The Story of Croydon Football Club

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gregprude

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Oil-Rich Millwall

View attachment 230155Sky Sports News Anchor: "Good morning, it’s Thursday, May 29th, 2014 and we have some breaking news to share with you, John Berylson has officially sold Millwall Football Club to a Saudi Arabian consortium led by oil-rich billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi. The offer was one that Berylson couldn't refuse, worth a reported £40M, which is more than quadruple the club's current value. Millwall representatives have said a press conference will be held within the next few hours, which the club's new owner is expected to attend. We will keep you updated on this breaking news as the story develops."

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Billy Taylor (Head of Media): “Good afternoon, I know you all have many questions but I’ll ask you to hold them until the end of the press conference. Now, on behalf of everyone at the club I’d like to welcome our new owner and chairman, Mohammed Al Amoudi”





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Owner,Mohammed Al Amoudi: “Hello everyone, I am very pleased to be sitting here today as the new owner of this amazing club. With that being said, let's get down to business. After seeing what the likes of City Football Group and Qatar Investment Group were able to do with their respective clubs, I was inspired to do the same. I settled on placing a bid for London side Millwall. I plan on investing millions of pounds into the club starting today. I am also looking to emulate clubs like Barcelona, Ajax, and Southampton, who all have world-renowned youth systems. We will not just be buying all the best players in the world, we will be developing them here at Millwall. We have the utmost confidence that this philosophy will help lead this club to the top of the world! I will now answer a few questions.”



BBC Sports Reporter: How much money will you be investing into the club this season?

Mohammed Al Amoudi: "This season, our main focus will be gaining promotion to the Barclays Premier League. We will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal. Whether that be investing over £100M or only investing £1M. Whatever it takes...."




ESPN FC Reporter: Will you be keeping on current manager Ian Holloway? What will happen with the remainder of the staff and board?

Mohammed Al Amoudi: "Great question. Ian Holloway will remain on staff as head manager of Millwall. He and all his current staff members will be given a chance to prove themselves this season. As far as the board concerns, I will be bringing in all new board members for the club."




SkySports Reporter: Will you be looking in to improve the club's training and youth facilities in the near future? Will you be building a new stadium for the club?

Mohammed Al Amoudi: (Calmly Chuckles) "I was waiting for someone to ask that question. I cannot answer that at this moment. I will take some time out to meet with the new board to decide on the club's future facility-wise. But all I will say is, you can expect a huge announcement coming from us within the next few days regarding the club."



Billy Taylor: “That’s all the time we have today for questions, thank you guys for coming out .”
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The Future of Millwall

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(Later that Night)






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Croydon Football Club
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SkySports News Reporter: "Hello, I'm John Smith reporting live from outside The Den, Millwall's stadium. We are here with Millwall supports who are upset with the club deciding to pack up and move to Croydon. They are not just moving to Croydon, they are completely rebranding the club. They will now be called Croydon FC. We believe that this is the big announcement that the club's new owner Mohammed Al Amoudi was talking about during his introductory press conferen....."

SkySports News Anchor: "Sorry to cut you off John, but we are being told that Croydon FC are having a press conference as we speak. Let's go to the live feed."

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Billy Taylor (Head of Media): Hello all, I'm sure you all have heard the news from multiple news sources. But we are here to confirm it. We are no longer Millwall. We are now Croydon FC! We will also be moving from Bermondsey to Croydon. The move will be completed before the 2014/2015 season. For the interim, we will be playing at Selhurst Park. We would like to thank Crystal Palace for allowing us to play at their wonderful stadium for the next 3 seasons, whilst we figure out where Croydon FC will permanently call home.
Without furthur ado, we would like the debut our brand new logo.

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Mohammed Al Amoudi: We wanted to implement the flag of England in our logo because of our philosophy of developing great young English talent. We also implemented a lion in the middle of the logo representing the fact that everyone that is a part of this club has the heart of a lion. We will do everything we need to do to succeed.​
 
Norwood Park

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Croydon FC Announce Stadium Plans
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Above you see the future home of Croydon FC, Norwood Park. The stadium will be in the Northeast region of South Norwood Country Park in Croydon. They stadium will be surrounded by brand new retail stores, restaurants, and over 25,000 new homes and businesses. The proposal of the stadium was approved by both The City Council of London and Croydon Borough Council due to the amount of new jobs and increase in residence the stadium and surrounding businesses will bring to the area. It is also an attractive idea because oil-rich owner Mohammed Al Amoudi will fund the £550M project all out of his own pocket. The new deal will also bring a huge new public transportation hub near the stadium on the bottom left of the rendering above.

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Above you will see the layout of the new training and youth facilities that Croydon FC plan to build on the Northwest part of South Norwood Country Park (The stadium will be on the Northeast side of the park). They decided to put the facilities on the other side of the park to make room for the residential and retail areas around the stadium. There will be an underground train running from Norwood Park to the new training facilities for players and staff alike to use when they need to transfer between facilities. Al Amoudi is hoping that these new facilities will attract some of the best young talent in the world, which is the club's vision for the future. These new training and youth facilities alone will cost Mohammed Al Amoudi £150M to build. That is a total of £650M for the stadium and facilities. But it is still only a drop in the ocean that is Al Amoudi's growing net worth.




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Loving the start mate, the detailed updates are truly amazing, great photoshop work aswell. I look forward to seeing how far croydon town can go.
 
Good start - will be interesting to see where you can take the CroyDons... :p
 
14/15 Kits

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CROYDON FC ANNOUNCE KIT

DEAL WITH NIKE
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View attachment 229832Croydon Football Club have officially announced a new kit deal with Nike. The american sports apparel company will become the new Croydon FC kit supplier starting in the 2014-2015 season. The deal is worth a reported £40M / year. The new ten-year Nike kit deal was confirmed today by club chairman, Mohammed Al Amoudi. He went on to say "We are very excited to be partnering with Nike to create our kits for the next ten years. The new kits for the 2014-2015 campaign will be unveiled at Selhurst Park within the next few weeks." The club will reportedly use the £40M received from this year's portion of the deal for this season's transfer budget. Tune in to SkySports News on Thursday, June 19th at 8PM to see the unveiling of the new kits.







(8 Days Later at Selhurst Park)


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Croydon FC Chairman: "Hello all, welcome to the official unveiling of the Croydon FC kits for the upcoming 14/15 season. I know you are all excited, so let's get down to business!"

Croydon FC PA Announcer: "Without furthur ado, introducting the new 2014-2015 Croydon FC Home, Away, Alternative, and Goalkeeper kits!"

View attachment 229827Home Outfielder Kit



View attachment 229828Away Outfielder Kit




View attachment 229825Alternative Outfielder Kit




View attachment 229826Goalkeeper Kit


PA Announcer: "What do you guys think? Nice Right?" (Calmly Chuckles) "Thanks to all for coming out tonight to celebrate the kit launching with us! We would also like to congratulate all of you because you will each receive your own Croydon FC Home kit courtesy of our generous chairman, Mohammed Al Amoudi!"​
 
Well those sure are some fancy kits :)

Awesome start, will be following.
 
I love the idea of this mate. Keep it going! Looking forward to seeing some signings.
 
Chapter 1: Transfer Targets

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Head Manager Ian Holloway walks into the staff meeting room. "Good morning guys, I hope you all enjoyed your holiday! I sure did. But now it is time to get back to business," says Holloway. He proceeds to say, "We are now Croydon Football Club. New club, new city, new facilities, new fans, and most importantly new ownership. And as expected, with new ownership comes new objectives and philsophies. Our main philosophy is to develop young English talent, but the main objective for this season is to get promoted to the Barclays Premier League!" After a long pause, he says, "So how do we get promoted? Well by bringing in fresh, new, talented players to the club. With all that being said, what players do you guys suggest? Let's start with you, David." (Assistant Coach)


David Livermore clears his throat and says "Well, we can all agree that we are weakest on the wings. So I think that we could potentially sign Nathan Redmond from Norwich.”

“He is one of the fastest in English football, and he is an amazing dribbler. My insiders at Norwich tell me he is unsettled due to minimal playtime last season and is looking for a move. He is an underrated player and is only 21 years old. We should be able to get him for under 20 million pounds," says Livermore. Holloway nods his head in agreement and says "We will look into getting him in a Croydon kit. Who else do you have on that list of yours?" Livermore scans through his list and says "Ahh, here's are a few good ones : Fabio from Cardiff, Eric Dier from Spurs, and Chris McCann from Wigan." Holloway stands, walks to the board behind his seat and writes the previously mentioned names. He then says, "That is a good start, anyone else have any ideas?" For the next few hours the scouts and coaches compile a list of players ranging from all over Europe including Michael Carrick, Omar Gonzalez, Troy Deeney, Josh Murphy, Francis Coquelin, James Ward-Prowse, Youri Tielemans, and even Raheem Sterling.

To be continued....​
 
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Signings

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CROYDON FC SUMMER

TRANSFER ROUND-UP
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It was an interesting summer transfer window for Croydon FC. They spent over 60M on the likes of Nathan Redmond, Francis Coquelin, and Michael Carrick. Ian Holloway said on transfer deadline day,
We spent a lot of money this window! We made it very clear what our objective is... and that is gaining promotion to the Premier League.
Click to expand...
The stakes are high for a team who before being taken over by Mohammed Al Amoudi, was expected to be fighting to stay up in the SkyBet Championship. We put together a list of the top signings for Croydon this season....


TOP 3 SIGNINGS

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Nathan Redmond
Price: £17.5M
Position: Winger
Age: 21

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Summary: He is one of the fastest players in English football. He has a good first touch and nice dribbling skills. He is only 21 years old, so he still has lots of room to grow technically and mentally.
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Troy Deeney
Price: £8.25M​Position: ST
Age: 25

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Summary: He is a relatively unknown player. He is a great leader, very strong, and all around hard working player. He is not flashy, but is the type of guy you need in English football on a cold night in Stoke...
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Josh Murphy
Price: ​6.25M
Position: Winger
Age: 19

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Summary: Follows the philosophy of signing young English talent. He has Premier League potential. He is another extremely pacey player. He is also very determined. We expect him to produce for the club for many years to come.
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INCOMING TRANSFERS

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OUTGOING TRANSFERS

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Pre-season

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CROYDON FC PRE-SEASON

SUMMARY
View attachment 229426Summary: 17 minutes in from a beautiful pass by Nathan Redmond, Lee Martin put it in the back of the net. We had possession for more than 55% of the match. We had 4 shots on target. The opposing keeper had a relatively good match...



View attachment 229425Summary: Goals scored in the 4th and 33rd minutes respectively. We had 4 shots at goal. The defense was terrible for Dulwich. We had a total of 14 shots, they were just off target. The goals were scored by Martyn Woolford and Nathan Redmond.



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Summary: Even though it was pre-season, it was an amazing win for us against a strong Italian side. They couldn't handle Ben Marshall coming down the right wing. He scored both goals in the 74th and 83rd minutes of the game.


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Summary: "An embarrassing loss to a team that even Millwall would have been able to beat. If we want to gain promotion to the top flight, performance like this cannot happen," said Croydon manager Ian Holloway after the match.


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Summary: A good bounce back win for the club after the last match. The goals were scored by Martyn Woolford and Angel. They both had breakout pre-season's.. Hopefully this form can continue into the Championship season...

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Pre-Season Interview

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IAN HOLLOWAY PRE-SEASON

INTERVIEW

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SkySports Anchor: Good evening and welcome to the 6 o'clock edition of SkySports News. Tonight, we have an exclusive interview to debut with Croydon FC head manager, Ian Holloway.

(Cuts to Interview)

SkySports Journalist: Good evening, Mr. Holloway. We have a number of questions lined up for you tonight. Let's get right down to it... How do you think your squad faired in the friendlies?

Ian Holloway: Thank you, glad to be here... Well, the guys did an amazing job during the friendlies. New signings Nathan Redmond caused miss-matches for bigger slower defenders, whilst Troy Deeney bullied the tiny opposition. I think those two will be lethal for us this season and it showed during the friendlies..

Journalist: Whose performance most stood out to you during friendlies?

Holloway: Well, like I said earlier.. Redmond and Deeney played well, but Angel and Ben Marshall had the biggest impacts for the club. To be completely honest, I expected them to be drowned out by our new signings, but they performed very well. You can expect to see them in the side regularly this campaign.

Journalist: Interesting.. Speaking of new signings. Why didn't you try to acquire higher profile players than like likes of Redmond, Deeney, and Fabio?

Holloway: Well, I feel like we brought it some extremely talented guys who will be successful at this club. So I don't know what you are on about...

Journalist: Well anyway, moving on. What are your personal goals for the team this season? Do you think you will be able to achieve those goals?

Holloway: We want to gain promotion to the Premier League. Ownership, myself, and even the players have said it multiple times. If we aren't at the top of the table at the end of the season, it will be a big disappointment.

(10 minutes later)

Journalist: Well, Mr. Holloway.. That is all we have time for tonight. Thank you some much for taking time out of your busy schedule to sit down with us. Good Luck this year..!!​
 
AUGUST 2014 REVIEW

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CROYDON FC - AUGUST 2014

REVIEW
CROYDON vs LEEDS

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Summary: Possession wise, it was a pretty even match... Score wise, it was the exact opposite. They had many chances but couldn't get them on target. Great way to start of the season, goals scored by Chris McCann and Antonio Cassano.
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CROYDON vs STEVENAGE

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Summary: The first round of the Capitol One Cup. The first 90 were boring. The goals started in the 111th minute and 116th minute for each team. The match went to penalties were we won 5-4. We deserved this win... look at the possession stats.. c'mon FM!!
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FULHAM vs CROYDON

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Summary: Our first loss as Croydon FC comes against our crosstown rivals, Fulham... They dominated on all three phases. They had more shots, shots on target, less fouls, and better possession stats. Next time will be different...
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SHIEFFIELD vs CROYDON

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Summary: This is our second straight disappointing match. We maintained possession pretty heavily and had lots of shots, they were just off target. The seventeen fouls didn't help us out either.. These are the kind of matches we need to win in the future.
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CROYDON vs ROTHERHAM

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Summary: Finally got back on track. This was a very competitive match. Hats off to their keeper, he kept them in the game for a while. Smallwood scored off kickoff in the 1st, we answered back finally in the 31st.. A few minutes later a goal frenzy happened... three goals within five minutes of each other... two of them from Croydon. 3-2 win baby!!
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LEICESTER vs CROYDON

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Summary: Just when we thought things were going good.. This match shows maintaining possession means nothing... It is what you do with the ball when you have it. We had more shots on target but their keeper was simply better. But this wasn't a shocking loss to Premier League side: Leicester City..
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CROYDON vs BLACKPOOL

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Summary: Thirteen shots... five on target. I know what we will be doing in training on Monday. They had very few chances but they made right on those chances, scoring in the 44th minutes right before halftime to tie it up. We had a couple chances in the 2nd half but nothing came of it.

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CLUB COMPETITIONS:

SkyBet Championship: 9th Place
Capitol One Cup: Eliminated in 2nd Rd by Leicester City
English FA Cup: Not Entered Yet​
 
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Construction Begins

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NORWOOD PARK

CONSTRUCTION BEGINS
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Construction has officially began on the future home of Croydon Football Club. Builder Matthew Roseland says that stadium will be complete before the 2017-2018 season. It will be a 65,000 capacity stadium, making it the second highest capacity stadium in English football only behind Manchester United's Old Trafford. We met up with Croydon FC chairman Mohammed Al Amoudi at the site of the new stadium last week, he said "This is a huge step. Not just for Croydon FC, but for Croydon as a whole. We will be brining in over 25 thousand jobs to the area just by building this stadium, the businesses will follow.." There has been an ongoing battle between huge corporations such as Emirates, Coca-Cola, and Apple for naming rights for the stadium, but the club's owner and chairman Al Amoudi is adament that the stadium will remain Norwood Park.

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Make sure you follow @CroydonFootball on Twitter for daily updates on everything Croydon FC!

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September 2014 Review

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CROYDON FC - SEPTEMBER

2014 REVIEW

IPSWICH vs CROYDON

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Summary: Ipswich blew this one... plain and simple. They had fifteen shots!! But were only able to put four on target. They also dominated possession for majority of the game. But it is not about the quantity of shots, it is about the quality of them. We were patient and took our chances.. good win boys!

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READING vs CROYDON

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Summary: WTF... That is all I can say. Our defense was terrible in this one. They allowed seventeen shots, eight of them on target. Our attackers and midfielders are doing terrible, we had eight total shots. That is the same amount of shots they had on target.. We have to play better.

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CROYDON vs NOTTINGHAM

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Summary: Things are not going well for Ian Holloway's squad. Another missed chance at three points we desperately need at the start of the season. We had more shots, shots on target, less fouls, less yellows, and 54% of the possession, but we couldn't come out with the victory..

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HUDDERSFIELD vs CROYDON

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Summary: Another loss, I can already tell this is going to be a long season. Our attack is absolutely terrible. We create minimal chances, and our defense isn't helping our either. I wonder what Al Amoudi thinks of all of this...

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CROYDON vs BIRMINGHAM

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Summary: Terrible match from our keeper David Forde and it shows in his match rating: 5.80. Two shots on target and they both got past him... Hopefully next month will be a better one.

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CLUB COMPETITIONS:

SkyBet Championship: 12th Place
Capitol One Cup: Eliminated in 2nd Rd by Leicester City
English FA Cup: Not Entered Yet​
 
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