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PRE-SEASON 14-15
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A very long and tiring pre-season, however it gave us a lot of time to meld as a time and I'm sure we'll see a good season as a result. We went on a staggering 3 tours during the pre-season.
We started in Japan playing our recently affiliated team Sapporo and lost. During the Japan trip many players were at the world cup, including 3 of my signings. Robin Novikov got his first senior goal and I'll show his stats at the bottom of the update. Overall the tour was slightly disappointing but hopefully the financial benefits will make up for that.
Next up we went to China straight from finishing our Japanese tour. We played some very high key games including a 50000 attended game against Shandong. Most of the new signings arrived at the tour for the last game.
Lastly we had a 3 day break back in Berlin but then straight back on the plane heading to USA. We initially flew to West Virginia to play a lower league team. We then headed on the plane to Dallas International Airport and played a game against FC Dallas of the MLS and then drove down to Houston to play the Dynamos, also of the MLS. We took another plane up to Illinois to play the Chicago Fire. This was our best trip and the team definitely bonded.
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We were very active in the transfer market because we had a huge budget of £19mil and £200k p/w in wages.
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Granada got relegated from La Liga and therefore Murillo handed in a transfer request. It was either this guy or Ryan Shawcross. Both were available for £8mil, but I ultimately decided that Murillo's potential could surpass Shawcross' ability.
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Another player who handed in a transfer request after their team got relegated, Ruddy was available for a bargain of £3.1mil. Begovic was also on the short-list but he signed for AC Milan after they trippled our wage offer to him. Ruddy will come in as our new number one and I'm sure you'll all agree he's a fantastic buy.
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I'm a massive fan of Ecuador thanks to a classroom sweepstake back in the World Cup 2006 which I drew Ecuador. Since then I've followed them closely and have fallen in love with Montero. A rapid player who could give the best full-backs in the world trouble. After seeing he has a release clause of £1.3mil, I very quickly added him to the team.
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A very good player who's an instant upgrade over preivous RB Pekarik. £2.8mil.
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Initially brought in for rotation, I discovered he is actually better than all my other left backs so he will be the starter. £3.4mil.
Outwards is noone worth noting.
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Just thought I'd show Novikov and how he's progressing after less than a year at the club. He's already capped at German U19 level and I'm suddenly realising that he could become world class. Have to wait two more years for him to be eligible for the first team though
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