Dover Contracts Set to Expire
-- We don’t have any senior team players with expiring contracts and only a few U18 players, none of whom will likely see extension offers. I have a ton of coaches and scouts with expiring contracts and I’ll offer all of them extensions.
June Update
-- The Premier League transfer window opens on June 9th but I don’t have much money from last year’s transfer kitty left so I’ll have to wait until my new budget is announced. That said, with no expiring contracts, I don’t expect an awful lot of fireworks with respect to new additions but we’ll see if any of our players are poached by larger clubs before making any grand assumptions.
Premier League Monthly Awards
— Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku scored six goals in only two May appearances to win Player of the Month accolades.
— In a nice honour, young backup central defender
Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz wins Young Player of the Month honours. Another Dover backup, fullback
Carlos Guzman comes in second.
— That devil Jose Mourinho wins manager of the month for May and I finish in third spot.
June Board Confidence Update
-- The board are absolutely delighted with the way I’m leading the team. Our Champions League win is the main highlight and the only slight disappointment continues to be our FA Cup run.
-- We made a profit of £36.64 million last month. Lovely!
International Update
-- Qualifying has begun in Africa for the next World Cup and
Mwemere Mutesa (Rwanda),
Salim Loucif (Algeria) and
Saber Nasri (Tunisia) all play well for their country.
-- Turnover shoots up over 21 million pounds over last year but we spend close to 25 million more on player transfers so we end up losing just shy of £5 million overall. Not bad in a Champions League/Premier League winning season in my opinion. Our bank balance is healthy and our average attendance shoots up by over 3,000 per game.
Stadium Improvements
-- I mentioned it as an aside in one of my comments above but my board flat out rejects my request to either expand our current stadium or build a new one. Bascially, they say the demand isn’t high enough, which is ludicrous in my opinion. We sold out a bunch of games last year and we’re defending Premier League AND Champions League titleholders. The board does give in when I push about other improvements and they are in the midst of planning for Training Facility and Youth Facility improvements. Still, this is a VERY disappointing development, as I really would have liked to lead the team into a new stadium.
Shareholders Dividend
-- Our board announce that dividends totalling £2.7 million will be divided up and paid to shareholders. This is quite a bit less than last year.
New Kit Sponsorship Deal!
-- We’ve historically had the weakest sponsorship agreements in the past and winning the Premier League and Champions League look to have helped our stature, as the board announce a brand new kit sponsor that will pay us approximately £1.3 million per year in a five year deal. Our previous sponsor only shelled out £248k so that’s a sizeable increase.
European Super Cup
-- One of the perks of winning the Champions League is a high-profile match between us and the winners of the Europa League in a battle for the European Super Cup. Borussia Dortmund won the 2024 Europa League and we will match up against them on August 30th at Stade Louis II.
International Update
-- A number of our players take part in international fixtures:
Emmerson Harvey,
Paul Moses and
Andy Broomes all suit up for England’s U21 club.
Takfarinas Madani (Algeria U20) and
Felix Hernandez (France U21) also suit up for youth squads. On the senior team side,
Lyubomir Kunchev (Bulgaria),
Arsene Bamba (Ivory Coast),
Saber Nasri (Tunisia),
Salim Loucif (Algeria),
Jose (Brazil),
Mwemere Mutesa (Rwanda),
Rayane Hamon (France),
Gianluca Bolis and
Manuel Perez (Mexico) all played for their home countries.