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Dover Fans' Player of the Year
-- An inspired choice here, as stalwart defender Claudio Contreras is named as the fan’s choice for Player of the Year! Contreras was sensational, scoring 12 goals in only 40 appearances and notching 5 assists as well. He is one of the top defenders in all of football and is only 23 years old.
Dover Best Eleven for 2025-26
-- As usual, there are a couple of major surprises here but that’s what happens when average rating seems to trump games played or other stats:
GK - Chris Davies - 16 apps 0g 7.03 avg
DL - Rafinha - 31 apps 1g 7.35 avg
DC - Claudio Contreras - 40 apps 12g 7.76 avg
DC - Mwemere Mutesa - 34 apps 7g 7.52 avg
DR - Salim Loucif - 44 apps 0g 7.22 avg
MC - Neil Cairney - 39 apps 8g 7.35 avg
MC - Benedikt Raab - 47 apps 8g 7.60 avg
ML - Mads Pedersen - 29 apps 6g 7.44 avg
MR - Sergio De la Vega - 28 apps 8g 7.29 avg
ST - Manuel Lugo - 18 apps 8g 7.58 avg
ST - Paul Moses - 34 apps 34g 7.87 avg
Other notables: GK Ingo Wilke 43 apps 0g 7.02; DC Adrian Torres 17 apps 3g 7.45; DL Renato Gaucho 40 apps 2g 7.33; ML Arsene Bamba 31 apps 7g 7.28; MR Gianluca Bolis 35 apps 8g 7.28; ST Chiquinho 44 apps 25g 7.50; ST Andy Broomes 26 apps 17g 7.50
Davies and Lugo both qualify as surprises, as they were never first choice players at anytime during the season. Rayane Hamon and Jose are conspicuous by their absence.
Let's take a look at our overall Best Eleven since I took over management of the franchise:
Dover Best Eleven - Overall
GK - Ingo Wilke - 407 apps 0g 7.03 avg
DL - Renato Gaucho - 285 apps 7g 7.17 avg
DC - Claudio Contreras - 235 apps 32g 7.25 avg
DC - Rayane Hamon - 227 apps 20g 7.20 avg
DR - Salim Loucif - 265 apps 1g 7.17 avg
ML - Arsene Bamba - 313 apps 63g 7.28 avg
MC - Neil Cairney - 223 apps 40g 7.28 avg
MC - Andrea Rocca - 284 apps 46g 7.24 avg
MR - Gianluca Bolis - 234 apps 50g 7.15 avg
ST - Chiquinho - 183 apps 107 g 7.39 avg
ST - Paul Moses - 163 apps 130g 7.67 avg
Contreras, Bolis and Moses all get added to the team for the first time, as the team starts to look remarkably similar to our current squad.
Substitutes:
GK - Liam O'Brien - 219 apps 0g 6.84 avg
DC - Oliver Nicholas - 316 apps 28g 7.14 avg
DC - Olly Schulz - 120 apps 18g 7.32 avg
MR - Abdeltarek Sakali - 176 apps 50g 7.14 avg
ST - Ben Hunt - 156 apps 70g 7.12 avg
ST - Zoltan Bardi - 307 apps 98g 7.09 avg
ST - Aaron Greene - 141 apps 65g 7.18 avg
Striker Alexander Rattke falls off the list.
2025-26 Barclays Premier League Fixture List Announced
-- We’ll open the Premier League season on the road versus our FA Cup semifinalists Liverpool. Our first home match will be against Newcastle United. Our traditional Boxing Day fixture sees us host Birmingham City, who happen to also be our final regular season opponent.
-- As usual, we are given £40,000,000 spread over 12 months for Premier League television rights.
Start of Season Expectations
-- The board’s minimum expectation is that we qualify for Europe again. Once again, I go higher, saying we’ll challenge for the Premier League title. For that they'll offer the following:
2026/27 TRANSFER BUDGET - £49,000,000 (Last Year: £37,000,000)
2026/27 WAGE BUDGET - £1,400,000 (Last Year: £1,300,000/week)
A healthy transfer budget and a slight increase to our wage budget. We have very few holes in our lineup and will look for superstar players or top prospect youngsters as a means of spending our budget.
Community Shield
-- We once again get to play in the Community Shield, this time due to our Premier League championship, facing FA Cup winners Manchester City on August 9th.
Youth Intake - U18 Club
-- We announce a new intake of players and yet again, we get nothing of note, as we continue to look for our first ever home-produced prospect.
International Duty
-- Salim Loucif captains Algeria in a 1-0 loss to Italy but Algeria are able to still advance out of their group over Italy on goal differential.
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