Contract Extension
-- Well, there is GREAT news and not so great news. The GREAT news is that stud midfielder
Neil Cairney has agreed to a contract extension that will see him stay in a Dover kit until 2025. The key part to this new deal is that his minimum release clause has been raised to £40,000,000 - now, we still may see a bid that high but at least it gives me some peace of mind knowing that only the biggest clubs in the world can come calling now.
-- The bad news? Well, Cairney signed his contract BEFORE
Giorgos Gesios so Gesios immediately gets a pay hike to Cairney's new wage number of £49,000 per week. So Gesios, with that info in hand, REJECTS my contract offer that was approved by his agent last week as it's at a smaller wage than he has now. Damnit - I have to go back to the drawing board with Gesios, as I don't want him having that "match highest earner" clause.
-- In a minor deal, I extend the contract of reserve left midfielder
Steve Ingram for two years. Ingram is a home-grown player and will help me meet the Champions League requirements but hopefully will never have to play, as he's simply not good enough for our senior team.
Preseason Friendlies
- I accept offers from Sheffield United and West Brom in the Championship, along with Stade Malherbe Caen from France's Ligue 1 for friendly matches. I'll start working on the rest of my preseason schedule soon.
-- Another spare part centre half,
Andy Brown gets two Bosman contract offers. His contract will expire at the end of the month and we'll let him go without compensation. He was a free pickup from Sheffield United back in 2016 and is not good enough for our squad according to our scouts.
Transfer IN
-- I've had my eye on this kid since he sprouted out of Bolton's youth academy last year. He had no interest in Dover at that time but with Bolton going back to the Championship, my chief scout told me he might be open to a move and we were able to pull it off. Welcome DM/MC
Emmerson Harvey to Dover, as we make a successful £4,500,000 bid to secure his services!
Harvey is a MAJOR prospect, with 4.5 star potential according to my scouts and coaches and he's already rated currently at 2.5 stars at only 17 years of age. I'm making a conscious effort to bring in some better youth prospects in order to have quality "home-grown" players and Harvey will definitely qualify in a few years. He's a spirited player with solid skills across the board and at 6' 4", he'll be a commanding presence in midfield for us down the road. A very exciting signing but one for the future, as I'll place him with our U18s for at least this season and maybe even next year too. He's part of England's U21 setup so he's a future senior team international.
-- In what may be interesting news, I go ahead and transfer list two players: Argentine defender
Emir Faccioli was brought on specifically to help countryman Cristian Rodriguez settle into our club but now that Rodriguez is gone, I have little use for this aging player. I put him on the market for a million pounds but doubt I can get that. The other player is a bit more useful to teams: striker
Gerardo Escobar - Escobar has been a key player during his time here but he was decidedly a third choice forward for us behind
Giorgos Gesios and
Zoltan Bardi. In fact, Escobar was even behind
Petr Simek as far as getting bench time, as Simek is better suited to coming on late in games versus Escobar. My thoughts are to upgrade this slot in the offseason - Escobar is a 3 star player so I put him on the market for £7,500,000.
-- Livorno in Serie A come calling for Faccioli, offering me £750,000 plus clauses for the veteran defender. I was looking for a million but he's only valued at half that so Livorno essentially split the difference with their offer. I decide to accept and we'll see if they can come to terms on a deal.
-- TEN teams bid on Escobar, with most of the bids in the £5,500,000 range plus incentives. He's only worth about £2,600,000 right now and I paid £2.2 million for him from Man United back in 2018. I'm going to sit on these bids for a week before deciding, just in case someone comes back at me with something more attractive.
Coaching Changes
-- Similar to my work done on my scouting department, I'm looking at improving my coaching where needed. I will be letting four of my coaches leave when their contracts expire at the end of the month and will look for better options. We have a few areas where we only have 3.5 star coaching and I want to get up to a minimum of 4 stars everywhere, if possible.
Preseason Foreign Tour
-- Every year, I pick a new country to visit during the preseason for a two-game tour. Last year we visited Italy and the year before we went to Greece. This year we will head to Germany and we'll face HSV and Dortmund in friendlies.
Contract Extension
-- I'm VERY pleased to lock up star striker
Giorgos Gesios for a four year term. I was able to get him to drop his "match highest earner" clause, which was the most important thing for me. He's making the same amount right now as
Neil Cairney but now only Cairney has that particular clause in his contract.
-- We get a note about the fact that Manchester United had sponsorship deals in excess of £64 million last year. Crazy! Norwich was at the bottom of the Premier League list at £240,000 and we were only £10k higher then they were.
-- We are given the opportunity to buy out an outstanding sell-on clause that we included in our transfer of young midfielder
Frantisek Kroulik last year. 20% of the profit from a future deal would have gone to us - we sold him for £7,500,000 and we are offered £927,000 to scrap the clause. I accept the free money - they'd have to sell him for over £12,000,000 for me to get a higher payout - he's a good enough player possibly but I'll take the money now.
--
Emir Faccioli comes to terms with Livorno and that will conclude our £650,000 plus clauses bid. Faccioli will leave on July 1st.