[NoSkillz]

Sat. August 30, 2025

Barclays Premier League
Southampton (0-1-1, 1 points, 13th) vs. Dover (2-0-0, 6 points, 4th)
St. Mary’s Stadium, Southampton, England

Betting Odds: Southampton: 3-1 Draw: 2-1 Dover: 4-5
Past Meetings: 4W 2D 1L

Southampton are coming off a 2nd place finish in the Championship last season, which won them automatic promotion back into the Premier League for the first time since the 2021/22 season. They’ve started off this new season in fine form, battling Arsenal hard in a 3-2 loss then garnering a 3-3 draw against fellow promoted side Birmingham. They’ve added 8 players during the summer transfer window at a total of £9 million, with the largest fee paid for Porto’s Darko Music, a 28 year old attacking midfielder. I don’t recognize many of the names on the roster - midfielders Thomas Ince and Nathan Redmond stand out. They have a couple of strikers worth watching: Mike Moss has three goals in two games thus far while Arturo Osorio scored a hat trick in his only appearance thus far.

I contemplate changes but the squad played very well in our last game so I go with the exact same lineup as the Villa game. That means second consecutive starts for Rafinha, Neil Cairney and Sergio De la Vega. I do bring Jose onto the bench for today’s affair and against my better judgement, I decide to give Paul Moses one more game to get on the scoresheet. I won’t play him against Chelsea next week if he can’t break out of his slump. That said, he’s getting an incredible amount of chances but has run into hot keepers thus far.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - Rafinha, N. Cairney, B. Raab, S. De la Vega
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Bench - R. Lopez, M. Mutesa, E. Harvey, Jose, J. Langlet, M. Lugo, A. Broomes

Southampton are in a flat 4-4-2 and it’s Moss starting up front with Shyamdew Doesburg. Their big signing Darko Music starts at ML and Geoffrey Tesfaye is their keeper. Sergio De la Vega is overconfident in warmups so I pull him aside to tell him I expect a performance today. I also pull aside Moses to say I have faith in him and also Chiquinho, asking him to keep up the good work. To the team, I say I expect a win.

23’ - We’re in control of this game from the outset but are having trouble getting shots on goal. We finally see Benedikt Raab work a ball into the box to Chiquinho. A Southampton defender challenges him and the ball pops loose for a second and there to pounce is PAUL MOSES and he rockets the ball into the back of the net! Moses is finally on the board and he’s delighted, as am I!! DOVER GOAL 1-0

45’+1 - We’re just into first half injury time and win a corner. Raab’s kick is to the near post and Chiquinho heads it to the far corner, where Claudio Contreras is able to battle through a challenge and tap is over the goal line. Big goal! DOVER GOAL 2-0

HALFTIME - That’s three good halves in a row for us. 65% of possession is ours, along with a huge 19-2 (7-1 on target) shot advantage. Good stuff!

47’ - Moses got thwarted just seconds earlier on a partial break and now Chiquinho sends him in all alone once again. It’s VINTAGE MOSES, as he rounds the keeper and easily slots the ball into the empty net. Tremendous. DOVER GOAL 3-0

70’ - There’s been a spell of Southampton dominance but we keep them to the outside for the most part. I pull a double substitution, taking out the excellent Raab and captain Salim Loucif, bringing in Emmerson Harvey and Rodolfo Lopez.

Poor second half but a good road win overall.

Southampton 0 - 3 Dover
Goals - Paul Moses 2 (8.9), Claudio Contreras (8.4)
Assists - Benedikt Raab 2 (9.0), Chiquinho (8.1)
Man of the Match - Benedikt Raab
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.0), Salim Loucif (7.4), Rayane Hamon (7.4), Renato Gaucho (7.2)
Attendance - 30,065

We gave them a ton of possession in the second half and that brought our number down to 53% overall but we did enjoy a 30-8 (11-2 on target) shot advantage. Raab was brilliant, as usual and again, it’s so good to see Moses get a couple. His explosiveness isn’t back yet and I truly wonder if it ever will return after his two leg injuries last year.

-- United and City both win to stay ahead of us and Middlesbrough are off to a good start as well after a 1-0 win over Newcastle. Arsenal also wallop Reading 4-1.



International Update

-- We have a two week break from senior team competition due to an international break and we have 27 players called up by their respective countries. Pretty huge number! The biggest shock is seeing that fullback Renato Gaucho, uncapped at the senior level despite a number of caps at the youth level with Brazil, gets called up by SPAIN!! Wow! He has dual citizenship and if he plays, he will be tied to Spain for the rest of his career. I also see that Neil Cairney is back in the good graces of Scotland and has been recalled after being overlooked in recent games. Also getting his first ever call up is Mexico’s Manuel Lugo. Lots going on!

-- Gaining Senior caps are Salim Loucif (Algeria), Jose (Brazil), Chiquinho (Belgium), Mwemere Mutesa (Rwanda), Chris Davies and Paul Moses (England - one goal and two assists for Moses), Zoltan Bardi (Hungary), Mads Pedersen (Denmark - one goal), Manuel Lugo (Mexico), Neil Cairney (Scotland - one goal and one assist), Gianluca Bolis (Italy), Sergio De la Vega, Rodolfo Lopez and Claudio Contreras (Argentina - two assists for De la Vega). Lugo’s cap is his first ever senior cap for Mexico! Great stuff!!

-- Gaining youth caps are Neil Evans and Andrew Hunter (England U19), Adrian Torres (Spain U21), Alberto Velazquez, Luis Miguel Garcia and Fernando Estrada (Mexico U20 - one goal each for Velazquez and Estrada) and Bakary Kone (Ivory Coast U20 - one goal).

-- We also get a cool note that captain Salim Loucif has just become a British citizen! Loucif is the captain of Algeria’s national team but wanted to be a “EU national” and now has dual citizenship. Excellent.



September Update

-- The transfer window closes today and we’re through with our major business but do have a work permit being sorted out for a youngster that wouldn’t join our club until next summer. September will be relatively quiet for us, with three league games: Chelsea (at home), Reading (away) and Hull (home). We also start our Champions League group stage with a huge home matchup against Real Madrid and begin our quest for the League Cup with a third round matchup against minnows Carlisle. So only five matches.

-- After a couple months of poor training performances, we get a positive report for Paul Moses, which is great. We also get positive notices for Claudio Contreras, reserves DC Danny Hope and U18 players Stuart Cousins, Robert Hoffmann and Ralf Kramer. No negatives this month!



Board Confidence Update

-- The board are very pleased with my leadership, with stature increase being the major contributing factor but they are slightly disappointed with the departure of Andrea Rocca. Well, that’s a bit more reasonable than being upset about Hans Briers not being here!

-- We absolutely raked in the cash in August, making a profit of £27.2 MILLION! That’s due to the Manuel Perez and Saber Nasri sales.



Premier League Monthly Awards

-- Man City midfielder Jonathan Bottone wins the Barclays Premier League player of the month award and Chiquinho comes in third.

-- Rafinha, playing at left midfield for the injured Mads Pedersen and Arsene Bamba, wins the young player of the month award. Cool. Mwemere Mutesa finished in third despite only playing in one game as a substitute.

-- Hey! I win Manager of the Month honours! Thanks guys!



Coaching Update

-- My U18 team manager accepts a deal with Liverpool to be a youth coach, which is just bizarre. He was here for 14 years. Now I’m scrambling to find another youth coach and I ask one of the current coaches, Chris Armas, to be our U18 manager.



Champions League Registration

-- I have to leave two spaces in my Champions League roster due to not having enough English trained players. Not making the cut for this first go-around are Arsene Bamba, who is out for close to two months, and midfielder Paolo Secchi.

-- The Champions League odds are out and World Soccer Magazine makes Barcelona the 3-1 favourites to win the competition. United are at 4-1, Sampdoria are 15-2, Real Madrid are 8-1 and Man City and Olympique Lyonnais are 9-1. We are given 11-1 odds to win, up from the 12-1 odds given last year.



Premier League Team of the Week

-- Benedikt Raab and Paul Moses make the Barclays Premier League team of the week.



Dover U18 Update

-- Despite having half our U18 team away on international duty, we’re able to get past Tottenham 2-0 in extra time in the first round of the U18 Cup. Fernando Estrada and Freddie Laird score our two goals. This was Chris Armas’ first game managing the U18s.

-- A few days later, the kids win 3-1 over Brentford in U18 league play, with Stephen Brannigan, Freddie Laird and Giuseppe Forti scoring the goals.



Injury Update

-- Mads Pedersen returns to full training after missing a couple weeks with a twisted knee. He should be good to go for next weekend.

-- Bad news comes as Emmerson Harvey breaks down in training and is diagnosed with a hernia. He’ll miss a month of action. Poor timing.



Facility Upgrade Complete!

-- Our youth and training facilities expansion is finally completed! Our youth facilities go from “adequate” to “average” while our regular training facility goes from “good” to “top training facilities”. Excellent!



Dover Reserves Team Update

-- Another less than full strength side takes the pitch and we still beat Watford’s Reserves 3-0. Paolo Secchi, Andy Broomes and Rafinha score.



Next Up

-- We host Chelsea in a big early season Premier League matchup.