Dover Injury Report
-- We have a couple players on the shelf right now. Veteran ML/MC
Liam Craig pulled his groin early in camp but will soon be available for selection. Meanwhile, DC
Luke McCullough is still recovering from his fractured ribs and will be out for another few weeks at least.
Tue. July 21, 2020 - Preseason Friendly
Swansea vs. Dover
Liberty Stadium, Swansea, UK
This is another game we should comfortably win, playing against League 1 side Swansea. That said, we're going with all of our second choice players today, with the exception of DC
Lukas Stetina, who a year after being brought to Dover is still trying to fit into the team…and still hasn't learned English. I also call up
Abdallaye Kokaina from the U18 team to see what he can do against men.
Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - L. Fabianski
D - J. Varga, L. Stetina, A. Kokaina, J. Kuciak
M - C. Murray, Mancini, J. Adam, P. Kostal
S - P. Simek, Z. Bardi
Swansea 0 - 1 Dover
Goals - Petr Simek (7.3)
Assist - Petr Kostal (6.9)
Man of the Match - Abdallaye Kokaina (7.8)
Other Notables - Lukas Stetina (7.0), Jozef Varga (7.1), Jonathan Adam (7.0), Cameron Murray 7.0
Attendance - 4302
A boring match - we outclassed them, winning the possession battle 59%-41% and outshooting them 15-4 but we had trouble breaking them down. 18 year old
Abdallaye Kokaina was excellent and was named man of the match.
-- Left midfielder
Cameron Murray sustained a bruised rib during the game and will miss about a week.
Euro U19 Championship Update
-- DC
Thomas Andersen continues to perform well for Denmark, notching another assist in a 2-1 win over Portugal. Denmark moves onto the finals and will face Slovakia.
-- Striker
Zoltan Bardi isn't happy with his current contract and wants a raise. He's only making £6,250 per week but I'm not really big on re-working contracts well before their expiry and his contract is in effect until June 2022. He's apologizes for bringing it up when I have a chat with him so all is well.
-- FC Bayern again come calling for young left fullback
Renato Gaucho. I decide to counter their mediocre offer of £2,400,000 with a new bid of £20,000,000. Needless to say, they pull out of negotiations and i hope they finally get the message. Of course, Gaucho's agent once again approaches me to say his client is upset with his current contract terms but we've already been down that road before.
-- I've rarely had anyone approach me for GK
Ingo Wilke but now Espanyol come calling, offering a paltry £1.2 million, half of his value. Quickly denied, of course.
--
Liam Craig resumes full training after missing a couple of weeks with his groin strain.
Transfer IN
- Holy smokes. I spoke in a prior post about coming to an agreement with a DC that required a work permit, one that my scouts said wasn't likely to be granted. Perhaps having a sugar daddy owner helps in these cases, because I just get word that FC Twente's DC
Paulus Tjiuoro has been granted a conditional British work permit for his move to Dover!! Tjiuoro, which is going to be really hard to spell, is a 24 year old Namibian national who has essentially dominated every league he's been in. His home town club is Eleven Arrows and he had a one year spell in Azerbaijan at Qarabag FK Agdam before being bought for £600K by Bolivian club The Strongest CF…and yes, that's the actual name! He spent four years there before being purchased by FC Steaua Bucharest in Romania then went to FC Twente the following year. I paid £3,200,000 for this youngster who is rated anywhere between 3.0 and 4.0 stars currently by my coaches. He speaks perfect English and I expect him to be a major player for us this year and going forward.
-- And to prove the feast or famine theory, another major DC target of mine accepts his deal on the same day. Like Tjiuoro, he will need to get a work permit approved but my scouts don't think this one will be an issue. I'll have more on this if it goes through but this youngster would immediately become my best centre half back if the scouting reports are to be believed!
- In related news,
Thomas Andersen, who isn't even with the club right now due to the U19 Euro Cup, indicates he's unhappy that we've added these players, giving him "too many rivals for the position". I want to tell him that it's none of his business but in a way, he's right, so I tell him that I'll likely move to balance things out with a transfer out.
-- The odd man out would be
Lukas Stetina - he has more talent than our long-time DC
Oliver Nicholas but he's one of those guys who has been around so long that I can't pull the trigger on a move. Stetina has 3.0/3.0 ability but a year after picking him up, he's still shown as "having trouble settling in" by my assistant manager. He's also got a value of £2,600,000 so I can make up almost all of the money I just paid for Tjiuoro if I can get that. Stetina isn't happy with being transfer listed, as expected but I have a quick talk with him to say I don't see a future for him here and he goes on his way.