Going into season three, I really wanted to have a quieter summer. Make the loans permanent, grab a freebie, replace some of the older players, that sort of thing. Simples.
Turned out a little differently.
Having activated Hein and Sorloth’s future fee clauses, I was met with two nasty surprises. Hein wanting more than double our highest paid player to be a squad and Sorloth claiming that he “Didn’t enjoy his loan spell”. Despite now having us as a favoured club. So that put the kibosh on those lovely plans.
Further kiboshing has been done by our incredible formation. It’s nothing to do with the tactic itself, it makes lovely football and as works wonders. No, the trouble is that the Nordic nations seem to have really taken a liking to making lots of midfielders and only a smattering of good defenders.
We’ve also not got the most cash to splash, so I fully intend to do a ‘one in, one out’ system to make sure we’ve got enough in the bank to close deals.
You might think that attack would be the last place I’d look to improve first. And you would be right, both Berterame and Taslica have had brilliant seasons and replacing them would be silly.
Oooh look, a wonderkid on sale for far too little! Mine!
I don’t know why Semih Kilicsoy is on the transfer list at Besiktas. Maybe he ****** off the manager, maybe he’s tired of Istanbul, or maybe he’s sick of a shirt that looks like a barcode. Whatever it is, I don’t care, as he’s far too good to turn down the chance to sign. A quick, lethal finisher with two good feet and able to play across the front three? Sign me the **** up.
The next deal was a sale my heart didn’t want to make, but my head knew was the logical decision. Wembangamo has been brilliant in this system for the last two seasons, his sheer physicality a key part in our team. But, with the Brighton coming in with renewed interest and vigour, it’s maybe the right time to cash in on him. Despite the game thinking that £9m was the apex of his value, I’m somehow able to squeeze £15m out of the Seagulls for him.
In his place I’ve been able to wrestle back Elias Jelert after a year with PSV, becoming the latest arrival to break our transfer record. He’s six years Brice’s junior, is better in basically every technical and mental attribute and nearly as fast. Elias also fits into my ‘giants or goblins’ goal, as he’s another under 180cm.
We greet another defender through the door come the start of the new season too, as Taylor Harwood-Bellis arrives on a free from Manchester City. He’s not been able to break into the team there, but he’s got a well rounded skillset that should suit our back three perfectly.
Our two elder Danish statesmen head out the other way on July 1st, as Kjaer and Schmeichel depart for the Netherlands and Belgium respectively. I wasn’t expecting to get anything for them, considering they have a combined age of 78, so nearly a million for the both is great news. That it’s £25k off the wage bill is even better!
We’re going to need those pennies as it’s time to go and grab another player for us to build around. Isak Johannesson may have been named as Bundesliga Young Player of the Year, but he couldn’t stop Dusseldorf from getting relegated. Which means his release clause becomes active. I like release clauses.
Another of the area’s bright young things, with versatility to make a Swiss army knife ashamed, he’s one I have very, very high hopes for. Plus, all we need now is a decent Finn and we have all the Nordic nations under one roof.
His arrival coincides with the departure of Magnus Riisnaes. Whilst the lad has great potential, Porto managed to get him unsettled so it then just became a game of how much I could get for him. Over £10m and a good chuck of sell on profit seems like a fair deal for all involved.
Our former shot-stopper is shortly joined by his fellow Danish Kasper, as I’m able to offload Hogh for a fantastic fee to Belgian side USG. Kasper was fantastic in the first season but we’ve since outgrown him, with Semih knocking him further down the pecking order.
That cash goes straight back out of the bank balance though for Sivert Mannsverk. This was definitely a purchase of opportunity, with him having a bit of a grump at Ajax. Another very well rounded midfielder to come and bolster our ranks, especially since the departure of Riisnaes.
Then it became a summer of deals that thankfully didn’t come to fruition.
Somehow over the course of this summer alone, I’ve been able to talk Berg out a move to both Man City & Man United, Larsson from going to Liverpool, Kjelsen from leaving to Newcastle and Gronbaek from Champions League holders Tottenham.
Yes, you saw that right, Spurs won the Champions League in a final victory over RB Leipzig.
Thankfully, Berg, Larsson and Gronbaek were able to be placated with a bit of ego padding and Kjlelsen was made happy by telling him what a great bunch of prospects we have. All the more confusing seeing as he’s one of them, but there we go.
Whilst three of those offers were all ‘one and done’ offers at paltry values, Liverpool’s pursuit of Larsson was different. They started off low, as normal, but were not put off by flat out refusals. Time and time again, non-negotiable offers came in. Over the course of two weeks, they went all the way up to offers worth up to £70m if all the bonuses came true.
Now in most saves, I would have taken this silly amount of money and skipped off to South America to go wonderkid shopping. But this time my squad choices are very limited if I want to really challenge on the European stage. Larsson, Berg, Kjelsen & Gronbaek are the type of save this challenge revolves around. I can’t attract the very best regional players to my club, but these second tier of star or ones with huge potential are like gold dust. I’ve already managed to miss out of Halsbeth-Nypan, I cannot let the others slip away.
Staying in the Champions League is vital for this, giving us the stature to be able to convince these players to stay . If we could get the league high up enough to a point where we can automatically qualify for a place should we win, that would be excellent.
Back to deals that actually happened then.
The Dahbo purchase is one that I in my misguided way see as just being good for the league. I snatched him out of the grasp of Feyenoord and have loaned him back to his Swedish club for the season. Hopefully he keeps getting lots of game time and grows into that potential.
Coming up to deadline day, there wasn’t really anything I needed to do. Was planning to pop on my slippers and grab a mug of cocoa. That was until Atalanta showed up with an eight figure sum for our reserve wingback Sjovold. I’d wanted to keep him as an academy product, but I just can’t turn down that sort of money for him.
So much for that early night.
Having looked over all the available natural right wingbacks, none really grab my attention. However, spread my gaze a little further and there appears Dennis Gjengaar. Lighting up the MLS in New York, he weirdly has all the attributes I need. Okay, his tackling and marking won’t give Paulo Maldini sleepless nights, but our wingbacks are that aggressive they don’t really need that skillset. That his last name sounds a bit like a grinning purple Pokemon is just the added little extra.
Oh and who’s Edvin Tellgren? A defender I signed for £100k two years ago, didn’t really live up to the hype and only played in the Youth Trofe. But I wish him well in Denmark.
And so that brings a summer of wheeling and dealing to a close.
Honestly, I didn’t think we’d be able to blag all our best players into staying, so to have also added some real quality makes this overall a blooming great summer. Let's go smash it!
(P.S Sorry, but that all the player pics are from January, didn't take pics when they first arrived)