Thu. July 8, 2021 - Preseason Friendly
-- We play our annual intrasquad game between our reserves/backups and our U18 team.
Dover 3 - 0 Dover U18
Dover Goals - Roberto (7.1), Shaun Spall (7.6), Aitor Zubizarreta (8.0)
Dover Assists - Roberto, Cameron Murray (6.9), Jonathan Adam (6.8)
Man of the Match - Aitor Zubizarreta
Other Notables: Youssouf Sylla (7.1), Thomas Andersen (7.0), Jozef Varga (7.3), Mancini (7.1)
U18 Goals -
U18 Assists -
Other U18 Notables - Emmerson Harvey (7.1), Johnny Mardenborough (5.8)
-- A boring game, as usual, with very poor football being played. Newcomers Shaun Spall and GK Youssouf Sylla looked good as did 17 year old Emmerson Harvey for the U18s.
-- We suffer a couple of injuries, one to a U18 player and the other to backup right fullback
Jozef Kuciak, whose bruised ribs will keep him out of action for about a week.
-- I get a note that famed
Cristiano Ronaldo has left Real Madrid to come back to England and will suit up for Arsenal. Crap. He's 36 and pretty much done but I would have enjoyed having his experience on our team as a rotational player.
-- I accept a £4.8 million plus clauses bid for
Gerardo Escobar from Leverkusen and he's now working on a contract with their club. I rejected about 12 other offers due to lack of upfront money. We'll see if anyone comes calling for him at the last minute.
-- Escobar is expendable for two reasons: first, I have a bid accepted for a Dutch international striker and I'm awaiting word on whether he signs with us or not. The second reason is the following…
Loan IN
-- I'm not sure if Radii reads this dynasty but if he does, or if there is anyone out there who followed his Ipswich career, I think I may have found my very own "Yuri Di Giuseppe"…and his name is
Paul Moses
Moses is only 17 and will turn 18 in about a month and a half. His attributes are pretty much off-the-charts for such a young guy and he's rated as a 4.5 or 5 star potential player by my scouts and my coaches. Current rating is between 2.5 and 3 stars. Sensational, game-breaking speed and great determination - on the downside, a bit lazy and selfish and needs to fill out. I mentioned that Moses was my main target a few posts ago and I tried to buy him outright but United wanted around £25 million for him. I wasn't prepared to shell out that kind of money without seeing him in action so I was able to get him on a season-long loan for only £600,000 and I added a clause that will allow me to buy him at any point during the loan period for £18.75 million. Moses was a youth pull at United in 2019 and went to Preston in the Championship last year on loan and scored 19 goals in 33 league games as a 17 year old.
So…what do you think of him? Is he worthy of that kind of money?