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

NoSkillz · 11-17-2013, 03:58 PM

2018-19 Season Recap -

Preseason: Manager and Team Status, Yearly Budgets, Board and Media Expectations

It doesn't take me long to realize how different the Premier League is from the Championship. I'm offered a contract extension that sees my salary skyrocket from £1,800 per week to £13,250! My annual salary goes all the way up to £689,000! WOW.

I'm now considered to have a "Continental" reputation and the Dover supporters now consider me to be a team icon, which is a step up from "favoured personnel" and just one step down from being a team legend.

For years, I've attempted to get improvements made at Crabble Athletic Ground and I've been turned away every single time. Well, the board can say no to me all they want but there was no turning away from Premier League officials, that's for sure!

Due to Premier League regulations that don't allow standing terraces (due to the Hillsborough disaster in 1989), our club was forced to tear them all down and replace them with seats. Our board passed a £750,000 expansion project that would see Crabble Athletic Ground become a 7000 capacity all-seater by mid-November. On an interim basis, while construction is ongoing, our capacity is reduced to 5675 with only 890 of them being seats. Therefore, during Premier League matches, we'd only be able to accommodate 890 people at most until the expansion is completed. For cup ties, we were allowed to use any existing terraces, thereby allowing us to house 5675 supporters.

Needless to say, I'm elated that we're finally DOING SOMETHING, even if it's just because Premier League officials put a gun to our head!

Our team reputation is now up to "National" from Regional. Moving to the Premier League allows us to hike ticket prices substantially and we put through close to a 50% price increase on single game tickets and ~40% on season tickets. Despite the large increase, we sell almost 1500 more season ticket packages versus last year, a stunning 60+% increase!

Oh, and our team's estimated value skyrockets from £2.5m to a whopping £24.5 million!!! We are now ranked 24th in England.

I was pretty excited to head into our budget meeting before the season started. I knew the media were practically laughing about our prospects in the Premier League and I expected our board to have modest goals. Indeed, they hoped we would fight bravely against relegation and I told them the lads would give it their best effort. Our budgets were quite different to what we were used to...

2018/19 TRANSFER BUDGET - £9,000,000
2018/19 WAGE BUDGET - £135,000/week

The Premier League effect is a wonderful thing! What am I going to do with nine million pounds?!? I end up tweaking things a bit to give us a larger wage allowance, dropping the transfer budget to around 7.5 million.

Preseason: Roster Status

GK - I don't expect to make any changes here. Ingo Wilke has done nothing but impress at every level with Dover thus far and he'll get the opportunity to lead us at the top level in English football.

D - I'm generally happy with our backline but could likely use an upgrade here and there. Oliver Nicholas and Luke McCullough should be capable enough at this level but Jeroen Simaeys may be getting a bit long in the tooth. At fullback, Bob Harris, Conor Morrissey and Jackson Ramm will have to prove they are all up to the challenge. We could likely do with some upgrades in the centre especially.

M - We have some pretty decent players here, especially the versatile Liam Craig but could use a more dynamic presence in the middle of the park.

F - We were a tad weak at striker last year, getting a disappointing performance from Robert Kerkhof but decent play out of Simon Rideout and Zoltan Bardi Upgrades would be useful here as well.

Generally speaking, I needed to upgrade depth everywhere and add a few key pieces at starting positions to bring more "Premier League quality" to the squad.

Transfers OUT

DM/MC - Jamal Yildirim - St. Gallen - £1,500,000
ST - Robert Kerkhof - Granada - £1,000,000
AMC - Marvin Emnes - AaB - £825,000
ST - Lionel Lavigne - Betis - £350,000
ST - Victor Anichebe - Portsmouth - £100,000
ST - Martin Horny - Northwich - £1,000

MC - Isco - Bristol City - Free

DL - Carlos Dussaut - Released
ML - Simon Bouwman - Released
MR - Craig Moore - Released
ST - Darren Hicks - Released

We grab our largest transfer fee ever in selling capable midfielder Jamal Yildirim to St. Gallen. He played parts of three years for us, appearing in 73 league games, scoring 7 goals and adding 8 assists. Perhaps the most surprising move is selling striker Robert Kerkhof after only two years with the club. Kerkhof was instrumental in our promotion from League 1 to the Championship but was very inconsistent last season. It was questionable as to whether he was going to be able to make an impact at the Premier League level so when I was offered a million pounds for him, I decided I couldn't pass up on the value. Kerkhof leaves after scoring 32 goals in 62 league games, adding 18 assists and 10 MoM awards as well. New signing (see below) Lionel Lavigne fetched an incredible sum for a 19 year old who hadn't yet played a league game for the club. I loaned him out last year and couldn't pass up 350K for him when he didn't have a spot on our club for the foreseeable future. Marvin Emnes and Victor Anichebe made modest contributions to our team last year while Martin Horny was a perennial loan candidate. None will be missed.

Isco was a pretty unheralded and underappreciated player for us over the past three years. He was a capable offensive player but not really skilled enough for the Premier League. He leaves for Bristol City on a free transfer, having played in 65 league games for Dover, scoring 8 goals and assisting on 10.

Of the released players, Simon Bouwman and Craig Moore made impacts with our club. Bouwman was more or less a second choice here during his three seasons at the club, whether it was behind loanee Arsene Bamba or Liam Craig last year. Bouwman played in 52 league games, scoring 6 goals. Moore was one of our first "regen" signings as an U18 player and was with our team for six years. He was loaned out to Histon, Braintree, Ebbsfleet and Chelmsford over that period of time but also made an impact with the Whites, playing in 54 games and scoring 4 goals. Carlos Dussaut and Darren Hicks were U18 players released when their contracts expired.

I loaned out a ton of players over the course of the year, most notably receiving £150,000 from Ipswich for sending striker Simon Rideout to them for the season.

Transfers IN

ST - Gerardo Escobar - £2,200,000 (Last Club: Manchester United) - 21 years old, Spain
AMC - Andrea Rocca - £1,600,000 (Last Club: Celta) - 21 years old, Italy
ST - Robbie Benson - £1,500,000 (Last Club: Dundee) - 26 years old, Ireland
MR - Petr Kostal - £1,300,000 (Last Club: Reading) - 23 years old, Czech Republic
AMC - Aitor Zubizarreta - £1,000,000 (Last Club: Manchester United) - 20 years old, Spain
ST - Zoltan Bardi - £850,000 (Last Club: Arsenal) - 20 years old, Hungary

DC - Rayane Hamon - LOAN - £300,000 Fee (From Liverpool) - 20 years old, France
DM - George MacKenzie - LOAN - £275,000 Fee (From Chelsea) - 20 years old, England
MC - Andre Zacher - LOAN - £200,000 Fee (From OM) - 19 years old, Germany

GK - Fraser Forster - Free (Last Club: Leicester) - 30 years old, England
DR - Glen Johnson - Free (Last Club: Liverpool) - 33 years old, England
DR - Jozef Kuciak - Free (Last Club: Liverpool) - 24 years old, Slovakia
DC - Joleon Lescott - Free (Last Club: Wigan) - 35 years old, England
DC - Stephane Mbia - Free (Last Club: CD Sedan Ardennes) - 32 years old, Cameroon
AML - Ashley Young - Free (Last Club: Aston Villa) - 32 years old, England
ML - Cristian Rodriguez - Free (Last Club: Chelsea) - 32 years old, Uruguay
AMC - Jose Manuel Jurado - Free (Last Club: Schalke) - 32 years old, Spain
ST/AMC - Roberto - Free (Last Club: Los Angeles) - 19 years old, Brazil

U18 Team Additions -
GK - Ryan Alnwick - Free (Last Club: Liverpool) - 18 years old, England
DC - Andrew Stanley - Free (Last Club: Tottenham) - 18 years old, England
DC - Jamie Matthews - Free (Last Club: Liverpool) - 18 years old, England
DR - Rachid Diallo - Free (Last Club: Pau FC) - 18 years old, Togo
DC/DM - Emmanuel Agbo - Free (Last Club: Tottenham) - 17 years old, England
ST - Lionel Lavigne - Free (Last Club: OGC Nice) - 18 years old, France
ST - Dennis Kunz - Free (Last Club: Jena II) - 17 years old, Germany

We make sweeping changes to the roster in light of our promotion to the Premier League.

There are a few key moves, one of which is adding young Spanish striker Gerardo Escobar, who never played a league game for Man U but played on loan in Ireland and France the last two years. I hope he makes a big contribution right away. I'm also ecstatic to bring back attacking central midfielder Andrea Rocca to Dover - Rocca was here during our League 1 promotion year and was arguably our most important player that season. We expect him to contribute right away for our club this year. I also decide to buy Zoltan Bardi from Arsenal - Bardi has played with us on loan the past two years and fit in very well so he is a nice bargain addition. Robbie Benson will be a third or fourth choice at striker and he has blazing speed. Petr Kostal will get a chance to play in a rotation at MR while Aitor Zubizarreta is brought in more for the future.

We bring in three players on loan - I'm going to give Rayane Hamon a chance to play regularly at centre half (3.5/4.5) and I'm hoping George MacKenzie can play at DM when we go to a 4-5-1 formation, something I expect to rely on often at this level to keep games close on the road against superior competition. Andre Zacher is a dynamic and skilled centre mid.

As for the free additions, I bring in a number of veterans with experience not only at the top level but international experience as well. Glen Johnson comes to Dover with an incredible 93 caps for England while Ashley Young has played 32 times for England. Joleon Lescott will be another England international adding experience to our backline.

GK Fraser Forster has the talent to unseat incumbent Ingo Wilke from our nets. Jozef Kuciak will likely work into a fullback rotation with newcomer Glen Johnson and incumbent Conor Morrissey. Cristian Rodriguez, Stephane Mbia and Jose Manuel Jurado will all make contributions as well as adding some needed influence to our young team. Young Brazilian striker Roberto comes to us after spending one year with Los Angeles but will be a loan candidate.

I continue adding prospects to our U18 pool but don't expect any to contribute anytime soon.

Final Thoughts Before the Season Begins

I really have no idea what to expect in our first year of Premier League play. Squad unity may be a major issue due to all of the new additions but I'm excited to see if we can hold our own at the top level of English football.

We make no changes to our team leadership, with Darren Pratley and Luke McCullough maintaining the captain and vice-captain roles respectively.

We will likely rely on two formations for the most part this year: a standard 4-4-2 and a 4-5-1 with a defensive midfielder.

Our first ever Premier League contest will see us host Liverpool, the team that offered me the managerial position in the offseason. They'd end up hiring veteran Martin O'Neill when I turned the job down. I'm sure they will have something to prove when they visit Crabble Athletic Ground!

We decide on a narrow 4-4-2 formation for game one. Here is the starting lineup for our first game in the Barclays Premier League:

GK - Ingo Wilke
D - Bob Harris/Stephane Mbia/Oliver Nicholas/Jozef Kuciak
M - Cristian Rodriguez/Liam Craig, Darren Pratley, Ashley Young
ST - Gerardo Escobar/Zoltan Bardi

11-17-2013, 03:58 PM	#36
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	2018-19 Season Recap - Preseason: Manager and Team Status, Yearly Budgets, Board and Media Expectations It doesn't take me long to realize how different the Premier League is from the Championship. I'm offered a contract extension that sees my salary skyrocket from £1,800 per week to £13,250! My annual salary goes all the way up to £689,000! WOW. I'm now considered to have a "Continental" reputation and the Dover supporters now consider me to be a team icon, which is a step up from "favoured personnel" and just one step down from being a team legend. For years, I've attempted to get improvements made at Crabble Athletic Ground and I've been turned away every single time. Well, the board can say no to me all they want but there was no turning away from Premier League officials, that's for sure! Due to Premier League regulations that don't allow standing terraces (due to the Hillsborough disaster in 1989), our club was forced to tear them all down and replace them with seats. Our board passed a £750,000 expansion project that would see Crabble Athletic Ground become a 7000 capacity all-seater by mid-November. On an interim basis, while construction is ongoing, our capacity is reduced to 5675 with only 890 of them being seats. Therefore, during Premier League matches, we'd only be able to accommodate 890 people at most until the expansion is completed. For cup ties, we were allowed to use any existing terraces, thereby allowing us to house 5675 supporters. Needless to say, I'm elated that we're finally DOING SOMETHING, even if it's just because Premier League officials put a gun to our head! Our team reputation is now up to "National" from Regional. Moving to the Premier League allows us to hike ticket prices substantially and we put through close to a 50% price increase on single game tickets and ~40% on season tickets. Despite the large increase, we sell almost 1500 more season ticket packages versus last year, a stunning 60+% increase! Oh, and our team's estimated value skyrockets from £2.5m to a whopping £24.5 million!!! We are now ranked 24th in England. I was pretty excited to head into our budget meeting before the season started. I knew the media were practically laughing about our prospects in the Premier League and I expected our board to have modest goals. Indeed, they hoped we would fight bravely against relegation and I told them the lads would give it their best effort. Our budgets were quite different to what we were used to... 2018/19 TRANSFER BUDGET - £9,000,000 2018/19 WAGE BUDGET - £135,000/week The Premier League effect is a wonderful thing! What am I going to do with nine million pounds?!? I end up tweaking things a bit to give us a larger wage allowance, dropping the transfer budget to around 7.5 million. Preseason: Roster Status GK - I don't expect to make any changes here. Ingo Wilke has done nothing but impress at every level with Dover thus far and he'll get the opportunity to lead us at the top level in English football. D - I'm generally happy with our backline but could likely use an upgrade here and there. Oliver Nicholas and Luke McCullough should be capable enough at this level but Jeroen Simaeys may be getting a bit long in the tooth. At fullback, Bob Harris, Conor Morrissey and Jackson Ramm will have to prove they are all up to the challenge. We could likely do with some upgrades in the centre especially. M - We have some pretty decent players here, especially the versatile Liam Craig but could use a more dynamic presence in the middle of the park. F - We were a tad weak at striker last year, getting a disappointing performance from Robert Kerkhof but decent play out of Simon Rideout and Zoltan Bardi Upgrades would be useful here as well. Generally speaking, I needed to upgrade depth everywhere and add a few key pieces at starting positions to bring more "Premier League quality" to the squad. Transfers OUT DM/MC - Jamal Yildirim - St. Gallen - £1,500,000 ST - Robert Kerkhof - Granada - £1,000,000 AMC - Marvin Emnes - AaB - £825,000 ST - Lionel Lavigne - Betis - £350,000 ST - Victor Anichebe - Portsmouth - £100,000 ST - Martin Horny - Northwich - £1,000 MC - Isco - Bristol City - Free DL - Carlos Dussaut - Released ML - Simon Bouwman - Released MR - Craig Moore - Released ST - Darren Hicks - Released We grab our largest transfer fee ever in selling capable midfielder Jamal Yildirim to St. Gallen. He played parts of three years for us, appearing in 73 league games, scoring 7 goals and adding 8 assists. Perhaps the most surprising move is selling striker Robert Kerkhof after only two years with the club. Kerkhof was instrumental in our promotion from League 1 to the Championship but was very inconsistent last season. It was questionable as to whether he was going to be able to make an impact at the Premier League level so when I was offered a million pounds for him, I decided I couldn't pass up on the value. Kerkhof leaves after scoring 32 goals in 62 league games, adding 18 assists and 10 MoM awards as well. New signing (see below) Lionel Lavigne fetched an incredible sum for a 19 year old who hadn't yet played a league game for the club. I loaned him out last year and couldn't pass up 350K for him when he didn't have a spot on our club for the foreseeable future. Marvin Emnes and Victor Anichebe made modest contributions to our team last year while Martin Horny was a perennial loan candidate. None will be missed. Isco was a pretty unheralded and underappreciated player for us over the past three years. He was a capable offensive player but not really skilled enough for the Premier League. He leaves for Bristol City on a free transfer, having played in 65 league games for Dover, scoring 8 goals and assisting on 10. Of the released players, Simon Bouwman and Craig Moore made impacts with our club. Bouwman was more or less a second choice here during his three seasons at the club, whether it was behind loanee Arsene Bamba or Liam Craig last year. Bouwman played in 52 league games, scoring 6 goals. Moore was one of our first "regen" signings as an U18 player and was with our team for six years. He was loaned out to Histon, Braintree, Ebbsfleet and Chelmsford over that period of time but also made an impact with the Whites, playing in 54 games and scoring 4 goals. Carlos Dussaut and Darren Hicks were U18 players released when their contracts expired. I loaned out a ton of players over the course of the year, most notably receiving £150,000 from Ipswich for sending striker Simon Rideout to them for the season. Transfers IN ST - Gerardo Escobar - £2,200,000 (Last Club: Manchester United) - 21 years old, Spain AMC - Andrea Rocca - £1,600,000 (Last Club: Celta) - 21 years old, Italy ST - Robbie Benson - £1,500,000 (Last Club: Dundee) - 26 years old, Ireland MR - Petr Kostal - £1,300,000 (Last Club: Reading) - 23 years old, Czech Republic AMC - Aitor Zubizarreta - £1,000,000 (Last Club: Manchester United) - 20 years old, Spain ST - Zoltan Bardi - £850,000 (Last Club: Arsenal) - 20 years old, Hungary DC - Rayane Hamon - LOAN - £300,000 Fee (From Liverpool) - 20 years old, France DM - George MacKenzie - LOAN - £275,000 Fee (From Chelsea) - 20 years old, England MC - Andre Zacher - LOAN - £200,000 Fee (From OM) - 19 years old, Germany GK - Fraser Forster - Free (Last Club: Leicester) - 30 years old, England DR - Glen Johnson - Free (Last Club: Liverpool) - 33 years old, England DR - Jozef Kuciak - Free (Last Club: Liverpool) - 24 years old, Slovakia DC - Joleon Lescott - Free (Last Club: Wigan) - 35 years old, England DC - Stephane Mbia - Free (Last Club: CD Sedan Ardennes) - 32 years old, Cameroon AML - Ashley Young - Free (Last Club: Aston Villa) - 32 years old, England ML - Cristian Rodriguez - Free (Last Club: Chelsea) - 32 years old, Uruguay AMC - Jose Manuel Jurado - Free (Last Club: Schalke) - 32 years old, Spain ST/AMC - Roberto - Free (Last Club: Los Angeles) - 19 years old, Brazil U18 Team Additions - GK - Ryan Alnwick - Free (Last Club: Liverpool) - 18 years old, England DC - Andrew Stanley - Free (Last Club: Tottenham) - 18 years old, England DC - Jamie Matthews - Free (Last Club: Liverpool) - 18 years old, England DR - Rachid Diallo - Free (Last Club: Pau FC) - 18 years old, Togo DC/DM - Emmanuel Agbo - Free (Last Club: Tottenham) - 17 years old, England ST - Lionel Lavigne - Free (Last Club: OGC Nice) - 18 years old, France ST - Dennis Kunz - Free (Last Club: Jena II) - 17 years old, Germany We make sweeping changes to the roster in light of our promotion to the Premier League. There are a few key moves, one of which is adding young Spanish striker Gerardo Escobar, who never played a league game for Man U but played on loan in Ireland and France the last two years. I hope he makes a big contribution right away. I'm also ecstatic to bring back attacking central midfielder Andrea Rocca to Dover - Rocca was here during our League 1 promotion year and was arguably our most important player that season. We expect him to contribute right away for our club this year. I also decide to buy Zoltan Bardi from Arsenal - Bardi has played with us on loan the past two years and fit in very well so he is a nice bargain addition. Robbie Benson will be a third or fourth choice at striker and he has blazing speed. Petr Kostal will get a chance to play in a rotation at MR while Aitor Zubizarreta is brought in more for the future. We bring in three players on loan - I'm going to give Rayane Hamon a chance to play regularly at centre half (3.5/4.5) and I'm hoping George MacKenzie can play at DM when we go to a 4-5-1 formation, something I expect to rely on often at this level to keep games close on the road against superior competition. Andre Zacher is a dynamic and skilled centre mid. As for the free additions, I bring in a number of veterans with experience not only at the top level but international experience as well. Glen Johnson comes to Dover with an incredible 93 caps for England while Ashley Young has played 32 times for England. Joleon Lescott will be another England international adding experience to our backline. GK Fraser Forster has the talent to unseat incumbent Ingo Wilke from our nets. Jozef Kuciak will likely work into a fullback rotation with newcomer Glen Johnson and incumbent Conor Morrissey. Cristian Rodriguez, Stephane Mbia and Jose Manuel Jurado will all make contributions as well as adding some needed influence to our young team. Young Brazilian striker Roberto comes to us after spending one year with Los Angeles but will be a loan candidate. I continue adding prospects to our U18 pool but don't expect any to contribute anytime soon. Final Thoughts Before the Season Begins I really have no idea what to expect in our first year of Premier League play. Squad unity may be a major issue due to all of the new additions but I'm excited to see if we can hold our own at the top level of English football. We make no changes to our team leadership, with Darren Pratley and Luke McCullough maintaining the captain and vice-captain roles respectively. We will likely rely on two formations for the most part this year: a standard 4-4-2 and a 4-5-1 with a defensive midfielder. Our first ever Premier League contest will see us host Liverpool, the team that offered me the managerial position in the offseason. They'd end up hiring veteran Martin O'Neill when I turned the job down. I'm sure they will have something to prove when they visit Crabble Athletic Ground! We decide on a narrow 4-4-2 formation for game one. Here is the starting lineup for our first game in the Barclays Premier League: GK - Ingo Wilke D - Bob Harris/Stephane Mbia/Oliver Nicholas/Jozef Kuciak M - Cristian Rodriguez/Liam Craig, Darren Pratley, Ashley Young ST - Gerardo Escobar/Zoltan Bardi __________________ 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 : 11-17-2013 at 04:02 PM.