Tue. July 18, 2023
Preseason Friendly
Internacional (Brazil) vs. Dover
Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Another of the big Brazilian clubs today - they just added a 24 year old fullback from rival Santos FC named Lulinha for £7.5 million. Their top striker by value, Paulo Sergio, is injured today.
Our splashy new central defence signing
Saber Nasri will suit up for the first time today.
Paul Moses is up front with
Chiquinho today.
Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, M. Yilmaz, S. Nasri, S. Reed
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, R. Ramirez, G. Allan
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Internacional 1 - 2 Dover
Goals - Paul Moses (7.7), Shanon Andrea (7.3)
Assists - Renato Gaucho (7.5), Neil Cairney (7.5)
Man of the Match - Ze Carlos (Internacional GK - 8.7)
Other Dover Notables - Saber Nasri (7.1), Chiquinho (5.9)
Attendance - 13,713
This was a lightning fast game and super fun to watch. The pitch at Beira-Rio is HUGE and we were just darting all over the place. We held 55% of possession and a ludicrous 35-10 (16-5 on target) shot advantage. Their keeper Ze Carlos made 14 SAVES and deservedly wins man of the match honours. We needed a last minute goal from substitute Shanon Andrea to finally take the lead. Chiquinho gets a poor rating but he’s getting in the right spots to score so I’m not worried. Newcomer Saber Nasri looked good.
-- We had two injuries in the game:
Graham Allan suffered a twisted ankle and will miss close to three weeks while young defender
Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz suffered a dead leg but will only miss a few days.
Transfer OUT
-- We move DC
Daniel Traore to Everton in a £1.7 million transfer deal. Traore played only one year for us but was very effective as a spot starter, scoring 2 goals and adding 2 assists in 23 appearances. He is a prolific header of the ball but at 30 years of age, his skills were starting to decline ever so slightly and he was a luxury item after our signing of
Saber Nasri. We wish Traore the best with our rivals in Everton.
Transfer IN
-- Is this the move that puts us over the top? After a work permit is granted, we are elated to welcome 25 year old Brazilian midfielder Jose (full name: Jose Silva dos Santos) to Dover in a £16.5 million deal with Zenit from the Russian Premier League.
This guy immediately joins
Neil Cairney and
Chiquinho as the most skilled players to ever put on a Dover kit. Incredible attributes across the board and my scouts feel he’s anywhere between a 4.0 to 4.5 star player right now. He doesn’t speak English so I’ll bring him along slowly to start but I’m guessing he’ll play his way into the lineup a lot this year. We are ridiculously deep at MC now, with Cairney,
Andrea Rocca,
Gian Marco Fanfoni,
Emmerson Harvey and
Rafael Ramirez all around.
-- As an aside, this move leaves us with just over £2 million in our transfer kitty but we are spending way below our £950,000 per week wage budget so we have some wiggle room if necessary. That said, I have no plans to add additional players at this time - I think we're set. Oh yeah, we are now close to £50 million in the red for this year already (!!!) and our bank balance is at a negative £20 million. Ouch - hope we can pay the bills...
Next Up
-- We welcome German club Werder Bremen to Crabble Athletic Ground - they are after my young striker
Rogelio Garcia so I may play him just to give them a taste of his game.