Euan

Midfielders

The main position where I’m aiming to cut the size of the squad is in the holding midfield role. Considering the fact that we only need one such player on the field at a time, it’s unbelievable that we have nine players in the first team squad who can play there.

Of these nine, the only two that I most want to keep are 24 year old Pascal Johansen and 26 year old Senegalese Sylvain N’Diaye, mainly because of their versatility (Johansen can also play on the right, N’Diaye on the left).

On “parole” for a year are Algerian Brahim Hemdani and Swiss Fabio Celestini both of whom, once again, lack that half yard of pace I think you need at the highest level. Having said that, I don’t think it’s quite as important in the holding role as it is in other positions and that’s why I’m willing to give these two a chance. I will, however, consider any bids that I receive for them.

Another player that I may to keep is Jacques Abardonado. The 25 year old is currently on loan at Nice and I want to see how he does there before I decide on his future. He’s out of contract at the end of the season, so if he doesn’t do well there, he’ll be free to leave the club.

As I said though, we have too many defensive midfielders so some will have to leave, and the chances are that Delfim will be one of those. The 26 year old, capped once by Portugal, is a decent player, but I don’t think he is quite as good as some of the others in the squad – it’s as simple as that.

Other than that, Camille Borios, Christian Santos and Mathieu Flamini are deemed surplus to requirements and can leave as soon as we get offers for them.

In the attacking central midfield role we have a couple of options. Czech internationalist Stepan Vachousek is the obvious option, with the recent signing from Slavia Prague impressing me so far in training. Even though he’s just 23, he already looks like he’ll be a key player this term. Other than him though, things look a little grim.

Brazilian Fernandao doesn’t look good enough and in addition to that; he is a non-EU player. League rules stipulate that we can only name five non-EU players in the match day squad and, although we don’t have that many in the squad, if I bring in any non-EU players it will push Fernandao further down the pecking order. Another player who isn’t good enough – just now anyway – is 19 year old Terry Racon and unless he shows a vast improvement he’ll be leaving too.

The final option in attacking midfield is on loan winger Camel Meriem. However, the Bordeaux player prefers to play on the wing rather than in the thick of things in the centre of the park. Besides, he’ll probably be required on the right wing, where we are a little short of players.

On the left is another 23 year old Czech who, like Vachousek, has recently arrived from Slavia Prague. Rudolf Skacel is his name and he looks like another good player. He’s willing to run all day and he has put in some great crosses in training. The only competition he’ll face for a place in the team is from 21 year old Mounir Aikhatib but, to be honest I can’t really see him displacing Skacel from the team.

Raptor

Ah, Euan's back :thup:

Always thought your style was easy reading, good to see it here again. :thup:

Euan

Thanks Raptor

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Attackers

Another position where we have too many players is upfront. I’d like to have two excellent strikers with two or three capable backup players and perhaps a promising youngster or two. Instead we have two excellent strikers, five that I’m not sure about yet and another four that I’ll be looking to sell straight away.

I’ll start with the good shall I? First up is 25 year old Ivory Coast star Didier Drogba. He has all the tools that a top striker needs: pace, power, aerial ability and an eye for goal. I reckon that he’ll be a key player this year, and in the future.

Almost as good and five years younger is Egyptian international Mido. I’m well aware of the problems he caused at Ajax, but if we can bring the best out of him I’m sure he’ll score a barrow load of goals. He’s virtually unbeatable in the air.

Another player who has caused friction at his previous clubs is 19 year old Russian Dmitry Sytchev. Signed a year ago from Spartak Moscow, the youngster definitely has talent, but he needs to improve his attitude if he is to have a future at the club. It may sound like favouritism if I say that he needs to improve his attitude but Mido doesn’t, but Sytchev has this air of arrogance around him that I don’t particularly like.

I’m going to have to think long and hard about the future of Steve Marlet. The 29 year old is on loan from Fulham and we’re paying his extortionate wages just now. I’m not sure whether he’s really worth the money.

The other three players that I’m unsure about are Cyril Chapuis, who is on a season long loan at Leeds, and youngsters Nicolas Cicut and Elhadji Ibou Lampe Gueye. All three will be judged on their performances this season and I’ll make a decision a year from now.

The four players that I want to cash in on are Lamine Sakho, Amadou David M’Bodji, Florian Granier and Karim Dahou. I don’t hold out much hope that they’ll command very high transfer fees though.


Overall

In general terms I think that we have a good first eleven, but are slightly lacking in strength in depth.

My priorities have to be cutting down the overall size of the squad (especially in defensive midfield and attack), and picking up a tall, quick centre back and a decent left back, as well as an experienced backup goalkeeper. There are a few other positions that I wouldn’t mind strengthening as well, but I’ll be focussing most of my energies on the above three.

Euan

Saturday 14th June 2003

My desire to cut down the size of the squad has left me with a bit of a conundrum: do I wait until players leave before I dip my toes into the transfer market and run the risk of missing out on players that I want, or do I go for the players that I’m chasing and risk being left with a huge squad if no one leaves?

In the end I’ve decided that it’s worth the gamble of trying to bring in the players in that I want now, because they could easily be snapped up by other clubs or sometimes teams just don’t want to sell their players after the season has started. However, I’m getting slightly ahead of myself here. Obviously you have to know which players you want before you can sign them, so I guess I better identify who it is I want to add to the squad.

I spent most of this morning deep in discussion about possible transfer targets with our Head Scout Pascal Duhamel and my assistants Jean-Philippe Durand and Albert Emon. We’ve come up with a list of about 50 possibilities over various positions and I’ll be spending the next few days cutting that down to less than ten and then, hopefully, to the four or five that we’ll sign. Meanwhile, I’ve offered a number of trials to players without clubs. Hopefully some of them will be what we’re looking for; if they’re not, we’ll have lost nothing.

After thinking long and hard about what role he’ll play this season, I’ve decided that the best thing for the club is to terminate the loan contract of Steve Marlet and send him back to Fulham. He is undoubtedly talented, but I don’t think he does enough to justify paying him €60,000 per week.

Speaking of players on loan, I’m afraid that I’m going to have to admit defeat over getting Olembe back from Leeds. They’re refusing to let us recall him (which is perfectly within their rights), so it looks like I’ll have to buy a left back, or at least bring one in on loan.

My final action of the day was to look at the players’ contracts and decide if it’s time to renew any of their deals. I’ve asked the chairman to extend the contracts of Abdoulaye Meite and Sebastain Perez, both of whom’s current deals expire at the end of the season.

Euan

Monday 16th June 2003

I’ve heard back from a few of the agents whose players we’ve offered trials to, basically saying that their clients have been offered contracts by other teams. They’re inviting me to offer actual deals to the players before I’ve seen them in action. Considering that I haven’t seen the guys play, I’m not going to do that; it’s a risk that I’m just not willing to take.

Meanwhile, we’ve shortened our list of transfer targets significantly and we should have our completed list within the next couple of days. However, some of the players are already being approached by other clubs so I’ll have to get a move on.

One player that I like that I know other teams are interested in is Brazilian midfielder Renato. The 24 year old Santos player is has attracted a bid of €8.5m from Paris-SG and if we are to match that, it will be half of our transfer budget gone. There’s no doubt in my mind that he is a fantastic player and would be worth every penny, but I’m not sure whether to go after him. Another midfielder is just about the last thing we need just now and I need to decide whether we can still afford the other players we want if we sign him.

Meanwhile, both Meite and Perez have extended their contracts with the clubs. The chairman certainly is a fast negotiator!

Euan

Tuesday 17th June 2003

There has been some interest in a few of the players in the squad that I don’t think we need, so I’ve decided to go for Renato. The chairman deals with all the financial aspects of any deals; I just tell him who I want and give him a rough guide on what I think he’s worth. I expect that Renato will cost us €8.5m.

Another player that I want to add to the squad is French international defender Philippe Mexes of Auxerre. The young centre back fills our needs perfectly: he’s quick but also good in the air, a good defender but also confident with the ball at his feet. However, most people expect him to leave France so we may be fighting an uphill battle with this one. He shouldn’t cost more than €6m according to a couple of sources I’ve spoken to.

The final player that I’ve told the chairman to go for is Spanish defender Manolo. The 27 year old left back has been placed on the transfer list by Celta Vigo, so he should be fairly cheap. He’s by no means a world beater, but we only really need a temporary solution in that position until Manuel Dos Santos recovers from his broken leg. Manolo is a solid pro, so I think he’d do us just fine.

If we manage to sign all of these players, it will only leave us around half a million Euros to spend on other players. Hopefully we can get a decent fee for the players we are trying to sell to supplement further signings. The chairman has promised me I can use any money we receive in transfer fees to spend on other players.

Wag

Liking this so far

Euan

Glad you're enjoying it, Wag

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Wednesday 18th June 2003

Our first arrival of the season came this morning in the shape of goalkeeper Mark Bosnich, who has joined up with the squad for a 2 week trial. Bosnich, a 31 year old Australian, is trying to get his career back on track after being sacked by Chelsea 2 years ago for a drug offence. We’ll see how he does over the next couple of weeks before I decide if he still has what it takes.

The first of our players was also sold this morning as 19 year old right back Aboulaye Soumah joined rivals Paris-SG in a €150k deal. I felt that his lack of pace was going to keep him out of the team, so I’m not too sad to see the back of him. Moreover, we have plenty of players capable of filling in at right back so even if he had stayed, he wouldn’t have seen much first team action.

The next player to leave gave our bank balance a bigger boost as Delfim left for Lyon for €1.1m. He only played once in the whole of last season and that says it all really. It’s decent money for a player who was never going to feature in the team. The fee should hopefully pay for the signing of Manolo.

We did receive some bad news today when Santos rejected our bid for midfielder Renato. Our offer was pretty generous, so I think we’ll leave that one for the time being.

Our attempt to sign Philippe Mexes was also dealt a blow today when Chelsea threw their hat into the ring. The big spending London club certainly have the financial muscle to sign him, but he may not be guaranteed a first team place there. We await further developments on that one. If it looks like he is going to go elsewhere, I may turn my attentions to Aston Villa’s Swedish star Olof Mellberg.

Grizzy

Good read so far Euan

thepain

Yeah this storys looking great