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Preseason Friendlies
-- We finalize our preseason schedule, with an intersquad game and nine other friendlies. We'll face Stade Malherbe Caen (France), Werder Bremen (Germany), Manchester United (taking advantage of a clause in the sale of Cristian Rodriguez) and Rangers (Scotland) at home. We'll head away from home for games against West Brom, Dortmund (Germany), HSV (Germany), Sheffield United and Cambridge City.
-- Gimnastic in LIGA BBVA make a £3.8 million bid for Aitor Zubizarreta, a young attacking midfielder that they've had on loan from us for the past two seasons. I included a clause in the loan deal that they could buy him at this price and they are obviously interested in taking advantage of it. However, a couple days later, contract talks break down, with Zubizarreta saying he wanted more assurance of a first team role. He's scheduled to return to our club when the players come back from vacation. I got a note last year when I sent him on loan that he was causing issues in the dressing room so he may not be around for much longer if he can't fit in here.
-- We get a note that we once again break our attendance record at Dover, with an average of 13,053 supporters watching us play this past year. With another stadium expansion underway, this record will once again be broken in 2021-22.
Barclays Premier League Odds for 2021-22
-- Not surprisingly, Manchester City are the oddsmakers pick to take home a third consecutive Premier League championship, with Bet365 calling them Evens favourites. United is second at 5-2, Chelsea is at 10-1, Arsenal is at 14-1, Liverpool is at 16-1 and Everton is at 40-1. We're gaining a bit of respect from the bookies, as Dover comes in at 150-1…last year we were 1000-1 I believe.
-- Season ticket sales are slow, with only 968 packages sold thus far. The board expects us to sell approximately 4400 this year, which would be over 10% more than last year's 3930.
-- Chelsea once again are sniffing around Neil Cairney and submit an official inquiry for him. I tell them to bugger off - he's not for sale. Again, he has a £40 million release clause so if someone wants him badly enough, there's not much I can do.
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