I fully agree with both of you. The last time I took Newport to the doorstep of the Premier League I had a hard time dealing with the lack of financial muscle that we had compared to other teams. A perfect example is our stadium situation. I finally convinced the board to buy our current stadium, but now have to convince them to at least upgrade it before trying to build a new one altogether. We hit ~98% occupancy last season and were the only team to sell out our stadium (18 times) but that's because it's capacity is a paltry 4300. If we don't get that revenue stream up in a hurry, we will be facing a seriously uphill financial battle for the type of players that we need to compete at this level.
I think I'll start doing a quick update of things as I head into the season to help set up my annual reviews.
The offseason was another one of sweeping change on the pitch. I hate to do it because I'm a believer that a revolving door transfer policy makes things difficult. But I have to do it out of necessity. We've promoted three consecutive times now, and the only way we've been able to manage that is to quickly retool with talent that is comparable to the competition in front of us.
That said, I know I signed damn near a dozen new players before league play even began. Many of these signings are in my starting eleven. Off the top of my head, the only incumbent starters from last season are my GK and my two DCs. I upgraded everywhere else because I trust my 19 CA assistant manager's eye for ability and I set out to replace anyone that was rated 2.5 stars or lower, even if it meant relegating heroes of yesteryear to the bench, reserves, or worse. It's the price of progress.
With all of the new additions, and to pad our coffers, I set up friendlies every 4-5 days after my players got back from holiday and we were fortunate to get almost all of those games against premier league teams. That meant a cool ~70k profit for each game. We even managed to have a few of those games televised - one vs Chelsea and another vs Arsenal. It was pretty brutal at first with my players needing to shake the rust off from the holiday and being shorthanded because not all of our signings had taken place yet. It wasn't until the 3rd or 4th game that we had the semblance of a regular rotation. Then by the 7th game or so, everyone was in match shape and I was able to see what the squad could really do.
I took the results with a grain of salt because it's offseason friendlies, but we won more than our fair share of games vs premier league teams and drew a handful as well. The defense looked stout behind the leadership of center back Cameron Lindsay. Linsday has been attracting interest from some mid/lower level premier league teams since last season and I can only hope that we hold onto him for another season or two while we push for promotion. Our new fullbacks deliver the increased speed out on the wings that I was hoping for. While we didn't really need to upgrade at wide midfield, I didn't want my attacks to be cut short due to inept wing play so we brought on more speed and dribbling in those areas. We brought on a bigger playmaker to play alongside our holding midfielder as well.
Up front were the biggest changes, IMO. Leon Browne and his team-leading stats? Backup role. His strike partner Marcus Bent? On the reserves while I try to transfer him. Super backup Kerry Morgan? Also on the reserves, hoping that he accepts a loan offer somewhere. The reason for all of these changes is because we brought on a lot of talent up front. Not only did we manage to bring in two new starting strikers, but we also swooped up an immensely talented youngster. My best scouts (16 PA) agree that he has 4.5 star potential so I trusted their judgement and signed him. It was on the strength of that potential that I caved in during negotiations, compromising on a rotation role. My original hope was to sign him as a hot prospect and immediately loan him out. When negotiations began to break down, I gave in rather than risk losing out. Along with David Ball, I have a formidable strike partnership on paper and hopefully they will develop well under my training system.
First team
GK - same
DR - new
DCR - same
DCL - same
DL - new
MR - new
MCR - same
MCL - new
ML - new
STR - new
STL - new