[NoSkillz]

Transfers IN

We had made a couple of seemingly minor deals just after our season concluded, with two foreign players joining Dover upon completion of their seasons abroad.

DC - Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz - £120,000 (From INF Clairefontaine) - 16 years old, Morocco
DM/DC - Mancini - £500,000 (From Cruzeiro) - 20 years old, Brazil

Yilmaz will be put into our U18 squad with hopes of developing - he's currently rated 1.0/4.0, which is very promising for a 16 year old. Mancini is loved by my main scout (3.5/4.5) and will step in right away as our starting defensive midfielder in 4-5-1 formations.

We also bring in young Jonathan Adam from Aston Villa on a free after he was dropped from their U18 roster. Adam is an 18 year old AMC/ML with great pace (15 acc/16 pace) and flair (16) and 3 star potential.

When July 1st hits, we immediately start looking for our striker. Initially, our scouts lead us to Brazil and we find two absolute studs: 24 year old Thiago on Palmeiras and 23 year old Toninho on Flamengo. Both are rated 4 stars+ right now - Thiago has ridiculous stats with Palmeiras: in two seasons and 73 games, he's scored 54 times while Toninho has scored 45 goals in 54 league games for Flamengo.

I'd even go so far as to schedule a preseason friendly with Palmeiras to see Thiago up close. In a scintillating display, he absolutely CARVED US UP, scoring three goals in an impressive 5-3 win in Brazil.

I'd put in substantial offers for both players in the vicinity of 17 million pounds - both would get accepted and I was free to offer contracts. I came to terms on a contact for Thiago but stunningly couldn't get his agent to agree to his fee - he wanted a number higher than my board was willing to go and ultimately, I had to walk away from the deal, simply because of a greedy agent. Unbelievable!

With Toninho, he was asking for more money than I could afford - we got very close on terms but ultimately I had to walk away there as well. Talk about disappointing.

My striker search kept coming back to one guy - a Greek striker who was at Arsenal and likely played on the U18 team with current Dover striker Zoltan Bardi. This guy has blazing speed and my scouts think he could be a difference maker - 21 years old with 3.5/4.5 ratings. He scored 10 goals in 18 games for AEK Athens in the Greek Superleague last year on loan. He's also been called up a couple of times to the Greek national team but has yet to receive his first cap.

Arsenal are looking for a huge premium over his value and after some hemming and hawing, we finally agree to terms with Arsenal on easily the largest deal in Dover history. We spend £14,250,000 to bring striker Giorgos Gesios to Dover!!!

Holy smokes…14.25 million pounds!!! He better be good!

ST - Giorgos Gesios - £14,250,000 (From Arsenal) - 21 years old, Greece

Gesios is 21 years old, 6' tall and 174 pounds. Top attributes include corners (15), free kicks (17), penalties (17), bravery (14), determination (14), off the ball (18), acceleration (19!), agility (17), balance (16), pace (17) and strength (17).

I hope we've found our lethal striker!

Here are the other players we brought in during the July transfer window:

MR - Gianluca Bolis - £4,000,000 (Last Club: Manchester City) - 20 years old, Italy
ML - Cameron Murray - £3,800,000 (Last Club: Hibernian) - 23 years old, Scotland
MC - Frantisek Kroulik - £2,300,000 (Last Club: Rangers) - 20 years old, Czech Republic
ST - Petr Simek - £300,000 (Last Club: Leiria) - 25 years old, Czech Republic
DL - Jozef Varga - £130,000 (Last Club: Stuttgart) - 23 years old, Slovakia

DM - Simon Woodman - LOAN - £275,000 Fee (From Arsenal) - 19 years old, England
DC - Alen Krivic - LOAN - £250,000 Fee (From Schalke) - 19 years old, Germany

GK - Lukasz Fabianski - Free (Last Club: Arsenal) - 34 years old, Poland
DC - Lukas Stetina - Free (Last Club: Stuttgart) - 28 years old, Slovakia

Keeping with my plan of adding top talent at all positions, the key moves this year are obviously the previously mentioned Mancini and Gesios, along with Gianluca Bolis, Frantisek Kroulik and Lukasz Fabianski. Bolis is a young right winger rated 3.0/4.5 with excellent speed (17 accel and pace) while Kroulik, who comes to us from Rangers in Scotland, is also a 3.0/4.5 player. Fabianski is older but goalkeepers tend to reach their peak much later than position players.

Cameron Murray is a 5'5" little bundle of energy that will add some depth to the left side. Petr Simek is another ridiculously fast striker, with 18 pace and 19 acceleration along with lethal finishing ability (16). A true poacher if there ever was one! He should be great as a rotational choice or coming off the bench. DL Jozef Varga and DC Lukas Stetina played together at Stuttgart and will fit in nicely as rotational players. We're also bringing in a couple of solid prospects on loan in Simon Woodman and Alen Krivic. Krivic especially should get a lot of opportunities to start for us.

I stay away from bringing in U18 players this year, as you can see.

Final Thoughts Before the Season Begins

I scheduled perhaps our toughest ever set of preseason friendlies and we show a distinct lack of unity with the great number of key additions, winning four and losing four.

We experimented with a number of different formations in the preseason, something else which likely contributed to our poor showing. I added a 5-3-2 look, with two wingbacks, one defensive mid, two centre halfbacks, three central mids and two strikers (no wingers). I figured this might be a decent tactic against strong sides. We'd still rely greatly on our flat 4-4-2 and a 4-5-1.

Once again, we made no changes to our on-field leadership, with MC Darren Pratley keeping the captain's armband and DC Luke McCullough maintaining his vice-captain role.

We were favoured in our first league game of the year, a home match against Fulham, a team we've had decent success against over the years. We decide to go with a 4-4-2 to start the season. Here is our starting lineup for game one of the 2019-20 season:

GK - Ingo Wilke
D - Bob Harris/Luke McCullough/Oliver Nicholas/Glen Johnson
M - Liam Craig/Andrea Rocca/Zoltan Bardi/Petr Kostal
ST - Giorgos Gesios/Gerardo Escobar