Moore (24 app, 1 goal, 6.88 rating)
Jay Simpson (34 app, 7 goals, 6.59 rating)
Agree with absolutely all the picks, without exception.
Three new players have been inducted in the all-time Luton Town Best Eleven: Eric Skora, Jimmy Nielsen, Jay Simpson. They all made it only as subs though and here is where I disagree with the picks. Here's what the All-Time Luton Town Best Eleven goes:
GK: Julian Speroni (97 app, 0 goal, 7.04 rating)
DR: Ibrahim Tall (103 app, 1 goal, 7.15 rating)
DL: Richard Jackson (92 app, 1 goal, 7.01 rating)
DC: Willie Kinniburgh (97 app, 2 goals, 7.05 rating)
DC: José-Karl Pierre-Fanfan (100 app, 1 goal, 6.95 rating)
DMC: Russell Duncan (46 app, 3 goals, 6.93 rating)
MR: Saulius Mikoliunas (87 app, 8 goals, 7.23 rating)
ML: Etienne Esajas (100 app, 8 goals, 7.28 rating)
AMC: Matthew Spring (71 app, 8 goals, 6.96 rating)
FC: Sam Parkin (106 app, 37 goals, 6.97 rating)
FC: Dean Morgan (105 app, 53 goals, 6.98 rating)
=== subs ===
Jimmy Nielsen (38 app, 0 goal, 6.76 rating)
Eric Skora (65 app, 10 goals, 7.02 rating)
David Bell (50 app, 2 goals, 7.14 rating)
Jay Simpson (69 app, 19 goals, 6.62 rating)
Chris Coyne (53 app, 2 goals, 7.06 rating)
In my mind, Eric Skora fully deserved to be on the starting eleven in front of Matthew Spring, not in as a sub. And where is Vincent van den Berg? I see him ahead of Jay Simpson, easily. I do understand about Matt Moussilou. After all, the guy has only played half a season with us.
We've been given $1.9M for TV rights for the upcoming season. Any money is good money right now...
The Team Board have stated their expectations for our upcoming season in the Championship. They are looking for at least a respectable position within the Championship. Looking at what I could negotiate with them, I come to the conclusion that "respectable position" means "top half finish". I'm okay with that, I guess. What I'm not too okay with is the $0 transfer budget though. They have set a wage budget of $210k for that kind of expectations. I could change these expectations to promotion, title challenge, or even winning the title, but I don't wanna push the luck. That and changing the expectations would only give me more wage budget (up to $300k in order to try to win the title), something which I know we would not be able to live with. I can't afford to drag the team in the red with too high of a wage total. I see on our team page that the media prediction has moved from 20th last year to 10th this year... I also note that Etienne Esajas is now the sole favoured personel of the fans. He's also listing Luton as one of his favoured clubs, as well as Ajax and A.C Milan.
Our U18 squad has received yet another crapastic load of youngsters. I might ask the board to improve the youth facilities at some point...
June 25, 2010
James Henry's loan ends and he returns to Reading.
Same for Rui Fonte and Scott Huntchinson who both return to Arsenal. They never saw the field in competitive play for us.
FM