European Golden Boot
-- The honours keep piling in for superstar Manchester United striker Yaya Sanogo, as he is awarded European Golden Boot winner. Hani Megahed comes in second and former Dover striker Shanon Andrea comes third. Ahh, Shanon…so good for us!
Preseason Friendlies
- We accept another very lucrative offer from France’s Olympique Lyonnais to play a friendly in their stadium for the second year in a row. We also accept an offer from fellow French Ligue 1 side Le Mans and in a nod to our humble beginnings, accept an offer from Blue Square Bet South side Eastbourne Boro to play our reserves! Fun.
New Season Upon Us!
-- A standard message comes in talking about the fact that the Barclays Premier League schedule will be coming out within the week. No biggie except for the last sentence, which welcomes the three promoted teams and indicates they “are relishing the prospect of fixtures at stadiums such as Old Trafford, Emirates Stadium and CRABBLE ATHLETIC GROUND. Oh that’s so cool!
International Round Up
--
Manuel Perez (Mexico),
Steven Potter and
Felix Hernandez (France U21) play international friendlies.
Transfer Market Fun
-- Interestingly enough, veteran midfielder
Andrea Rocca REJECTS the contract offer from AS Monaco and therefore seems prepared to head into July without a contract. Hmm. Monaco does come back a couple days later with a new offer though.
Transfer IN
We are pleased to welcome 18 year old Spanish centre half back
Adrian Torres to Dover in a £2 million deal with Sevilla!
I’ve been watching Torres for two years, as he showed much promise back as a 16 year old but Sevilla was asking for the world at that time - in excess of £7 million from my recollection. Now we get him for a bargain price and the 1.5/3.5 rated prospect will immediately join our senior team as a fifth option, playing reserves games and the odd cupcake Cup or league matchup. He doesn’t speak English so we’ll need to bring him along slowly. Torres is also the captain of Spain’s U19 team - a nice sign of his leadership ability!
Transfer IN
We continue to kick ass on picking up young studs, finishing off a £1.4 million deal with Tigres in Mexico for incredible striker prospect
Fernando Estrada!
Estrada is 18 years old, 6’2” tall and has speed to burn and CLINICAL finishing ability already! He’s rated as a 2.0/3.5 player already and will spend the year with our U18s. This guy might just break
Alberto Velazquez’s U18 scoring records - remember, Velezquez scored 62 goals last year in non-competitive play! This guy looks wonderful and I’m delighted we were able to get a work permit settled! Very exciting and what a bargain!!
Transfer IN
And another young stud comes in, as we pay a ton (£6.0 million) to bring in the best young English striker in football, 17 year old
Marcus Sowter, who arrives from Sheffield Wednesday!
This is a bit of a risk due to the transfer fee but I always am eager to get the best possible English players for registration purposes. Sowter has great speed and composure but is very raw and needs time. Thankfully, he can spend up to two years with our U18s to get proper development.