July 2004
Port Vale approach me and offer their goalkeeper Chris Gowan for £8K. He's good, but not that much better than Parry to make me consider the deal. Owers has retired but McLoughlin is still on the team with his £625 wage, which is ridiculous as he's useless. I consider releasing him outright but this will cost me £16K and I don't know what effect that will have on my transfer budget. His current contract isn't expiring until December. Finally I decide to bite the bullet and release him on free transfer.
England win the European Championship with a 1-0 win over Sweden in the final.
I continue to look at midfielders that might be available on loan. In the end I settle for Coventry's 18-yr old Isaac Osbourne, trying to bring him over.
Currently the whole team is on preseason training, but when I look at the training reports I see that two players aren't on the same level of fitness as the rest of the team. Both are reported as having a too heavy training schedule considering their low morale and they are newcomer Galloway, and surprisingly, Odejayi. The latter is a mystery as he appears to be unsettled but as he hasn't said anything we don't know what's the problem. I put them on an easier schedule to see if that helps.
18/7/04 - the first friendly, at home vs Gillingham in the Third Division. We start the following eleven:
Code:
Parry
Jones - Stepanovs - Impey - Byrne
Kanchelskis - Paulinho - El Khalej - Allen
Hatch - Killeen
We win 3-1 after going on a scoring spree at the beginning of the second half. First Paulinho scored on a free kick from 25 yds, and then Alex Meechan bagged two after some good link-up play with Kironde. After the game we discover that Paulinho has a hairline fracture in his wrist and will need 4 weeks for it to heal.
We discuss contract demands with Danny Holyoak, a young defensive midfielder. We have some other offers out to see what happens. One very interesting name is Algerian national Mustapha Hadji, formerly of Aston Villa.
We complete the transfer of Holyoak, and on the same day we get Hadji's signature on a contract! Wo-hoo! He's an AM RC, which suits us perfectly as Kanchelskis had a dismal performance in the friendly, panting all over the field with a 43% fitness at half time.
24/7/04 - at home vs Dover Athletic, a lower league team. We give Kanchelskis another chance on right wing while Hadji takes Paulinho's spot in the middle. Holyoak takes the other inner midfield spot and El Khalej moves back into the central defence. Odejayi starts alongside Hatch in the attack.
Holyoak gets a knock in the second minute, Impey replaces. We beat Dover 1-0, but for the second straight game the starters didn't do squat in the first half. Meechan scored the goal, again - he's pushing for a starting spot. Holyoak twisted his knee and will miss two weeks.
30/7/04 - at home vs Southend, a Third Division team. Again we win 1-0, and this time the goal came from a starter - Lewis Killeen, who scored on a diving header.