Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - FM – From Semi-Pro Minnows to Champions League Glory: Dover Athletic FC

NoSkillz · 11-13-2013, 10:04 PM

2016-17 Season Recap -

Preseason: Manager and Team Status, Yearly Budgets, Board and Media Expectations

As I head into my 7th year of management and 3rd consecutive year in League 1, I am offered a modest raise and accept. I thought about taking a hardline approach, especially in light of the fact I'm not entirely happy with the way the board is doing things but I made the pledge years ago that I'd never get into a war of numbers with my paycheck. I see a little hit to my "Financial Control" numbers, simply because I went slightly over-budget last year on wages.

Ah, our woefully inadequate facilities…no changes as usual despite my constant nagging to the powers that be.

For a second consecutive year, the board decide to raise our ticket prices ~5% for the coming year. We've started to lose a bit of steam with respect to growing our season ticket holder base but still increased our number ~2.5%. We see a really nice increase in our estimated value though, likely due to all the cash on hand at the beginning of the season.

Despite two top-half finishes in a row, the media only predict an 11th place finish for 2016/17. The board ask for a top-half finish but I'm sick of setting the bar low - I promise that we'll battle for promotion and that gives me a big increase in the yearly budget:

2016/17 TRANSFER BUDGET - £72,000
2016/17 WAGE BUDGET - £27,500/week

A major increase for transfers and wages. We sold a lot of players last year and banked considerable coin in doing so. It's reassuring that the board has finally decided to invest a bit in the squad. Time to take advantage...

Preseason: Roster Status

GK - Ingo Wilke was absolutely sensational last year in his first season with us. He's unquestionably our starter. Liam O'Brien has been a good soldier for Dover over the years but I'll likely look to sell him this year if there is a market.

D - I continue to be satisfied with our defence, especially up the middle. Oliver Nicholas, Michael Raynes, captain David Ogilby and Luke McCullough will continue to all see time on the pitch. We have solid starting fullbacks in Aziz Deen-Conteh and Conor Morrissey.

M - We will need to build a better foundation in the midfield after utilizing loanees for the most part last year. I'm going to attempt to bring back stellar ML Arsene Bamba from Arsenal for a third consecutive year and Manuel Weinecker from Chelsea for a second season but there are no assurances there. We still have Mark Byrne to play the middle and he was better than advertised but we need a more dynamic presence in the central midfield.

F - Once again, I make a major mistake in the last six months of the previous season, taking too long to negotiate a contract with a star player. This time, it's our two-time defending Fan's Player of the Year Alexander Rattke. He gets scooped up on a Bosman transfer to Italian club Modena and I get absolutely nothing. Rattke had become one of my favourite players in this dynasty so I was pretty upset and he'll be extremely difficult to replace. Aaron Greene is back as are Craig Beattie and Lee Cochrane but I'll definitely be on the lookout for a top-line striker.

Transfers OUT

DC - Ondrej Novak - Jablonec - £350,000
DL - Alessandro Barbero - £140,000
GK - Liam O'Brien - Leeds - £20,000

ST - Alexander Rattke - Modena - Free
DL - Denis Fidanov - Ontinyent - Free
DR - Robert Ryan - Morecambe - Free
MC - Tobias Figueiredo - Shrewsbury - Free
MC - Richie Ryan - Hereford - Free

ML - Ismael Fofana - Released
DC - Will James - Released
MR - Tom Lawrence - Released
ST - Philip Roberts - Released
GK - Mick Ball - Released
MR - Faisal Nabi - Released
DL - Craig Brunt - Released

We make our biggest sale in club history, somehow getting £350K for towering defender Ondrej Novak - he wasn't even close to having the quality to start for us so it was a very easy decision to take Jablonec's attractive offer. He only played 1 league game for Dover. You may be wondering who Alessandro Barbero is, as I've never mentioned him before. Well, that's because we just picked him up earlier in the 2016/17 season on a free then sold him in the January transfer window for £140K! He actually played 18 games for us and played very well in those games (7.21 avg rating) but I picked up another highly touted DL in that window, making Barbero expendable.

Liam O'Brien deserves his own paragraph. He's been our rock at GK ever since I picked him up in my first year of management. At 19 he was rotating into our lineup and at 20 he was the main man in goal. In all, he spent six seasons at Dover, playing in 181 league games and putting together a spectacular 67 clean sheets. Thank you Liam for your great service to Dover fans!

I've already mentioned the Alexander Rattke move on a Bosman transfer. Rattke was a key man in all three seasons at Dover, playing in 109 league games and scoring 50 goals. He'd also contribute 29 assists and win 14 MoM awards in addition to his two Player of the Year nods by our supporters. He will be tough to replace.

The other key sale, albeit on free transfer, was MC Richie Ryan, who heads to Hereford after five underrated seasons with Dover. He was entirely out of his element last year, similar to another Dover legend Abdeltareck Sakali, as Ryan played 26 games last year without a point. Still, he was a commanding presence in the midfield for us for many years and leaves after 168 Dover league appearances, where he scored 29 goals and added 19 assists. The other players moved on free transfer (Fidanov, Ryan & Figueiredo) were all minor players for us.

As usual, there is one key player that doesn't get a contract extension due to age or diminished skills and this year we bid adieu to stalwart ML Ismael Fofana. Fofana was brought in as one of my first moves at Dover in 2010 and was a staple in our lineup for five years before becoming a backup to young loanee Arsene Bamba in his last season. Fofana played in 182 league games for Dover over his six years, scoring 33 goals and adding 31 assists.

Will James and Tom Lawrence were essentially backups during their time here while Philip Roberts, despite being very talented, would become a surplus to requirements after my transfer activity was completed.

I'd also loan out a few players in an effort to help their development. DM Carl Graham (a strong player out of our youth system), MC Carlos Gurpegi, ST Lee Cochrane are all sent away on season-long loan.

Transfers IN

DL - Bob Harris - £95,000 (Last Club: Queen of Sth) - 28 years old, Scotland
MC - Jamal Yildirim - £5,000 (Last Club: Lierse) - 21 years old, Morocco

DL - Alessandro Barbero - Free (Last Club: Tottenham) - 20 years old, Italy
DR - Jackson Ramm - Free (Last Club: Blackburn) - 23 years old, England
DM - Shaun Halsall - Free (Last Club: Blackburn) - 18 years old, England
MC - Jimmy Juan - Free (Last Club: FC Vaduz) - 33 years old, France
MC - Stuart Rogers - Free (Last Club: Tottenham) - 18 years old, England
ST - Robert Kerkhof - Free (Last Club: AZ Alkmaar) - 21 years old, Holland
ST - Martin Horny - Free (Last Club: Presov) - 19 years old, Slovakia

GK - Martin Read - LOAN (From Hearts) - 21 years old, England
ML - Arsene Bamba - LOAN (From Arsenal) - 19 years old, France
MC - Bernard Dunn - LOAN (From Chelsea) - 18 years old, England
AMC - Andrea Rocca - LOAN (From Arsenal) - 19 years old, Italy
AMC/ST - Zoltan Bardi - LOAN (From Arsenal) - 18 years old, Hungary
ST - Simon Rideout - LOAN (From Leicester) - 21 years old, England

Bob Harris becomes our biggest ever signing at just less than £100K. We'd bring him in during the January transfer window and he's a 3.5 star player with solid ratings across the board. Jamal Yildirim is a DM/MC with excellent potential.

I've already mentioned Barbero, as we'd sell him only six short months after getting him on a free. Jackson Ramm will give Conor Morrissey a run for his money at DR - Ramm is a 3.0/3.5 player with great speed for the fullback position and excellent stamina as well. Veteran MC Jimmy Juan was brought in to add some stability to our midfield. Robert Kerkhof has good speed and seems like he could be a decent rotational striker for us with Rattke departing. Halsall, Rogers and Horny are strictly youth prospects that we hope can develop into something.

In the loan department, Bamba returns for a third year at ML and we continue to work with Arsenal manager Unai Emery (he replaced a retiring Arsene Wenger in 2014) for more loanees. He was kind enough to provide two more key players for us: AMC Andrea Rocca and ST Zoltan Bardi. Bardi could be a superstar in waiting (3.0/4.5) and Rocca (3.0/4.0) has some great technical skill (18 corners/16 crossing/13 passing) and should be very useful in the middle of the park. Martin Read was brought in from our parent club Hearts on loan to backup Wilke. Simon Rideout may be a starter at striker for us - he has blazing speed and is rated 3.5/4.5 at the League 1 level. Bernard Dunn will provide cover for us in the central midfield.

Final Thoughts Before the Season Begins

The loss of Rattke stings but I feel I've done incredibly well to improve our striker position with the additions of Simon Rideout, Zoltan Bardi and Robert Kerkhoff. Our midfield is a slight question mark, as we'll once again be relying heavily on young loanees. I'm not worried about Arsene Bamba, as he's shown he's more than capable at the League 1 level with us over the past two years but Andrea Rocca and Bernard Dunn are unknown quantities. Our defence and goalkeeping should be very strong.

David Ogilby is a rotational player at best now for us at DC but will captain the club for the fourth consecutive season. Michael Raynes, another DC, will be appointed as our vice-captain for 2016/17.

We'll continue to run with a 4-4-2 for the majority of our games but I start implementing a new 4-4-2DM attacking system in the preseason as a potential second tactic. It utilizes one striker, three attacking midfielders (AML, AMC, AMR), two central midfielders and four defenders.

Here is what our preferred starting eleven looked like at the beginning of the season:

GK - Ingo Wilke
D - Aziz Deen-Conteh/Luke McCullough/Oliver Nicholas/Conor Morrissey
M - Arsene Bamba/Jamal Yildirim/Andrea Rocca/Keith King
F - Simon Rideout/Zoltan Bardi

11-13-2013, 10:04 PM	#29
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	2016-17 Season Recap - Preseason: Manager and Team Status, Yearly Budgets, Board and Media Expectations As I head into my 7th year of management and 3rd consecutive year in League 1, I am offered a modest raise and accept. I thought about taking a hardline approach, especially in light of the fact I'm not entirely happy with the way the board is doing things but I made the pledge years ago that I'd never get into a war of numbers with my paycheck. I see a little hit to my "Financial Control" numbers, simply because I went slightly over-budget last year on wages. Ah, our woefully inadequate facilities…no changes as usual despite my constant nagging to the powers that be. For a second consecutive year, the board decide to raise our ticket prices ~5% for the coming year. We've started to lose a bit of steam with respect to growing our season ticket holder base but still increased our number ~2.5%. We see a really nice increase in our estimated value though, likely due to all the cash on hand at the beginning of the season. Despite two top-half finishes in a row, the media only predict an 11th place finish for 2016/17. The board ask for a top-half finish but I'm sick of setting the bar low - I promise that we'll battle for promotion and that gives me a big increase in the yearly budget: 2016/17 TRANSFER BUDGET - £72,000 2016/17 WAGE BUDGET - £27,500/week A major increase for transfers and wages. We sold a lot of players last year and banked considerable coin in doing so. It's reassuring that the board has finally decided to invest a bit in the squad. Time to take advantage... Preseason: Roster Status GK - Ingo Wilke was absolutely sensational last year in his first season with us. He's unquestionably our starter. Liam O'Brien has been a good soldier for Dover over the years but I'll likely look to sell him this year if there is a market. D - I continue to be satisfied with our defence, especially up the middle. Oliver Nicholas, Michael Raynes, captain David Ogilby and Luke McCullough will continue to all see time on the pitch. We have solid starting fullbacks in Aziz Deen-Conteh and Conor Morrissey. M - We will need to build a better foundation in the midfield after utilizing loanees for the most part last year. I'm going to attempt to bring back stellar ML Arsene Bamba from Arsenal for a third consecutive year and Manuel Weinecker from Chelsea for a second season but there are no assurances there. We still have Mark Byrne to play the middle and he was better than advertised but we need a more dynamic presence in the central midfield. F - Once again, I make a major mistake in the last six months of the previous season, taking too long to negotiate a contract with a star player. This time, it's our two-time defending Fan's Player of the Year Alexander Rattke. He gets scooped up on a Bosman transfer to Italian club Modena and I get absolutely nothing. Rattke had become one of my favourite players in this dynasty so I was pretty upset and he'll be extremely difficult to replace. Aaron Greene is back as are Craig Beattie and Lee Cochrane but I'll definitely be on the lookout for a top-line striker. Transfers OUT DC - Ondrej Novak - Jablonec - £350,000 DL - Alessandro Barbero - £140,000 GK - Liam O'Brien - Leeds - £20,000 ST - Alexander Rattke - Modena - Free DL - Denis Fidanov - Ontinyent - Free DR - Robert Ryan - Morecambe - Free MC - Tobias Figueiredo - Shrewsbury - Free MC - Richie Ryan - Hereford - Free ML - Ismael Fofana - Released DC - Will James - Released MR - Tom Lawrence - Released ST - Philip Roberts - Released GK - Mick Ball - Released MR - Faisal Nabi - Released DL - Craig Brunt - Released We make our biggest sale in club history, somehow getting £350K for towering defender Ondrej Novak - he wasn't even close to having the quality to start for us so it was a very easy decision to take Jablonec's attractive offer. He only played 1 league game for Dover. You may be wondering who Alessandro Barbero is, as I've never mentioned him before. Well, that's because we just picked him up earlier in the 2016/17 season on a free then sold him in the January transfer window for £140K! He actually played 18 games for us and played very well in those games (7.21 avg rating) but I picked up another highly touted DL in that window, making Barbero expendable. Liam O'Brien deserves his own paragraph. He's been our rock at GK ever since I picked him up in my first year of management. At 19 he was rotating into our lineup and at 20 he was the main man in goal. In all, he spent six seasons at Dover, playing in 181 league games and putting together a spectacular 67 clean sheets. Thank you Liam for your great service to Dover fans! I've already mentioned the Alexander Rattke move on a Bosman transfer. Rattke was a key man in all three seasons at Dover, playing in 109 league games and scoring 50 goals. He'd also contribute 29 assists and win 14 MoM awards in addition to his two Player of the Year nods by our supporters. He will be tough to replace. The other key sale, albeit on free transfer, was MC Richie Ryan, who heads to Hereford after five underrated seasons with Dover. He was entirely out of his element last year, similar to another Dover legend Abdeltareck Sakali, as Ryan played 26 games last year without a point. Still, he was a commanding presence in the midfield for us for many years and leaves after 168 Dover league appearances, where he scored 29 goals and added 19 assists. The other players moved on free transfer (Fidanov, Ryan & Figueiredo) were all minor players for us. As usual, there is one key player that doesn't get a contract extension due to age or diminished skills and this year we bid adieu to stalwart ML Ismael Fofana. Fofana was brought in as one of my first moves at Dover in 2010 and was a staple in our lineup for five years before becoming a backup to young loanee Arsene Bamba in his last season. Fofana played in 182 league games for Dover over his six years, scoring 33 goals and adding 31 assists. Will James and Tom Lawrence were essentially backups during their time here while Philip Roberts, despite being very talented, would become a surplus to requirements after my transfer activity was completed. I'd also loan out a few players in an effort to help their development. DM Carl Graham (a strong player out of our youth system), MC Carlos Gurpegi, ST Lee Cochrane are all sent away on season-long loan. Transfers IN DL - Bob Harris - £95,000 (Last Club: Queen of Sth) - 28 years old, Scotland MC - Jamal Yildirim - £5,000 (Last Club: Lierse) - 21 years old, Morocco DL - Alessandro Barbero - Free (Last Club: Tottenham) - 20 years old, Italy DR - Jackson Ramm - Free (Last Club: Blackburn) - 23 years old, England DM - Shaun Halsall - Free (Last Club: Blackburn) - 18 years old, England MC - Jimmy Juan - Free (Last Club: FC Vaduz) - 33 years old, France MC - Stuart Rogers - Free (Last Club: Tottenham) - 18 years old, England ST - Robert Kerkhof - Free (Last Club: AZ Alkmaar) - 21 years old, Holland ST - Martin Horny - Free (Last Club: Presov) - 19 years old, Slovakia GK - Martin Read - LOAN (From Hearts) - 21 years old, England ML - Arsene Bamba - LOAN (From Arsenal) - 19 years old, France MC - Bernard Dunn - LOAN (From Chelsea) - 18 years old, England AMC - Andrea Rocca - LOAN (From Arsenal) - 19 years old, Italy AMC/ST - Zoltan Bardi - LOAN (From Arsenal) - 18 years old, Hungary ST - Simon Rideout - LOAN (From Leicester) - 21 years old, England Bob Harris becomes our biggest ever signing at just less than £100K. We'd bring him in during the January transfer window and he's a 3.5 star player with solid ratings across the board. Jamal Yildirim is a DM/MC with excellent potential. I've already mentioned Barbero, as we'd sell him only six short months after getting him on a free. Jackson Ramm will give Conor Morrissey a run for his money at DR - Ramm is a 3.0/3.5 player with great speed for the fullback position and excellent stamina as well. Veteran MC Jimmy Juan was brought in to add some stability to our midfield. Robert Kerkhof has good speed and seems like he could be a decent rotational striker for us with Rattke departing. Halsall, Rogers and Horny are strictly youth prospects that we hope can develop into something. In the loan department, Bamba returns for a third year at ML and we continue to work with Arsenal manager Unai Emery (he replaced a retiring Arsene Wenger in 2014) for more loanees. He was kind enough to provide two more key players for us: AMC Andrea Rocca and ST Zoltan Bardi. Bardi could be a superstar in waiting (3.0/4.5) and Rocca (3.0/4.0) has some great technical skill (18 corners/16 crossing/13 passing) and should be very useful in the middle of the park. Martin Read was brought in from our parent club Hearts on loan to backup Wilke. Simon Rideout may be a starter at striker for us - he has blazing speed and is rated 3.5/4.5 at the League 1 level. Bernard Dunn will provide cover for us in the central midfield. Final Thoughts Before the Season Begins The loss of Rattke stings but I feel I've done incredibly well to improve our striker position with the additions of Simon Rideout, Zoltan Bardi and Robert Kerkhoff. Our midfield is a slight question mark, as we'll once again be relying heavily on young loanees. I'm not worried about Arsene Bamba, as he's shown he's more than capable at the League 1 level with us over the past two years but Andrea Rocca and Bernard Dunn are unknown quantities. Our defence and goalkeeping should be very strong. David Ogilby is a rotational player at best now for us at DC but will captain the club for the fourth consecutive season. Michael Raynes, another DC, will be appointed as our vice-captain for 2016/17. We'll continue to run with a 4-4-2 for the majority of our games but I start implementing a new 4-4-2DM attacking system in the preseason as a potential second tactic. It utilizes one striker, three attacking midfielders (AML, AMC, AMR), two central midfielders and four defenders. Here is what our preferred starting eleven looked like at the beginning of the season: GK - Ingo Wilke D - Aziz Deen-Conteh/Luke McCullough/Oliver Nicholas/Conor Morrissey M - Arsene Bamba/Jamal Yildirim/Andrea Rocca/Keith King F - Simon Rideout/Zoltan Bardi __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo Last edited by NoSkillz : 11-13-2013 at 10:30 PM.