[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Alf

Still reading. Nice writing.

Thanks Alf! I appreciate everyone sticking with me. I'm still playing!!


2027/28 Barclays Premier League - First Half Results


The season got off to the worst start imaginable. After our Community Shield loss to Man City at Wembley, we opened our Premier League campaign in the comfy confines of cozy Crabble Athletic Ground against Tottenham. They’d shock us with two first half goals, a deficit that we wouldn’t recover from in a demoralizing 2-0 opening game loss.

We’d need a 75th minute goal from Chiquinho to squeak by Sunderland 2-1 at the Stadium of Light in game two then then lose in another absolute shocker, falling 1-0 to Zaragoza in the European Super Cup finals.

What the hell is going on?!

We’d regain a little swagger in Champions League group play, dominating Sparta Prague 7-1 but after a scoreless draw at home to Middlesbrough in Premier League play and a 2-2 draw away at Championship side Portsmouth in League Cup play, I was flabbergasted.

We’d drop a huge 4-1 decision to Man City in league play a couple games later but finally started to get our feet underneath us shortly thereafter. We’d win our last eight league games before the halfway mark of the season to reach that 19 game mark with a record of 14 wins, 2 losses and 3 draws, good for third place in the league behind Man City and Manchester United.

Our goal scoring was down again (46 through 19 games versus 49 in the same period last year) and we had allowed 19 against, five more than last year at this time.

We had some injuries in the middle of the park and one of the biggest pleasant surprises was 18 year old Michel Benard, a U18 call up who played so well, I was forced to make a spot for him as a main backup to Cairney and Raab upon their return.


January 2028 - Transfer Window

Heading into January on a huge hot streak of 12 wins in a row in all competitions, we could have stayed pat with a pretty strong roster. But we had clubs coming after some of our top players and we wanted to continue forward with our transition plan to a younger starting eleven.

Some big moves were made…


Transfers OUT


DR - Salim Loucif - £18,500,000 - Manchester City

The end of an era at Dover, as we sell the longest serving captain during my tenure, to a league rival no less, in a huge mid-January transaction. I’ve talked about “deals of the century” in the past but we brought a 21 year old Loucif to Dover in July 2020, just before the start of our third year in the Premier League, on a FREE TRANSFER from Olympique Lyonnais. The young leader would be appointed vice captain the next season and would gain the captaincy from legend Wayne Rooney upon his retirement prior to the 2023 campaign. In all, Loucif played 7 1/2 seasons at Dover, playing in 332 games, with all but four of those being starts! He was never a prolific player from a point production standpoint, scoring only one goal for our club during his time here and contributing 14 assists. But he was a tackling machine with a tireless work ethic and was extremely durable as well. We have younger players here in Rodolfo Lopez and Emerson that can capably handle his duties and getting over 18 million pounds was simply too much to ignore. We will greatly miss Loucif, one of the great players in Dover history and wish him well in Manchester.

DC - Rayane Hamon - £10,750,000 - Sheffield Wednesday

We move out another longtime starting defender in Rayane Hamon in another significant transaction, this time with Sheffield Wednesday. Hamon spent one season with us back in 2018, our first year in the Premier League, on loan from Liverpool. We’d end up buying him outright for £3.8 million prior to the start of the 2021/22 season and he’d spend six and a half more years with our club, five of them as a main starter. In all, he played in 267 games (259 starts), scoring 25 goals and adding 19 assists from the centre halfback position, simply superlative numbers for a defender. Hamon is about to turn 30 and was relegated to third on our DC depth chart so this was simply a smart deal for us to make. Again, we wish Hamon great success with his new club.

ML - Felix Hernandez - £1,600,000 - Huddersfield

We signed a 17 year old Hernandez from Reading back in 2023 for £1.8 million and he played a couple of years with our U18s and also spent a full season on loan with Metalist in the Ukrainian Premier League while under contract with our club. His contract was expiring at the end of the season and I decided he wasn’t going to be a major part of our plans, especially with young Wonderkid Jonathan Langlet coming on strong, so I took a slight loss in moving him out to Huddersfield. In all, he played in only 35 games for our senior team over four and a half years, including only 16 starts, contributing one goal and five assists.

DC - Bobby Martin - £1,000,000 - Chelsea

Martin was a recent free signing for our U18 squad and Chelsea shockingly offered us a million pounds for him. He isn’t a major prospect (0.5/2.5 stars) so we happily took the quick profit.


Loans OUT


MC - Juan Jose Culebras - £575,000 Loan Fee - Paris Saint-Germain

The 20 year old Culebras was a huge surprise last year, playing great football in some low-key starts but injuries allowed fellow youngster Michel Benard to pass him on our depth chart this season. I need to get Culebras some playing time so he heads to PSG in France for the balance of the season. He’s still an excellent prospect for the future.


Transfers IN


DC - Herman Quattara - £12,000,000 (from Espanyol) - 20 years old, Ivory Coast

I’ve long had my eye on Quattara, an Ivory Coast international with great potential. Espanyol picked him up on a free transfer from LOSC Lille Metropole in Ligue 1 and flip him to us only a few months later for a ridiculous profit. But Quattara is a 3.0/3.5 player already and qualifies as an upgrade over the departing Rayane Hamon while being nine years younger to boot. A great signing at a decent price for such a premium position on the pitch.

MC - Kevin Buhler - £1,400,000 (from Dortmund) - 18 years old, Germany

Some depth for our U18 squad, Buhler (1.0/3.0) also has some potential to play games for our senior squad at some point, but not this year. He’s got incredible pace (19) in the middle of the pitch.


Loans IN


ML - Anton O’Niel - £190,000 Loan Fee - FC Bayern

O’Niel is a 20 year old Dutch speedster who will simply provide depth behind Mads Pedersen and Jonathan Langlet at left midfield, a necessary addition after bidding Felix Hernandez adieu. He likely won’t play much for our senior squad.