FM – From Semi-Pro Minnows to Champions League Glory: Dover Athletic FC

[NoSkillz]

Dover Fans' Player of the Year

-- Not too much of a surprise to see our leading scorer, striker Giorgos Gesios named as the Fans' Player of the Year for 2020/21.


Dover Best Eleven for 2020-21

-- In reality, only one surprise on this list but based on average rating, I suppose it's an understandable decision:

GK - Ingo Wilke - 36 apps 0g 7.10 avg
DL - Renato Gaucho - 35 apps 1g 7.09 avg
DC - Claudio Contreras - 17 apps 0g 6.91 avg
DC - Paulus Tjiuoro - 38 apps 5g 7.03 avg
DR - Jozef Kuciak - 14 apps 0g 7.21 avg
MC - Andrea Rocca - 42 apps 6g 7.25 avg
MC - Neil Cairney - 42 apps 5g 7.16 avg
AML - Arsene Bamba - 33 apps 11g 7.21 avg
AMC - Zoltan Bardi - 40 apps 18g 7.16 avg
AMR - Gianluca Bolis - 40 apps 7g 7.03 avg
ST - Giorgos Gesios - 38 apps 23g 7.30 avg

Other notables: GK Lukasz Fabianski 9 apps 0g 7.06; DL Jozef Varga 12 apps 0g 6.98; DR Salim Loucif 31 apps 0g 7.08; DM Mancini 13 apps 3g 6.91; MC Darren Pratley 14 apps 0g 6.77; ST Gerardo Escobar 19 apps 6g 6.85; ST Petr Simek 17 apps 4g 6.81

The only anomaly is Jozef Kuciak over Salim Loucif but it's a minor quibble.

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 - 203 apps 0g 7.02 avg
DL - David Ogilby - 178 apps 8g 6.98 avg
DC - Olly Schulz - 120 apps 18g 7.32 avg
DC - Oliver Nicholas - 316 apps 28g 7.14 avg
DR - Conor Morrissey - 230 apps 1g 6.98 avg
ML - Arsene Bamba - 139 apps 27g 7.20 avg
MC - Zoltan Bardi - 165 apps 57g 7.03 avg
MC - Andrea Rocca - 145 apps 32g 7.31 avg
MR - Abdeltareck Sakali - 176 apps 50g 7.14 avg
ST - Alexander Rattke - 125 apps 55g 7.13 avg
ST - Aaron Green - 141 apps 65g 7.18 avg

Zoltan Bardi moves into the starting eleven into a midfield position, knocking Richie Ryan down to the substitutes.

Substitutes:
GK - Liam O'Brien - 219 apps 0g 6.84 avg
DL - Aziz Deen-Conteh - 122 apps 2g 6.95 avg
ML - Ismael Fofana - 206 apps 38g 6.98 avg
MC - Richie Ryan - 131 apps 28g 6.98 avg
MC - Jon Wallis - 135 apps 13g 6.94 avg
ST - Ben Hunt - 156 apps 70g 7.12 avg
ST - Gerardo Escobar - 82 apps 26g 6.89 avg

Gerardo Escobar is added as a sub but will likely be taken out next year by Giorgos Gesios.


2021-22 Barclays Premier League Fixture List Announced

-- We open our season at home against Newcastle and our first away game is the following week against Liverpool. For the second consecutive year, our Boxing Day game AND our final game of the season are both against Manchester City. Doh!

-- We are given £40,000,000 spread over 12 months for Premier League television rights. Rock on!


Start of Season Expectations

-- The board is hoping we achieve a top half finish in the Premier League for the upcoming season and for that they'll offer the following:

2021/22 TRANSFER BUDGET - £27,500,000 (Last Year: £33,500,000)
2020/21 WAGE BUDGET - £450,000 (Last Year: £245,000/week)

Well, colour me disappointed. Before today, I still had approximately £12 million in LAST YEAR'S transfer budget still available and they only add about 15 million to my total for this year. I completely understand that much of that is likely due to my wage budget almost doubling from last year but it's still a tad disappointing.

I had options to guarantee continental play for next year or challenge for the title but the increases to my budget weren't really enough to justify going out on a limb. I may need to be a bit more conservative with my expectations with my first year of continental play on the horizon.


Youth Intake - U18 Club

-- We've added a youth academy, improved our youth facilities and expanded our youth recruitment network so I had my fingers crossed that I'd see something come out of all that work. Instead, we get nothing - a couple of 1 star potentials and that's all. What a colossal disappointment.

-- Two players are promoted to our senior team due to turning 19: promising striker Carlo Cerbone and DC Abdallaye Kokaina. Kokaina may have a place on our club this year while Cerbone may be a loan candidate. We'll see.


-- Olympique Lyonnais come calling for Arsene Bamba, offering £7,500,000. Sorry, no dice.

[Alf]

Yeah, Champions League !

[Barkeep49]

I have really enjoyed this dynasty.

With the addition of Continental Play depth becomes very important. I find I typically need 15 or 16 players who I think of as "starters". My best XI might only be on the pitch together for key games as I work to keep everyone rested enough that they don't have an increased injury chance or decreased performance due to fatigue.

However, that's my strategy when I'm regularly going on to play in the Champions League or Europa League. Given your position, your priority should probably be to qualify again for Continental Play, followed by performing well in Continental Play, followed by domestic cups. A few consecutive years of Continental Play will continue to raise your stature, making your board happy and helping you attract players. This kind of approach also gives you time to build depth, get more home grown and players trained in England.

It's easy, as it is in real life, to get seduced by Europe and have your league performance take a real hit (see Swansea this year).

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Alf

Yeah, Champions League !

I know! I'm pretty pumped! Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

I have really enjoyed this dynasty.

With the addition of Continental Play depth becomes very important. I find I typically need 15 or 16 players who I think of as "starters". My best XI might only be on the pitch together for key games as I work to keep everyone rested enough that they don't have an increased injury chance or decreased performance due to fatigue.

However, that's my strategy when I'm regularly going on to play in the Champions League or Europa League. Given your position, your priority should probably be to qualify again for Continental Play, followed by performing well in Continental Play, followed by domestic cups. A few consecutive years of Continental Play will continue to raise your stature, making your board happy and helping you attract players. This kind of approach also gives you time to build depth, get more home grown and players trained in England.

It's easy, as it is in real life, to get seduced by Europe and have your league performance take a real hit (see Swansea this year).

Thanks for the great advice Barkeep -

I'm reasonably confident that I have a core group of young players that are all capable of continuing their growth together - the fact that 10 of our regular starting eleven had overall ratings over 7.00 is a good sign and the only one that didn't was a newly signed and newly turned 18 year old.

Like you say, it's likely best to have starter quality depth at all the positions up and down the lineup so at this point, I think I'm going to go in the direction that you suggest. With that said, I may need to look at bringing in a fullback (left sided), a centre half in his prime, a right midfielder and one more striker (if I move Gerardo Escobar).

[NoSkillz]

I'm aware I'm likely asking the dumbest question in the world but I'm really worried about the issue of "home-grown" and "English trained" players for Continental play.

I believe I need four "Dover trained" players and eight "English trained" players for registration purposes. Dumb question: the "Dover trained" players count as English trained, correct? (so they can count for both)

I have very few English trained players on my roster, as I've scoured the International ranks for almost all of my players. In fact, last year, I didn't have one England-born player on my starting eleven but two of them (Arsene Bamba and Zoltan Bardi) at least were trained in England.

[britrock88]

Yep, count for both. And meet those requirements just by having some home-/English-grown kids round out the bottom of your senior club.

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by britrock88

Yep, count for both. And meet those requirements just by having some home-/English-grown kids round out the bottom of your senior club.

Excellent! Thanks!

[NoSkillz]

Preseason Friendlies

-- We finalize our preseason schedule, with an intersquad game and nine other friendlies. We'll face Stade Malherbe Caen (France), Werder Bremen (Germany), Manchester United (taking advantage of a clause in the sale of Cristian Rodriguez) and Rangers (Scotland) at home. We'll head away from home for games against West Brom, Dortmund (Germany), HSV (Germany), Sheffield United and Cambridge City.


-- Gimnastic in LIGA BBVA make a £3.8 million bid for Aitor Zubizarreta, a young attacking midfielder that they've had on loan from us for the past two seasons. I included a clause in the loan deal that they could buy him at this price and they are obviously interested in taking advantage of it. However, a couple days later, contract talks break down, with Zubizarreta saying he wanted more assurance of a first team role. He's scheduled to return to our club when the players come back from vacation. I got a note last year when I sent him on loan that he was causing issues in the dressing room so he may not be around for much longer if he can't fit in here.


-- We get a note that we once again break our attendance record at Dover, with an average of 13,053 supporters watching us play this past year. With another stadium expansion underway, this record will once again be broken in 2021-22.


Barclays Premier League Odds for 2021-22

-- Not surprisingly, Manchester City are the oddsmakers pick to take home a third consecutive Premier League championship, with Bet365 calling them Evens favourites. United is second at 5-2, Chelsea is at 10-1, Arsenal is at 14-1, Liverpool is at 16-1 and Everton is at 40-1. We're gaining a bit of respect from the bookies, as Dover comes in at 150-1…last year we were 1000-1 I believe.


-- Season ticket sales are slow, with only 968 packages sold thus far. The board expects us to sell approximately 4400 this year, which would be over 10% more than last year's 3930.


-- Chelsea once again are sniffing around Neil Cairney and submit an official inquiry for him. I tell them to bugger off - he's not for sale. Again, he has a £40 million release clause so if someone wants him badly enough, there's not much I can do.

[NoSkillz]

Dover Player Retirements and Other Departures

-- Two of my players filed retirement papers and head into the coaching pool. Liam Craig joined Dover in 2017 right after we got promoted to the Championship. I picked him up on a free from West Ham and Craig was instrumental in helping us win promotion to the Premier League in his first year, scoring 12 goals and adding 24 assists in 38 league games as we'd finish second on the table to gain auto promotion. He played mostly wide during that first year and was forced into the middle of the field during our first year in the Premier League and he wasn't quite as effective, scoring 5 goals and adding 6 assists. He'd struggle in our second year up and last year saw his playing time dwindle to only 10 league games due to the emergence of young stars like Arsene Bamba, Andrea Rocca and Neil Cairney. Craig scored 85 goals in 469 league games with Ipswich, Falkirk, St. Johnstone, Barnsley, Bolton, West Ham and Dover and with our club, his final stat line shows four seasons of service, 111 league games, 19 goals and 35 assists.

-- Darren Pratley also joined our club in 2017 with Liam Craig and was named captain in that first year, a title he held for the entire duration of his stay at Dover. Pratley was an influential and productive player during his time here, playing in 112 league games for Dover, scoring 13 goals and adding 9 assists. Overall for his career, he played 538 league games with Fulham, Brentford, Swansea and Dover, scoring 94 times and adding 42 assists. His leadership will prove tough to replace.

-- As for player departures, four leave the club after we decline to make contract offers. Laurent Koscielny was brought in from Arsenal at the beginning of last season for £120,000 to provide some cover at DC and DL in addition to some leadership. The 34 year old Koscielny struggled immensely in his brief time with our club and he ended up playing only 6 scoreless games for our club.

-- GK Lukasz Fabianski was picked up on a free from Arsenal in 2019 and played two seasons for Dover, suiting up in 25 league games over the two years and collecting 5 clean sheets. He was excellent last year in limited appearances but at 36 years old, it was clear he was losing his edge and ultimately we let him go.

-- Petr Kostal played three full seasons for Dover after I picked him up for £1.3 million from Reading in 2018. He never really challenged for first team action, playing in only 36 league games for our club while scoring 5 goals and adding 5 assists. I did contemplate re-signing him, as he's versatile (can play both sides) and cheap but in the end, I know I can find some better talent for our depth slots.

-- Every year we lose a real Dover favourite and this time, it's the longest serving player in the club's history. One of my very first signings as Dover manager in 2010 was centre half Oliver Nicholas. He bounced around various youth programs, starting at Arsenal and moving to City, Blackburn and eventually Newcastle before we signed the 18 year old in July of 2010. I placed him on our U18 side but he played in 7 league games for us in the Blue Square South, notching 2 assists and a 7.44 average rating to show his potential quite clearly right away. The next season, as a 19 year old, he became a regular and he would hold down that starting position for eight full seasons, with average ratings above 7.00 in each year. He was there with me for every triumph and every disappointment but certainly, there were MANY more good times than bad, as he played at a high level right up until our promotion to the Premier League. That year in the Championship may have been his best, as he scored 5 goals and added 5 assists that year while being named our Fans' Player of the Season. While he struggled a bit at the Premier League level, his achievements with Dover are something to celebrate: 307 league games for Dover (a record), 27 goals, 18 assists, 28 Man of Match awards and an average rating of 7.10. He was at one time a Dover captain and to this day is still captaining Eritrea, having earned 50 caps and scoring 3 times for his country. It's a sad day for Dover fans and for his long-time manager. Good luck to Oliver in all of his future endeavours.



Transfer Market Plans

-- We have a decent amount of money to spend: ~£27 million currently in our transfer kitty but not much room with our wages so I may have to do some maneuvering. We're pretty solid across all positions with respect to starters but I'll need some more depth. I won't hesitate to spend big money on a striker or pacy centre half but we'll also have to fill some depth holes at left fullback and right midfield and possibly one more player for central midfield. Overall, we're in decent shape - I'm a bit worried about home-grown players but we have enough scrubby reserve team guys that at least qualify but if anything, it shows how few English players I have on my roster.

-- There is also one other major concern and that is about the leadership for the coming year. Our long-time captain has retired and after perusing my roster, I'm actually quite shocked at how few influential players I have - I guess that's to be somewhat expected with such a young club but I don't really have anyone that screams "captain material" right now - I will be on the look out for either a veteran to help guide the club for this year or a guy in his prime with good leadership abilities.



Transfer IN

-- Completing a deal made while the transfer window was closed, we welcome Ivory Coast international GK Youssouf Sylla to Dover! The 26 year old Sylla has 55 caps for his country and we were able to scoop him up on a free from Dynamo Kyiv. He's rated as a 3.5 star keeper by my assistant and he put up ridiculous numbers in the Ukrainian league, with yearly averages between 7.18 and 7.69! At worst, he'll be a very capable backup to Ingo Wilke and at best he'll push him for playing time.





-- Ok, so my two major transfer targets right now are 17 year old striker Paul Moses from Manchester United and 23 year old centre half Saber Nasri from Bolton. Moses looks like he could be the next English superstar, a 4.5-5 star potential talent with lightning speed and great intangibles. Nasri was a potential transfer target last year but I went with Cristian Rodriguez instead. I have a deal in principle with Bolton and get to the contract stage with Nasri but I have major competition in OM from France, one of the biggest club's in the world. Nasri is only a 3.5-4 star talent but he has great pace and off-the-charts intangibles to the point where he could easily be a captain candidate for us. I make a statement in the press about Nasri's skills and he is "delighted" by my comments so hopefully that gives us a chance. Moses will be tough to get - I bid £12.5 million for him and United want £25 MILLION! I come back with an offer to bring him on loan instead with a buyout fee. We'll see where this goes…



-- I bring in 4 new coaches and a new physio. My coaching ratings are now all better than 4 stars both for the senior team and our U18 squad.



World's Richest Club List

-- Barcelona takes over the top spot on the richest club list with a total value of £918 million, followed closely by Real Madrid at £914 million. Arsenal are the top rated English club in 4th place at £437 million. We drop two spots on this year's list down to 64th with a value of £59 million. I assume that will go up sharply as we get ready for our first year of European football.

[NoSkillz]

July Board Confidence Update

-- The board are very pleased with my overall leadership. The stature increase is the main reason but they are slightly disappointed with the departure of Oliver Nicholas. That's nice.

-- We recorded a loss last month of £9.25 million


Manager, Team & Stadium Status and Media Expectations



No raise this year but I am now considered to be a world-class manager! Super cool!



We put through a 5% price increase on tickets and our estimated value increases nicely too.



We had LOTS of construction going on this past year and basically all of our facilities see improvement, with training facilities moving up to average, a Youth Academy built, youth facilities improving to Basic and improvement made to our youth recruitment network. We also recently got word that we'll continue to build upon our recruiting network so expect to see a bump next year at this time.



Preseason Friendly

-- We get challenged to a home friendly by Espanyol from LIGA BBVA, where we'd receive a healthy fee of £180,000 if we accept. It conflicts with my matchup against Cambridge City so I cancel that game and accept the offer from the Spanish club.



-- A few of our players are garnering interest right now. It's been rare to get offers for Ingo Wilke, our stellar keeper but two teams come calling with offers. Zaragoza from LIGA BBVA offer £4.6 million and it's swiftly rejected but the next day I get an offer from Schalke, who offer over £5.5 million plus a very interesting looking right midfielder as part of a trade. Now this is rare! I decide to hold off on a reply until I scout the other kid.


-- UH OH. Maybe United are pissed that I keep pestering them on this young studly striker because they come calling for Neil Cairney - £18.25 million plus incentives are offered. It's an immediate rejection but they obviously have enough resources to keep upping their bid. With a £40 million release clause, we're far away from being TOO scared but my board certainly has jumped in and accepted deals before without my approval (cough - Rodriguez - cough) so hopefully they stay out of this. Chelsea is still lurking as well.

[NoSkillz]

Training Camp Begins

-- The players return from holiday and after fitness evaluations, only one player, Matthew Thompson reports back tired. Thompson has been loaned out for a couple years in a row but as a home-grown player, he may be on my squad list for this year due to Continental play regulations.

-- In our team meeting, my coaches give me the low-down on where we stand in relation to other teams in the league. As usual, we don't match up well…at least not yet:

Aggression - Lowest in league
Concentration - Poor
Determination - High
Dribbling - Poor
Height - Poor
Strength - Poor
Fitness - Best in the League
Age - Youngest team in the League



Transfer IN

-- We sign 18 year old GK Louis Read on a free transfer after he was released from Manchester United. He's rated as a 2.5 star potential player right now so he was definitely worth the small wage investment.





-- More rumours about our players, with Salim Loucif and Gianluca Bolis having their names being mentioned as potential targets.


-- In transfer news not directly related to Dover, former midfielder Frantisek Kroulik, who I sold to Celta last year after getting Neil Cairney, is bid on by Juventus, with the large Italian club offering an astounding £14.5 million for him. Wow - I bought out my sell on clause for a minimal amount thinking he wouldn't move for a number that high. Crazy…as long as Juventus doesn't come after Cairney, I'm okay with this!



-- Damnit. The stud DC we bid on, Saber Nasri, chose Sheffield Wednesday instead of us and OM. The dude is obviously nuts. Back to the drawing board.



-- Our pitch is re-laid like it usually is just before we start our season and it's back to being in perfect condition.

[NoSkillz]

Thu. July 8, 2021 - Preseason Friendly

-- We play our annual intrasquad game between our reserves/backups and our U18 team.

Dover 3 - 0 Dover U18
Dover Goals - Roberto (7.1), Shaun Spall (7.6), Aitor Zubizarreta (8.0)
Dover Assists - Roberto, Cameron Murray (6.9), Jonathan Adam (6.8)
Man of the Match - Aitor Zubizarreta
Other Notables: Youssouf Sylla (7.1), Thomas Andersen (7.0), Jozef Varga (7.3), Mancini (7.1)

U18 Goals -
U18 Assists -
Other U18 Notables - Emmerson Harvey (7.1), Johnny Mardenborough (5.8)

-- A boring game, as usual, with very poor football being played. Newcomers Shaun Spall and GK Youssouf Sylla looked good as did 17 year old Emmerson Harvey for the U18s.

-- We suffer a couple of injuries, one to a U18 player and the other to backup right fullback Jozef Kuciak, whose bruised ribs will keep him out of action for about a week.



-- I get a note that famed Cristiano Ronaldo has left Real Madrid to come back to England and will suit up for Arsenal. Crap. He's 36 and pretty much done but I would have enjoyed having his experience on our team as a rotational player.



-- I accept a £4.8 million plus clauses bid for Gerardo Escobar from Leverkusen and he's now working on a contract with their club. I rejected about 12 other offers due to lack of upfront money. We'll see if anyone comes calling for him at the last minute.


-- Escobar is expendable for two reasons: first, I have a bid accepted for a Dutch international striker and I'm awaiting word on whether he signs with us or not. The second reason is the following…


Loan IN

-- I'm not sure if Radii reads this dynasty but if he does, or if there is anyone out there who followed his Ipswich career, I think I may have found my very own "Yuri Di Giuseppe"…and his name is Paul Moses



Moses is only 17 and will turn 18 in about a month and a half. His attributes are pretty much off-the-charts for such a young guy and he's rated as a 4.5 or 5 star potential player by my scouts and my coaches. Current rating is between 2.5 and 3 stars. Sensational, game-breaking speed and great determination - on the downside, a bit lazy and selfish and needs to fill out. I mentioned that Moses was my main target a few posts ago and I tried to buy him outright but United wanted around £25 million for him. I wasn't prepared to shell out that kind of money without seeing him in action so I was able to get him on a season-long loan for only £600,000 and I added a clause that will allow me to buy him at any point during the loan period for £18.75 million. Moses was a youth pull at United in 2019 and went to Preston in the Championship last year on loan and scored 19 goals in 33 league games as a 17 year old.

So…what do you think of him? Is he worthy of that kind of money?

[NoSkillz]

Sat. July 10, 2021

Preseason Friendly
Dover vs. Stade Malherbe Caen
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

We host French Ligue 1 side Stade Malherbe Caen. Our team is woefully unfit so hopefully we escape without any injuries. We'll start our normal starting eleven but they'll likely only play for 45 minutes. Stud newcomer Paul Moses is travelling for an international U21 game with England and won't be playing today for us.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, P. Tjiuoro, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis
S - G. Gesios, Z. Bardi

Dover 1 - 2 Stade Malherbe Caen
Goals - Giorgos Gesios (8.3)
Assists - Claudio Contreras (6.8)
Man of the Match - Giorgos Gesios
Other Dover Notables - Renato Gaucho (7.0)
Attendance - 7224

It was 1-1 at halftime and I brought on most of the second team around the 50 minute mark. Stade scored a 90th minute goal off a header to steal the win. We played poorly, holding only 48% of possession but outshot them 13-10 (6-7 on target).

-- Claudio Contreras got hurt during the game and needed to be substituted early. He's okay but "needs to be nurtured back to fitness in order to be ready for the start of the season". Great - we have some time with him, as he's still got two games to serve on a suspension picked up at the end of last season.


Transfer IN

-- We welcome Dutch international Shanon Andrea to Dover in a £5.5 million deal with FC Bayern!



Andrea fell out of favour at Bayern after being bought for the princely sum of £14.5 million in 2019 from Serie A club Ascoli. He was a demon in Italy, scoring 64 goals in 106 games over a three year period but never could crack the loaded Bayern starting lineup. He only played 6 senior team games for Bayern, scoring 4 goals and adding two assists. He spent last year on loan in Italy with Napoli, scoring 7 goals in 13 games. He's part of the Dutch setup and has 8 goals in 9 international appearances. He will step into the "Gerardo Escobar" role as essentially our fourth striker but he should get close to 20 games with our first team. Fellow newcomer Paul Moses will be brought on more slowly - I see him stepping into Petr Simek's role as our main man off the bench but I'm sure I'll get him a bunch of starts too.

-- As a follow up to Andrea's arrival, I transfer list Petr Simek, as he's surplus to requirements now. My four top strikers will be Gesios, Bardi, Andrea and Moses. I still have some other young strikers hanging around too and I'll have to decide whether we put them on loan, sell them or keep them around.


Season Ticket Update

-- We're up to 2257 season ticket packages sold and the board still expects us to sell around 4400 in total.



-- Sheffield Wednesday and Dutch club sc Heerenveen join the race to sign Gerardo Escobar. Both bids are different and include clauses - I accept both and will let Escobar choose where he'd like to go.

-- Gimnastic in Spain make a bid for our other transfer listed striker, Petr Simek. Gimnastic is the club that took Aitor Zubizarreta on loan the last two seasons. I accept their bid as well.



Dover Star Denies Wanting Out

-- Neil Cairney felt it necessary to talk to that trash mag the Daily Mirror to clarify that he hasn't asked to leave Dover to move to Aston Villa (?!), is under contract with us and will continue to work hard for the club and his teammates. Damn straight. Villa doesn't have the money to get him anyway.



Transfer Bids

-- I have a crapload of bids accepted for a variety of players, mostly depth but a couple of good looking kids and two or three interesting veterans that I hope can come in and help tutor our young team. I'd strongly prefer to keep a lot of my transfer budget just in case I decide to sign Paul Moses and take advantage of that buy out clause I negotiated as part of his loan deal.

[NoSkillz]

Wed. July 14, 2021

Preseason Friendly
West Bromwich vs. Dover
The Hawthorns, West Bromwich, UK

We face Championship side West Brom and will field a weaker side today as we try to get some of our backups into shape. We're still starting enough first teamers to be strong favourites I imagine, with Ingo Wilke, Gianluca Bolis, Andrea Rocca and Arsene Bamba all playing. New striker signing Shanon Andrea will go in today for his first game. Paul Moses is still away on international duty.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - J. Varga, A. Stanley, E. Agbo, R. McLaughlin
M - A. Bamba, Mancini, A. Rocca, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, R. Bodin

West Brom 1 - 0 Dover
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Peter Andrascik (West Brom DC - 7.3)
Other Dover Notables - None
Attendance - 7996

Oh boy what a dismal game! Young reserve DC Andrew Stanley received a straight red for a horror tackle just minutes into the second half and we played with 10 men the rest of the way. Once again, we give up an injury time goal, this time two minutes after the 90 minute mark and lose a shocker to a second tier club. The press report that we were "booed off the field by the travelling supporters" - looks like we deserved it. Shanon Andrea missed a couple of sitters in the highlights and has poor morale right out of the gates.

-- I gave Andrew Stanley an official warning for his red card and he accepts it without comment. He's a home-grown player but I currently have five right now, so I'm looking to either sell or loan Stanley at this point.



-- I have a bid in for a young centre half who I once had at Dover on loan during my first Premier League season. The bid is leaked somehow and now there's a bunch of interest in the Liverpool defender. Hopefully we can grab this guy - he's a four star player and it's a bargain buy, without question.



Transfer OUT

-- Striker Gerardo Escobar comes to terms with fellow Premier League side Sheffield Wednesday and that completes a £4,800,000 plus clauses deal. I scooped Escobar up from Man United when I arrived in the Premier League in 2018 for £2.2 million and he led our club in scoring for two seasons before being marginalized with the signing of Greek international Giorgos Gesios. He showed glimpses of greatness but never could get over the hump here and we wish him the best. He leaves Dover after three seasons, 76 league games and 22 goals. He made mention of the fact that he gets to move his family to a more "metropolitan" area, which I thought was a cool little touch.


Transfer IN

-- He's 34 and way past his prime but we grab French international Samir Nasri on a free transfer, a low-risk two year deal that will provide some veteran leadership and support in the midfield.



Nasri is versatile and can play all over the midfield, whether it's central or on either wing. He's also a natural attacking central midfielder so he can provide cover for Zoltan Bardi if we are playing with one striker. I don't expect him to see much time on the pitch but he'll help provide some Champions League experience, I'm sure.


Transfer IN

-- I spoke briefly with new striker Shanon Andrea upon his arrival at the club and he suggested that I look at a 17 year old left fullback at his old club, FC Bayern. They were only looking for "paperwork" money so for the bargain sum of £1500 (yes, fifteen HUNDRED), we welcome young Sebastian Kraft to Dover!



If nothing else, this signing will help Andrea settle into the club and he expresses delight that I listened to his suggestion upon hearing the news. Kraft is a 2.5 star prospect and will head to our U18 team to develop.



Transfer OUT

-- Striker Petr Simek comes to terms with Gimnastic in Spain and he leaves on a £3,900,000 deal. I bought Simek from Leiria in Portugal for only £300,000 two years ago. He had blazing speed and was completely a one-dimensional player - he was a true poacher and that's it. Incredible blazing speed and an innate ability to put the ball into the goal but he brought little else to the table. He was an ideal substitute and scored a number of big goals for us but leaves after two sesaons, 41 league games and 6 league goals. He scored three other goals in cup competitions and we wish him well in Spain.



-- I accept a number of loan offers for striker Ryan Bodin and defender Andrew Stanley. Neither are in our senior team plans for this year.

[Barkeep49]

Want to clarify something: English homegrown don't have to be of English nationality, just having trained in England during the crucial years.

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

Want to clarify something: English homegrown don't have to be of English nationality, just having trained in England during the crucial years.

Thanks - yeah I figured that out. Zoltan Bardi and Arsene Bamba are Hungarian and French respectively but both are English trained players and qualify as such for the Champions League...thankfully for me! I have very few English trained players!

[NoSkillz]

Sat. July 17, 2021

Preseason Friendly
Borussia Dortmund vs. Dover
Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund, Germany

We head to Germany for our annual two-game foreign tour, starting with a matchup against powerhouse Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. Valued at £207 million to rank 14th in the world, Dortmund won the German championship two years ago but finished 6th last year, so they'll be in the Europa League. It should be a tough matchup for us.

We'll start a pretty full strength side and change our tactics to our one striker formation (4-2-3-1) and a control philosophy. Andrea Rocca and Gianluca Bolis are tired so I'll keep them out today. Samir Nasri suits up for the first time in a Dover kit and will play AMR.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, P. Tjiuoro, S. Loucif
M - S. Spall, N. Cairney
AM - A. Bamba, Z. Bardi, S. Nasri
S - G. Gesios

Dortmund 3 - 5 Dover
Goals - Neil Cairney 2 (9.2), Claudio Contreras (8.2), Arsene Bamba (8.2), Zoltan Bardi (7.8)
Assists - Claudio Contreras, Arsene Bamba, Giorgos Gesios (7.0)
Man of the Match - Neil Cairney
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.0)
Attendance - 43,311

OUTSTANDING! We were down 2-0 after 29 minutes after two Lucas Piazon goals and things looked hopeless. Our defence was getting skinned, especially Paulus Tjiuoro and Salim Loucif and we were generating nothing. Then, out of the blue, Neil Cairney came to the rescue, dribbling down the middle of the field and bursting past the Dortmund D to score a spectacular goal and just before half, Claudio Contreras headed home a Arsene Bamba corner kick to pull level from two down. The second half was even better, as we'd score two goals in three minutes, courtesy of Bamba and Cairney but they'd strike right back with a 55th minute goal to get back within one. We changed to a flat 4-4-2 counter and Zoltan Bardi put the game away for good with a clinical finish from in tight for the spectacular 5-3 win. Cairney was SENSATIONAL in this game and looked every bit the star. This is a huge win against a perennial European contender.



Transfer IN

-- His name alone gets us front page attention throughout Europe. He's not the player he used to be but he will bring incredible leadership and determination to our squad and is my likely choice as captain for this year. We pay a modest fee of £550,000 to Fulham in order to secure the services of Wayne Rooney, English football legend!



We actually made a run at Rooney last year and came to an agreement with his agent but Rooney pulled out at the last minute, saying our offer wasn't good enough. He was dropped after 16 years at Manchester United and ended up signing with Fulham last year, scoring 8 goals in 30 league games at 35 years old. He has an incredible 149 caps for England, scoring 96 goals. In Premier League play, he has 279 goals in 614 league appearances. He's one of the most decorated players in the world and topping it off is the fact he is very close with our on-loan striker Paul Moses so I'm hoping they can hook up for some tutoring. Rooney likely won't play much but his influence will be felt, I'm sure.



-- I also have a contract offer agreed to from 18 year old Argentine fullback Carlos Guzman, a very solid looking prospect. He needs a work permit to be approved but my scouts feel it's a formality. i'll formerly introduce him if and when that goes through. He would be our third option at DL this year if it goes through and he'll be sent to the U18s most likely.


-- Big clubs continue to chase after our 19 year old DC Abdallaye Kokaina, with Sampdoria now offering £1,900,000. Kokaina will be staying with our senior team this year most likely and I want him staying here if possible.

-- Portsmouth come calling for middling prospect Jonathan Adam, a midfielder. Adam is going to qualify for home-grown status soon so he's going to stay with our reserves team until he gains that designation.


-- The shit hits the fan all at once, as a few deals are finalized plus one VERY intriguing negotiation. I have a scout tip me off about 21 year old Brazilian right midfielder Parana, a 4.5 star prospect already rated at 4 stars. He has sensational ratings across the board and I decide to bid £15 million for him to his club Feyenoord. They come back at ~£22 million. This guy looks to be the real deal but I'd obviously have to sell Gianluca Bolis to free up that kind of money. I reject it for now but I've made a note to keep my eyes on the kid as the season progresses. He would immediately be my best player and I always feel that when a 4.5* guy is ready to come to Dover, I should do whatever I can to facilitate that move



Transfer IN

-- I'm absolutely delighted to welcome 23 year old DC Rayane Hamon back to Dover! We complete a £3,800,000 deal with Liverpool to bring Hamon over and he even rejected a contract offer from Porto to stay in England!



Hamon came through the Olympique Lyonnais youth system and was plucked by Liverpool in 2016 for £1.1 million. He went on loan to Stoke the next year, playing a full season of Premier League play at 19 years young. The next year, Liverpool loaned him out to us and he suited up in 23 league games, notching two assists and making our best eleven in our first year of Premier League play. Liverpool continued to loan him out and Hamon would spend two years in Spain on loan, spending 2019-20 with Levante and 2020-21 with Mallorca. He was transfer listed at Liverpool, likely by request due to seeing only 3 league games in his Liverpool career and we pick him up for a bargain price. He's a 3.5/4.0 star prospect and will go into an immediate rotation with Claudio Contreras and Paulus Tjiuoro at centre half. I'm excited about this move - he's not as good as Cristian Rodriguez but he is more than capable of making a big impact with us in the years to come.

-- Hamon originally requested a ludicrous £100,000/week wage and I was able to get his agent down to £59,000 by rolling the dice and giving him a "take it or leave it offer". That makes it even more surprising that I beat out Porto. That wage makes him the highest paid player on the team so Neil Cairney immediately gets bumped up to the same number due to his "match highest earner" clause.

-- Thomas Andersen is unhappy we added Hamon as it increases competition at an already stacked position. Andersen did this last year as well but I tell him to mind his own business and he apologizes. I will likely loan him out for the upcoming season - he's a very driven individual and I'd like to keep him around for awhile.



Transfer IN

-- I've had a contract offer on the table for another right midfielder for almost two weeks, as the youngster had a bunch of offers to consider. We pay Tottenham £5,750,000 for 20 year old Greek MR Kostas Kalfas!



Kalfas rejected offers from Dortmund and R. Valladolid to come to Dover and I'm very intrigued by the kid. He's a natural attacking right midfielder but is equally adept at playing MC. He's not fleet of foot but has excellent intangibles, works his tail off and is a monster of a lad at 6' 4" and 200 pounds. He is arguably as good already as Gianluca Bolis, who coincidently welcomed him with open arms in a press release. Kalfas will get plenty of opportunities to play for us this year and getting this deal to go through allows me to put that Parana deal with Feyenoord on the backburner…for now.



-- That's pretty much it for deals this year. We await a permit on Carlos Guzman but otherwise, I'm fully prepared to go into the season with the lineup we have at present. I will look to move a couple of players out on loan or via transfer to reduce our wage bill, which is over budget at the moment. If the deal with Guzman goes through, I'll have approximately £9 million left in my transfer budget, money I'd like to see grow so I can make the move to buy on-loan striker Paul Moses if I see fit.



Next Up

-- We finish off our German tour with a game against HSV.

[NoSkillz]

Tue. July 20, 2021

Preseason Friendly
HSV vs. Dover
Imtech Arena, Hamburg, Germany

We close out our German tour against Hamburger SV, another huge club coming off a 2nd place finish in the Bundesliga last year, thereby qualifying for the Champions League. They have a much deeper and more talented team than Dortmund so this will be tough.

We'll go with a "B" side for the most part, with only Arsene Bamba, Gianluca Bolis and Andrea Rocca starting. Shanon Andrea will play alone up front with Wayne Rooney sitting behind him at AMC. Rayane Hamon and Kostas Kalfas just signed today and I'll hold them out until our next game.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control
GK - Y. Sylla
D - J. Varga, A. Kokaina, T. Andersen, J. Kuciak
M - A. Rocca, S. Spall
AM - A. Bamba, W. Rooney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea

HSV 3 - 2 Dover
Goals - Dennis Kunz (7.3), Aitor Zubizarreta (7.9)
Assists - Aitor Zubizarreta, Samir Nasri (6.9)
Man of the Match - Aitor Zubizarreta
Other Dover Notables - None
Attendance - 30,665

We were losing 2-0 at half and getting dominated, with HSV holding 66% of possession. We started to play better when I brought in my third stringers, interestingly enough and Kunz scored in the 79th minute and in dramatic fashion, transfer listed attacking midfielder Aitor Zubizarreta brought us level in the 90th minute! I stupidly forgot to change back from the overload tactic to something more conservative after that goal and HSV literally went right down the field on the ensuing kickoff and scored in injury time to win, the third late goal we've given up already in our three preseason losses. Sloppy.

-- My coaches don't think I should be moving Zubizarreta and after performances like that, I may have to keep him around.



Loan OUT

-- 19 year old French striker Ryan Bodin accepts a move to Coventry on loan for the season. Bodin scored 16 goals while on loan at Rushden last year in League 2 so this move to a League 1 team will give a good idea of where he's at.

-- A bunch of loan offers come in for DC Thomas Andersen and AMC/ST Roberto. I only accept the ones where they are given assurances of first-team playing time. I also get a couple of decent transfer bids for Aitor Zubizarreta but I decline them and pull him off the transfer list for now.

-- I also dump a bunch of useless U18 players, as I usually do at this time of year. I don't want the filler taking away playing time from my better prospects.



Champions League Update

-- We've reached the Champions Third Qualifying stage and there are a whole bunch of smaller teams facing each other. We don't enter the competition until the Best Placed Playoff stage, which will take place at the end of next month.



-- Fiorentina inquire about Giorgos Gesios - not for sale gentlemen! Gesios does come out in the press, saying he'd be tempted if an offer came through. Don't hold your breath buddy…I don't plan on letting you go anytime soon!


Work Permit Issue

-- As expected, my move for Carlos Guzman is held up due to a work permit issue. I appeal the initial decision and I'll have to wait another week for the final word. Again, it's expected to go through without incident upon the appeal process.



Next Up

-- We're back at Crabble Athletic Ground, hosting German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen.

[NoSkillz]

Sat. July 24, 2021

Preseason Friendly
Dover vs. Werder Bremen
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

We're back home but we face our third consecutive German side, this time running up against Werder Bremen. They finished 8th in the Bundesliga last year and I'd say we're a tad more powerful by the looks of it. By the way, young Paul Moses is STILL on international duty along with Emmerson Harvey. Moses still hasn't played a game for me yet and we're half way through the preseason.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - Mancini, N. Cairney
AM - C. Murray, Z. Bardi, K. Kalfas
S - G. Gesios

Dover 3 - 2 Werder Bremen
Goals - Claudio Contreras (7.9), Giorgos Gesios (7.4), Zoltan Bardi (7.6)
Assists - Neil Cairney 2 (8.5)
Man of the Match - Neil Cairney
Other Dover Notables - None
Attendance - 7.679

We gave up an early goal but took over from there, scoring twice in a two minute span to seize control. We'd give up a late goal to make the scoreline look closer than reality. We held 52% of possession and outshot them 13-12 (7-6 on target). Neil Cairney was sensational again and he really looks like he's ready to explode in his second year with our club. Some of his dribbles were breathtaking. I think it's also notable to see the improvement in Claudio Contreras' game - the kid is still only 18 but he's really starting to get comfortable and has 2 goals and 2 assists in the preseason so far after nary a point all last season. He's up to 3.5 stars currently and still has 5 star potential. A stud in the making, I hope!

-- We had two injuries in the game: Mancini suffered a dead leg and will miss a few days while new signing Rayane Hamon suffered a thigh strain and will miss one to two weeks.



Pitch Alteration

-- I've always had a very long and wide pitch but I'm actually forced to reduce the pitch size this year due to Champions League regulations. We go with the maximum size allowed, which shortens the field by 5 metres and the width by a couple metres.



-- Another of my mediocre youth players gets a number of loan offers. Jonathan Gauthier, a D/MC will have his pick of the lot.



-- Sampdoria keeps calling for young DC Abdallaye Kokaina so I counter offer £20,000,000. It doesn't take long for them to hang up the phone. In more distressing news, HSV make a bid on DR Salim Loucif and this one is serious: £10,250,000 plus future incentives. Loucif has great intangibles and is a spirited and talented player and I have a £15,000,000 release clause on his deal - if HSV wants him, they know what to bid. I call his agent for shits and giggles to see what they'd want for an extension and he's looking for 2.5 times his current wage, which is pretty ridiculous. Plus, he wants to keep the release clause as is. Not acceptable so I walk away for now.



-- Hmm. Remember that great Brazilian right midfielder I was thinking about buying? His name is Parana and FC Bayern just bid £17,000,000 for him. I'll be interested to see if Feyenoord accept the deal - it would be a club record transfer fee for them.



Next Up

-- We have a home friendly against Manchester United as part of a clause in my sale of Cristian Rodriguez last year.

[NoSkillz]

Tue. July 27, 2021

Preseason Friendly
Dover vs. Manchester United
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

We take advantage of a clause in the sale of Cristian Rodriguez to host United at our stadium and rake in a bit of money. I'm starting a weaker side today and it looks as if they are doing the same.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - Y. Sylla
D - J. Varga, A. Kokaina, P. Tjiuoro, J. Kuciak
M - C. Murray, S. Nasri, S. Spall, K. Kalfas
S - S. Andrea, W. Rooney

Dover 0 - 2 Manchester United
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Luiz Carlos (Man United DL - 8.1)
Other Dover Notables - Paulus Tjiuoro (7.1), Abdallaye Kokaina (5.6), Wayne Rooney (5.4)
Attendance - 8,609

The less said about this, the better. Rooney gave a ball away that directly led to a goal, hence his poor rating. United held 55% of possession and outshot us 17-14 (9-5 on target). Very poor and we're already up to four losses in the preseason, albeit with a brutally tough schedule.



Loans OUT

-- Roberto will play for AJ Auxerre in France this year. Hopefully he'll get some Ligue 1 playing time.

-- Home-grown player Andrew Stanley heads to Coventry on a season-long loan, joining fellow Dover player Ryan Bodin. I had five home-grown players and only need four so Stanley, the worst of the bad bunch, heads to League 1 for the season.

-- Lastly, D/MC Jonathan Gauthier accepts a loan move to League 1 side West Ham United for the season.



Squad Win Bonuses

-- As usual, I tell our players representative that I will give out higher than normal squad bonuses for domestic play, cup competitions and continental play. Morale goes up, as usual with our overly ambitious club.



-- It's looking like that right midfielder Parana will be heading to Bayern - his club accepted the deal and now Parana is considering a contract offer. I'd love to have this guy on my squad but I need to save whatever money I can just in case this striker I have on loan turns out to be worthy of a purchase. Plus, I'm already over my wage budget too after signing veterans Rooney and Nasri.



Transfer IN

-- We get official word that a work permit has been granted to Argentian defender Carlos Guzman, allowing our £2,100,000 transfer to Lanus go through.



Guzman was a youth pull just last year for Lanus and is a four star prospect, certainly worthy of a stash in the U18s this year and I can definitely see him getting some playing time with the senior team at some point - current backup Jozef Varga is only a 2.0/2.0 so Guzman conceivably could pass him on our depth chart this year.



Next Up

-- An away matchup at Sheffield United from the Championship.

[NoSkillz]

Sat. July 31, 2021

Preseason Friendly
Sheffield United vs. Dover
Bramall Lane, Sheffield, UK

We head on the road to take on Championship side Sheffield United. We finally get our first look at on-loan striker Paul Moses in this game, as he's finally back from International duty with England. He will be alone up front. Zubizarreta has been excellent in the preseason and will play wing while Nasri will play his most natural position, AMC. Pretty strong lineup - about half strength, which should be enough for a win.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control
GK - Y. Sylla
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, M. Thompson, J. Kuciak
M - Mancini, N. Cairney
AM - A. Bamba, S. Nasri, A. Zubizarreta
S - P. Moses

Sheffield United 3 - 3 Dover
Goals - Paul Moses 3 (9.5)
Assists - Neil Cairney (7.9), Aitor Zubizarreta (6.8)
Man of the Match - Paul Moses
Other Dover Notables -
Attendance - 6,260

So yeah, this Paul Moses character is going to be FUN to watch. Three goals in his debut, all before half time! He was electric and completely as advertised. Cairney was the only other guy to show up today - for the FOURTH time this preseason, we give up an injury time goal at the end of the game, giving United a draw. What a horrible run we're on - the veterans are doing nothing - Nasri was invisible and Sylla is a bit wild in goal - Wilke definitely will be getting the majority of the games. But yeah...Moses was something else and it's great to see him deliver so quickly, as I'm still waiting for the first goal from Shanon Andrea, the Dutch international.



August Update

-- We have two more friendlies left, with home matches against Espanyol and Rangers. We also have three Premier League games in August, opening the season at home versus Newcastle, then heading out to Liverpool before ending the month at home versus Reading.

-- The Champions League Best Placed Playoff draw will be held on the 6th and it looks like games will be held on the 17th and the 24th. We'll also have a League Cup match around the 25th. So eight matches at least in August…

-- We get positive training reports for two youth players: Johnny Mardenborough and star prospect Emmerson Harvey along with a negative report for Steve Sinnott - I'll have a talk with him…



-- HSV make another Salim Loucif bid, this time for ~£12 million. It's a no - again, he's got a £15 million release clause so someone can definitely get him if they so choose. Juventus is also preparing to make a significant offer for my 18 year old DC Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz, with rumours giving an amount over £5.5 million. That's a LOT of money for him…I'd have to at least consider that but I'm grooming that kid to be a home-grown player and he's one that will actually be able to play.

-- I get my first ever offer (that I remember) for five star potential DC Claudio Contreras. Porto make an insulting bid just over £3 million - I counter with £60 million, non-negotiable. I'm sick of dealing with this stuff so that will stop them in their tracks I'm sure.



August Board Confidence Update

-- The board is very pleased with my overall leadership. Stature increase is still the positive and Oliver Nicholas' departure is still the negative.

-- Ouch. We lost £22.18 MILLION last month! That's mostly due to transfer fees but I also had some rather large signing bonuses and agent fees.



Next Up

-- We host Spanish side Espanyol in a preseason friendly at Crabble.

[Tellistto]

I wonder at why you keep putting a bench player as your team captain when only players on the pitch count to that?

Tell

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

I wonder at why you keep putting a bench player as your team captain when only players on the pitch count to that?

Tell

It's a good point that you make...

In fairness, my last captain was a starter for two full seasons before he started being rotated in and then last year he was essentially bench fodder. My vice captain was GK Ingo Wilke and he played most of the games...

I guess my theory is this: pick the best choice as captain using influence, determination and work ethic but if it's a bench player, make sure the vice captain plays a lot. I figure that I avoid a morale hit that way but there's still the possible issue of the vice captain not being an appropriate choice either - I got a lot of messages from my assistant in the advice screen that some of my players found it "hard to get motivated with Wilke as captain" so I have to be mindful of that too.

[Tellistto]

I would have to respond with the thought that you should probably focus on finding a starting caliber player with the ratings that you value.

If Wilke doesn't inspire the team on the pitch, and Rooney doesn't inspire the team on the bench, what's the point of having either in those positions?

Find a real captain, sir!

Tell

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

I would have to respond with the thought that you should probably focus on finding a starting caliber player with the ratings that you value.

If Wilke doesn't inspire the team on the pitch, and Rooney doesn't inspire the team on the bench, what's the point of having either in those positions?

Find a real captain, sir!

Tell

I wish it was that easy!

One of the most desirable attributes I saw in Cristian Rodriguez was his potential leadership ability then Man U comes and steals him from me only a few months into his time at the club. He had phenomenal mental attributes: 19 influence at only 21 years old, 16 work rate and 17 determination.

I agree that Wilke doesn't look like the answer - I do have a couple of youngsters that I can groom into the position: Renato Gaucho especially looks like a great choice - he picked up English quickly, has 15 influence, 15 work rate and 16 determination. But he's only about to turn 20.

Salim Loucif is another potential - he's close to the right age (23 this month), 16 influence, 18 work rate and 12 determination. But he doesn't speak English yet so he's maybe a year away.

There is an interesting option at Newcastle, as they have a 27 year old DL named James Inglis. Vice Captain at Newcastle, part of Scotland's setup and super attributes (17 influence, 15 work rate, 19 determination) in addition to being a fine player (3.5 stars). That said, he'd have to take over the starting spot from Renato Gaucho and there is absolutely no reason for me to make that change, as Gaucho has been producing capably since he was 18.

I'll keep on the lookout but I may be using scotch tape, so to speak, for this season. I'm up against my wage budget anyway and can't add anyone right now.

[NoSkillz]

Mon. August 2, 2021

Preseason Friendly
Dover vs. Espanyol
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Espanyol requested this game and offered me a pretty penny to host so I cancelled a match I had against non-league Cambridge City to take the cash. Espanyol are a perennial mid-table side in Spanish Liga BBVA. They were Europa League runners up in 2007 but haven't finished higher than 3rd in the league at any point in their history according to their overview. They are a similar sized team so it should be a pretty even matchup - hopefully our home advantage will give us an edge.

I want to ensure morale isn't an issue going into the season so I'm going to run with a full strength lineup today and likely against Rangers next week too. I'm going to go with a flat 4-4-2 in this one.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, P. Tjiuoro, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - G. Gesios, Z. Bardi

Dover 3 - 1 Espanyol
Goals - Arsene Bamba (7.8), Shanon Andrea (7.3), Paul Moses (7.5)
Assists - Salim Loucif (7.9), Andrea Rocca (7.8), Shaun Spall (6.9)
Man of the Match - Salim Loucif
Other Dover Notables - Paulus Tjiuoro (7.0), Gianluca Bolis (7.0), Neil Cairney (7.0)
Attendance - 7,505

Giorgos Gesios was taken down on a horror tackle inside the first five minutes and needed to be taken off, giving Paul Moses another chance to shine. He was much more quiet today against better opposition but still scored our insurance goal in the last ten minutes. One of their players got a red card 10 minutes into the second half when the game was still scoreless and that helped us on our way. We were in control the whole match though, holding 57% of possession and outshooting them 26-8 (10-4 on target). Pretty solid performance. Nice to see Shanon Andrea get on the scoresheet, although the goal was a bit fluky.

-- And in news I simply did not need, our top scorer Giorgos Gesios suffered fractured ribs on that challenge and will miss the next four weeks. That means he won't be playing in our Champions League debut. Well shit…Gesios had injury issues during his first year with us but largely was healthy during last year's breakout. Thankfully, we have plenty of depth, with new signings Andrea, Moses and Wayne Rooney.



Contract Extensions

-- I had to do some budget tweaking but it was necessary to get a key player locked up to a long term contract, as his deal was coming due in less than 12 months and there is no way I could tolerate losing him to a Bosman signing. I'm pleased to announce that Andrea Rocca signs an extended deal that will keep him in a Dover kit until June 2025! This worked out well - I was looking at re-upping him about a month ago and his agent wanted £50,000 per week at that time. Now, the agent started the negotiations at £34,000 and after upping his signing bonus a bit, I was able to get the weekly wage down to £20K per week, still a nice raise from the £11K he was making before. Rocca has been the "straw that stirs the drink" ever since he came on board with us and I'm pleased to keep him around longterm.

-- I also sign contract extensions with AMC/MR Aitor Zubizarreta and DL Jozef Varga. Both are depth players but I was able to sign them for small raises while retaining them as assets, a small price to pay.

-- Lastly, I extend U18 DC prospect Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz for another four years at a bargain price. He's a 3.5 star prospect and will have home grown status by next season.

-- Porto withdraw their bid for Claudio Conteras, as expected and now he wants a new deal. I say no way, he says he's pissed, I tell him he's being unprofessional and then he steps back and apologizes. Whew!



International Duty

-- Ten players are called up for international duty: Gregoire Lambert from our U18 club (France U19), Carlo Cerbone (Italy U19), Renato Gaucho (Brazil U20), Claudio Contreras and Carlos Guzman (Argentina U20), Kostas Kalfas (Greece), Youssouf Sylla and Arsene Bamba (Ivory Coast), Salim Loucif (Algeria) and Zoltan Bardi (Hungary). It's notable that Kalfas and Bamba are still awaiting their first senior level caps so that's worth watching.



Champions League - Best Placed Playoff Draw

-- OK HERE WE GO!!!

-- There are ten teams in this draw and we are unseeded. Looking at the coefficients, we are the lowest ranked team in this group but I guess that's to be expected since it's our first ever foray into Continental play whereas these teams have built up coefficient scores over years. Here are the teams, along with their current coefficient score:

AS Monaco FC (France) - 125.17
Sevilla (Spain) - 111.28
CSKA Moscow (Russia) - 82.33
Porto (Portugal) - 82.01
Leverkusen (Germany) - 60.77
Olympiakos (Greece) - 59.44
Napoli (Italy) - 53.46
Bursaspor (Turkey) - 52.33
AZ (Holland) - 49.33
Dover - 34.18

Well, I guess there aren't any cupcakes there, even among the unseeded teams like ourselves but we are drawn against AS Monaco FC, who happen to have the sixth highest coefficient among all teams in this year's Champions League, behind only Atletico Madrid, Man United, Man City, FC Bayern and Barcelona (Real Madrid finished fifth in the LIGA last year and are in the Europa League instead). AS Monaco are valued at £93 million and are coming off a 3rd place finish in last year's Ligue 1. They were runners up in the Champions League in 2004 and last won their league in 2012.

-- The first leg will be hosted by AS Monaco on Tuesday August 17th and the second leg will be at Crabble Athletic Ground on Wednesday August 25th.

-- Our Premier League match against Reading is rescheduled to a Sunday due to a Reading Europa League match.



Next Up

-- We host Rangers from Scotland in our final preseason friendly.

[NoSkillz]

Ok guys - I may have a serious issue with respect to Home Grown Status...

Supposedly, you need four "home grown" players and eight "Nation trained" players.

Here's my roster of guys that I thought would qualify:

DC Matthew Thompson (Trained at Club 0-21)
ML Steve Ingram (Trained at Club 15-21)
MC Jamie Matthews (Trained at Club 15-21)
DC Emmanuel Agbo (Trained at Club 15-21)

ML Arsene Bamba (Trained in Nation 0-21)
ST Zoltan Bardi (Trained in Nation 0-21)
MC Shaun Spall (Trained in Nation 0-21)
AM Aitor Zubizarreta (Trained in Nation 0-21)
DR Ross McLaughlin (Trained in Nation 0-21)
ST Wayne Rooney (Trained in Nation 15-21)

Ok, so I figured I was fine but I get to the Champions League registration post and they say I only have **THREE** home grown players and only **FOUR** nation trained players?!?

Do you mean to tell me that guys that are trained from 0-21 as opposed to 15-21 DON'T QUALIFY???

I couldn't advance past that screen and I even failed in trying to sign a "ghost" player from my U18 team that was trained at the club - when I signed him, for some reason, his home grown status disappeared.

The only way I could advance in-game was to go on a one-game holiday - I got through to the next day and it says my squad has been registered but there are no additions to the roster. I believe I'll have another registration coming up in the next week. Will I be able to play? Do I need to find 15-21 age trained players only??

HELP!!!

EDIT TO ADD: I take a look at teams like Chelsea and Man U and see that they don't have enough home grown players either. Is this a bug of some sort that will be an issue for me to navigate around??

DOUBLE EDIT: Oh, and I just find out that striker Zoltan Bardi tore his hamstring while on international duty and will miss the next three months. So both of my starting strikers are gone long term: Gesios for a month and Bardi for three. I'm going to be sick.

[Grover]

Go on vacation for one day to bypass the squad selection. That's the only way I've ever been able to do it. And I've usually been able to get the roster I want. Fill all the roster spots with the players you want and you SHOULD be ok.

I would suggest in the future, keep a couple of your regens around that come in through your youth system, even if they are 2-2.5 potential. JUST for the homegrown status. It's rare that you'll ever need all 25 players in European play.

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Grover

Go on vacation for one day to bypass the squad selection. That's the only way I've ever been able to do it. And I've usually been able to get the roster I want. Fill all the roster spots with the players you want and you SHOULD be ok.

I would suggest in the future, keep a couple of your regens around that come in through your youth system, even if they are 2-2.5 potential. JUST for the homegrown status. It's rare that you'll ever need all 25 players in European play.

That's what I did - basically all of those home-grown guys are scrubs I've kept around for years just for this purpose. I didn't know there would be a difference between 15-21 and 0-21. I just don't get it...

[NoSkillz]

Sat. August 7, 2021

Preseason Friendly
Dover vs. Rangers
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Rangers are historically the top club in Scotland in this dynasty. They've won the Clydesdale Bank Premier League the last two years and in eight of the last ten years! Celtic who?? That said, this is a team that's beatable.

We field as strong a lineup as possible for our last friendly. Rayane Hamon is back from injury and will start alongside Claudio Contreras. Renato Gaucho is travelling for international play so I call up Carlos Guzman, the new signing placed on the U18 team, to see what he can do. He's a 4 star prospect so I think he should be able to keep up in a low-stress environment.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - C. Guzman, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, Z. Bardi

Dover 3 - 1 Rangers
Goals - Shanon Andrea 2 (9.1), Shaun Spall (7.3)
Assists - Claudio Contreras (7.6), Andrea Rocca (7.6), Wayne Rooney (6.8)
Man of the Match - Shanon Andrea
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.1), Gianluca Bolis (7.0)
Attendance - 7,906

We had over 20 shots in the first half alone yet went into the break with the score knotted at zeros. I moved to a 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) and we opened up from there. Andrea was excellent and he will most likely fill in for Gesios to start the season. I love Paul Moses but I want to bring him along slowly. Most important thing in this game was no injuries!

-- We close out the preseason with an even 4-1-4 record.



Dover Captains for 2021

-- Our long-time captain Darren Pratley retired in the offseason so we need someone new to lead the team this year. Again, as indicated as far back as the beginning of last season, my plan was to promote young DC Cristian Rodriguez to captain once he learned English. Well, he's grasped the language but unfortunately, he's now on Manchester United after my board accepted a transfer deal without my input. So we need someone else - I've got a couple of young players that have the appropriate attributes but I don't think they're ready yet so I'm pleased to announce that Wayne Rooney has been selected as Dover captain for this season. The news is met with a huge round of applause in the dressing room and no less than 15 of our 30 senior team players are "delighted with the appointment of Wayne Rooney as captain". Good to know! Rooney is our fourth or even fifth choice striker this year but he'll get plenty of opportunities early, with Giorgos Gesios on the shelf. I name defender Salim Loucif as vice captain - he has excellent leadership traits and should do a fine job when Rooney isn't in the lineup. Ingo Wilke was vice captain last year and we did great as a team with him leading the club most matches but my assistant always noted that many of the team members struggled to get motivated with him in the armband.



Injury Update

-- And in the "old news" department, as noted in my previous post, striker Zoltan Bardi suffers a torn hamstring after chasing a ball during an international match against Montenegro. Bardi will miss 2-3 MONTHS with this injury. Now, both of our top strikers are on the shelf long-term, with Gesios out a month with broken ribs. That's over 40 goals on the sidelines - this is an absolute disaster and now we'll be relying on three complete newcomers to Dover for our scoring up front: Shanon Andrea, 17 year old Paul Moses and 35 year old captain Wayne Rooney. We were very fortunate to avoid long-term injuries during our run to 4th place last year and this seems like cruel payback.



Champions League Update

-- Probably not a surprise but our Champions League matchup versus AS Monaco will be televised.



2021-22 Premier League Season About to Begin

-- We played nine preseason friendlies, not including our intrasquad match, and came away with a record of 4 wins, 1 draws and 4 losses. Here's a look at a poster given out at our home opener with photos of all 30 senior team players (yes, 30) and a quick breakdown of our senior team depth chart. Preferred starters are noted in bold.



GOALKEEPERS -
Youssouf Sylla, Ingo Wilke

Wilke was sensational last year and easily held off the challenge from newcomer Youssouf Sylla to keep the main starting job this year. Sylla, an Ivory Coast international, will get at least 10 games but needs to improve upon a poor preseason performance.

DEFENDERS -
Emmanuel Agbo, Claudio Contreras, Rayane Hamon, Abdallaye Kokaina, Jozef Kuciak, Salim Loucif, Ross McLaughlin, Renato Gaucho, Matthew Thompson, Paulus Tjiuoro, Jozef Varga

This may be the only position we're weaker at on paper versus last year and even then, it's debatable. Our depth is better, without question, as Tjiuoro is a third option as opposed to the starter he was at the beginning of last year. Kokaina is better and much younger then Oliver Nicholas, our fourth option last year at DC. Contreras improved greatly since last season and is up to 3.5/5.0 and new signing Rayane Hamon, while not as talented as Cristian Rodriguez, is a very young and capable defender. Loucif and Gaucho retain their starting positions at fullback and are young and improving players. Depth at both positions remains the same as last year - a bit weak but serviceable. Kuciak was excellent when needed. This is a good group with great depth in the middle - Agbo and Thompson are solely on the team due to their home-grown status, as I need four players with that designation to qualify for Champions League play.

MIDFIELDERS -
Arsene Bamba, Gianluca Bolis, Neil Cairney, Steve Ingram, Kostas Kalfas, Mancini, Jamie Matthews, Cameron Murray, Samir Nasri, Andrea Rocca, Shaun Spall, Aitor Zubizarreta

All four starters from last year return and I expect a huge year out of Neil Cairney, who dominated in our preseason friendlies. He's got a year at Dover under his belt and he should be settled in by now. Our depth is improved on the right side with Kalfas but he may need some time to get settled, as he struggled in the preseason. Spall was excellent in our friendlies and offers a significant upgrade from Darren Pratley and Liam Craig while I hope Samir Nasri can contribute off the field with his influence and tutoring. Mancini showed nice improvement last year and will get plenty of playing time. Steve Ingram and Jamie Matthews round out our four home grown players and none of them will see much, if any, playing time this year.

STRIKERS -

Shaon Andrea, Zoltan Bardi, Giorgos Gesios, Paul Moses, Wayne Rooney

Gesios and Bardi combined for 41 goals last year and I'll have to make due without them for a long time, as both are on the shelf with major injuries. We upgraded our depth considerably in the offseason, signing Dutch international Andrea and taking in 17 year old Man United wonderkid Paul Moses on season-long loan with an option to buy. He scored four times in two preseason games and will be my preferred option off the bench in the early portion of the season, as I don't want to "feed him to the wolves". Rooney was a depth signing to bring some needed leadership, influence and tutoring ability but we will need him early and often with the injuries to our two star strikers.

RESERVE TEAM -

AMC Jonathan Adam, ST Carlo Cerbone, ST Dennis Kunz

Cerbone is a 19 year old who torched opponents with our U18s last year. I am keeping him here in order to gain eventual home-grown status, otherwise I would have loaned him out. Adam and Kunz are in the same boat and will gain their home grown status by the end of the season.

U18 SQUAD -

GK Garry Doyle, DL Carlos Guzman, MC Emmerson Harvey, MR Matt Hewitt, DL Sebastian Kraft, ST Gregoire Lambert, DR Ben Lee, MC Johnny Mardenborough, GK Louis Reed, ST Eddie Robinson, MR Pete Smith, DR Damian Thorne, MC Phil Whitbread, DC Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz

We are loaded with intriguing prospects, the most notable of which is Emmerson Harvey, who I bought from Bolton this summer, a 4.5 MC prospect. Carlos Guzman is a 4 star DL prospect and Yilmaz is a 3.5 star potential DC. Gregoire Lambert and Louis Reed could make it as well.

PLAYERS AWAY ON LOAN -

DC Thomas Andersen, ST Ryan Bodin, DC Jonathan Gauthier, ST Roberto, DC Andrew Stanley

Andersen is the best prospect of this bunch.



Next Up

-- Our season opening game in the Premier League, as we host Newcastle at Crabble Athletic Ground

[Barkeep49]

I haven't played 14 but the way through in previous versions was to leave empty roster spaces for each non-conforming spot.

So, if the roster was 25, and you only have 3 club trained (and another 4 nation trained) you simply register 24 players instead. Basically have any warm body to fill a HG space is the same as having no body.

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

I haven't played 14 but the way through in previous versions was to leave empty roster spaces for each non-conforming spot.

So, if the roster was 25, and you only have 3 club trained (and another 4 nation trained) you simply register 24 players instead. Basically have any warm body to fill a HG space is the same as having no body.

Yup, you are exactly right and I wish I had figured that out sooner. You'll see I came to the same conclusion you did at the end of my next post but it's too late for this round.

I will have to fast sim these two Champions League games by the looks of it, as I can't edit the "computer" registered team (beyond one player) from when I took the one day holiday to keep moving the game forward.

Thanks for the advice Barkeep!

Hopefully, my assistant can manage us to the shocking victory!

[NoSkillz]

Sat. August 14, 2021

Barclays Premier League
Dover (0-0-0, 0 points, -) vs. Newcastle (0-0-0, 0 points, -)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: 5-4 (Favourites) Draw: 11-5 Newcastle: 7-4
Past Meetings: 1W 1D 2L

We open our Premier League schedule with a home date against Newcastle, who finished 11th last year. They are predicted to finish in 14th this year by the pundits and with us being picked to finish 10th, it's no wonder why the oddsmakers have this one as being tight. Newcastle made a couple little splashes in the transfer market, most notably picking up Italian midfielder Vincenzo Scala from sc Heerenveen. My scouts liked him and he's a pacy player we'll need to watch. They also picked up a former U18 goalkeeper of ours, Ryan Alnwick, who we sold to Southampton for £325,000 and they moved him for £1.1 million a year later. There is ANOTHER Alnwick keeper on their team too - I doubt they are brothers, as there isn't anything noted in their relationship tab but what a coincidence! Jak Alnwick is their normal starter in goal. I took a good, LONG look at buying their fine left fullback James Inglis, as he has wonderful skill and leadership ability but I just couldn't justify spending the money they wanted when I already have a pretty good left fullback in Renato Gaucho.

We beat them 3-0 in our last game against them last year and we'll utilize that same flat 4-4-2 formation with a control philosophy. Due to injuries and suspensions, I need to make edits to my lineup. Rayane Hamon starts at the back alongside Paulus Tjiuoro, as Claudio Contreras will miss our first two league games due to a suspension picked up late last year. The midfield is our normal group of four but we have a completely new starting front, with Shanon Andrea and Wayne Rooney being counted on for goals today. Young star-to-be Paul Moses will be available to come off the bench.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, P. Tjiuoro, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, W. Rooney
Bench - J. Kuciak, J. Varga, Mancini, S. Spall, C. Murray, K. Kalfas, P. Moses

Interestingly enough, they come out in a 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1), one of my favourite formations. I'll stick with my flat 4-4-2 for now but I'll consider changing if we're slow out of the gates, as Rooney can easily drop back in behind Andrea. I tell the team they can win this and pull aside newcomers Hamon, Rooney and Andrea for personal chats.

3' - Rooney shoots wide after we work upfield off the opening kickoff and we get the ball back shortly thereafter. Cairney works the ball into the middle to Andrea Rocca and he feeds the ball up to Rooney, who has his back to the defender just outside the top of the area. Rooney takes the ball, avoids a tackle and turns toward the goal. Two quick steps and he fires an absolute HOWITZER off the goalpost and into the net. DREAM START! The new captain makes his presence felt right away!!! DOVER GOAL 1-0

13' - We work a counter attack and it's Rooney feeding Andrea up the middle. He uses his speed to get past the defenders and heads toward goal. He's running out of room and tries to go over the keeper but Jak Alnwick is able to grab it and hold on.

20' - Salim Loucif sends a cross into the area to a wide open Andrea and he's able to pot the ball home but there's a reason he was so open…offsides! No goal!

28' - Rooney goes in hard on a challenge on Inglis and gets a yellow card.

31' - Another yellow, this time to Renato Gaucho.

36' - A third yellow for us, this time it's Gianluca Bolis. Calm down guys. The whole team is playing with motivation and maybe a bit too worked up.

45' - Andrea takes a headed pass at midfield and speeds into Newcastle's zone but just misses wide. Good run, poor finish.

45'+2 - Bolis runs down the right flank and sends in a great arching cross that meets the head of Bamba but Alnwick is in good position to make the save.

HALFTIME - Dull match - we're getting smoked in possession, as they play very close to the vest. Newcastle holds 58% of possession (!) but we're outshooting them 6-2 (3-0 on target). I decide to switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation to match Newcastle and encourage the team in the dressing room. Lets get one more goal.

53' - Off a Newcastle goal kick, we head back over the defence and Andrea beats them to the ball. He's in on goal but his low shot is nicely turned aside by Alnwick. Good chance there!

58' - Paulus Tjiuoro gets two glorious chances off corners, first having his header turned over the bar by Alnwick and the second hits the crossbar and sits near the goal line before being cleared to safety. Come on guys, one more!

65' - I take out the excellent Wayne Rooney and bring in young Paul Moses. Hopefully we can utilize his blazing speed against a tired defence to score an insurance marker. Back to a flat 4-4-2 for now.

67' - James Inglis, that fine left fullback I was talking about, gets a second yellow card and is gone! Newcastle is down to 10 men. We'll stay in a control mentality.

68' - In the YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME files, they work a counter off the ensuing free kick and somehow, their striker Vigneau gets loose down the middle of the field. He's off to the races and we can't catch him and he pumps a shot into the top corner of the net. Newcastle's first shot on goal goes in and we're tied despite being up a man. A shocker. NEWCASTLE GOAL 1-1

Time to attack.

75 - We get a good chance as we slowly work up field against their 4-2-2-1 with 2 DMCs. Moses heads it up to Andrea and he heads it on the volley, forcing Alnwick into a fine diving save.

80' - Shaun Spall comes on for the ineffective Shanon Andrea and we move back to a 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) with an attacking mentality.

89' - Man. Spall gets a nice low cross into the box and from only about 8 yards away, Cairney shoots way over the net. Not our day.

90' - Bolis gets the ball and storms down the right side. He sends a cross through the area and Bamba is there but from a poor angle, he shoots, hits a Newcastle defender and as it's going toward goal, Alnwick slides over to grab it.

90'+2 - We're pouring on pressure and Newcastle clear all the way down the field after a poor corner by Rocca. Loucif gets back and fires it up the left flank to Renato Gaucho and he quickly feeds it into the middle to Spall. He sees Bamba running down the left and fires a through ball to him but young Paul Moses turns the jets on and gets there first. He's on his weaker left side as he approaches the byline and sends a left footed cross through the box, past Alnwick and Gianluca Bolis is there to tap the ball into the empty goal for the STUNNING injury time goal! WOW! DOVER GOAL 2-1

Late drama and that's it!

Dover 2 - 1 Newcastle
Goals - Wayne Rooney (7.3), Gianluca Bolis (7.5)
Assists - Andrea Rocca (7.5), Shaun Spall (6.9)
Man of the Match - Andrea Rocca
Other Dover Notables - Paulus Tjiuoro (7.1)
Attendance - 14,805 (Sell-Out)

We were starting to dominate possession before Inglis got the early bath and ultimately ended up winning that battle, holding onto 53% of overall possession. We dominated the shot department too, outshooting them 23-4 (8-1 on target). Interestingly enough, Spall gets credit for the assist on the winning goal despite Moses being the one who made the cross. No matter…we'll take the win.

-- In other action, Sunderland dominated newly promoted Southampton to the tune of 5-0 and fellow newcomers Wolves also were humbled, with Everton beating them 3-0. Man City fought past a spirited Middlesbrough team 3-2 while Man United could only eke out a draw against Aston Villa. Another newcomer, Blackpool, did well to draw Liverpool 2-2.



Dover U18 Update

-- Our kids started off on the right foot as well, defeating Wycombe 2-0 behind a brace from top prospect Emmerson Harvey.



-- I get an email that notes that Sampdoria made a bid of £43,500,000 for Mexican midfielder Saul Rosas - that is easily the largest bid I've seen in this game, at least as far as a notice goes. I go to the World transfers screen and indeed, it would be the third highest transfer in my gaming world's history, with Barcelona having the two highest fees paid for Palermo's Juan Ramon Vazquez (a Spanish Canadian!!! - £55,000,000) and Juventus' Tim Stark, who was sold for £48 million.



Season Ticket Sales

-- We continue to sell the majority of our tickets individually, as we announce that 4078 season ticket packages have been sold for the year, up from 3930 last year, a modest ~3% increase. As long as we keep selling out, I'll be happy. We will have a 23,000 seat stadium soon so lots of seats will be available!



Champions League Registration

-- We have the chance to make one change to our team before our game later tonight against AS Monaco so I take out injured Zoltan Bardi. Once again, I can't move on from this screen but I THINK I know how to eventually get past it now - I just have to leave spaces in my 25 man squad, as for some reason, the game simply doesn't allow me to count any home grown or English trained players between the ages of 0-21. That makes absolutely no sense but that's what I have to deal with, as the game will only recognize those players who were trained between the ages of 15-21. Therefore, it looks like my two Champions League games will have to be simmed out without me getting the chance to manage them (ie: I have to go on holiday for one day). VERY disappointing to manage for 10 years plus and finally make the Champions League, only to have to fast sim to the next day. Serves me right for not fiddling around with the registration screens a bit longer to figure that out but hopefully I'll get the chance to eventually manage one of these games! I don't like our chances in a fast sim, to be honest...



Next Up

-- Our Champions League debut, as we head to France to take on Ligue 1 club AS Monaco FC.

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by NoSkillz

Yup, you are exactly right and I wish I had figured that out sooner. You'll see I came to the same conclusion you did at the end of my next post but it's too late for this round.

I will have to fast sim these two Champions League games by the looks of it, as I can't edit the "computer" registered team (beyond one player) from when I took the one day holiday to keep moving the game forward.

Thanks for the advice Barkeep!

Hopefully, my assistant can manage us to the shocking victory!

OK!!

I found a work-around for this - I can "go on holiday" then once it starts processing, immediately click back on "return from holiday". That gets me past the registration screen but doesn't progress to the next day, giving me a chance to manage the game!

EXCITING!

[NoSkillz]

Tue. August 17, 2021

UEFA Champions League
AS Monaco FC (France - Ligue 1) vs. Dover
AS Monaco FC Stadium, Monaco, France

Betting Odds: AS Monaco FC: 4-5 (Favourites) Draw: 2-1 Dover: 3-1
Past Meetings: 0W 0D 0L

I've given some history on AS Monaco in past posts so no reason to go over it again. They are a big club, were runners up in the Champions League back in 2004 and have won Ligue 1 9 times, most recently in 2012. Their best player is captain Danilo, a Brazilian midfielder who is in his sixth year with the club. The pitch in Monaco is narrow and they usually play a tight game. We'll look to do the same...

I'm going to play a flat 4-4-2 with a counter attacking mentality, something I don't usually do. Claudio Contreras still has one game left to serve on his domestic suspension but he's eligible to play today and will be in the lineup. Other than that, no changes except to the bench - Samir Nasri is dressed today and may get a chance to play in his home country. Other Frenchmen include Rayane Hamon and Arsene Bamba, although Bamba has been called up twice by Ivory Coast, with whom he holds secondary citizenship.

Dover: 4-4-2 Counter
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, W. Rooney
Bench - Y. Sylla, P. Tjiuoro, Mancini, S. Nasri, C. Murray, K. Kalfas, P. Moses

Monaco comes out in a 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1). I tell the team they can win despite the odds.

13' - Not much in the way of great chances either way as the teams feel each other out. The first great chance goes to us: off a throw, Cairney runs from the right sideline parallel to the edge of the box. He stops and back heels an incredible pass through to Andrea who is right on top of the keeper and his blast is turned aside. WOW. What a chance that was! Andrea could have easily rounded the keeper there and put it away.

21' - We have a few more weak shots at goal but at least we're seemingly controlling play. We win a corner and Rocca sends a ball to the near post. Rayane Hamon gets above his marker and heads it but it kind of squirts away from goal toward the far post. Claudio Contreras wins the ball and sends a kick toward goal that goes in off a defender and in. WOW!!! That's Contreras' first ever Dover goal and on the biggest stage in the game! DOVER GOAL 1-0

25' - We cause a turnover at midfield and it's Hamon making a lovely little pass up to Shanon Andrea. We have four men on the counter attack and there are only three defenders, which allows Andrea to feed a through ball to a sprinting Neil Cairney. Cairney takes the ball and sprints towards goal. With two players chasing, he sends the ball into the right corner of the goal! We're up two! HOLY CRAP! DOVER GOAL 2-0

45'+1 - We get another decent chance inside the area but Andrea left foots it just wide.

HALFTIME - WOW! What a start! Up two goals away from home! We are dominating this game - 53% possession and a 14-3 (7-0 on target) shot advantage. I tell the team I'm pleased. No tactics changes obviously, as we stay in the counter attack mentality.

47' - Off an innocent looking play, Andrea heads the ball up field from the halfway line. Monaco defender Sebastian Romagnoli kicks it to his central defence partner Fernando Franco but his first touch is horrendous and the ball squirts away from him. Wayne Rooney smells blood and beats Franco to the ball and sends an immediate shot toward goal that the diving keeper gets a piece of but not enough. It's another goal! OH MY ROONEY! DOVER GOAL 3-0

Monaco now move to a flat 4-4-2.

55' - What is going on??? We continue to dominate every aspect of this game. Rooney has it at midfield and sends a ball out to Gianluca Bolis. He absolutely skins his opposite number and immediately cuts in toward the penalty area. The central defender holds his ground to take away a pass attempt, leaving Bolis to walk in on goal and he shoots low, getting it underneath the beleaguered Josu Burguena and into the goal. FOUR BELLS! DOVER GOAL 4-0

64' - Take a bow, Wayne Rooney! He was superb tonight and he comes off for Samir Nasri, who I drop into an AMC position, meaning we are now running a 4-4-1-1 Counter.

74' - Nasri makes his presence felt with a lovely ball up the left side to Andrea. He steams up field, cuts back to his stronger right foot and rips a curling blast that is JUST wide. Andrea is struggling a bit early in the season.

76' - Monaco striker Salomon Rondon gets a great opportunity in close but Wilke turns aside the blast. They've had very few chances so far.

77' - I bring in Mancini for Andrea Rocca.

84' - Arsene Bamba is substituted out for Cameron Murray. Let's hold them off the board.

88' - Mancini gets a yellow.

90'+1 - We send a long ball up field and Andrea wins a tackle against one of their defenders and walks in on a partial breakaway. He has time but elects to use his left foot and shoots harmlessly wide. He's pressing as he looks for his first Dover goal.

UnREAL!!!!!

AS Monaco FC 0 - 4 Dover
Goals - Claudio Contreras (8.7), Neil Cairney (8.5), Wayne Rooney (8.2), Gianluca Bolis (8.2)
Assists - Wayne Rooney, Shanon Andrea (7.8)
Man of the Match - Claudio Contreras
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.4), Salim Loucif (8.0), Rayane Hamon (7.6), Renato Gaucho (7.9), Andrea Rocca (7.2), Arsene Bamba (7.4)
Attendance - 26,455

Monaco held a lot of the ball in the second half and ended up with 55% of the overall possession. However, we outshoot them 23-9 (9-1 on target) and their fans are "left stupefied" according to the press "as their team slumped to a miserable defeat at the hands of Dover"! All eleven of our starters had ratings over 7.0 - just a shocking and sensational performance in our first ever continental game. Rooney has been incredible so far but I have to protect him, as his stamina is obviously an issue at 35 years of age.

-- In other Best Placed Playoff action, Sevilla and Bursaspor draw 2-2, CSKA Moscow and AZ battle to a scoreless draw as do Olympiakos and Leverkusen. Porto beat up on Napoli 3-1.



Dover Reserve Team Update

-- We play on Saturday, Tuesday, have a reserves game on Wednesday and are back to league play on Saturday. Rinse and repeat! We get humbled 4-1 by Arsenal's reserves as we go with a pretty weak lineup due to all of our games. Dennis Kunz scores our only goal. New GK signing Youssouf Sylla is really struggling and with the money he's making, I may have to make a quick decision to move him in January, as I don't know if I can rely on him much. Thankfully, Wilke should be able to play the majority of games for us.



-- I put home-grown DC Matthew Thompson on the transfer list. For whatever reason, he doesn't meet Champions League registration requirements despite being a 0-21 home grown player. Therefore, I have absolutely no use for him. I'll get rid of him for nothing if I have to. Hopefully I can find a taker. Indeed, a day later, I get an offer for £100,000 plus clauses from Inverness CT and I immediately accept.



Transfer Rumours

-- Wow, those big spenders at Sampdoria! They just spent £43.5 million on Saul Rosas (that deal obviously went through) and now there's a rumour floating around that they are going to offer me over £13 million for my 19 year old backup DC Abdallaye Kokaina - my God. He's gone if that offer comes through…

-- Everton also may take advantage of a £5,000,000 minimum release clause in Paulus Tjiuoro's contract. Tjiuoro will be my third choice DC this year and I'd prefer to keep him - 5 million isn't an awful lot so I may have to look into offering him a new deal and changing that clause.



Champions League Update

-- Our return match against AS Monaco next week will be televised, as Crabble Athletic Ground will be in homes all around Europe. I hope that means I get a bunch of Champions League TV money.



Next Up

-- The hectic schedule continues with a Premier League matchup in Liverpool.

[NoSkillz]

Sat. August 21, 2021

Barclays Premier League
Liverpool (0-1-0, 1 point, 9th) vs. Dover (1-0-0, 3 points, 5th)
Liverpool Stadium, Liverpool, UK

Betting Odds: Liverpool: 4-6 (Favourites) Draw: 9-4 Dover: 7-2
Past Meetings: 2W 2D 6L

Liverpool are obviously one of the biggest clubs in the world but we've played well against them lately, with 2 wins and 2 draws in our last four matchups. Prior to that, it was all Liverpool, as they won the first six matches against us. For the first time in well over 20 years, they aren't taking part in Continental play, as they finished 7th in the Premier League last year and lost out on a Europa League spot when Reading, who finished one position back of Liverpool in the BPL, won the FA Cup. Liverpool could only muster a draw against newly promoted Blackpool in their season opener. They were reasonably quiet in the transfer window, spending £7,750,000 on 25 year old French midfielder Axel Parisot, who was bought from Sheffield Wednesday. Their highest valued player is 23 year old DM Adam Hill, who was picked up from Tottenham in 2020 but hasn't played up to his transfer fee.

I'm going to stick with the same tactic that dominated AS Monaco and go with a flat 4-4-2 counter attack. Claudio Contreras is serving the last of his three game domestic suspension for a foul committed last year so Paulus Tjiuoro is back in the lineup. Beyond that, we'll stick with the same lineup, with Shanon Andrea and Wayne Rooney starting up front.

Dover: 4-4-2 Counter
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, P. Tjiuoro, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, W. Rooney
Bench - J. Varga, J. Kuciak, Mancini, S. Spall, S. Nasri, K. Kalfas, P. Moses

Liverpool matches our formation and they have dangerous striker Piotr Parzyszek up front with Raymond de Winter - I think I was able to avoid Parzyszek in all of our matches last year. I tell the team they can win this game and pull aside Andrea ("I have faith") and Bolis ("pick up where you left off") for personal chats.

3' - Andrea gets hurt trying to make a tackle and needs treatment. He takes a fitness hit but will be able to shake it off.

13' - Andrea Rocca gets a yellow card.

23' - On a harmless looking play from well outside the area, Andrea takes a long, curling shot that Liverpool keeper Chris Dunn needs to dive full out to stop. Dunn is a pretty great keeper in this gaming world.

28' - We steal possession in our end and work a counter attack. Bamba dribbles toward the halfway line and sends a delicious through ball to Andrea. He takes it just inside Liverpool's side of half and dribbles up field. He has a defender coming in from the right and just as he approaches, Andrea sends a low, hard right footed shot that goes past Dunn and into the net! Andrea's first Dover goal! DOVER GOAL 1-0

34' - Andrea is at it again, as he dribbles toward the left sideline then makes a great cut back towards the penalty area. He sends a little pass into Bamba and he one times a blast that Dunn just gets a piece of to turn by the post. We do nothing with the corner.

They have a few chances from distance but nothing on target.

HALFTIME - Well, we're leading and taking advantage of all of our chances, as we're outshooting them 8-6 (4-0 on target). However, Liverpool are DOMINATING possession to the tune of 63%. I'm going to change to a control tactic to start the half and will go back to the counter as the game moves toward a conclusion if we're still holding a close lead. Rooney and Rocca both have half-time ratings of 6.0 and aren't playing well according to my assistant. I encourage the team to go out and perform better in the second half.

67' - Nothing much happening. No real chances. I take out Wayne Rooney and bring in young Paul Moses.

72' - Rocca gets hurt but he just takes a fitness hit. I take him out anyway and bring in Mancini. We move back to a counter attacking mentality.

81' - There is nothing happening in this game, which is okay with a 1-0 lead I guess! Cairney now is injured and needs treatment but he can shake it off.

88' - We work a counter attack and Andrea sends the ball up to Moses. He turns on the burners and is dashing all alone down the left sideline but instead of working toward goal, he hesitates long enough for a tracking defender to tackle the ball away. Moses is only 17 and looks a bit out of his element, despite his prodigious talent. Again, I'm glad I'm going slow with him right now.

We close it out. Boring game but it's a win away against Liverpool!

Liverpool 0 - 1 Dover
Goals - Shanon Andrea (7.7)
Assists - Arsene Bamba (7.8)
Man of the Match - Arsene Bamba
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.5), Paulus Tjiuoro (7.3), Renato Gaucho (7.1), Neil Cairney (7.4)
Attendance - 59,756

We did better with possession in the second half but still only held 45% of the ball during the match. We outshot them 13-10 (6-1 on target) and their only shot on target was a weak header. A dominating defensive performance with no real Liverpool highlights.

-- Fulham SHOCKED United 3-2 in other action. City squeaked by Derby 1-0 and Arsenal beat Chelsea.



Dover U18 Team Update

-- Our U18s beat Woking 3-0 behind striker Eddie Robinson's two goals. DC Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz scored the other goal.



Injury Update

-- Our two top strikers are both still out with injuries. Giorgos Gesios is about two weeks from returning to full training as he heals from his fractured ribs while Zoltan Bardi is months away from a return due to his torn hammy.



-- DC Matthew Thompson rejects the overtures of Inverness CT due to a poor salary offer. Damn. I don't need him here and will keep trying to find a taker. I lower my demands by a bit and funny enough, it's Inverness again coming with an offer. Good luck getting him to sign with you!



Next Up

-- We host AS Monaco FC in the second leg of the Champions League Best Placed Playoff, where we have a commanding four goal cushion after our huge away win two weeks ago.

[NoSkillz]

Wed. August 25, 2021

UEFA Champions League - Best Placed Playoff (Leg 2)
Dover (4) vs. AS Monaco FC (0)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: 13-8 Draw: 2-1 AS Monaco FC: 6-4 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 1W 0D 0L

Well, we could lose by three and still advance. Not much else to say. I get word that they are missing a few key players due to injury so we're definitely catching them at the right time. We're the slightest of underdogs in this matchup.

I will go with the exact same lineup as the one we fielded at their pitch two weeks ago and with a four goal lead, there's no reason to move away from the counter attacking mentality that we used that match as well. Ideally, I'd like to take out a few of our key players later in the match to get them some rest for our upcoming league fixtures. I contemplated starting Paul Moses up front but I'm worried that "the moment" might be too big for him right now. I'll likely give him a start on the weekend.

Dover: 4-4-2 Counter
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, W. Rooney
Bench - Y. Sylla, P. Tjiuoro, Mancini, S. Nasri, C. Murray, K. Kalfas, P. Moses

Monaco come out in their 4-2-3-1 again. I only have three pre-game team talk options: "Wish Luck", "Don't be complacent IE: It's not over Yet" or "I expect a win". I don't like the negative tone of the first two so I go with telling them I want a win. I'd rather be positive. Lets see how it goes against a team favoured over us.

5' - Bolis gets a low cross into the box from the right sideline that evades a bunch of players and meets the foot of Arsene Bamba. His hard shot is right at their keeper Joris Delle, a different guy from last game I see...

6' - Salim Loucif causes a turnover and gets the ball up to Rooney. He sends a great through ball to a streaking Andrea but his shot from in close is turned behind the net. That was a great chance. We maintain possession after the corner is cleared and Andrea Rocca gets a chance in close but has to use his weaker right foot and Delle is barely able to make the save. A good start for us.

12' - Our counter mentality seems to cause a lot of turnovers and we get another one that sees Gianluca Bolis cutting into goal but his poor angle shot is blocked aside by Delle.

16' - We clear a AS Monaco corner and work a counter attack. Bamba storms down the left side with the ball and attempts to cross the ball in but it hits the right fullback and deflects toward the near post. Somehow, Gianluca Bolis runs all the way over from his right wing spot to beat the keeper to the ball and from the worst angle imaginable, pivots and hits the ball with his left foot into the goal. Fantastic! DOVER GOAL 1-0 (5-0)

20' - We continue to counter attack to perfection. Bolis gets the ball down the right and sends a ball back into the middle to Cairney. From at least 15 yards outside the area, he sends a rocket that hits the crossbar and deflects out of play.

22' - They have a throw in down the left and work the ball up to their striker Salomon Rondon. He is at the edge of the area and with his back to the goal, turns and fires a shot that Wilke dives, gets a piece of but it deflects off the crossbar, hits Wilke's in the back and deflects back into the net. Ugly and it's a Wilke own goal. AS MONACO GOAL 1-1 (5-1)

31' - We're getting a bit sloppy here, as they work a lovely through ball into Rondon, forcing Wilke to charge out and make the splendid save.

42' - We get a free kick down the right side from well outside the area and Rocca lines up for the boot. We have all of our players in the box ready to receive the cross and it comes in toward goal. It's one of those 50-50 balls that the keeper doesn't show enough bravery on and he just sticks his hands up in the air. The ball pops off his chest and right to the charging Wayne Rooney and he immediately volleys it into the back of the net. Big goal Rooney! DOVER GOAL 2-1 (6-1)

HALFTIME - This tactic doesn't do much for my possession stats, that's for sure but we keep winning with it. We only hold 38% of the possession in the half but outshoot them 9-9 (6-1 on target). The tactic creates great counter attacking chances. We'll stick with what works and I'll look to use all of our substitutes as we move forward in the second half to save some players for Saturday's league game. I can't believe I'm saying that in a Champions League game but we're up five goals and I'm pretty sure we can hang on even if we put me into the game

51' - Monaco gets what they needed…a quick goal to start the half. A cross comes in from the left side and their captain and star player Danilo outjumps Renato Gaucho, something that's hard to do, and heads it off Wilke and into the net. AS MONACO GOAL 2-2 (6-2)

53' - We have possession right after and Loucif works the ball up to Rooney. He sends a great ball through to Andrea and he's got a mini breakaway. He gets inside the area and strikes a hard shot into the near side of the goal for the instant reply! Tremendous! DOVER GOAL 3-2 (7-2)

56' - We're lucky to avoid giving up another on a Monaco corner and it's Danilo again with a clever header that Wilke dives to save but gives up a huge rebound. Two of our defenders and one of their attackers go for the ball and it is booted into the side netting by Renato Gaucho. Gosh, it looked as if he kicked it into our net but the ref signals for another corner. Whew.

I notice on our motivation screen that Claudio Contreras is being blamed for Danilo's last goal. He was there with Renato Gaucho but didn't jump and I guess the game feels he could have made a play on that ball. He currently has a 5.7 rating.

62' - Time to start resting some players. The excellent Rooney comes out and Paul Moses is in.

64' - We work another counter and Bolis dribbles down the right side. We have a numbers advantage and he sends a low cross into Andrea. He gets the ball and is tackled by Monaco defender Sebastian Romagnoli, a guy I looked at buying last year. A clear penalty and the referee points to the spot! Romagnoli gets a yellow card and it's Neil Cairney stepping up to take the kick. He makes no mistake, blasting it low into the left side of the net! DOVER GOAL 4-2 (8-2)

70' - No need for injuries so I take out both Andrea Rocca and Neil Cairney. Samir Nasri and Kostas Kalfas come in. This is Kalfas' first appearance for Dover.

73' - Their midfielder Bahrudin Atajic has the ball near midfield and slowly works toward our area. From about 20 yards out, he strikes a howitzer that curls past a diving Wilke and into the top corner. "A cracking strike" says the announcer and indeed it was a beauty. Enjoy the consolation goal fellas! AS MONACO GOAL 4-3 (8-3)

Nothing much of note the rest of the way. We're on to the Group Stage!!!

Dover 4 (8) - (3) 3 AS Monaco FC
Goals - Gianluca Bolis (8.3), Wayne Rooney (8.0), Shanon Andrea (8.3), Neil Cairney (7.1)
Assists - Shanon Andrea 2, Andrea Rocca (7.7), Wayne Rooney
Man of the Match - Gianluca Bolis
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.5), Arsene Bamba (7.1), Claudio Contreras (5.5)
Attendance - 14,805 (Sell-Out)

We only held 42% of possession and shots were in our favour 16-16 (8-5 on target). Huge games from our strikers, with Andrea getting three points and Rooney two. Contreras gets a poor rating after being blamed for a goal but Wilke gets a fine 7.5 despite an own goal. A tremendous win for our club and we reach the group stage of the Champions League!

-- We are given a whopping £6,174,000 just for reaching the group stage. Yowzers!!!

-- We also set a team gate receipts record, taking in £425,000 for the match, shattering our previous high of £375,000 that was set against Huddersfield last year in a sixth round FA Cup tie.



International Duty

-- Two players are called up for international duty: Salim Loucif gets the call for Algeria and Youssouf Sylla for Ivory Coast. No call for Arsene Bamba, unfortunately, as he's still looking for his first international cap.



Champions League - Group Draw

-- Ok here we go! I figured we might get a third seed but to my dismay we are a fourth seed, obviously due to our lack of past continental experience and our low coefficient. Here are the seeds:

1st Seeds:
Manchester United (ENG)
Manchester City (ENG)
FC Bayern (GER)
Atletico Madrid (ESP)
Sevilla (ESP)
Olympique de Marseille (FRA)
Barcelona (ESP)
Olympique Lyonnais (FRA)

2nd Seeds
Sampdoria (ITA)
Galatasaray (TUR)
Palermo (ITA)
HSV (GER)
Zaragoza (ESP)
Schalke (GER)
Chelsea (ENG)
Rangers (SCO)

3rd Seeds
Benfica (POR)
Porto (POR)
CSKA Moscow (RUS)
Shakhtar (UKR)
Besiktas (TUR)
Leverkusen (GER)
Anderlecht (BEL)
Ajax (NED)

4th Seeds
Panathinaikos (GRE)
Spartak Moscow (RUS)
Dover (ENG)
Partizan (SRB)
AaB (DEN)
FK Austria Wien (AUT)
Litex (BUL)
H. Tel-Aviv (ISR)

So we'll have a tough road but I should note that the team I just destroyed, AS Monaco FC, would have been a #1 seed had they got past us due to their coefficient. So if we can beat them, perhaps we can beat anybody. I've listed the teams above in order based on their coefficient so we have the sixth lowest number left in the competition.

If you go by coefficients, we did okay but all of the groups look daunting. We're drawn in Group F and here are the groupings:

GROUP A
Atletico Madrid
Chelsea
Shakhtar
Spartak Moscow

GROUP B
Manchester United
Palermo
Ajax
H. Tel-Aviv

GROUP C
FC Bayern
Zaragoza
Porto
Partizan

GROUP D
OM
HSV
Besiktas
AaB

GROUP E
Manchester City
Rangers
Benfica
Panathinaikos

GROUP F
Barcelona
Schalke
CSKA Moscow
Dover

GROUP G
Olympique Lyonnais
Sampdoria
Leverkusen
FK Austria Wien

GROUP H
Sevilla
Galatasaray
Anderlecht
Litex

By coefficient, Barca was the second worst #1 seed, Schalke was the third worst #2 and Moscow was the 3rd best #3. I suppose we could have done a lot worse but Barcelona is the biggest club in the world in this game with a value of £963 million. Schalke is 23rd at £127 million and interestingly enough, CSKA Moscow is only valued at £34.5 million. We're way bigger than they are and our value has actually grown quite a bit already this year, with our club now at £68 million.



-- Once again, DC Matthew Thompson rejects a contract offer from Inverness CT. I can't get rid of this guy!


League Cup - 3rd Round Draw

-- Our name is drawn out of the hat first and we will host Norwich, who were just relegated from the Premier League back to the Championship this year. A decent draw. It's a pretty straight forward list of teams remaining, with only 3 teams not in the Premier League or the Championship. Not a year for upsets so far…



Premier League Play

-- We have a Sunday fixture coming up so we get to watch as twelve teams do battle on Saturday. Sunderland continue to roll, putting up another 5-0 win over Fulham, the same Fulham who upset United last week. Speaking of which, United beat up on Tottenham 4-0 to make amends, knocking Spurs out of the Premier League lead. Wolves beat Blackburn 1-0 in a battle between newly promoted teams and Liverpool continue to struggle, drawing against Middlesbrough.



Next Up

-- We welcome Reading into Crabble Athletic Ground in Sunday afternoon Premier League play.

[NoSkillz]

Sun. August 29, 2021

Barclays Premier League
Dover (2-0-0, 6 points, 3rd) vs. Reading (2-0-0, 6 points, 4th)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: 6-4 (Favourites) Draw: 2-1 Reading: 13-8
Past Meetings: 4W 1D 2L

It's a battle of early season unbeatens as we host Reading, the defending FA Cup champions. We've historically had some success against them but this is a very good team and we'll have to be on top of our game to secure a win. They STORMED through their first Europa League qualification round, beating Paralimni 7-0 and 4-0 to win 11-0 on aggregate. Yikes. They have two 1-0 wins in league play over Huddersfield and Blackburn. They stood pat in the transfer market, only bringing in a 25 year old fullback in on loan from Everton in Adrian Padureanu. They have a lot of attacking options in guys like Hani Megahed and Cees Duarte, who has two goals so far this season. Jay Rodriguez has 4 goals in his first five games. Martin Prochazka, a player we had here at Dover on loan last year, is getting regular first team action this year and has played well.

No changes whatsoever to my lineup. I considered giving young striker Paul Moses his first start but I think I'll hold off. I'll definitely give him a start in a reserves match to see what he does there. He's lacked confidence in highlights so far and honestly, why would I take out Shanon Andrea or Wayne Rooney right now when they're both playing so well. We'll go to a control mentality at home.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, W. Rooney
Bench - J. Kuciak, P. Tjiuoro, Mancini, S. Spall, C. Murray, K. Kalfas, P. Moses

Cees Duarte is on the bench and Jay Rodriguez isn't even dressed, as Reading start Megahed and James Hunter up front. Oh right…Hunter is good too. Lots of talent up front for these guys. They start in a 4-4-2 as well and I tell the team they can win this.

3' - Reading clear a Rocca corner and they work a counter attack up to Megahed. His speed is too much for Renato Gaucho and he's able to cut in on goal and get a hard shot off. Wilke makes the save and Renato Gaucho clears the ball to safety.

8' - Shanon Andrea heads a goal kick up field and Rooney, looking like he's 25 instead of 35, beats the defenders to the ball but shoots high over the net.

19' - Possession changes hands a couple of times off headers near midfield and their captain Adam Lallana gains control. Rayane Hamon closes him down but that allows Lallana to spring their midfielder James Gregan on a nice through ball. Gregan has a step on Claudio Contreras and he's able to pound one past Wilke and into the net. READING GOAL 0-1

24' - Reading have possession at midfield and the ball comes to Megahed. He cuts to the left toward Hamon, who is backing off then moves back to the right to gain space. Contreras is left behind and Megahed makes enough space to dribble into the area and fire a low blast into the left corner of the net. Two in the space of five minutes and we're in BIG trouble. READING GOAL 0-2

30' - We are pouring on pressure but keep taking shots from distance that get blocked. Salim Loucif has the ball near the right sidelines about half way in the Reading zone and he passes to Cairney in the middle. He sends a one touch pass up to Andrea, who has his back to the goal. He takes it, crosses over with Rooney and in doing so, makes enough space for himself to get into the area and hit a low blast into the near corner. We needed that goal! DOVER GOAL 1-2

33' - We win a corner and Rocca makes the cross into the far post. Contreras gets up and heads it toward goal and Andrea is there to deflect it away from the keeper and into the net. Two for Andrea in three minutes and we pull back from two down! Wow! DOVER GOAL 2-2

35' - Off the ensuing kickoff, Gregan gets it up to Megahed and he again abuses our defence. This time it's Hamon who gets bitch slapped, as Megahed turns past him and storms in on goal. Hamon is right there but doesn't even attempt to tackle the striker, as Megahed rounds Wilke and blasts it into the net. Megahed's second and this game is a shootout. READING GOAL 2-3

36' - This game is WILD. Off the kickoff, Rooney and Andrea work a give and go and Andrea just jets past the Reading defence, gets to the area and JUST shoots wide. Where is the defence on both sides???

39' - Just so wild. Bamba runs down the left and sends a cross that gets all the way through to Gianluca Bolis. He is working against the grain so to speak, as everyone is looking to the right while he's darting left but Antonio, the Reading keeper, makes the brilliant adjustment to stop Bolis' left foot shot.

40' - Antonio makes another point blank stop off a Bamba blast. So much offence in this game.

44' - We are working the ball around deep in their territory and Cairney sets it out wide left to Renato Gaucho. He heads toward the byline and sends in a low cross to the penalty spot and Gianluca Bolis, working in from his wide position on the right, slides baseball style at the ball and sends it into the net for the late equalizer! Epic match. DOVER GOAL 3-3

HALFTIME - This match is ridiculous. We simply can't handle Megahed's speed. We have 58% of possession and outshot them 12-8 (6-4 on target) but they are playing their counter attack well. I feel fortunate to be level right now. I decide to pull back and move to a counter attacking mentality to start the half. I tell the team I'm pleased with their efforts but pull aside my two beleaguered centre half backs Hamon and Contreras and tell them to go out there and prove a point.

50' - Bolis looks like a different player this year, much more consistent and he is making plays again, as he dribbles down the right and sends a high cross that Andrea heads to goal but Antonio is there to make the save.

53' - A really wild play ensues off a Reading free kick from around half. They send all their players in but the kicker and a guy right beside him. They go short but Gianluca Bolis closes him down right away and he freezes up. His pass deflects off Bolis right to Shanon Andrea and he has a breakaway down the entire half of the field. He cuts in and sends a blast to the far corner but Antonio makes a brilliant diving save to just push it wide of the post. Wow! They clear the corner to safety.

58' - Another Dover defensive breakdown sees Gregan dribbling in on a partial break but his shot is weak and right at Wilke.

60' - Oh our central defence is awful today. Contreras misses a tackle on Hunter and allows him to get into the area but his shot is woefully wide. I don't like using subs on DCs but I think it has to happen here.

62 - Contreras is out and Paulus Tjiuoro is in. That's two sub 6.0 performances in a row for our fine young defensive prospect.

67' - Bolis has the ball on the right sideline and sends it into Rooney, who has his back to the goal just outside the area. He turns to his left and sends a gorgeous ball through the defence where Arsene Bamba latches onto it. Bamba is one on one with the keeper and sends it into the far corner of the net. Bamba's first of the year on a stunning pass from Rooney and we have our first lead! DOVER GOAL 4-3

80' - We have a throw in deep in their territory down the left and Bamba sends it in to Renato Gaucho, who immediately touches it back to our winger. Bamba runs to the byline and sends a high cross into the area. Antonio and two of the Reading defenders are there but the positively INSPIRED Gianluca Bolis, all 5' 9" of him, rises above all three to head the ball forcefully into the net. Bolis, YOU STUD! His second of the game and we have an insurance marker! DOVER GOAL 5-3

83' - Rooney and Cairney are taken out and in their place come Paul Moses and Shaun Spall.

85' - Reading defender Mark O'Brien, who is a name I remember from Radii's Woking/Ipswich dynasty, makes a horrific pass at midfield right to Andrea Rocca. We immediately hit them on the counter, as Rocca sends the ball upfield and Andrea is storming down the field. The Dutch international gets there first, takes a look and pounds a shot into the right side of the net. HAT TRICK FOR ANDREA!!! What a game this is! DOVER GOAL 6-3

89' - My God Bolis is incredible right now. He just completely skins his opposite number and speeds down the right. He sends in a cross and Moses is there but from a very awkward angle, he sends it just wide into the side netting.

Deep breath...

Dover 6 - 3 Reading
Goals - Shanon Andrea 3 (9.6), Gianluca Bolis 2 (9.2), Arsene Bamba (8.4)
Assists - Andrea Rocca 2 (8.7), Renato Gaucho (7.1), Neil Cairney (7.5), Arsene Bamba, Wayne Rooney (7.7)
Man of the Match - Shanon Andrea
Other Dover Notables - Claudio Contreras (5.9)
Attendance - 14,805 (Sell-Out)

We held 53% of overall possession, giving up a bit by going to a counter attack but we scored three second half goals in the counter to win going away in a game we were down 2-0 in. Just a sensational fight back and we seem to be on a goal scoring roll right now. Andrea, simply put, has been sensational in the past few games and both he and Gianluca Bolis are up to five goals in our first five games. This was, without question, Bolis' best game in a Dover kit and he's really starting to show off that potential and he's obviously gaining some much needed consistency in his game. Rooney continues to delight at 35 years old and is up to 3 goals and 3 assists in five matches. What a game!

-- Sheffield Wednesday shock Arsenal at Emirates 2-1 while Everton and Villa battle to a scoreless draw. With our win and also due to Manchester City not having a match this weekend, we sit alone in first place in the league with 9 points. City has six with a game in hand.

-- We can finally take a breath, as we have almost two weeks to prepare for our next match after having two games per week all month.



International Duty

-- Fourteen of our players are called up for international duty. The most interesting name is Ross McLaughlin, our third-choice right fullback. This is his first senior team callup so we'll see if he can get his first cap. He did play seven times for the Scottish youth team.



-- Three of our players make the Barclays Premier League Team of the Week: Gianluca Bolis, Andrea Rocca and Shanon Andrea get the honours.


-- The Premier League transfer window closes and we can't get rid of Matthew Thompson. He'll head to our reserves and rot there.



September Update

-- With Premier League, Champions League and League Cup games coming up, September will be yet another busy month. Our senior team actually has a 13 day stretch between games, with our next match being a Premier League game away against Wolves on the 11th. From there, we head to Barcelona to take on Lionel Messi (yes, he's still around) and the largest club in the world in Champions League Group play. We're back home to host Southampton on the 18th in league play then three days later we host Norwich in the 3rd round of the League Cup. The 25th sees us face Aston Villa away and we finish the month with another Champions League match at home versus Schalke. So that's six games. Not too bad I guess…

-- We get positive training reports for Neil Cairney (awesome) and Steve Ingram (yawn). Ingram is a scrub home-grown player who won't see any senior team action. Negative reports come for veterans Samir Nasri and Wayne Rooney. Rooney has been sensational so far - I never envisioned him playing this much but injuries to our two top strikers have forced him into action. Giorgos Gesios has resumed light training so Rooney's time on the first team will soon be ending, although he's still our best deep-lying option at forward until Zoltan Bardi returns. I get positive training reports from the U18 team for Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz, Pete Smith and Carlos Guzman. Yilmaz and Guzman are top prospects so that's good to see. We get a negative training report for new GK signing Louis Read and I have a sit-down with him to get him in line.



Premier League Monthly Awards

-- Sunderland lead the league with 11 goals in only three games and Matt Barber, their fine midfielder, wins Player of the Month honours.

-- Dover's young left fullback Renato Gaucho is named as the Barclays Premier League Young Player of the Month!

- Carlo Ancelotti wins about his 100th Manager of the Month award for City's 2-0-0 start. We start 3-0-0 but I come in second. Whatever jerks!



September Board Confidence Update

-- The board are very pleased with my overall leadership of the team. Stature increase is still the major plus and Oliver Nicholas' departure the only slight disappointment.

-- We made a fine profit of £5.44 million last month, with all of it due to our Champions League prize money. My wage bill has never been higher - I'm under budget after tweaking things but we're WAY in the hole this year and for the first time in awhile, we'll be relying big time on prize money to keep us profitable.



Gesios is Back!

-- Giorgos Gesios, our star Greek International striker, returns after missing four weeks with fractured ribs. He will likely be ready for next week's game against Wolves, at least as a sub - he'll need to regain match fitness but it helps that he's currently with Greece on international duty. That will help…



Dover Reserve Team Update

-- We field a very thin lineup as half our squad is off on international duty but we defeat Derby 3-1. Aitor Zubizarreta scores two goals and gets an assist on Steve Ingram's goal as well to cap off an impressive performance. Mancini picked up two assists and was man of the match with a 9.0 rating.



International Round-Up

-- I'm delighted to see that GK Youssouf Sylla put in a good performance in a 3-0 Ivory Coast win over Cape Verde Islands in African Nations Qualfiying. Salim Loucif also performed well in the same competition, leading Algeria to a 1-0 win. Neil Cairney scored for Scotland in their 2-0 win over Belgium in World Cup qualifying. Ross McLaughlin didn't dress for Scotland and therefore, didn't earn his first cap.



Champions League Group Stage Registration

-- I have to leave five openings in my lineup due to not having the "correct" English trained players, as my guys are 0-21 trained players and the requirements are for the players to only be trained between the ages of 15-21. But at least I register a proper lineup this time.



Dover U18 Team Update

-- We move into week two of our little international break as our U18s win 2-0 over Havant and Waterlooville. Johnny Mardenborough and Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz scored the goals.



Dover Reserves Team Update

-- This might be worthy of it's own post but it's just a reserves game so I'll try to temper my excitement. Young on-loan striker Paul Moses has been very ordinary for the senior team so far in limited minutes off the bench and I finally had a chance to start him in a reserves game, as he just returned from England U19 international duty. Well - Moses SCORED SEVEN GOALS in our 8-1 win over Bolton. S E V E N G O A L S !!!!!!! I've never seen ANYTHING like this. I have to find money to sign this guy - I think he could be the next big thing.



Next Up

-- We are somehow underdogs as we head away from home to face recently promoted Wolves.

[Izulde]

Damn, you guys are on fire. That's awesome.

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Damn, you guys are on fire. That's awesome.

Thanks!

There's something different about the team this year and their comfort level with the tactics. I kid you not, it took until December last year before the team was 100% comfortable (according to the match preparation screen) in our two main tactics, the flat 4-4-2 control and the 4-2-3-1. Only then did we start training them to learn the flat 4-4-2 counter.

This year, maybe due to the fact that I added so few "first-team" players, we retained that tactical knowledge and went into preseason with a full understanding of the tactics. It seems to be making a big difference - this is the first time I'm really utilizing the counter attack strategy as a base formation and we're generating tons of great chances, albeit while giving up any thoughts of dominating possession. I'm hopeful I can parlay that tactic into wins against the bigger clubs that I've historically had trouble with, like United, City and the like.

[DukeRulesMAB]

Can you explain the difference between 0-21 and 15-21 guys? I gather than 15-21 guys are guys who spent between the ages of 15 and 21 training either for the team or in the country. But what is a 0-21 guy?

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by DukeRulesMAB

Can you explain the difference between 0-21 and 15-21 guys? I gather than 15-21 guys are guys who spent between the ages of 15 and 21 training either for the team or in the country. But what is a 0-21 guy?

The 0-21 guys are likely youth pulls that came directly from our own system (and likely were with us as youths) whereas the 15-21 guys, for the most part, were young 17 or 18 year olds I scooped up from another team's youth program that I held for three years to gain that "home grown" 15-21 status

Now, if you're asking what the difference between the two classifications is in-game, I don't have an answer for you. I have no idea why the game won't count any of my "0-21" players as being home grown and only will count the 15-21 guys. It makes absolutely no sense to me.

[Barkeep49]

I believe the confusion is "Players of the age 20 or younger who have been at the club for 2 years do not have to be registered"

That's from FM13 but I am guessing rules are similar in 14. Basically you don't get HG credit for some players because you're able to register them fir free.

[NoSkillz]

Sat. September 11, 2021

Barclays Premier League
Wolves (1-0-2, 3 points, 14th) vs. Dover (3-0-0, 9 points, 1st)
Molineaux, Wolverhampton, UK

Betting Odds: Wolves: 6-4 (Favourites) Draw: 2-1 Dover: 13-8
Past Meetings: 4W 0D 1L

I'm quite shocked that we're underdogs to recently promoted Wolves - hopefully our lads can use that as motivation. I guess the bookmakers feel our thoughts will be on our Champions League group match coming up later this week in Spain against powerhouse Barcelona.

Wolverhampton spent one year in the Championship last year but dominated the league, notching 95 points to win and get the auto promotion right away. Prior to that, they had spent 11 consecutive years in the Premier League so I'm sure they're hoping last year was just a blip on the radar and that they're back to stay. They beat another promoted club in Blackburn last week to escape the basement and reach 14th on the table. They were actually quite active in the transfer market, spending over £13 million, with half of it on Huddersfield striker Stefano Zeno, a 24 year old Italian. He's still looking for his first goal. They also picked up DC Tom Thorpe from Sheffield Wednesday, a club that was extremely active in July transforming their club. Thorpe hasn't played yet despite the hefty price tag and isn't match fit according to my assistant.

We've had a 13 day break so everyone is pretty fit. Giorgos Gesios is the obvious exception, having just returned from his broken ribs. I'll have him on the bench today and will definitely get him in the game at some point in the second half. No changes to our starting eleven and we'll maintain a control mentality to start.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, W. Rooney
Bench - J. Kuciak, P. Tjiuoro, Mancini, S. Spall, C. Murray, K. Kalfas, G. Gesios

Wolves come out in a very defensive formation, a 4-2-2-2, with 2 DMCs, two wide midfielders and two up top. Zeno and Thorpe are both on the bench today for Wolves and not in the starting lineup. I tell the team they can win this game and pull aside young Claudio Contreras to tell him I have faith in his abilities - he's struggled quite a bit in our last two games.

17' - Not much happening other than a few shots from distance for both clubs but Wolves seem to be controlling possession. They have a corner and the ball is headed forcefully toward goal but Wilke dives and makes a splendid save. Not a great start for us against inferior opposition.

35' - Nothing still going on. Andrea gets a yellow card for taking down one of their defenders on a challenge.

36' - We finally get a chance, as Rocca sends a great ball upfield over the Wolves defenders and it's Andrea in on a full breakaway. He shoots low to the far corner and it's wide by a whisker! "He should have scored" shouts the commentator.

37' - Their right midfielder Sambou Yatabare gets a good shot off from inside the area that's turned aside by WIlke.

HALFTIME - An uninspired half of football from us. Wolves have 53% of possession and outshoot us 4-4 (2-0 on target). We're generating nothing right now and I switch to a 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) and tell the team that if they aren't going to play for each other, at least do something for the travelling supporters.

57' - We work a counter attack off a missed Wolves corner and Rooney sends the ball long up the left side to Andrea. He cuts in towards goal and sends a hard low blast into the side netting. Still no shots on target for us.

64' - Such a sorry performance so far. I take out both Andrea and Rooney and bring in Giorgos Gesios and Shaun Spall. Gesios is alone up front, Rocca moves into an attacking spot right behind him and Spall will take over Rocca's spot in midfield.

73' - We get a free kick just outside the top of the area and Rocca lays off a pass to the right to Bolis. He gets a strong shot away but it hits forcefully off the post and deflects all the way to the sidelines. Ugh.

74' - Contreras has a 6.1 rating, his third terrible performance in a row so I pull him and bring in Paulus Tjiuoro. We move to an attacking mentality. Still no shots on goal for us.

84' - There's some back and forth play at midfield and we end up gaining control and springing a long ball down the field. Arsene Bamba is first there and he has the goal at his mercy, as Hennessey, the Wolves keeper, is taking a poor angle on the shooter. Bamba SHOOTS WAY OVER. You gotta be kidding me.

85' - We're finally pushing the tempo and we get two great chances from in tight, as Cairney sends a ball off the keeper that deflects off the post and out and then another chance is tackled away and behind the goal.

From scoring at will to getting one shot on target. Dreadful display.

Wolves 0 - 0 Dover
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Salim Loucif (7.5)
Other Dover Notables - Rayane Hamon (7.3), Neil Cairney (7.3)
Attendance - 27,470

Wolves held 53% of the possession through the game and shots were 10-8 (1-2) for our club. One single shot on goal. I tell the team I'm disappointed in their effort.

-- Arsenal are able to battle to a 1-1 draw against City at Man City Stadium, Huddersfield win 1-0 away against Villa to move one point behind us. Unted win 3-2 away at Sheffield Wednesday.



Champions League Odds

-- Our first opponent, Barcelona, are the 3-1 favourites to win the Champions League this year. United are given 4-1, City 5-1, Atletico Madrid 9-1, Sampdoria and FC Bayern are 10-1. We're given 33-1 odds…not bad but that puts us among the weakest teams in the competition.



Dover U18 Update

-- Our kids pull out a 1-1 draw against Brighton. Our only tally is an own-goal by Brighton's Robert Furlong but young fullback Carlos Guzman is man of the match. Star in the making Emmerson Harvey suffered a broken jaw and will miss a month of action.



-- I rarely send out praise in the media but Champions League group play seems like a good opportunity to feed the press a bone, as I talk about my opposite number, Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard and say how proud their supporters must be of their team's leader. That earns me some praise right back, as Rijkaard says Dover is lucky to have me leading the club.



Champions League Group Play

-- There are eight matches on Tuesday night in Champions League play. In Group A, Atletico Madrid smoke Spartak Moscow 4-0 and Chelsea beat up on Shakhtar 4-1. In Group B, Ajax wins 3-0 over H. Tel-Aviv and Palermo upset Manchester United 2-0 at home. Group C sees FC Bayern destroy Partizan 5-0 and Porto wins 2-0 away at Zaragoza. Finally, Group D sees Besiktas win 3-2 over AaB and OM knock off HSV 2-0.



Next Up

-- We will be on the BIG STAGE, as we head to Spain to take on the largest club in the world, FC Barcelona! Close to 100,000 fans will be in attendance!

[NoSkillz]

Wed. September 15, 2021

Champions League - Group Play
Barcelona (0-0-0, 0 points, -) vs. Dover (0-0-0, 0 points, -)
Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain

Betting Odds: Barcelona: 1-2 (Favourites) Draw: 13-5 Dover: 9-2
Past Meetings: 0W 0D 0L

We are huge underdogs against powerful Barcelona. This is a massive club, the biggest in the world by value at £943 million and I hope we aren't overwhelmed playing in their 98,000 seat stadium at Camp Nou. Interestingly enough, Barcelona hasn't won their league since 2015, finishing runners up three times during that drought. They last won the Champions League in 2012 and have won the competition four times (1992, 2006, 2009, 2012). They are LOADED with talent everywhere and have ten players valued at over £10 million and five over £20 million. They spent an astonishing £48 million in the offseason on German midfielder Tim Stark from Juventus, who looks to be a lesser player than our own Neil Cairney on first glance. Their most dangerous player is striker Pascal Reinhardt, who has three goals in four games already this season. Midfielder Enzo Zidane, son of famed Zinedine Zidane, is another star on the club and 34 year old Lionel Messi is playing out his career in a backup role at Barcelona. He hasn't played a game yet this season and I doubt he'll come in for a Champions League contest but you never know I guess. He only played 14 total games last year and did get five games of continental action.

We'll be playing a counter attacking flat 4-4-2 today and hope to keep the scoreline tight. I have no thoughts of pulling an upset against such a powerful side but I'm hopeful we can show some skill and express ourselves well under the world-wide spotlight. Paulus Tjiuoro will replace the disappointing thus far Claudio Contreras, otherwise we'll go with the team that has played the majority of minutes this year. Young Paul Moses will go on the bench in place of Giorgos Gesios, as our Greek striker is still trying to get fully fit.

Dover: 4-4-2 Counter
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, P. Tjiuoro, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, W. Rooney
Bench - J. Kuciak, C. Contreras, Mancini, S. Spall, S. Nasri, K. Kalfas, P. Moses

Barcelona come out in a 4-2-3-1 (4-4-2 DM) formation, with Anthony Derouard up front and Pascal Reinhardt in midfield. Messi is on the bench today, Zidane is lying just behind Derouard and Tim Stark is beside Reinhardt. I tell the team that the pressure is off and pull aside Andrea, Rooney and Bamba and tell them each that I have faith in their abilities.

5' - We get the first chance off a corner and it's Tjiuoro sending a header to the far side, forcing Barcelona keeper Marc Cremades to make a great diving save.

6' - Pascal Reinhardt starts a play up the field and it's Derouard getting a chance in close that forces Wilke to push the ball over the bar.

14' - Reinhardt is making an impression early. He runs up the middle of the field and from distance, sends a curling rocket to the far corner but Wilke dives again to make the great stop.

17' - NO! We work the ball up field in glorious fashion and it's Cairney springing Shanon Andrea. He's in all alone and beats Cremades but not the goalpost, as it deflects back out and is cleared to safety by Barcelona's defence. What a great chance!!

22' - We have a free kick from way out and Rocca's long ball is headed just over the net by Cairney.

24' - Another great chance! Off a throw in, Cairney delivers a touch pass through the defence to Bolis but he's on his weaker left foot and his shot is easily stopped by Cremades. We're doing great so far!

37' - Now it's Rooney getting off a blast from the corner of the area, forcing Cremades to make a tough stop.

HALFTIME - Well, the stats don't necessarily look pretty but the scoreline is more than acceptable. Barcelona are controlling 62% of possession and outshooting us 12-6 (2-4 on target). We have two clear cut chances denied to their zero so our counter attacking mentality is doing just fine. I tell the team I'm pleased thus far and make no changes going into the second half. Lets see if we can get one more big chance and put it away.

Barcelona come out in a 5-2-1-2 formation to start the second half and Pascal Reinhardt is now at forward.

47' - It's Reinhardt cutting through the defence and taking a shot that beats Wilke but thankfully not the post in a play reminiscent of Andrea's earlier in the game. We clear to safety behind the net.

61' - Barcelona work a SCARY counter attack up field with brutal speed and precision and it's Reinhardt getting free at the top of the area and sending a low blast to the far corner but Wilke again is there, diving full out to deflect the ball to safety! Off the ensuing throw in, Reinhardt gets it again and from well out, he sends a curling shot that hits the cross bar and deflects out! Holy smokes - that guy is awesome!

62' - One minute later, we get another glorious chance, as Cairney sends a ball through the defence and Rooney is onside! He's going in all alone and shoots OVER. Oh my.

66' - I take out Rooney and bring in young Paul Moses. Hopefully his speed up front with Andrea can cause issues late in the game.

67' - Is this it!? We work the ball into the area with Bolis sending it to Cairney. He delivers a little touch pass into the box and it's Bamba who gets there and sends it into the net!!! We celebrate but the assistant has his arm up - NO GOAL?!?! The replay looks as if Bamba got back onside. Dismal decision by the referee!

75' - My assistant says that Bolis is playing "nervously" so I take him out and bring in Kostas Kalfas

77' - Renato Gaucho almost gets yellow carded but instead just a stern talking to. Barcelona have a free kick just outside the box and the cross comes into Reinhardt and his header is at goal but Loucif clears it off the line to safety. Wow - great play Loucif!

80' - My goodness, Reinhardt hits his third post of the match on a shot from WAY out.

82' - Salim Loucif takes down Reinhardt and gets a yellow card.

83' - There looks to be a lot of diving going on right now, as now Bamba goes down like he's shot and their right fullback Vargas gets a yellow. On the resulting free kick from our zone, Renato Gaucho sends a long ball up field to Moses. He cuts to his stronger foot and from the top of the area, he gets a weak effort that is easily handled by Cremades.

90'+1 - Three minutes of extra time so I try to waste some of it. Samir Nasri is on for Andrea Rocca.

And that's it! We get a hard-earned draw away at Barcelona!

Barcelona 0 - 0 Dover
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Sime Vrsaljko (Barcelona DR - 7.4)
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.2), Salim Loucif (7.1), Renato Gaucho (7.2), Neil Cairney (7.1), Shanon Andrea (7.1)
Attendance - 89,094

We really did well in the second half with possession against their 5-2-1-2 formation and in the end, Barcelona only had a 54-46% possession advantage. They outshot us 22-11 (4-5 on target) but we outchanced them 3-1 in the game. That disallowed goal was a killer for us and I was asked about it in the post-match presser but declined comment for fear that the FA would reprimand me. An inspired performance in hostile territory!

-- In other Champions League play tonight, in Group E, Benfica beat Panathinaikos 3-0 while City stormed by Rangers 6-1. In the other Group F match, Schalke beat CSKA Moscow 1-0. In Group G, the big upset was FK Austria Wien beating Sampdoria 1-0 while Leverkusen beat Olympique Lyonnais, 2-0. In Group H, Litex battled to a scoreless draw against Anderlecht while Galatasaray beat Sevilla 1-0 away.

-- We are given £348,000 for the draw. Not too shabby!



-- In the prematch buildup towards our weekend Premier League tilt against newly promoted Southampton, their boss Nigel Adkins comes out in the press and says that we are one of the title favourites and he'd be surprised if we weren't near the top by the end of the season. Nice to see our opponents are giving us that type of praise!



Next Up

-- We host Southampton in Barclays Premier League play

[NoSkillz]

Sat. September 18, 2021

Barclays Premier League
Dover (3-1-0, 10 points, 1st) vs. Southampton (0-2-2, 2 points, 19th)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: Evens (Favourites) Draw: 11-5 Southampton: 11-5
Past Meetings: 1W 1D 1L

We face a second newly promoted team in Southampton and one that has two draws out of their first four games back in the Premier League. They had a wonderful year last season, finishing in 2nd in the Championship to gain the automatic promotion to the Premier League AND they were runners up in the League Cup. Not too bad. They spent four years in the Championship after being relegated in 2017 and we have an even 1-1-1 record lifetime against them. They were relatively quiet in the buildup to the season, paying £4.5 million for Aston Villa midfielder Nathan Redmond and £1.5 million on 22 year old striker Thomas Eriksen from Fulham. Another striker, Mike Hall, looks to be their danger man and has two goals in four games thus far. He scored 20 goals for Southampton in the Championship last year. Their highest valued player is another striker, Latvian international Mihails Fjodorovs but he's recovering from a broken ankle and will be out for close to two months.

We will field as strong a team as possible today and will likely go to our backups in a midweek League Cup tie against Norwich. Renato Gaucho and Claudio Contreras are both away on international duty with their respective country's U20 teams so Jozef Varga will see his first league action of the year and Paulus Tjiuoro will stay in the lineup. Giorgos Gesios, despite being unfit, will start up front in a deep lying role (unusual for him) and Shanon Andrea will maintain the advanced forward role. Wayne Rooney will take a spot on the bench for the first time this season so Salim Loucif will wear the captain's armband for the first time in his career. Hopefully the team responds favourably. We'll go with a control mentality today.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - J. Varga, P. Tjiuoro, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, G. Gesios
Bench - J. Kuciak, Mancini, S. Spall, C. Murray, K. Kalfas, W. Rooney, P. Moses

Southampton match our formation and I like our chances here. I tell the team I expect a win today and pull aside Gesios and Loucif (first time as captain) to say I have faith in their abilities.

4' - We're holding possession early and off a botched corner, Cairney sends the ball back to the right to Rocca and he sends a hard shot toward goal that is turned behind the net by John Ruddy, their keeper. We threaten off the ensuing corner but can't get a shot on target.

10' - Southampton are playing a very tight formation and it's proving hard to break down early. We get a great chance when Bolis sends a ball into the middle to Gesios and he shoots just wide from just inside the area.

18' - It's Gesios again, taking advantage of lovely ball movement from Cairney and his hard rocket from the outside of the area is saved by a sprawling Ruddy and turned behind the net. We get a corner and Rocca's cross is headed towards goal by Tjiuoro and there's a fight for the ball, one that is won by Shanon Andrea and he pounds it home from in close! Our first goal in over two games! DOVER GOAL 1-0

31' - Bolis and Gesios work a give and go and Bolis gets a hard blast away that is saved by Ruddy. Gesios almost gets to the rebound but it's cleared to safety by Southampton's D.

33' - Bamba hesitates on the ball in midfield and is tackled, allowing Southampton to counter. They get the ball up to Mike Hall but Wilke makes a great save on a point blank effort and we clear the rebound to the sidelines just before his strike partner Spilar is able to pound it home.

43' - Off a Southampton goal kick. we head up to Andrea and he sends a through ball up to Gesios. He's got a defender all over him and shoots just wide again. He's come close a number of times in his first start of the year but is obviously still rusty after the month-long layoff.

45' - Andrea makes a world-class run from the halfway line, roaming through five defenders and getting into the area before blasting a low shot just wide. That would have been a sensational goal.

HALFTIME - We're dominating this contest but only have a one goal lead to show for it. We held 62% of possession and have an outrageous 20-4 (4-1 on target) shot advantage. I elect to encourage the team at half time and once again pull aside Gesios and now Varga to say I have faith in them.

50' - Off a corner, Cairney gets the ball outside the area and sends it into a retreating Rayane Hamon. He left foots the ball just across the goalmouth and it just misses. That would have been Hamon's first goal of the season.

54' - Jozef Varga takes down their man and it's a free kick from near the right sideline. Nathan Redmond takes it and sends a cross into the box and striker Mike Hall gets above everyone and heads it forcefully into the net past Wilke. Oh boy…their first chance goes in and we're level. SOUTHAMPTON GOAL 1-1

They immediately pull back into a 4-1-4-1 with a DMC. They will try to shut up shop this early?

66' - I take out the ineffective Gesios and bring in Wayne Rooney. We switch to an attacking mentality.

76' - OH MY GOD. We get a three man breakaway…I still don't know how it happened but Gianluca Bolis is streaking in and shoots WIDE. COME ON GUYS!

They are really slowing down play here.

89' - Nothing happening. We never can get anything going with an attacking mentality it seems. Arsene Bamba gets a yellow after taking down his opposite number.

TERRIBLE.

Dover 1 - 1 Southampton
Goals - Shanon Andrea (7.4)
Assists -
Man of the Match - Shanon Andrea
Other Dover Notables - Rayane Hamon (7.2), Paulus Tjiuoro (7.0)
Attendance - 14,773

We held 57% of overall possession and outshoot them 27-7 (5-2 on target). This has to be "continental hangover", right? I tell the team they weren't good enough today and storm out of the room. This is one of those games we NEED to win and hopefully we don't regret giving up these points later in the season.

-- Sheffield Wednesday help us out and draw City 1-1 in Manchester, a shock result. United beat up on Sunderland 3-0 away and are now right behind us on the table. We somehow maintain our hold on first place.



-- So, I made a big mistake in accidentally dropping young Paul Moses to the reserves last week - you can simply just place him on the reserves team or you can keep him on the first team and just send him down for a game and I did the former, as opposed to the latter. He's upset and I try to address his concerns, saying he's being promoted back to the first team immediately. He gives me crap about it, I say he's being unprofessional and he storms out. Sigh…now he wants to leave the club and feels "alienated". My god it's amazing how one little screwup can blow up in your face and this doesn't look good for me. I really want to sign this kid from United but I have a tough road ahead trying to get him back on my side. I'll be starting him in our next game, his first official start for the senior team, as we face Norwich in the League Cup.



Next Up

-- We enter the League Cup in the third round, hosting Championship side Norwich City

[NoSkillz]

Tue. September 21, 2021

League Cup - 3rd Round
Dover vs. Norwich
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: 4-5 (Favourites) Draw: N/A Norwich: 3-1
Past Meetings: 5W 1D 1L

Norwich dropped down to the Championship this year and are likely contenders to promote back up this year. We've had our way with them historically and had a few big victories against them. Their top player is still striker Paul Bryce and we'll have to be careful with him.

We will field a complete backup team today and utilize a 4-4-2 DM formation, with only one striker up front. I'll start unhappy Paul Moses for his first ever senior team start and his good buddy Wayne Rooney will start right behind him in an attacking midfielder slot. Goalkeeper Youssouf Sylla, MC Shaun Spall, MR Kostas Kalfas and DC Abdallaye Kokaina all get their first Dover starts as well. We'll have Giorgos Gesios, Andrea Rocca and Neil Cairney on the bench should we need them. Renato Gaucho will start too, as he was away on international duty in our last game.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM Control (4-2-3-1)
GK - Y. Sylla
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, A. Kokaina, J. Kuciak
M - Mancini, S. Spall
AM - C. Murray, W. Rooney, K. Kalfas
S - P. Moses
Bench - J. Varga, R. McLaughlin, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, A. Zubizarreta, S. Nasri, G. Gesios

Norwich are in a flat 4-4-2 to start. I tell the team I expect a victory tonight.

3 - We get the first chance, as Paul Moses sends a pass to the top of the area and Shaun Spall sends a hard shot at goal. It's turned aside by Tommy Devlin, their keeper and Moses jumps on the rebound and shoots wide.

20' - Norwich has the ball in our end and midfielder Liam Palmer sends a ball past our defence and into striker Garry White. He rounds Sylla and puts the ball into the net. Shocking. NORWICH GOAL 0-1

27' - Cameron Murray storms down field on a partial break and has Moses in the middle but shoots instead, right at Devlin who pushes it aside.

42' - We work a counter attack up to Murray. He is running down the left side and passes back to Renato Gaucho and the Brazilian sends a high cross into the box. Kostas Kalfas is there and at 6' 4", he rises above the defender and heads it into goal! A goal in his first Dover start! DOVER GOAL 1-1

HALFTIME - In a way, I didn't want that goal because I wanted to really tear into the team but instead I have to take a measured approach. We have 54% of possession and a 10-4 (5-1 on target) shot advantage. Paul Moses gets a 6.1 half time rating as he's still obviously pissed at me and Youssouf Sylla continues to struggle anytime he's in goal and has a 5.8 rating after being blamed for their goal. My assistant says that Moses is struggling to find motivation to play because of his issues with me. Great. Boy have I FUCKED this up. I tell Moses to go out and prove his point on the field and tell the rest of the team that they are outplaying them everywhere.

52' - Murray is seemingly playing well and gets through the defence before sending a shot that Devlin dives to save.

53' - Rooney sends it up field and Moses gets there. He speeds into goal and hits the goal post! Ugh!

55' - I take off Rooney and bring in Giorgos Gesios. We switch to a flat 4-4-2 control mentality.

57' - Gesios immediately makes his presence felt. He plays a one-two with Moses and tries to shoot from the top of the area but it hits a Norwich defender. It bounces into the area and Shaun Spall is there and POUNDS the ball into the back of the goal! His first with our club! DOVER GOAL 2-1

61' - Norwich work a counter and march all the way down the field and score but their forward was clearly offsides and the goal is called back. Whew!

65' - Yellow card for Renato Gaucho.

76' - Jozef Varga is on for Renato Gaucho.

89' - We get a corner and Gesios crosses to the far post. Contreras heads it but hits the crossbar.

We close them out.

Dover 2 - 1 Norwich
Goals - Kostas Kalfas (7.5), Shaun Spall (7.3)
Assists - Renato Gaucho (7.2), Paul Moses (6.8)
Man of the Match - Kostas Kalfas
Other Dover Notables - Claudio Contreras (7.4), Youssouf Sylla (5.8)
Attendance - 11,361

We saw our possession drop to 53% but we outshot them 22-4 (8-1 on target). A pretty good performance with our "B" team. Moses improved to a 6.8 after getting credit for an assist on Spall's winner. Sylla continues to put terrible games in for us whenever he's suited up and the Ivory Coast international is having trouble blending into the squad.

-- Moses won't even talk to me anymore. Is there ANY way I can get him off the ledge? I send him down to the U18s as punishment, as I can't fine him, nor can I send him back to Manchester United. I'm stuck with him and his surly attitude.



League Cup - 4th Round Draw

-- There are three Championship sides left in Doncaster, MK Dons and Watford but we draw Liverpool at home. City face United in a big 4th round matchup. Liverpool are once again threatening to sack their manager - gosh, am I ever glad I didn't take that job!



Next Up

-- We try to get back on the winning track in league play versus Aston Villa at Villa Park.

[NoSkillz]

Sat. September 25, 2021

Barclays Premier League
Aston Villa (1-3-1, 6 points, 13th) vs. Dover (3-2-0, 11 points, 1st)
Villa Park, Birmingham, UK

Betting Odds: Aston Villa: 6-4 (Favourites) Draw: 2-1 Dover: 13-8
Past Meetings: 3W 1D 4L

Villa has struggled out of the gates with three draws and a loss in five games but two of their draws came against tough competition in United and Everton. They've only got five goals in five games - midfielders Ryad Boudebouz and Marouane Fellaini both have a pair. They didn't make any major splashes in the offseason transfer market and in fact, they were mostly sellers, moving Nathan Redmond to Southampton and Robin Olsson to Arsenal in large deals.

We have to be mindful of a midweek Champions League game against Schalke but I'll start a full-strength side today. We'll go with a flat 4-4-2 counter attack on the road.

Dover: 4-4-2 Counter
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, P. Tjiuoro, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, W. Rooney
Bench - J. Kuciak, C. Contreras, S. Spall, Mancini, C. Murray, K. Kalfas, G. Gesios

Villa come out in a flat 4-4-2 just like us. Mohamed Messaoudi and Will Keane are up front. I tell the team they can win this…now go out and do it!

45' - There have been a few highlights but absolutely no chances for either team. Their star right midfielder Ryad Boudebouz has had a couple shots from distance but nothing on net. I don't know if i've ever seen a half with no chances like this.

HALFTIME - Wow. Drab match and we need to open things up a bit. They hold a slight edge in possession 51% to 49% and outshoot us 8-3. No team has a shot on goal. I reinforce that the team can win and switch to a flat 4-4-2 control mentality. I also take out Wayne Rooney (5.9 at half) and bring in Giorgos Gesios.

57' - Villa keeps getting most of the highlights and continually wastes opportunities with poor shots, mostly over the goal.

58' - Cairney gets our best chance, rifling a rocket that just skims the top of the bar. Still no shots on goal for either side.

62' - A shot! We work the ball up to Shanon Andrea and he makes a great move to cut toward goal. He shoots right at their keeper Antonio Kraljevic and it's an easy save.

65' - We are starting to pour on pressure. Cairney gets the ball to the top of the area to Andrea and he fires one off the crossbar!

69' - Villa have possession and Fellaini works it to the middle to fellow midfielder Arinze Issah. He sends a pass up to striker Will Keane and he turns to the right, makes some space then fires a rocket from 25 yards right into the far corner of the net. Ugh…their first shot is in. ASTON VILLA GOAL 0-1

We'll have to attack.

84' - Now we move to overload.

87' - We work furiously upfield and Andrea takes a hard, low curling shot from distance and Kraljevic makes a great diving stop to turn it aside.

That's it. We're struggling all of a sudden.

Aston Villa 1 - 0 Dover
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Antonio Kraljevic (Aston Villa GK - 7.4)
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.0), Neil Cairney (7.1), Wayne Rooney (5.8)
Attendance - 40,363

We edged them in possession 51-49% and outshot them 16-15 (3-2 on target). Another disappointing performance and I tell the players as much. Man, I'm in a bad enough mood about alienating Paul Moses and now the rest of our team is slumping, with no goals in 3 of 4 games. Gesios has been terrible since his return but in his defence, I've been playing him before he was fully fit, as I have no bloody reserves games to get him back to fitness. With Rooney struggling and Moses sulking, I have no one other than Andrea doing anything up front all of a sudden.

-- We tentatively drop to 3rd after the loss. Man United CRUSH Everton 7-0 behind four goals from Yaya Sanogo. Tottenham also win to move ahead of us.



Dover U18 Update

-- Sulking Paul Moses scores two goals for the kids in a 4-0 win over West Ham. Matt Hewitt also scored and we benefited from an own goal as well.



International Update

-- On loan defender Thomas Andersen set up a goal in a 3-2 Denmark U20's win over Czech Republic in U20 World Cup action.



Injury Update

-- Nothing new here: Zoltan Bardi is still our only injury and he'll be out at least another month or so.



Next Up

-- Game two of Champions League group play, as we host German side Schalke at Crabble Athletic Ground.

[NoSkillz]

Tue. September 28, 2021

Champions League - Group Stage
Dover (0-1-0, 1 point, 3rd) vs. Schalke (1-0-0, 3 points, 1st)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: 13-8 Draw: 2-1 Schalke: 6-4 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 0W 0D 0L

Schalke finished 3rd in the Bundesliga to qualify for the Champions League but are struggling big-time this year, as they are mired just outside the relegation zone in 15th with one win and 6 points in seven games. They shut out CSKA Moscow in their first Champions League game to take the early lead in Group F. They just spent £11.25 million on Mexican goalkeeper Miguel Angel Lozano and he's having trouble settling in by the looks of it. Former Dover loanee Alan Krivic is on Schalke and he's been getting playing time lately so there's a good chance we'll go up against him. Leo is their most dangerous striker and has two goals in six games so far. Schalke was a Champions League runner up in 2014 and have won the Bundesliga 10 times, most recently in 2018. They are a big club…close to twice our value and have rich ownership.

Giorgos Gesios is finally fit and I'm going to play him up front today with Shanon Andrea. Wayne Rooney will be on the bench so Salim Loucif will captain the squad. I will continue to play Paulus Tjiuoro ahead of Claudio Contreras, as the veteran has outplayed his younger counterpart and deserves the extra playing time. I bring up Paul Moses for the bench, just in case I need his speed.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, P. Tjiuoro, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, G. Gesios
Bench - J. Kuciak, Mancini, S. Spall, S. Nasri, K. Kalfas, W. Rooney, P. Moses

Schalke is also in a flat 4-4-2. Leo starts up front with Salvador Bravo. Krivic is on the bench. I tell the team they can beat these guys and pull aside Gesios, Andrea and Bolis for individual chats.

4' - Schalke work a counter attack and the ball gets up to Salvador Bravo. He's in behind Loucif and has a break - Wilke charges out at him and Bravo shoots way over the goal. Lucky.

6' - Bolis has the ball about 10 yards outside the area and passes to the middle to Rocca. He evades a tackle from Schalke midfielder Rodrigo and sends a ball to the left to Arsene Bamba. He's just on the edge of the area and sends a one-time blast that Lozano can't handle and it's in the net. What a start! DOVER GOAL 1-0

13' - Rodrigo has a free kick from just outside our area and he curls a shot that avoids our wall and skims the outside of the post. Whew!

20' - We gain the ball at midfield and Cairney sends a clever pass through the middle to Gesios. He's got defenders around him and shoots from outside the area and Lozano is in position to make the grab.

21' - Gesios again with a shot that tests Lozano from distance and the goalkeeper dives to turn it away. Gesios is "looking fired up" and playing as well as I've seen so far since returning from injury, a good sign.

25' - Rocca takes a throw in and sends a gorgeous cross into the box. Bolis is there to head it in the net but he's immediately ruled offsides. He had to have been to be that wide open. No goal.

29' - We continue to pour on pressure. Bamba gets taken down just at the corner of the penalty area and Rocca sends the free kick back to Cairney lurking outside the box. His rocket is turned behind the net by Lozano. They clear the corner.

34' - Great. Tjiuoro gets hurt on a challenge and needs to come out. I didn't put Contreras on the bench. I have to bring on Jozef Kuciak and he goes to right fullback while Salim Loucif moves into a central defending role, a position he rarely plays for us.

35' - Right away, Schalke work up field and get a shot from distance that Wilke has trouble with but Renato Gaucho clears the ball away from trouble.

38' - Bamba gets a yellow card.

40' - Gesios is being tended to on the sidelines and Schalke gets a corner that results in them getting a hard shot on goal. Wilke is there to grab it for the fine save.

45'+2 - Bamba streaks down the left sideline and sends a cross into Gesios. He's all alone with the net at his mercy and Lozano makes the RIDICULOUS diving save. I'm stunned…Gesios NEVER misses sitters like that! How he was onside is incredible too…he was WIDE OPEN. Ugh!

HALFTIME - We're taking the play to them - 56% possession and a 13-8 (5-2 on target) shot advantage. Gesios only got a 6.2, likely due to the missed chances. He's also banged up after coming off the field and my assistant thinks we should take him out but I've already made one substitution and don't want to make another so early. He'll have to stay in. I tell the team I'm pleased and once again tell Gesios I have faith in his abilities.

49' - Cairney springs Gesios but he's taken down just outside the area. It was a bit of a flop and the ref agrees - Gesios gets a yellow for diving.

52' - A nice three-way passing play between Cairney, Gesios and Andrea sees Andrea left foot a shot from in close towards goal but Lozano is there for the save.

55' - Bravo walks through our defence but he's on his weaker foot and his shot is saved with flair by Wilke.

56' - Gesios steals the ball at midfield and speeds down toward the Schalke goal before just shooting wide. Great play until the finish, as the commentator says "Gesios is playing with real passion today!".

61' - A free kick and Rocca once again lays it off to Neil Cairney, whose blast almost knocks the net down. It's off the crossbar and Schalke clear. My gosh.

62' - Now Gesios sends Andrea in down the left side. He is inside the area and left foots it just wide of the far corner. We need to finish these guys!

73' - Wilke makes a brilliant save on midfielder Cai Xin's blast!

74' - Gesios is out and Wayne Rooney comes in.

75' - Rooney, from about 40 yards out, curls a shot that Lozano can't get to but it hits the goalpost! Holy crap!

79' - Rooney sends a lovely ball to the right to Bolis and he speeds in, taking a shot that Lozano has to dive to stop and Schalke concedes a corner.

84' - AGAIN! Andrea dekes through the entire team and sends a byline cross through the goalcrease to Bolis. He has a poor angle but an open net and misses wide to the far side! Geez.

I take out a tired Andrea Rocca and bring in Shaun Spall.

88' - Rooney gets the ball around midfield and makes a brilliant pass with his left foot to a charging Andrea. He gets into the area down the left side and right foots it towards goal but Lozano stops it. There's a rebound though and it's SHAUN SPALL, just in the game, left footing it into the net for the HUGE GOAL! Wow! DOVER GOAL 2-0

Spall gets another breakaway in injury time and there's a rebound that could be put into the net but the referee blows full time. Wow!!!

Dover 2 - 0 Schalke
Goals - Arsene Bamba (8.1), Shaun Spall (7.4)
Assists - Andrea Rocca (7.3), Shanon Andrea (6.9)
Man of the Match - Miguel Angel Lozano (Schalke GK - 9.1)
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.5), Salim Loucif (7.3), Rayane Hamon (7.5), Renato Gaucho (7.3)
Attendance - 13,875

What a win! A complete performance against a world-class club. We hold 54% of overall possession and outshoot them 29-14 (13-5 on target)!!! Their goalkeeper is man of the match after making 11 stops. Gesios got another terrible rating (6.1) but I thought he was lively and motivated throughout. I don't like playing him in a deep lying role but he's more suited to it than the smaller and weaker Shanon Andrea.

-- Paulus Tjiuoro will miss a couple weeks after suffering a thigh strain in the game.

-- We're given £696,000 for the win. WOW. I *heart* Champions League play!

-- Barcelona smoke CSKA Moscow 5-0 to take control of Group F but now we're in second. It looks like it's between us and Schalke to decide who will move on in this group but we're level on points with Barcelona. We'll next face Moscow at Crabble in three weeks.

Here's what happened in other Champions League play:

GROUP A: Shakhtar and Atletico Madrid played to a scoreless draw while Chelsea beat Spartak Moscow 3-1. Chelsea have six points and Atletico Madrid four. Shakhtar has a single point and Spartak Moscow are at zero.

GROUP B: Palermo and H. Tel-Aviv played to a 0-0 draw while Man United beat Ajax 3-1. Palermo leads the group with 4 points, United and Ajax have 3 and H. Tel-Aviv has one.

GROUP C: Partizan wins over Zaragoza 2-1 while FC Bayern beat Porto 4-2 away. Bayern has all six points, Porto and Partizan have three and Zaragoza have none.

GROUP D: OM embarrassed AaB 5-1 while Besiktas edged HSV 1-0 away. OM and Besiktas both have six points, meaning HSV and AaB are pointless.

GROUP E: Man City destroy Panathinaikos 4-0 away and Benfica THROTTLE Rangers 6-1 in Scotland. City and Benfica have all six points leaving Panathinaikos and Rangers at zero. Rangers already have a -10 goal differential.

GROUP F: Our group - Barcelona are in first on goal differential but we both have four points. Schalke has three points and CSKA Moscow have none.

GROUP G: Olympique Lyonnais beat up on FK Austria Wien 6-0 and Sampdoria edge Leverkusen 1-0. All four teams are sitting with three points but Austria Wien are in last with a -5 goal differential.

GROUP H: Anderlecht and Sevilla battle to a 0-0 draw while Galatasaray beat Litex 4-0. The Turkish side Galatasaray are in first with 6 points, Anderlecht has two draws and Sevilla and Litex both have single points.



Dover Reserve Team Update

-- Cry baby Paul Moses is at it again, scoring four times before getting subbed out in the 60th minute and we benefit from THREE Burnley own goals in a 9-1 (!!) win in reserve team action. Aitor Zubizarreta and Kostas Kalfas scored the other goals. Mancini and Cameron Murray each had two assists.



International Update

-- Three of our players are called up for International duty: Salim Loucif (Algeria) and Youssouf Sylla & Arsene Bamba (Ivory Coast). Bamba is still looking for his first ever senior team cap.



October Update

-- We have four Premier League games in October, with home matches against Fulham and Manchester United and road tilts against Tottenham and Sunderland. A tough month. We also have a Champions League game at home against CSKA Moscow and a League Cup game against Liverpool. So six matches overall for the senior team. There is an international break coming up next week so we'll get a little rest there before the shit hits the fan late in the month with games aplenty.

-- We get positive training reports for Gianluca Bolis, Aitor Zubizarreta and Renato Gaucho, along with U18 players Louis Read, Damian Thorne and Gregoire Lambert. Negative reports come for Giorgos Gesios and Samir Nasri. Gesios' season has been a nightmare, pointless in five matches and a lowly 6.17 rating. I have a private chat with him to say his training level is unacceptable and he says he'll step it up.



Barclays Premier League Monthly Awards

-- Yaya Sanogo from Manchester United wins the Player of the Month award for September.

-- Sheffield Wednesday striker Steve Pates wins the Young Player of the Month award and Renato Gaucho finishes in third place.

-- Jurgen Klinsmann, Man United's manager, wins the Manager of the Month award for September.



October Board Confidence Update

-- The board are very pleased with my overall leadership. Stature increase continues to be the main positive and the poor play of Giorgos Gesios is the main concern. No shit!

-- We made a profit last month of £646,000. We're bleeding money for the most part this year and have lost over £25 million (!!!) so far in 2021-22. Lots of money spent on signing bonuses seem to be the biggest issue. Hopefully we can peck away at that deficit.



Next Up

-- We host Fulham in Premier League action at Crabble Athletic Ground.

[NoSkillz]

Sat. October 2, 2021

Barclays Premier League
Dover (3-2-1, 11 points, 3rd) vs. Fulham (2-1-3, 7 points, 15th)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

Betting Odds: Dover: Evens (Favourites) Draw: 11-5 Fulham: 11-5
Past Meetings: 4W 2D 2L

Fulham escaped relegation by the skin of their nose last year, drawing their last game to stay up on goal differential. We signed Wayne Rooney from their club in the offseason and they were busy buying during the window, spending £5.5 million on Guillermo Piras, a central defender from Stoke and spent £11.25 million overall. We have to show these guys respect: they beat Manchester United AND Everton already but dropped a home decision to Blackburn last weekend. What a wild sport! Striker Milan Djuric has four goals in six games and is their danger man. DC Sam Magri is a guy I've looked at for years as a potential option for our club but I've never pulled the trigger.

I'm going to bench Giorgos Gesios in this game - simply put, he needs to sit and watch. In a shocking decision, I'm going to play Paul Moses despite him hating my guts - I want to see if I can get him to use his hatred towards me and channel it into scoring goals for the club. Some Darth Vader-esque Jedi Mind shit. I'll play his mentor Wayne Rooney beside him and keep Gesios and Shanon Andrea on the bench just in case. We have two weeks off after this game so no other major changes. Claudio Contreras is back in for the injured Paulus Tjiuoro. This is a pretty big game: with a loss, we'd likely drop right down into a mid-table position so we need the three points!

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, W. Rooney
Bench - J. Kuciak, Mancini, S. Spall, C. Murray, K. Kalfas, G. Gesios, S. Andrea

Fulham are in a 4-2-3-1. I tell the team I expect a win today and pull aside Moses and Hamon and tell them to pick up where they left off last time.

3' - Yikes. Right off the bat, their top player Milan Djuric gets behind Contreras and rifles a shot that Wilke is able to save. Not a lot of Fulham supporters in their end so it won't be a sellout here.

14' - We've had FIVE corners already and on this last one, there are multiple scrambles in front of the net and we're diving and sliding all over the place trying to get the ball in but their keeper Joe Lewis is either there or a Fulham defender is there to block the shots. Just crazy action and we're still scoreless.

20' - Lewis makes an incredible diving save off a Rocca free kick. We earn a corner and Rayane Hamon heads it over the net. We need to put one away!

23' - Salim Loucif gets a yellow card after taking down a Fulham player from behind.

36' - Moses and Rooney get point blank shots off in the area, one is blocked and one is saved by Lewis, who has been excellent so far for Fulham.

40' - We clear off a throw in and Rooney sends the ball up to Moses. He's one on one with a defender and speeds by him and in on goal. He's got a poor angle but gets it under Lewis but it JUST misses the far corner. That would have been something.

44' - I think I have an ulcer. Now it's Andrea Rocca getting a great through ball courtesy of Cairney but he also shoots wide on the partial breakaway.

45'+1 - We win a corner and Rocca's cross meets the 6' 6" Claudio Contreras. He heads it off a Fulham defender and it's IN! Contreras has his first ever Premier League goal! DOVER GOAL 1-0

HALFTIME - Holy smokes we are shooting from everywhere! 23 first half shots!!! We outshoot them 23-5 (5-1 on target) and have 56% of possession. Yet only one goal. I tell the team I'm pleased thus far.

65' - We've continued to pour on pressure here but not many shots have hit the target. I take out Paul Moses and bring in Giorgos Gesios.

68' - We work the ball around nicely and Rocca gets a chance with his right foot from the top of the box but Lewis is there once again.

73' - Rooney with a delightful back heel pass into the area to Gesios but his shot is weak and Lewis makes another save.

74' - I take out Salim Loucif, who has a yellow and bring on Jozef Kuciak.

79' - A Fulham defender tries a long ball up the centre but Contreras is there and heads it back up field. There's a race for it and it's VINTAGE Giorgos Gesios, speeding past the defender, picking up the ball and he sees Lewis charging out so he LOBS it over his head and into the net. Gesios has his first of the year! DOVER GOAL 2-0

84' - I take out Gianluca Bolis and bring in Kostas Kalfas.

86' - Off a throw in, Rocca sends the ball out wide to Arsene Bamba and he sends a quick cross into the area. Wayne Rooney is there and baseball slides it into the back of the net. Two quick ones and Rooney scores against the team that sold him to us! DOVER GOAL 3-0

We close it out from there. Dominating win!

Dover 3 - 0 Fulham
Goals - Claudio Contreras (9.0), Giorgos Gesios (7.4), Wayne Rooney (7.8)
Assists - Claudio Contreras, Arsene Bamba (7.6), Andrea Rocca (8.6)
Man of the Match - Claudio Contreras
Other Dover Notables - Rayane Hamon (7.6), Renato Gaucho (7.3), Neil Cairney (7.7)
Attendance - 12,554

The stats are almost unbelievable - a 58% possession number and we outshoot them 40 (YES FORTY) to 10 (12-2 on target). Their keeper Jeff Lewis kept the game from getting out of hand. It's great to see Gesios finally get on the board and hopefully he'll start poking them in regularly. This was EASILY Claudio Contreras' best ever game. He was sensational and I'm delighted with the impact Rayane Hamon is having.

-- Man City have a tough early season schedule and they draw against Liverpool 1-1. United beat Huddersfield 1-0 and Chelsea beat Wolves 2-0. Tottenham also win so we maintain our hold on third for the moment. We have an international break coming up and have two weeks before our next senior team game.



Dover U18 Team Update

-- We beat Aldershot 2-1 in U18 action. Gregoire Lambert scores both of our goals in the win.



International Update

-- Eight more of our players are called up for international duty: Emmerson Harvey, Paul Moses & Emmanuel Agbo (England U21s), Kostas Kalfas (Greece U21s), Giorgos Gesios (Greece), Shanon Andrea (Holland) and Neil Cairney & Cameron Murray (Scotland). We also get a note that Paulus Tjiuoro is overlooked for Namibia's team due to his injury. Carlos Guzman (Argentina) and Thomas Andersen (Denmark) continue to represent their country in the U20 World Cup.

-- Salim Loucif scores his second, third and FOURTH international goals in Algeria's three wins over Burundi, Angola and Ivory Coast in the African Nations qualifying. Youssouf Sylla got a clean sheet in a 2-0 Ivory Coast win over Mauritius in the same competition but lost to Loucif's Algeria team 2-1. Arsene Bamba is still looking for his first cap and it will be tough to come by: I notice that Ivory Coast don't utilize wide midfielders in their basic formation. Emmanuel Agbo gets an assist and Paul Moses scores for England's U21 team while Kostas Kalfas scores twice in Greece's 4-2 win over Italy in Euro U21 qualifying. Neil Cairney got an assist in Scotland's 7-2 win over Lithuania in World Cup qualifying and Giorgos Gesios scored twice in Greece's 5-0 win over Hungary in the same competition. Gesios would score another goal in a 2-0 Greece win over Luxembourg and he is now up to 16 international goals in as many matches.

-- Carlos Guzman breaks his foot during a game against Mexico in the U20 World Cup. He'll miss three months. He's a top prospect so that's a big blow to his development.



-- Two of our players are named to the Barclays Premier League Team of the Week: Andrea Rocca and Claudio Contreras get the honours.



Dover Reserve Team Update

-- A depleted reserves team loses 2-1 to Fulham. Shaun Spall scores our only goal.

-- One week later, the Reserves beat Reading 2-1. In that game, Aitor Zubizarreta scores both goals.



Next Up

-- We head to White Hart Lane to face second place Tottenham in Premier League play.