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Dorking Wanderers FC: Pre-season 23/24
Our first pre-season as a professional club was not an enjoyable one. We repeatedly lost out on targets due to our strict wage budget and by my count I think we had 17 players actively choose not to come and play at Dorking. The fact is, we were not only losing out to fellow League 2 sides but also to Vanarama National sides who could offer more in wage than we could. It was tricky but nonetheless we did add a plethora of new faces to the side as we try and survive in the 4th Tier.
Outs
There were a few players that left the club on a free transfer for a number of reasons. Unfortunately, Bobby-Joe Taylor was one of them men as he decided not to renew his contract, never allowing me the chance to give thim the Professional level football he craved and instead he went on the free transfer market. I did stalk him and offer him trial contacts as well as professional contracts but he refused to even talk to us and eventually he signed a deal with Oldham. Our creative outlet for the last two years, this is going to be a huge gap for us to fill. Also leaving the club at the end of their contracts were Jamie Bradley-Green, James Rowe, Niall McManus and Barry Fuller who was out on loan last year with Chippenham.
The last four were all expected and planned. The most surprising and annoying loss though came with Teenage Mountain Porsteinn Aron Antonsson whose contract expired and he failed to get a Work Permit meaning we have the option of keeping him at the club but not being able to play him or let him go. With a heavy heart, I decided to let him go which is a real shame as he was a solid player last year and one with lots of potential.
The final three players to leave were James McShane (£0) to Hampton and Richmond, Blaine Rowe (Loan) to Dulwich Hamlet and Mitchell Roberts (£21.5k) to Aldershot. McShane leaves as the clubs all time appearance maker and top scorer but never really played that well for me on a consistent basis. Rowe is leaving to get some first team football as I think his chances will be limited this year whilst Roberts was unhappy i didnt give him a new contract mid way through last season and wanted to leave. His Sale has meant I had lost 3 centre halves in the summer meaning that was a No. 1 Priority for us to try and fix.
Ins
A total of 10 new faces to get through and I don't think I am done yet as we go into the main season. The first two through the door, both joined from that email you get in the inbox about youth players being released and were the only two that were good enough to improve the squad.
Max McKnight joins from Tottenham and gives us another option at right back as well as an option on the problem right midfield spot. The second one was Arsenal youngster
Mauro Bandeira who at 6"4 continues to add real height to the team. A Box to Box Midfielder i will be looking at him to be a focal point on set pieces as well as trying to get past the strikers and get more men in the box.
Then after 100's of trials and near misses we started to add to the team further. Finnish U21 International
Viljami Sinisalo joined on a free transfer having been released by Aston Villa having made just the one appearance for the Villians. He will be our new No.1 which could be seen as harsh on Hawkins but in terms of ability Sinisalo is more well rounded and should be good enough for this level.
Jake Andrews was next through the door, again on a free transfer as our direct replacement to Bobby-Joe Taylor. Comparison wise he is slightly better then Bobby-Joe and he maintains our set piece threat. Jake was at Tranmere last year where he barely got a look-in which is my only reservation but he should have enough to get us by.
So I also took the move to change our parent club away from QPR to Moneybags Newcastle having been unimpressed by the loan signings from QPR last year. The first man to make the jump is
Remi Savage who comes in to give me options at both left back and in the centre of defence where we are short, albeit he is a little short for a CB for my liking. A solid squad player to keep around.
For the next few signings, time was running out and we were struggling to get a squad together due to our many missed signings and there was an air of desperation in some of these moves.
Kane Thompson-Sommers was signed after a glowing scout report and although he has some base skills for a left sided winger, I Am not convinced he will be a starter here but does at least give one more body to call on.
D'Margio Wright-Phillips comes in to give me an option on the right wing. Signed mainly because of his family connections, he does have some good pace and is a natural in a position we have failed in for two seasons now. He will have competition from
Aaron Nemane who like Wright-Phillips came through from Man City. He has spent the last two years at Notts County in the Vanarama National and although this is a step up for him, he has the core attributes to hopefully suceed.
The Brilliantly named
Zidane Iqbal was snapped on a free having been released by Man Utd. The Iraqi International has the passing, technique and vision to unlock defences and is certainly our most creative player and we will look to him to help fill the assist gap that Taylor's departure has left us with. The final new face joined just as the season was about to kick off as we added
Tyreece Onyeka on loan from Crewe Athletic for the season. Picking up just a tiny % of his wages, he is another relatively tall striker that can operate both as a Target Forward and as an Attacking Forward, the two roles that we play and he gives us more options in case Mullings or Spasov struggle with the leap up the leagues.
On top of all of this we completely revamped the whole back-room bringing in a whole new team. We still need at least 2 more playes before i have a squad that i am entirely comfortable with but hopefully we have done enough
On the field
We have stuck with the 4-4-2 throughout pre-season with just a few minor changes. The central midfield duo rather then being a BWM (D) and Mezzala (A) have moved to a DLP (D) and a BBM to cater for Iqbal and Bandeira. The other small change is Tobi Omole (Also our new club captain) has moved to CB from LB due to our huge shortage of CB's at the club.
On the field we have largely been good. A 0-0 draw against a strong Newcastle side in the first game at the Dorking Stadium being a particular highlight. Now whether i will need to mix it up, time will tell, we still have the other formations from last year although we dont have the personnel for the 3 at the back formation so that one may need to get dropped in replacement of a formation we could actually field. More transfer work is still to be done though so I won't make that final decision until the transfer window closes.
Thoughts and Analysis
So our 3rd season at Dorking and we are living up to our Wanderer's name tag with our 3rd stadium in as many years and it is going to be interesting to see how we adapt to these new surroundings. We are predictably predicted to finish last with odds of 450-1 to win the league and everyone predicts us to come straight back down. Hopefully momentum can continue and we can defy that but i would be gobsmacked if we get a third straight promotion. Our reputation is still tiny and in reality we need to solidify in this league for a little bit before moving up to allow the finances and reputation to catch us up. That way it will be a lot easier to compete for players and we can then build from there.
In the short term we need at least 2 new CB's and if we can get one more striker in that should mean we have enough to get through to January where we can reassess again.
