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Oxford City - 21/21 Transfers & Pre-season
So as you can see, the badge of Oxford City is still sitting somewhat reluctantly at the top of my updates. It certainly hasn't been the plan to stay but as the off-season rolled on, i found myself still in Oxford (Well Maidenhead technically) as i go about launching a 3rd promotion attempt. I havent renewed my contract so i am on a month to month basis which should make it easier for me to jump ship without the worry of compensation getting in the way.
I did apply for some roles, even getting an interview at one but the three roles i did apply for were all unsuccessful. League 2 Morecombe was the closest i got to moving as i went for my interview but they instead opted for another man saying they were impressed but i just missed out. The other 2 were a little more left field but were in fact Bayern Munich II and Real Sociedad B who both chose not to interview me despite my strong pedigree of buying U23 players. I was hoping my dealings in that area was going to swing it but alas no. But because of the distractions it means pre-season hasn't had all of the love that i needed and i find myself with the season about to start, trying to drastically conclude some more business to give us the best shot of competing for a promotion spot.
Transfers
So the wage budget has ended up sitting at £4700 per week and with the club constantly becing touted as debt ridden in the press. We even had some takeover talk which has now completely gone away, perhaps an attempt by the current owners to get me to sign a new contract. For some reason the board keep pumping money into help with the clubs running costs but we have over £600k in the bank now and we are certainly not losing money....yet anyways, so i am a little confused. We do have a bank loan we are paying back for the stadium but that doesnt seem to be putting us anywhere near the red. Perhaps they are getting the money in early before the bill for the stadium comes out.
Once i had renewed all of the contracts i needed for the players, trying and failing to keep the wages as close to last years as possible we saw a few players released. Both were fringe players who were not getting enough game time and i have decided to use the regens this year as the squad filler in the hope some of them become stars. The previously mentioned Kassos is now the back up right back whilst David Shaw from my first intake has come in as cover for the wings.
Then we had a few players get poached by other clubs as their non contract deals were capitalized on. Stephen Caro was the back up keeper, whilst Carter and Shulton were back up midfielders that only had 5 appearances or so between them last season.
So all of the sold players were back ups, but we did have the horrible problem of seeing all 6 of our loanees go back to their parent clubs, leaving multiple gaps in the team. We had no strikers once again, we needed a first choice right back and we were desperately short in the centre of the midfield. So this is what i have managed to do before our first league game against Hemel Hempstead.
Two familiar faces there for you all as
Aaron Drewe and
Charley Kendall both had their contracts with QPR expire and after impressing last season, i managed to snap them up as permanent members of the squad. The goals of Kendall were a big reason for our high finish and whilst Drewe loved a Yellow card (15 picked up last season) he was one of the league's leaders for key tackles and provides us our right back for the season.
Filling out the midfield, Vanarama South experience was bought in with
Freddy Moncur joining on a free having been released by Concord. he is solid enough with lots of 10's and high determination. Probably more of a utility style player that will sit on the bench. Secondly we added
Sam Wilding on loan from Peterbrough in a deal where we pay nothing for him. Good passing and vision meaning he should be another good option as a playmaker for us
The final signing saw us bring in
Ollie O'Dwyer in as another option at the centre of the defence as i potentially look to a 3 at the back style formation with wing backs and to also allow me to cover at the back with the amount of suspensions we get. We still need another striker but we now sit £800 over the wage budget so i am limited to just loan deals where i pay nothing. I am trying to see if i can shift on 1 or 2 more players so we are back within an acceptable amount but as always it seems impossible at this level to sell anyone.
On the field
A mixed bag of results for us, as i wrestled with a new formation. I am not completely sold on it but it is getting trained and i will go into some more detail should it figure. For now we are back to the 4-3-2-1 that has served us well for two more seasons. The board want mid table, the media predicted us 17th originally (up to 11th on the eve of the first season) whilst i pray that i finally get out of this league.
