Cheers mate! I was well chuffed! Just hoping we can make the right additions this Summer now to compete in League One, but can't complain with the budget the board have given me.
Well, well! We pulled off the unthinkable as we made it back to back promotions against all the odds. Notts County are outshining our achievements as they make it back to back title wins, but then they are a much bigger club than we are!
Although we didn't go deep in any of the cups this season (not that we were expected to), we did manage to win a few cup games and did ourselves proud!
The biggest contributor to our success this year was the addition of two solid centre backs. Ryan Delaney was superb all year and I'm so pleased to have tied him down on a permanent deal, whilst youngster Jaden Warner on loan from Watford was just as good! They formed a solid partnership over the season!
The Best 11...
Overall Squad Stats...
The Awards...
Michael Cheek also made the Player's Team of the Year which was otherwise dominated by Notts County and Swindon players.
The success of our season has gained us recognition and 16000 extra people are now following us on social media! It's no surprise to see the fans only competition demand for next season to be attempting to avoid relegation.
It's a vision that is shared by the board and the long term aim now is simply to stay in League One...if we can!
With League One football next season comes another minor upgrade to Hayes Lane and we'll be able to accommodate an extra 500 supporters next year.
This year's commercials are again good and nearly every area of revenue is on the up. A few cup wins early in the season saw a considerable boost to our competition prize money this season, whilst being in the EFL brought a lot more broadcast funds as well. Match day commercial and retail revenue was down which I found strange considering our attendances were up!
So for the second Summer in a row, I have the job of trying to build a squad that will be able to compete at a higher level! Oh I do love this bit!
The first player to sign for the club this Summer is central midfielder, Romaine Sawyers, and he becomes the first player to play for Bromley that has previous Premier League experience. Sawyers is a fantastic signing for us and his quality shows just how far we've come as a club.
I wasn't able to sign Sam Long for a 3rd season on loan, so I needed a new first choice goalkeeper. At 34 years old, Neil Etheridge might only be good for one or two seasons, but he is a bl00dy good goalkeeper for League One!
As per last year, I fully expect our loan signings to be important this Summer. The first one is 18 year old centre back, Waylon Renecke who comes in from Norwich for the season. The kid looks to have some good attributes and is very quick for a centre back so with him in the team, it will negate balls over the top against us.
The second loan signing this Summer is another 18 year old, but this time an attacker in the form of Watford's Adrian Blake. The youngster only has one competitive appearance to his name and that was in the Carabao Cup last year....but he did get an assist in that one. Looking forward to seeing what he can do on a more regular basis.
We will kick off our League One season against the team that knocked us out of the FA Cup last year.
A load more players left the club this Summer as I chose not to renew their contracts.
The biggest name in there is the club record goalscorer, Michael Cheek. I did try to renew Cheeky's contract but there was no amount of money that would keep him here as he had made up his mind he wanted a new challenge.
With players leaving, it always means new players coming in as well. The first is ex Ipswich midfielder, Idris El Mizouni, joining on a freebie. He is an immediate step up on our other options in the central mid position.
A new attacking threat in Connor Mahoney then joins the club on a free transfer. Mahoney has played majority of his career for both Bournemouth and Millwall in the Championship so should bring a wealth of experience to our team down at this level and I'm hoping he can thrive in League One.
We have a new left back in Max Melbourne too. He has been first choice in that position for a couple of seasons now at Morecambe, but I managed to convince him to come here as his contract expired rather than renew with them.
With Michael Cheek leaving the club, I needed another striker and I've turned to the loan market to bring in 21 year old Josh Thomas from Swansea for the season. He scored 16 times for a very poor Newport side in League Two last year and I'm hoping he can do the same or better for us in a better team with more service, despite being in a higher division.
The draw for the Papa John's Trophy pits us against Fulham's youngsters this year. I'm still not sure how I'll treat this competition...I'm probably most likely to rotate heavily in the group stages and if we get through I might start thinking about trying to win it.
With Billy Bingham still throwing tantrums on the regular (so annoyed I haven't managed to offload him yet - I can't give him away), it was time to appoint a new captain. The armband goes to new signing Romaine Sawyers as I think his talent and experience at higher levels than this warrants it.
Pre-season went OK if not spectacular. I expected to lose to Watford and Brighton and we beat most of the other sides we played. Fitness levels are good and I feel as prepared as we could be.
The bookies this year absolutely think we are in for a relegation battle and who can blame them after back to back promotions. Although they clearly think Notts County will again have a great season and are only 15/1 to win the title.
The media agree that we'll do well to avoid the drop.
Our first game of the League One season pitted us against Bristol Rovers who we do have some recent history with after they dumped us out of the FA Cup in the 3rd round last season. A comprehensive performance ensured we got our revenge for that! What a way to kickstart the season!
We took an immediate break from the league to play the first round of the Carabao Cup and our opponents would be Leyton Orient, who were promoted alongside us last season. We played them twice last season and failed to score in either game.
But just as we did against Bristol Rovers, we put the past behind us and overcame a team we couldn't beat last year. A great performance and result to match.
I then added another loan signing to the squad for the upcoming season. I only had one recognised right back in the team, so desperately needed to bring in another. Joe Wormleighton is that man, who joins from Leicester. He is good enough to challenge Ash Baker for a starting spot in the first team.
Our first away day of the season was up at Blackpool. It was a game we lost, but we gave them a game and held our own.
Back at home though we were back to winning ways, overturning a 2-0 deficit against Wycombe to come back and win 3-2! Kouhyar's 25 yard curling free kick was the goal that sealed the points!
It was a quick return to the Carabao Cup after that and we'd been handed a tough away draw at Wigan to overcome.
And overcome them we did! Another great performance from my lads as we defy the odds again!
In the 3rd round we'll host Middlesbrough at Hayes Lane and we'll have to be at our absolute best to progress through that one.
We turn our attentions back to the league first and I'd tipped Forest Green for relegation in a pre season press conference, so they'd definitely be fired up for our match.
Luckily, I saved myself any embarrassment as we just about saw it through to get a narrow win.
I am being proved right though as Green still don't have a single point from their opening 4 games. Meanwhile, we have made an excellent start to life in the 3rd tier.
Hopefully we can keep this up! Something that should certainly help is our new affiliation with Arsenal which might give me access to their youngsters on loan deals.
And I wasted no time making use of our new partnership by bringing in Welsh U21 striker Omari Benjamin on loan for the season from the Gooners on deadline day.
Benjamin went straight into the starting lineup against Fulham's youngsters in the Papa John's Trophy to show what he can do. He did just that as he scored the opener as we cruised to a comfortable win to kick off this year's competition.
Our first home defeat of the season came at the hands of Plymouth. No excuses, we just didn't play well enough to get anything out of the game.
Sheffield Wednesday were up next for us and despite being predicted in the media to be promotion challengers this year, they've made an awful start to their campaign, losing 4 of their opening 5 games.
And we piled on the misery that little bit more as we pick up a massive 3 points at Hillsborough. It looked like it was going to be a bit of a walk in the park when we were 3-0 up after 31 minutes, but they rallied well to be fair to them, but in the end we held on for the win!
Connor Mahoney has been one of our shining lights in the opening couple of months of the season and has 4 goals in 5 league games already. However, we are going to have to make do without him for a few matches after he picked up an injury in training that will see him miss about 6 weeks of action.
Our first game without Mahoney was a toughie away at Portsmouth, a team that will definitely feel aggrieved they're still stuck in this division. Again, we come away with a huge victory and a massive 3 points...I didn't go into this season thinking we'd be beating the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Portsmouth on their own turf, but we continue to upset the odds and punch above our weight!
We couldn't have asked for a better confidence boost going into our Carabao Cup 3rd round tie against Middlesbrough.
INCREDIBLE SCENES at Hayes Lane as we overcome Michael Carrick's side on a penalty shootout to knock them out of the competition. Surely the biggest result of my Bromley career to date! After going 2-0 up and taking our chances well in the first half, the nerves definitely set in as we got closer to the end of the game and Boro fought back to level things up and force the pens. But my lads showed great character to see the job through and Neil Etheridge made a couple of blinding saves in the shootout!
That Boro game saw us bag record gate receipts as well with £100k coming into the club! I was hoping we could get another home draw in the next round to continue helping with the cash flow.
We didn't unfortunately, but it will be a great experience for the lads to go and play at Stamford Bridge in the next round, although I don't think anyone expects us to get anything from that game at all. We should still receive a hefty financial windfall from this game as well. The tie of the round is without doubt, Liverpool v City.
Our next league game against fierce rivals, Sutton, ends in a 1-1 draw but how we didn't win this game at the death I don't know. In the 91st minute, Omari Benjamin was blatantly hacked down inside the box just when he was about to take his shot, only for the ref to wave it away as no pen! The just a minute later, Benjamin again found himself free in the box, 6 yards out after turning his man, only for his powerful shot to hit the keeper and go wide...and I mean it literally hit the keeper as there is no way he is saving it intentionally! A dramatic ending to the game, but we have to settle for a point.
We looked to be heading for back to back 1-1 draws until Otis Khan popped up with an 89th minute winner against 2nd placed MK Dons!
And that win over the franchised Dons moves us to the top of the table after 9 games! I fully expect us to drop off and not stay there, but for now....BOOM!
Meanwhile, in the Papa John's Trophy we are top of the league after two games there as well. A 3-0 win over Oxford United with a heavily rotated 11 has seen us qualify for the knockout stages with a game to spare.
After beating Oxford United in the Papa John's Trophy with a heavily rotated and considerably weakened side, I had every reason to feel confident going into our league game, with my strongest available team out, that we would beat them again. But if there is one thing being manager of Bromley has taught me, it is that when I'm confident, we don't win!
I was worried that was going to send us into a downward spiral, especially when we followed it up with another defeat to Leyton Orient. However, my faith in my lads was fully restored as we bounced back to beat Bolton in a brilliant display.
It was important to get that win as we headed into our Carabao Cup tie at Chelsea...not that I or anyone expected us to get anything from that game.
As expected, we were never really in the game, but I'm not upset in the slightest...we've had a good run in this year's competition and done ourselves proud getting this far.
After our big day out against Chelsea, we were back in league action just 4 days later as we faced 2nd placed Lincoln and got a massive win in that one. We followed that up with defeat at Birmingham, but there is no shame in that result and we can feel hard done by to concede such a late goal to lose.
In the FA Cup, we'd been drawn against Crawley in the 1st round of this year's competition. We thrashed them 5-1 in our last meeting in League Two last season and with them still down in that division, I fully expected us to progress here.
And we did, but we didn't make it easy for ourselves, having to come from behind to get the result.
Our next game was the Papa John's Trophy and the final group game against Walsall...we'd already qualified, so it was the perfect opportunity to hand a debut to 17 year old Dujon Ossai who is emerging through our youth as a very tasty looking prospect.
The youngster gave a good account of himself too as he bagged an assist for the first goal on our way to an easy win.
Another player making his debut was 21 year old Connor Pye, who got himself on the scoresheet from the right back position. Great to see the youngsters doing well.
In the next round, we will play Arsenal's youngsters. Being our senior affiliate, it might just give me an opportunity to look at potential loan prospects to bring to the club!
Before that, we had three league games to play and they threw up mixed results with 1 win, 1 loss and 1 draw. Swindon are a good side so the point against them was a good one, whilst Stevenage are struggling at the bottom of the division so it was no surprise to me that we battered them. In the Cambridge game, I felt we deserved something so it was disappointing to go down narrowly.
One player that has done well for us of late is Omari Benjamin and the on loan striker picked up the young player of the month for November.
Benjamin wasn't able to play against his parent side in the Papa John's Trophy as he'd picked up a minor injury in training just a couple of days before. Without him, we struggled a little in front of goal and go out of the competition.
For the 2nd time in a week, we were knocked out of cup competition as Cambridge United ensured our FA Cup journey for the season came to a halt. Bitterly disappointing to go out as we were the better side.
So for the rest of the season, we only have the league to focus on now. That started with an excellent win over pre season title favourites Millwall in their own back yard!
It was a win that puts us on the heels of the top 6 and well in touch with the playoff places. On top of that, we have 2-3 games in hand over most of those above us, although MK Dons do seem to be pulling away at the top. Notts County aren't coping after back to back titles and seem to be embroiled in the relegation fight at the moment.
At the end of my last update, I talked about Notts County not being up to the standard of League One so far this season, so of course we throw a 2-0 lead to only get a point against them! Although the 94th minute penalty given by the ref was dubious to say the least!
We bounced back immediately with a great win at Wigan.
And then we shared an incredible game of football with Swindon. From 1-0 down, we went 2-1 up only to go 3-2 down in the 92nd minute. Staring defeat in the face, Omari Benjamin came up trumps just a minute later with one of the final kicks of the game to rescue us a point!
Our Boxing Day fixture pitted us against the league leaders and we earn a credible draw, although a very small part of me thinks we might have got more after leading twice in the game.
Just 3 days later we took an easy 3 points against bottom of the league, Bradford. Josh Thomas was handed a start up front and took his opportunity as he scored two really good goals.
As the year 2024 comes to a close, Omari Benjamin lifts the Young Player of the Month award for the 2nd month in a row after he bagged 5 goals in 4 games in December.
And we kicked off 2025 on New Year's Day with the most emphatic of victories over Leyton Orient. Fair to say this was our performance of the season so far! Kyle Taylor was on top form, grabbing a hat trick from his central midfield role.
Despite Taylor's attributes suggesting he is a half decent League Two player at absolute best, he continues to impress with a 7.15 average rating from his 12 league appearances this year and the recent hat trick takes his goals tally to 6 this season!
And he was on the scoresheet again as we fall to a narrow defeat at Oxford United. It was a good game and a good effort from my lads against one of the sides who are challenging for promotion this season!
Taylor may have been punching above his weight, but another player that has been incredibly disappointing is striker, Cameron Lancaster. When I signed him, I was very excited about what he might be able to do, but just 7 goals in 22 appearances and a low average rating has not been good enough. He leaves the club to go back to America for a fee of £5k.
Barnsley are another side that are very much in the promotion race this season and their fans will be expecting a return to the Championship, so to get a point against them was another really good result.
We are very much in the playoff race ourselves at this point of the season, sitting in 5th position. Don't get me wrong...I definitely don't expect us to remain there but I think it's fair to say we definitely won't be worrying about relegation this season so our target has already been hit with 20 games to go.
After letting Cameron Lancaster go during this transfer window, I needed to bring in another striker as cover and managed to snap up Josh Windass on a free until the end of the season. He has plenty of experience playing at this level and should prove a decent enough squad option.
Windass picked up an injury in training immediately after joining and wasn't able to feature in our next few games as we went on a bad run of form, winning just 1 of our next 4! Granted, Barnsley and Plymouth are both pushing for playoff spots this season so the results are not as bad as they may look initially, but we do need to recover from this and sharpish.
Bolton have been struggling all season and sit 21st in the league, so they would present a good chance for us to get back to winning ways.
Sure enough we make relatively light work of our floundering opponents. Bolton should be much better than they are, but we aren't complaining!
Transfer deadline day saw a pretty tasty arrival come into the club to bolster our attacking options for the rest of the campaign. Kim Min-Woo hasn't been getting in the Ipswich team up in the Championship this year, but he comes here and is one of the best attacking players (on paper) at Bromley. He could make a real difference!
I wasted no time getting Min-Woo straight into my starting lineup and he took just 25 minutes to make an impact as he provided the cross for Josh Thomas to tap in and give us the lead against Sheffield Wednesday. It was the first of a Thomas double which secured us the win!
Josh Thomas again got himself on the scoresheet in a 1-1 draw against Portsmouth and he is keeping Omari Benjamin out of the starting lineup at the moment.
Next up were our rivals Sutton and in two previous meetings we'd had some very tight games against them (a 1-0 win and a 1-1 draw). And again it was an incredibly tight game and we looked destined to win by a single goal again, right up to the last minute when Josh Windass was brought down in the box and Kyle Taylor stepped up to score the penalty for his 10th goal of the season.
The Sutton result moved us up to 3rd in the league, but things are ridiculously close between 2nd and 8th place! Our next game was a huge one as we took on 2nd placed Lincoln.
I felt like it was a game that was more important not to lose, than it was to win. And we came within just minutes of getting an excellent draw...only to fall apart in the dying moments of the game.
Things are so tight at the top end of the league that one defeat can see us drop from 3rd down to 7th just like that!
Next up would be another team battling for promotion in 5th placed Birmingham and if anyone was doubting our credentials as genuine promotion contenders, boy did we put them right here! What a result!!
This run in is likely to have plenty of twists and turns yet and that was proven as we lose to Millwall in our next game...they are closing in on the playoffs as well and this result brings them right into contention!
We seem to be winning every other game at the moment and that pattern continued in our next two as we beat Cambridge United (which was a good result as we lost the last two games against them) but then lose to promotion chasing Blackpool.
I don't think winning every other game along our last 7 matches will be enough to make the playoffs. We sit 6th but there are a whole host of teams looking to cement a place in the top 6 and any slip ups will likely be punished. I never expected us to be in this position at the closing stages of the season, so if we don't make it to the playoffs then I feel I have no right to be annoyed, but coming this close to fall at the last hurdle will hurt for sure.
The first of our last seven games would be at home to 15th placed Forest Green. We took an easy 3 points from the game and these are exactly the sort of games we should be winning on the run in if we want to secure that playoff spot!
Thanks to a great first time finish from Romaine Sawyers in the 89th minute, we managed to bag a win over Wycombe as well! It was a tense finish and I thought we'd thrown away the 3 points when they equalized on 87 minutes, but thankfully we responded to get the win.
This year's youth intake isn't great! Although we have moved up the leagues, there isn't enough money in the lower EFL divisions to invest in improving the youth recruitment and facilities at the club yet!
Destiny Adeyemo is the best of a poor intake. Although I'm not sure I feel comfortable playing a 16 year old kid that looks like a 40 year old man!
The opposition for our next game were a Shrewsbury side that had gone 9 games without a win and were being drawn into the relegation battle. A win was expected and and a win was delivered with a dominant display. Omari Benjamin scored his 26th and 27th goals of the season (in all comps)!
It's fair to say Benjamin's loan signing has been the best thing to come out of our affiliation with Arsenal!
It's no surprise that Premier League and Championship clubs are sniffing around him!
We have just 4 games to go and without a doubt, the toughest on paper was away at 4th placed Bristol Rovers. So it wasn't a surprise to see them get the better of us. We gave it a good go, but they are flying this year and proved too strong for us. Our defending from set pieces could do with some work maybe as both their goals came from headed efforts from a free kick and a corner.
With 3 games remaining we are holding on to that final playoff spot by the skin of our teeth, although Birmingham win their game in hand and we will drop out of the top 6!
Meanwhile, at the other end, Notts County who have won the title ahead of us for the past 2 seasons, have struggled all year and find themselves relegated back to League Two. Our next two games would see us take on both the sides already relegated and we'd be looking for maximum points!
Maximum points won't be happening though as we can only manage a draw against County! A really disppointing result under the circumstances.
It made the game against bottom side Stevenage a crucial one! The home side had the perfect opportunity to put their noses in front on the half hour mark as Luke Norris stepped up to take a penalty! It was brilliantly saved by Neil Etheridge, but my head was in my hands as I saw his parry come straight back out to Norris who had the goal at his mercy with Etheridge still sprauled out on the floor after his save...but to my shock and elation, Norris blasted his rebound against the crossbar! We hadn't created much in that first half but it only took a short time into the second half for the man that cannot stop scoring to put us ahead! Benjamin has been a revelation this season and it was his single goal that was the difference between the two sides!
As things panned out, that win against Stevenage was enough to secure us a playoff spot as Birmingham lost to Plymouth and drew with Bradford. It's an incredible achievement to get there and no matter what happens, I'm over the moon with how the season has gone.
The last game of the season was null and void, so I rested every player I wanted to use in the playoff games! Our back up boys were well and truly battered by Wigan.
But hey, who cares, we finished 6th and are in the playoffs! What an incredible season! Fair play to Bristol Rovers who lift the title despite being tipped for a 13th placed finish this year by the media. Oxford United go up with them automatically and it's fair to say we will be massive outsiders of the 4 clubs in the playoff positions.
Never expected to be here this season mate, so whichever way it goes I won't be disappointed Another year in League One wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if we don't win the playoffs, but at the same time it would be great to go up!
It's Lincoln for us in the playoff semi final and both sides will feel we have a chance after sharing a win a piece in the regular season.
But we took a major hit going into these games. Our first choice goalkeeper, Neil Etheridge, won't feature in the playoffs full stop!
And then to make matters worse, we lost Kyle Taylor as well. He has been playing well above expectations this season and has 11 goals and 4 assists to his name, but again won't play any further part this season.
I felt like our best chance of progressing through the tie against Lincoln would be to win our home game...that was essential. So it's safe to say we are massively up against it after losing, which is particularly gutting as we were the better side for pretty much the entire 90 minutes and created double the amount of chances than The Imps.
In the return leg, we again managed to create enough good chances to score goals, but struggled with our finishing, whilst Lincoln took their chances very well. Their clinical prowess in front of goal across the two legs was superior to ours and sees them through to the final.
The keeper that Lincoln played in that second leg, who thwarted us, was the man who spent two years on loan with us, Sam Long. That was the only game they have played him in all season as well, after refusing to allow him to stay with us this season for a 3rd year on loan.
Our keeper, Reice Charles-Cook had a bit of a nightmare in that game too and losing Neil Etheridge to injury definitely looks like it may have cost us in these playoff matches.
So it's definitely League One football again for us next season and with that the new budgets are announced by the board. The wage budget gets a small increase whilst there is a minimal amount for transfers.
And in League One next year, we will once again be playing Lincoln as they were thrashed by Blackpool in the playoff final.
I'm genuinely not too disappointed mate. I think another year at least in League One can prepare us better for the Championship. Although 3 straight promotions would have been amazing, it may not have been the best move for us.
End of Season Review 2024/25
No promotion this year in the end, but what a season it was as we hugely overachieved against expectations again! We lost in the playoffs, but it might prove to be a blessing in disguise as we get another year to continue improving the squad...I think we would have really struggled in the Championship next season if we'd managed 3 straight promotions.
It would have been a nice to go a bit further in the FA Cup, but the 4th round of the Carabao Cup was a good achievement especially knocking out Championship opponents along the way in Middlesbrough. We cruised through our Papa Johns group but Arsenal's kids were too strong for us in the knockout.
Neil Etheridge came in as new number 1 keeper and he maintained an average rating over 7.00 throughout, so quickly became a key member of the team and he picks up the signing of the season award. Omari Benjamin was unreal, scoring 31 times and he'll be tough to replace next year.
Benjamin actually set a new League One record for the highest average rating across a season too.
And that was enough for him to win the Player of the Year award for League One!
He was the division's top scorer as well. This kid could have a bright future in the game!
The Best 11...
Overall Squad Stats...
The Awards...
Omari Benjamin makes the League One Player's Team of the Year, which was pretty much a given after he won the Player of the Year award.
Our popularity continues to grow and we've gained another 17,000 social media followers this season which takes us over 100k! The supporters expect us to simply battle relegation again next season...oh, and finish above Sutton at all costs!!
In terms of the board, they have grown a little more ambitious off the back of our good performance this year. They previously had a 5 year plan to simply battle relegation in League One...however, they now want us to become an established side in the division within 2 years.
On the pitch, the priority is to continue playing attacking football, keeping possession of the ball.
Financially, the club is not rich by any means but we are stable. A new main kit sponsorship deal is worth nearly double that of the previous one whilst most streams of revenue are also on the increase on last year.
First signing of the Summer...a new goalkeeper who is likely to take the first choice slot! Max O'Leary looks quality and at 28 years old he could be our keeper for the next 2-3 years depending on what division/s we are in. He joins from Luton on a free transfer!
Our first departure of the Summer is Ash Baker. He came in and did a decent job for me at right back, also filling in at centre back when we were desperate, but after 59 league games for the club, his time here has come to an end and he joins Walsall for £14.5k.
My success with Bromley is starting to get noticed and for the first time a bigger club comes in to offer me an interview. Derby County is that club, but I swiftly reject their approach.
We had our fallouts in the latter stages of his career, but Billy Bingham deserves a mention as he retires from playing football, due to his service to this football club and the fact he was a big part of my back to back promotion winning side as my captain.
Back to the here and now though and I'm really pleased to have renewed the loan signing of Norwich's centre back, Waylon Renecke, for another season. The youngster was a first team regular for me last year and maintained an average rating of 7.07 in the league, so it's great to keep him here!
Unfortunately, I couldn't convince Player of the Year, Omari Benjamin, to stay here though!
But we have raided Arsenal's Under 21s for another hot prospect in Ryan Watkins. He looks like an exciting player and I'm hoping he can prove just as effective up front as Benjamin was last year.
A whopping 30 players have been released from the club this Summer with a lot of them featuring in the first team last year. I have plans to bring in better than what we had. It's a risk to let so many go as it leaves the squad thin on the ground, but I'm confident we can bring in some new players to replace them of a higher calibre.
George Dowling has also been released and although he didn't feature much at all last year, I feel he deserves a mention as he was a massive part of my first season in charge getting 24 goal contributions in the league which saw us promoted to the football league.
Another player in through the door next and it's Nathan McGinley who will become the club's first choice left back. He's been a regular in the Leyton Orient side for the last couple of seasons, but for some reason they decided not to retain him so we snap him up on a free.
We've got our second striker in as well. It's another loan signing as Ken Aboh joins from Norwich for the season. He looks like a good player on paper and should prove to be a good addition.
I signed two central midfielders this Summer on free transfers as their contracts came to an end with their respective clubs. Both are strong additions to the centre of the park positions for us and certainly improve us! George Lapslie was probably Gillingham's best player in their whole squad and he didn't want to stay with them, so we were happy to hand him the opportunity to stay in Kent, whilst Callum Jones was deemed not good enough for Hull...but he'll certainly do for us!
I then turn to Manchester City for one of their young pacey wingers. Joel Ndala's dribbling skills and flair should wreak havoc down at this level and strike fear into full backs across the division. He'll be with us for the season on loan.
Our second American has also joined the club in the way of 6ft 4" centre back, Jonathan Tomkinson. He joins on a free after Norwich released him and he is a really good coup for us in League One and makes our back line taller, bigger, stronger and better!
And my final signing (for now) is right back Tivonge Rushesha. He doesn't look amazing on paper I know but he has some key attributes I am looking for in that position and I'm hoping the fact my assistant only rates him as a 2.5 star player at best will be proven wrong.
So this is how the squad is taking shape for the new season with only a couple of weeks to go before it kicks off. I'm happy in general and would only really be looking to add maybe one more wide midfielder/winger to give me more numbers in attack.
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