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We sealed three new signings today that almost complete the jigsaw that I’m trying to put together here at Stade Velodrome.
The first player to sign was 24 year old Metz defender Stephane Borbiconi for a fee of just under one million Euros. Borbiconi will give us a bit of versatility at the back because he can play in the middle or in either fullback position. Whilst he isn’t quite as good a defender as Van Buyten, he is a lot quicker which is one of the main attributes that I look for in any player. If you look at any of the top teams in Europe, Arsenal are a fine example, they have great pace throughout their side. If we can get that throughout the team, it will give us a great counterattacking weapon.
Dagoberto is another player with good pace, and he has joined us on a season long loan from Brazilian side Atletico Paranaense. The 20 year old striker gives us another dimension up front with his trickery and I’m very happy that he’s decided to join us. The fact that he has a French passport also helps because he won’t take up one of our non-EU spots. His signing means that I have ended my immediate interest in Robinho and Peter Kovacs. I may go for Robinho in the future, but I’d prefer not to bring in too many new players just now.
The third player to join today is another loan signing, this time from Scotland. Mikel Arteta is his name and he is a talented 20 year old Spanish central midfielder. If both he and Dagoberto do well then I think we’ll be looking to sign them permanently.
08-17-2004, 05:34 PM
Let's try not to bribe our way to victory this time, eh? Post #34
With just 7 days left until our first friendly game, I think it’s time that I let you know what our pre-season schedule looks like. We start with a few away matches against lower league French opposition in Le Havre, Bois-Guillaume and Cannes, before River Plate of Argentina come to Stade Velodrome. Finally, we play host to Ajax, Boca and Roma in the Vodaphone Cup. Meanwhile the reserves and under 18s will tour Spain and Austria.
I’m pretty happy with the schedule as it will allow us a reasonable easy start to regain fitness before playing more difficult games which will hopefully help us return to full match sharpness. Hopefully the semi-competitive Vodaphone Cup will get the players in a winning mentality.
Overall I’m much happier with the squad that we have now compared to what I inherited. We’ve strengthened in a number of positions without really weakening much despite the fact that we are in profit in terms of transfer fees.
I haven’t quite cut down the squad as much as I’d hoped but there is still time before the start of the season to sell a few more guys, and there are a few deals in the pipeline even as we speak. On the other hand, there is still time (and money available) for me to add to the squad; even the Mellberg deal isn’t dead yet.
08-17-2004, 10:14 PM
Let's try not to bribe our way to victory this time, eh? Post #35
Things have calmed down a lot over the last few days, but we have seen one new arrival at the club. Since Meriem went back to Bordeaux, I’ve been looking to bring in a bit of cover on the right of midfield and we have done so by loaning Tiberiu Ghioane from Dinamo Kiev. The Romanian international midfielder can also play in the centre but his main task will be to fight it out with Edson Araujo and Pascal Johansen for the spot wide on the right. I’m not sure which of them is the best suited to the role, so they’ll all get a chance in pre-season to prove their worth.
We’ve also seen one player leave the club in the past few days. Despite having turned down an earlier move to Le Mans, Johnny Ecker has finally left the building. The 30 year old defender has joined Nice for €725k. I doubt that we’ll miss him much because he was probably the slowest player in the entire squad.
Meanwhile, there has been no movement on the Olof Mellberg deal. I’ve been trying to contact his agent but I’ve had no luck so far; my patience is beginning to wear thin.
08-18-2004, 02:55 PM
Let's try not to bribe our way to victory this time, eh? Post #36
I had a tough decision to make today. It came about when our scout in Brazil phoned me to tell me that Roma had made a bid of €6m for Robinho. With Dagoberto on board I felt that we could leave Robinho on the back burner; at least until the end of the season. However, this bid from Roma threw that plan out the window.
If I go for Robinho then we’ll have to sell one of our other strikers – probably Sytchev – and that could prove to be quite difficult, especially if I want to get a decent fee.
In the end I decided that it’s too good an opportunity to turn down. Robinho is a fantastic talent and, as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Besides, it’s not as if we can’t afford it, especially since I just heard that Olof Mellberg has decided to join Manchester United; that leaves us with plenty money in the kitty.
We play our first pre-season friendly tomorrow away at Le Havre. I’m really looking forward to it. The players have been working hard in training and are starting to look fit. It’ll be interesting to see them in a real match for the first time and I’m expecting to learn a lot about them. We’ll be employing a 4-4-2 system this season and tomorrow will give me the chance to see how the players adapt to it.
08-18-2004, 04:30 PM
Let's try not to bribe our way to victory this time, eh? Post #37
On the morning before the match I accepted two bids (from Nantes and Lyon) of around €3m for Fabio Celestini. The player has dropped slightly out of my plans since the arrival of Kallstrom and Arteta so it makes sense to let him go, especially for such a good price.
Meanwhile, both ours and Roma’s bids for Robinho have been rejected. Nevermind.
Le Havre v Marseille Stade Jule Deschaseaux, Le Havre
Friendly
I decided to field as strong a team as possible in this game, just so that my first XI would have a chance to stretch their legs early on in pre-season. To be honest, I wasn’t really too worried about the performance or the result of today’s encounter. The main thing was just to get the fitness levels up.
As it happens, it turned out to be a pretty poor game which was won by a single first half Drogba goal. We looked pretty unfit and the fact that Le Havre were two games ahead of us in terms of friendlies really showed, especially at the back where their 20 year old striker William Mocquet caused us all sorts of problems with his pace.
Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the way things went; to come out of any pre-season game with no injuries is always good a plus.
Fabio Celestini has completed his move to Lyon in what looks like the last of the players we’ll be selling for just now. The €2.7m we received for the transfer will also be going no where in a hurry. Now that we’ve started playing friendlies, I want to allow the squad to settle down; that means no more transfers (in or out) for the time being. I’ve already changed a lot of the players and I don’t want to unsettle the squad more than I have to.
Having said that, I’m still willing to bring in players for the future at any time. That’s why I’ve told the chairman to approach Portuguese club Leixoes about 17 year old Venezuelan striker Jonathan. Our Iberian Peninsula scout has sent me a few videos of the lad and he looks like a promising talent who is a fine athlete, but also a natural finisher. He shouldn’t cost a lot so it isn’t much of a gamble.
With our first game out of the way, I’m expecting a big improvement (in both fitness and performance) in our next friendly game, away to Bois-Guillaume on Saturday evening.
08-22-2004, 10:38 PM
Let's try not to bribe our way to victory this time, eh? Post #40
Bois-Guillaume v Marseille Stade Parc des Cosmonautes, Bois-Guillaume
Friendly
I was expecting this match to be the easiest of all our pre-season fixtures, so I took the opportunity to put a few youngsters on the bench. They’re the future of the club, and if we can give them confidence by playing them in games like this, that can only be a good thing.
A crowd of just under 3000 squeezed into the delightfully named Stade Parc des Cosmonautes to watch the game, but they didn’t get much in the way of entertainment. We controlled the game pretty easily, but found it tough to get out of first gear. Still, there were definitely a few signs of the improvement that I was hoping for and it was a good run out for the team.
The match was won by a goal in each half. Mido got the first five minutes before halftime after good work from his strike partner Sytchev, and Drogba headed home from a Kallstrom corner just before the end of the match to give the scoreline a better look.
So far only Drogba has really shone in our two games so far, but it’s still a bit early to be making rash judgements on players. However, I’m still not sure about our defence. I think I may need to add one more defender to the squad, but only really as a backup.
story of the week :thup:
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