My favourite part of the season, the off season, was upon
us. A chance to reshape the squad and make it much more ‘my own’.
As mentioned in the last blog entry I snapped up some
contract expiring bargains in January who duly arrived over the summer.
The excellent young goalie David Ospina from Nice, tough target man Denis
Straqualursi from San Lorenzo , reliable right back Nelson from Betis and
defensive midfielder Remi Gomis.
Over the summer I also acquired ageing Carlo Cudicini as a 3rd string goalie.
Nice Goalie: Ospina arrives on a free from France
I recruited a number of talented youngsters as seed-corn for
the future. Some should make it, those that don’t should generate a tidy
profit.
Danny Gilbey, young striker from Crystal Palace for 325k,
Karel Brabec a young Goalie from Sparta Prague for 375k, Jonas Laursen another
promising young keeper for 210k, Thomas
Eriksen a strong young AMC for 500k and finally Vladimir Drozhzin another young
GK for 45k
As for the first team,
Sidibe had finished his loan and gone back to Stoke, Stacqualursi would take his place, but I
wasn’t altogether happy with Holt, who was aging and too often injured. I sold
him to Championship Bolton for 1.5 million, and brought in Andy Carroll on
loan.
Steve Morison provided no competition for Kweuke, so out he
went to Derby for 1.8 million, and
in on loan came Alberto Paloschi from AC Milan. He was strong enough to be a
good Premiership striker, but young enough that he could improve quickly over
the season.
James Vaughan, who had been
out on loan last season, wasn’t in my plans and left for Reading
for 2 million.
Paloschi arrives on laon from AC Milan
Right back Paul Stalteri left on a free, so I turned
Jonathan’s loan into a permanent deal for 2.1 million. He was injury prone but
had really impressed when he was fit.
At left back I extended Garrido’s loan for another
season. Out went Tierney to West Ham for
1.5 million, and Steve Whitaker on loan to Cardiff .
In came Ruben for 1.9 million from Martimo.
As Cudicini had arrived, Mark Bunn was offloaded to Watford
for 375k. Then Fulham bid 7.5 million for Ruddy. It meant I was praying Ospina
stayed fit, but I could not turn down such a high bid and Ruddy left for Fulham.
The AMC position was proving problematic and I went as far
as having £5mill bids accepted for, and agreeing terms with, both Jonathan Viera
and Felipe Anderson, but when it came to
it I just wasn’t convinced enough by either of them to spend the money. I went after Bennayoun on
a free but he wanted silly wages, and got them from newly promoted Cardiff . With time running out, I plumped for Andrei Arshavin on loan from Arsenal.
I had low expectations but hoped he would at least compete with Hoolahan until a better
permanent target emerged. My coaches all
reported that Hleb was declining rapidly so I offloaded him for 200k to Valenciennes .
The new left back, Ruben
I had realized why Man Utd had dumped Bebe, and sold him to
Palace for 110k plus a good sell on % should he suddenly come good.
Finally I avoided the 500k add-on fee for Michael Turner by
selling him to Cardiff for 2.8
million. I was happy with the central defence. Ryan Bennett had made great
progress and was a good partner for Bassong, and Daniel Ayala had returned from
his season long loan, and looked another good young defender. However when the chance came to loan a
leading premiership class defender,
Diego Lugano, I grabbed it, though his wages were high.
Overall I had spent 5.25 mill, and sold players for £17
million. The wage bill was higher, due to having a bigger 1st
team squad, as I really wanted to make a push in the cups this season but the overall financial picture was very rosy.
Looking at the squad I was very pleased. I had concerns
about the lack of quality in depth at GK,
and the fullbacks, but everywhere else, I felt the team had plenty about
it, and I was really excited about Andy Carroll.
Soon it was time for the big kick off.
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