Tue. July 28, 2020 - Preseason Friendly
Napoli vs. Dover
San Paolo, Naples, Italy
We finish off our 2020 Italian preseason tour with a matchup against Napoli, who finished 4th in Serie A last year to qualify for the Champions League. This will be a very tough matchup, most likely. We're going to mix things up a bit here, moving to our attacking 4-2-3-1 formation just to see how it looks this year. We're starting a few of our preferred eleven in this contest, as a few guys like
Andrea Rocca and
Gerardo Escobar are still trying to achieve full fitness. New DC
Thomas Andersen will suit up for the first time, as he has finally returned from the U19 Euro Cup.
Liam Craig will also see his first preseason action after returning from injury.
Dover: 4-4-2 DM Control (4-2-3-1)
GK - I. Wilke
D - J. Varga, A. Kokaina, T. Andersen, R. McLaughlin
M - A. Rocca, N. Cairney
AM - L. Craig, Z. Bardi, P. Kostal
S - G. Escobar
Napoli 2 - 3 Dover
Goals - Petr Kostal (8.2), Andrea Rocca (7.4), Liam Craig (8.3)
Assists - Petr Kostal, Liam Craig, Gerardo Escobar (6.9)
Man of the Match - Luis Felipe Salazar (Napoli - 8.6)
Other Notables - Abdallaye Kokaina (7.0),
Attendance - 13454
What a thriller! We took the early lead on a
Petr Kostal goal off a
Liam Craig cross but Luis Felipe Salazar scored twice in a seven minute span, the second on a penalty kick after U18 prospect
Addallaye Kokaina was called for a hand ball in the area. I peeled some paint in the halftime team talk and the team responded with goals from Rocca and then Craig to seal the great team victory. We edged them on possession 53-47 but were outshot 13-9 (5-4 on target). It may have been one of Kostal's best games and may have singlehandedly saved his backup job, as I've been actively looking for alternative cover for
Gianluca Bolis.
Squad Win Bonuses
-- As usual, we promise the players that we will pay out higher than normal collective win bonuses for both League and Cup competitions. Morale gets an obvious boost with the prevalence of ambitious players on the squad.
-- Crap - DC
Lukas Stetina rejects the contract offer from Livorno, saying it's unacceptable and insulting. Great. I have to offer him up again to clubs and lower my transfer fee expectations a bit. Thankfully, a few more teams come calling and I pretty much accept all of the offers this time except one that offered no up front money (on a 3 million pound deal…ballsy!).
International Duty - 2020 Olympic Games
-- Two of our players are called up for the Olympics - Algeria's
Salim Loucif and Italy's
Gianluca Bolis will participate for their country. I'm not sure if this is just a rule that's in game or not but it looks like it's an U23 championship, with a maximum of 3 over-agers allowed.
August Update
-- We still have three friendlies left this month: Greek club Panathinaikos visits Crabble Athletic Ground on August 1st, we travel to Margate on August 5th and finally, we host Athletic Club Bilbao on the 8th. We also have three Premier League games scheduled for August: our home opener is against Tottenham on the 15th, we travel to Norwich on the 22nd and we host Bolton on the 29th. Actually, it's a pretty decent schedule to start and hopefully we can get away with at least a couple of wins. We will likely have a League Cup match at some point this month as well.
-- Our assistant manager tells me that GK
Lukasz Fabianski, DC
Thomas Andersen and DC
Andrew Stanley have all trained well this past month. Great to see that from the 35 year old Fabianski! On the other hand, ST
Gerardo Escobar, DMC
Mancini and DC
Gareth Mace all disappoint in training. As usual, I request talks with all three and while Mancini and Mace admit they need to be better, Escobar is defiant and walks out of my office. Wonderful - he'll be riding the pine for a while now. I do get good reports from the U18 squad, with top prospect DC
Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz and GK
Garry Doyle having a good start to their training.
-- Rushden & Diamonds come calling about reserve team DC
Gareth Mace, offering to take him on loan for 6 months. They feel he'll play on their first team so I accept the offer. Mace just earned home-grown status so I'm okay with sending him away on loan now.
Transfer IN
-- Well, he's not quite a stud but he's certainly a player who can become a top player in the Premier League with the proper tutelage. We gain a conditional British permit for 20 year old Argentine central defender
Cristian Rodriguez and with that out of the way, we finalize a £7,000,000 transfer (with additional clauses that could bring the deal to 8 million pounds) to bring him in from PSV in Holland.
He's very well developed for a 20 year old and my coaching staff have him pegged as anywhere between 3.5 & 4.5 stars already and there is some room to grow as well. I like his speed but I especially love his determination and his leadership. Once he learns the language, I'm hoping this kid can evolve into a possible Dover captain and lead the charge from the back line. I'm elated with this move and we've done incredibly well to add major pieces at DC, ML, DR and MC during the preseason. I strongly feel we have top quality prospects at every position now and while squad depth is a slight concern, I believe we have a team capable of finishing in the top half of the division for the first time and maybe, just maybe, we're good enough to challenge for continental play!
PS: this isn't the same Rodriguez we let go without a contract in July - that Cristian Rodriguez was an aging midfielder from Uruguay!
-- With this move, our transfer kitty is basically bare. I do have plenty of wiggle room right now with salaries so I can make adjustments if I find some bargain buys but we are done with major transfers coming into the squad for now.