Wheeling and dealing
After some serious soulsearching I decided to stick around at least another year. The situation is pretty good here and that dreamjob never really came along. So with this decision made it's right back to the drawingboard!
The key to last year was some serious work in the transfermarket. Other than myself there is one man in particullar who has ALOT to say in these matters, his name is Faustino Aspirilla.
His reports work as almost 50% of what I take under consideration when looking at new signings. I can honestly say that not one of my signings has been a flop here at Anderlecht and I've made no less than 14 of them! In last years groundbreaking team at least 8 of the players in my best starting line-up were new for the season. Best of all is the fact that if you deduct the money I made from selling the "dead wood" before brining in the new blood, the 14 players who came in during the summer (and as I said, they all delivered at least what I expected from them, many alot more as well), cost me €12mil!
As if that wasn't enough, looking at the deals about to go through this summer, I'll probably be looking at huage profits when compareing my total spending with my total income!
Right now I'm in need of a strong DMC. I've got Msuku there, who is a star, but right now he's my only option and according to last years expreience I'll need at least two options at DMC because the role is so vital, keeping my intire midfield togather during the games. This calls not just for a back-up but a man who can really make a diffrence in the games when needed. I also need a complete new setup of MC's (advanced playmakers). I decided to sell one of them because he hit his peak without becoming a star (which meant that he would never be more profiteble than now) and Real Mardid came waving their check-book at my other one, so I could never really put up a fight, although it wasn't really needed. Thanks to the transfer (it's almost confirmed) I'll profit €12mil on him in one year (buying him for €2mil last summer and selling for just above €14mil this summer). To top it all of I've already had an offer accepted for his replacement who I in all honesty belive is better player, costing me around €7,5mil.
Scouring the market in a rush however isn't my strongsuit as I've always valued personality, coming to work every day and not being scared by the spotlight (to translate: professionalism, consistency and enjoying big games are three attributes i take under heavy consideration, thus showing why it's so important that I have a scout in the likes of Aspirilla who can tell these things accurately). I've rejected countless future stars due to at least one of these three factors, but in my expreince it pays off in the long run, although, as you can imagine, it makes finding signings that much harder, especialy when you're under the pressure of time!
BREAKING NEWS! THE BIG SWAP HAS JUST BEEN COMPLETED, MOVING PONCE TO MADRID AND BRINING MARCEL TO BELGIUM!
The way I see it I lost myself some time (Ponce being 21 and Marcel being 26), but Marcel still has his best 5 or so years ahead of him and as far as I'm concerend his also the better of the two (might add that Ponce has almost reached his maximum potential despite his young age), which makes it a good deal, especially when I'm not planning on staying for long.
Other than still being on the hunt for my other DMC I'm more or less done shopping (I've always got an eye open for cheap, talented players who always show up during the season and if a good opportuinty presents itself I'm not one to hessitate), so here's a summary over my buissnes at Anderlecht:
2023/2024
2024/2025
So all'n'all we've profited €4mil in the transfremarket while bulding this campionshipsquad. Out of the €48mil I've totalled from selling players since I took over last year almost €20mil has been made from players I brought in last summer and sold on (and when counting what I've made selling the players I've brought in myself the transferfee paid for them has been deducted from the €20mil). An astounding number!
I hope you've made it this far (not sure of this is an intriguing post or just a hassle to read).
Anyway, looking on to this season my only goal is to get as far as possible in CL. Decent resluts in the leauge will probably be needed to keep my job and even more imporantly, keeping high morale, but it shouldn't be a problem this year either.
For now peace out and wish me luck!
