Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - FM – From Semi-Pro Minnows to Champions League Glory: Dover Athletic FC

NoSkillz · 01-19-2014, 10:10 PM

The stats shown above take into account all competitions with our senior team and include everyone who played at least one game for the big club this past season.

I departed from my usual strategy of spreading playing time around to as many players as possible and instead fielded my strongest team whenever I could - that meant that the preferred "starting eleven" got more appearances than normal while the bench players rarely played. Quality depth is still a concern outside of central defence and something that I'll look to address as we move into next year. With continental play on the horizon, I'm looking at potentially another 10+ games or so and will definitely need to have some sort of squad rotation in place.

GK

-- Ingo Wilke was sensational this year, with an incredible 16 clean sheets and he solidified his starting position with the club. Lukasz Fabianski is in the twilight of his career and played very well when called upon as well - we were very strong in goal this year. Wilke will be the de facto starter going into next season. Fabianski's contract is expiring and won't be renewed and we have a new keeper coming in to push Wilke in Ivory Coast international Youssouf Sylla.

D

-- Generally speaking, our defence was much improved over the previous year. At fullback, we got solid seasons out of 19 year old Brazilian Renato Gaucho and 22 year old Salim Loucif. Our depth was solid as well, as Jozef Kuciak was called upon to play 15 games when Loucif was either hurt or away on international duty and performed at a very high level, as seen by his team high rating at the position. Jozef Varga also played well when Gaucho was hurt. Ross McLaughlin has some tough moments but is more than capable as a third stringer.

-- In the middle, we felt strongly about our big Argentinian signing Cristian Rodriguez and he performed brilliantly in his first half season with the club. We envisioned him as a future leader but the bright lights and big money of Manchester United proved impossible for him and for our chairman to resist, as the club sold him without consulting with me for over £15 million. It was a bitter pill to swallow. Thankfully, I loaded up on DCs in the preseason and fellow newcomers Paulus Tjiuoro and to a lesser extent, 18 year old Claudio Contreras were more than adequate at the back. Contreras is loaded with potential but still needs to fill out his impressive 6' 6" frame and gain strength and pace. Without Rodriguez's speed, we were skinned a bit too often for my liking and may still need to find a pacy centre half to round out our rotation. Thomas Andersen was another offseason signing and I loaned him out to the Championship to further his development when I knew he wouldn't get enough playing time here. Veterans Laurent Koscielny and Emir Faccioli were added as depth but neither impressed in brief appearances. Dover stalwart Oliver Nicholas, a loyal servant to the club ever since I signed him in my first year of management in 2010/11, is on an expiring contract and likely won't be renewed.

M

-- Out wide, one of our more unheralded signings was former Dover loan player Arsene Bamba, who starred for us during our League 1 years and was brought back for good this past July. Bamba was sensational in scoring 11 goals and generally playing at a very high level all year. Gianluca Bolis has incredible skill but is still a bit inconsistent for my liking but he's only 22 and his game is improving. Depth wise, we were fine here, as Cameron Murray, the Scottish international, fared better in his second year with our club. Petr Kostal is on an expiring contract but played well in the rare case he was called upon. Reading loaned us Martin Prochazka but I could only get him into two games all year with the senior team. He won't be back, nor will veteran Liam Craig, one of the main reasons for our promotion to the Premier League from the Championship three years ago.

-- Our two starters at central midfield were the glue that held the team together. Andrea Rocca continued to produce at an extremely high level despite playing in more of a supporting role for the majority of the season. 24 points in 42 games is great production and he's simply a wonderful player. The big splash signing in the offseason was to grab "WonderKid" Neil Cairney from Manchester City and while he wasn't hugely productive, he settled in nicely and was ever present in midfield. He's got incredible talent oozing out of every pore and I'm sure we'll always be watching out for the big clubs that are circling in on him. He resisted Liverpool's efforts at the January window but I expect some fireworks in July. Hopefully he can continue his growth with Dover for a few more years. Young defensive midfielder Mancini was much improved in his second year with the club and it seems like the Brazilian has settled into life in England. Captain Darren Pratley was mostly bench fodder and the 36 year old will not be re-signed when his contract expires in June. We have one depth signing in Shaun Spall already announced for when the transfer window reopens but I'll need to find one more central midfielder at least in order to have proper cover for next season.

S

-- We paid an enormous amount of money for Greek international Giorgos Gesios two years ago and after an injury-riddled first year where he struggled to settle into the club, he simply was sensational in year two. The year started with him dominating at the Euro Cup competition and his form carried into the season. His 23 goals across all competitions is easily the highest total in our Premier League years and he was joined up front by strike partner Zoltan Bardi, who scored 18 of his own. Bardi, who is equally adept at dropping into an attacking midfield position, is a dual threat player and a key cog for our offence. Our main man off the bench is super speedy Petr Simek - he's a poacher and nothing more and is a great player to have come off the bench to take advantage of a tiring opposition defence. Gerardo Escobar was okay in a supporting role but I will likely look to improve my depth here and if I find a world-class striker to join Gesios and Bardi, Escobar will definitely be moved. Roberto was a constant on our reserve team and he's very cheap insurance if we have a run of injuries. I may move him as well if I find better options but like Bardi, his ability to drop back behind the striker gives me some flexibility.

RESERVE TEAM PLAYERS

-- Essentially, any players that are strictly on my reserve team are there solely for the purpose of developing "Home-Grown" status. I'm under the impression this is important for Continental play so I have kept a few mediocre prospects around as opposed to sending them on loan in order for them to qualify. There is nothing really to write home about here - DM Jamie Matthews, DC Andrew Stanley, DC Emmanuel Agbo, ST Dennis Kunz and DC Gareth Mace won't be making much of an impact at the senior level for our club.

LOAN PLAYERS

-- I have a few players out on loan but none are likely to be considered top prospects other than perhaps Thomas Andersen, who was mentioned earlier. Matthew Thompson has been with us for a number of years and is a Championship level DC with home-grown status, making him valuable. Striker Ryan Bodin, an offseason signing, was loaned out to Rushden and led them in scoring with 17 goals in 44 appearances. AMC Aitor Zubizarreta is a flashy Spainiard that I grabbed from Manchester United a few years ago but hasn't been able to make his mark here. He's valued at £1.6 million and I may try to move him. He had a poor year for Gimnastic in La Liga, with 1 goal and 1 assist in 18 games after scoring eight goals for them the year before while on loan. Other loan players include ML Steve Ingram, DM Jonathan Gauthier and DC Andy Brown. None are impact players.

U18 PLAYERS

-- Now, I do have a few interesting U18 prospects, with the most notable being DC Abdallaye Kokaina, who I signed in the preseason. This 18 year old German is a 4.5 star prospect and I considered playing him with the senior team but with all the depth I added last year, I decided it was best he play as much as possible and kept him with the U18s all year. Fellow DC Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz is another solid prospect. Striker Carlo Cerbone came out of nowhere after I signed him for about £30K and scored 32 goals for the juniors - he's now valued at well over a million pounds. Fellow striker Gregoire Lambert suffered a long-term injury early in the year but came back with renewed vigour and he's another prospect to watch. All four of those players were signings from outside the organization - homegrown talent like Johnny Mardenborough, Matt Hewitt, Gary Cook, Chris Paterson, Steve Sinnott and Garry Doyle are marginal prospects at best and will likely find themselves playing in lesser leagues in the future. I'm hopeful that with the improvements made to our youth facilities, the development of an academy AND the work being done on our youth recruitment network, that we'll be developing our own world-class players in the future. Or even ONE world-class player!

01-19-2014, 10:10 PM	#139
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	The stats shown above take into account all competitions with our senior team and include everyone who played at least one game for the big club this past season. I departed from my usual strategy of spreading playing time around to as many players as possible and instead fielded my strongest team whenever I could - that meant that the preferred "starting eleven" got more appearances than normal while the bench players rarely played. Quality depth is still a concern outside of central defence and something that I'll look to address as we move into next year. With continental play on the horizon, I'm looking at potentially another 10+ games or so and will definitely need to have some sort of squad rotation in place. GK -- Ingo Wilke was sensational this year, with an incredible 16 clean sheets and he solidified his starting position with the club. Lukasz Fabianski is in the twilight of his career and played very well when called upon as well - we were very strong in goal this year. Wilke will be the de facto starter going into next season. Fabianski's contract is expiring and won't be renewed and we have a new keeper coming in to push Wilke in Ivory Coast international Youssouf Sylla. D -- Generally speaking, our defence was much improved over the previous year. At fullback, we got solid seasons out of 19 year old Brazilian Renato Gaucho and 22 year old Salim Loucif. Our depth was solid as well, as Jozef Kuciak was called upon to play 15 games when Loucif was either hurt or away on international duty and performed at a very high level, as seen by his team high rating at the position. Jozef Varga also played well when Gaucho was hurt. Ross McLaughlin has some tough moments but is more than capable as a third stringer. -- In the middle, we felt strongly about our big Argentinian signing Cristian Rodriguez and he performed brilliantly in his first half season with the club. We envisioned him as a future leader but the bright lights and big money of Manchester United proved impossible for him and for our chairman to resist, as the club sold him without consulting with me for over £15 million. It was a bitter pill to swallow. Thankfully, I loaded up on DCs in the preseason and fellow newcomers Paulus Tjiuoro and to a lesser extent, 18 year old Claudio Contreras were more than adequate at the back. Contreras is loaded with potential but still needs to fill out his impressive 6' 6" frame and gain strength and pace. Without Rodriguez's speed, we were skinned a bit too often for my liking and may still need to find a pacy centre half to round out our rotation. Thomas Andersen was another offseason signing and I loaned him out to the Championship to further his development when I knew he wouldn't get enough playing time here. Veterans Laurent Koscielny and Emir Faccioli were added as depth but neither impressed in brief appearances. Dover stalwart Oliver Nicholas, a loyal servant to the club ever since I signed him in my first year of management in 2010/11, is on an expiring contract and likely won't be renewed. M -- Out wide, one of our more unheralded signings was former Dover loan player Arsene Bamba, who starred for us during our League 1 years and was brought back for good this past July. Bamba was sensational in scoring 11 goals and generally playing at a very high level all year. Gianluca Bolis has incredible skill but is still a bit inconsistent for my liking but he's only 22 and his game is improving. Depth wise, we were fine here, as Cameron Murray, the Scottish international, fared better in his second year with our club. Petr Kostal is on an expiring contract but played well in the rare case he was called upon. Reading loaned us Martin Prochazka but I could only get him into two games all year with the senior team. He won't be back, nor will veteran Liam Craig, one of the main reasons for our promotion to the Premier League from the Championship three years ago. -- Our two starters at central midfield were the glue that held the team together. Andrea Rocca continued to produce at an extremely high level despite playing in more of a supporting role for the majority of the season. 24 points in 42 games is great production and he's simply a wonderful player. The big splash signing in the offseason was to grab "WonderKid" Neil Cairney from Manchester City and while he wasn't hugely productive, he settled in nicely and was ever present in midfield. He's got incredible talent oozing out of every pore and I'm sure we'll always be watching out for the big clubs that are circling in on him. He resisted Liverpool's efforts at the January window but I expect some fireworks in July. Hopefully he can continue his growth with Dover for a few more years. Young defensive midfielder Mancini was much improved in his second year with the club and it seems like the Brazilian has settled into life in England. Captain Darren Pratley was mostly bench fodder and the 36 year old will not be re-signed when his contract expires in June. We have one depth signing in Shaun Spall already announced for when the transfer window reopens but I'll need to find one more central midfielder at least in order to have proper cover for next season. S -- We paid an enormous amount of money for Greek international Giorgos Gesios two years ago and after an injury-riddled first year where he struggled to settle into the club, he simply was sensational in year two. The year started with him dominating at the Euro Cup competition and his form carried into the season. His 23 goals across all competitions is easily the highest total in our Premier League years and he was joined up front by strike partner Zoltan Bardi, who scored 18 of his own. Bardi, who is equally adept at dropping into an attacking midfield position, is a dual threat player and a key cog for our offence. Our main man off the bench is super speedy Petr Simek - he's a poacher and nothing more and is a great player to have come off the bench to take advantage of a tiring opposition defence. Gerardo Escobar was okay in a supporting role but I will likely look to improve my depth here and if I find a world-class striker to join Gesios and Bardi, Escobar will definitely be moved. Roberto was a constant on our reserve team and he's very cheap insurance if we have a run of injuries. I may move him as well if I find better options but like Bardi, his ability to drop back behind the striker gives me some flexibility. RESERVE TEAM PLAYERS -- Essentially, any players that are strictly on my reserve team are there solely for the purpose of developing "Home-Grown" status. I'm under the impression this is important for Continental play so I have kept a few mediocre prospects around as opposed to sending them on loan in order for them to qualify. There is nothing really to write home about here - DM Jamie Matthews, DC Andrew Stanley, DC Emmanuel Agbo, ST Dennis Kunz and DC Gareth Mace won't be making much of an impact at the senior level for our club. LOAN PLAYERS -- I have a few players out on loan but none are likely to be considered top prospects other than perhaps Thomas Andersen, who was mentioned earlier. Matthew Thompson has been with us for a number of years and is a Championship level DC with home-grown status, making him valuable. Striker Ryan Bodin, an offseason signing, was loaned out to Rushden and led them in scoring with 17 goals in 44 appearances. AMC Aitor Zubizarreta is a flashy Spainiard that I grabbed from Manchester United a few years ago but hasn't been able to make his mark here. He's valued at £1.6 million and I may try to move him. He had a poor year for Gimnastic in La Liga, with 1 goal and 1 assist in 18 games after scoring eight goals for them the year before while on loan. Other loan players include ML Steve Ingram, DM Jonathan Gauthier and DC Andy Brown. None are impact players. U18 PLAYERS -- Now, I do have a few interesting U18 prospects, with the most notable being DC Abdallaye Kokaina, who I signed in the preseason. This 18 year old German is a 4.5 star prospect and I considered playing him with the senior team but with all the depth I added last year, I decided it was best he play as much as possible and kept him with the U18s all year. Fellow DC Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz is another solid prospect. Striker Carlo Cerbone came out of nowhere after I signed him for about £30K and scored 32 goals for the juniors - he's now valued at well over a million pounds. Fellow striker Gregoire Lambert suffered a long-term injury early in the year but came back with renewed vigour and he's another prospect to watch. All four of those players were signings from outside the organization - homegrown talent like Johnny Mardenborough, Matt Hewitt, Gary Cook, Chris Paterson, Steve Sinnott and Garry Doyle are marginal prospects at best and will likely find themselves playing in lesser leagues in the future. I'm hopeful that with the improvements made to our youth facilities, the development of an academy AND the work being done on our youth recruitment network, that we'll be developing our own world-class players in the future. Or even ONE world-class player! __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 01-19-2014 at 10:20 PM.