Football Italia: Season 4 – Preparing for the transfer window

Season Four: Preparing for the transfer window

So, the summer…

This piece feels quite polished because, annoyingly, it’s the second time I’ve written it after I decided to turn my laptop off without thinking to save the post I was writing. Nevertheless, it’s written over a period of time, essentially marking my thinking on paper of the plans before coming to some decisions regarding my intended transfer business. I’ve tried to dig into to panels and areas that I don’t always look at and really get down my thoughts on how I want this to pan out, removing – hopefully – the biggest issue that I have with recruitment, my own element of perfectionism. I rarely commit to a player if he doesn’t tick all the boxes but, in reality, that’s very rarely going to be the case!

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Step 1: Assessing what we can spend.

The Messina board gave me a budget of €63k p/w (around €3.2m per year) and a transfer budget of €812k. We’ve ended this season with just over €300k left in the bank and that situation would look muchworse without the strong cup run bringing prize money and player sales that have balanced our books in January. We are going to get two further payments of €367k this season – in July and January – but that only accounts for two thirds of the initial fee brought in last year. Furthermore, the expiring contracts will save me a total of €233k across the season, which amounts at about €4.7k per week.

Looking at our wage expenditure across a yearly figure, rather than a monthly one, has helped me identify where we spend a lot of money and this can easily be seen when looking at the budget costs. I can see that Riccardo Vinci, for example, has cost me a lot of money and, despite forcing my hand with contract demands, hasn’t quite lived up to my expectations of him just yet. At only 17, though, he’ll have plenty of time to attract develop himself.

With losses predicted, I need to gamble on any interest within my own team but am reluctant to sell my midfield duo of Bellino and Lucenti, my starting striker Owusu or the best keeper at this level, Esposito. However, both Carboni (Venezia) and Ruggeri (Sampdoria) have interest in two players who would provide significant financial gain for us. Carboni would, if I play my cards right, bring in over €1m whereas Ruggeri could get me around half a million. My concern is that Sampdoria’s interest was concrete whereas Venezia’s was only rumoured and, even so, there wasn’t enough interest to create a proper bidding way.  I invited Sampdoria to make a bid and was able to negotiate an offer way more than my first thoughts for Ruggeri, which amounts at a figure that would equal the transfer fees from last season. Additionally, I used the data from last season to determine that Max Ibrahimovic had likely reached his peak and I offered him out, too. Hacken’s bid for Ibrahimovic matched what I wanted and the two of them will bring in just over €1.2m in transfer funds to be reinvested next year if necessary.

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Step 2: Analysing what we need to do.

Whilst I neglected an original rule that meant I had no say in my DoF recruitment, I have upgraded him thanks to an advert put out following an early exit for outgoing David Roma. Chema Aragon comes in with significant experience of working on a tight budget in the lower echelons of Spain, recently with Deportivo La Coruna. I’ve also refreshed the scouting setup in order to process reports quicker across this process.

Looking at the experience matrix, and going against what (myself included) a lot of FM players enjoy – developing youngsters – I really feel that we’re missing quite a few players who would class as ‘in their peak.’ That is a dangerous game, I feel, as these players will command far more money and playing time but are invaluable as they have the experience at this level, or similar, but still have the legs needed to play full seasons. When looking at both the social groups and hierarchy, I want to ensure the we are bringing good eggs into the team who are able to come in, fit in seamlessly, but also have a big role to play within the dressing room as I still have a huge number of youngsters at the club. Lastly, the strengths and weaknesses – despite feeling so unrealistic – have forced my hand towards some attributes. If, in real life, I’d been told our team lacked stamina, I’d weed out those unprofessional players who turn up after a heavy session and then run the rest of the team into the ground for a long pre-season, ensuring that we are the fittest that we can be for the start of the season. Sadly, FM does not work this way. However, I will try and bring in players who work hard, are brave and naturally fit – in addition to the Messina DNA of anticipation, acceleration, decisions, first touch and technique, required for our tactical style.

These constraints mean that I am unlikely to hit allareas and that is okay. It’s a step I want to take – handing over to the DoF which takes the pressure of my handing out of wages but it also means that I am less likely to get that perfect fit. I am, after all, the coach and I then need to ensure that I get the best of the players at my disposal.

With that in mind, I’ve used the squad planner to identify needs for depth that allow loans for Fall andVinci, as well as goalkeeper depth, WBR and WBLdepth, a second striker and an advanced playmaker. Quite a lot of players and some interesting discourse around what bringing in players here will do – block longer term roles for Vinci and Fall, mean that Floriani Mussolini will need to battle at right wing back or move back to centre back but that is, again, part of this process that I want to embrace!

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Step 3: Building the plans.

I think that I can split this into two areas: pre-contract expiry and post-contract expiry. From what I’ve found, I feel confident that I can close the right wing back gap without spending a penny on transfer fees:

 

Four names added to the list, all with different strengths and weaknesses:

1. Claud Adjapong – The top target for the right wing back role and, initially – I thought – the safest option to kick off this style of recruitment. Versatile, consistent, enjoys big matches, over two-hundred career appearances and has performed pretty well this season, as per his recruitment report. He’d slot into the second group  and doesn’t have a great personality, neither is age necessarily on his side. It’s also likely that my DoF is going to have to work wonders on a contract negotiation that will keep him under the €3.5k that my top earner gets without a huge promise of game time which means that I am tempted to keep this on hold until his contract expires and, maybe, I can then get him on a free.

2. Vitinha – The second man on my list is this Portuguese full back. His recruitment report has his overall form (B+) rated higher than his current form – analyst report – (C-) but he’s professional, versatile, consistent and a team player. He’s not a fan of big matches and is quite one footed, too. The biggest issue though is that his contract demands means that he’s not going to come, at all, whilst still under contract with Padova. Maybe one to keep on watch for a free transfer.

3. Federico Romeo – The wildcard here is midfielder Romeo. His recruitment report states that he’s versatile, intelligent, and consistent, the only things he lacks are a strong personality, a slightly better level of determination and exposure at right wing back. As a Carillero, he’s quite used to shuttling out wide and I think that his trait of running through the centre could provide a really interesting take on an area of the pitch that already looks to exploit numerically. He’s third due to lack of positional sense but, also, his contract demands, whilst contracted elsewhere, might need some work to fit inside my demands.

3. Daniel Frey – Lastly, and certainly the safest is Daniel. Again, the recruitment report states he’s versatile, anticipates well, consistent and fairly professional. Another one footed player and one who’ll not fit in the core group plus a player from the level below. The major positive here is that his contract demands are, by far, the most workable and he’d likely be happy with sitting on the bench for longer periods of the season.

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Just the two players identified so far for the AM role and only one fits the main part of the experienced heads!

1. Nacho Moreno – My absolute number of target has a good recruitment report, adaptability aside but is currently plying his trade in the Spanish third tier, after moving on from Barca to get some first team minutes. Agent feedback suggests that he’d be interested but I’d need to get some convincing to bring his wage demands down, although I feel that I’m going to have to make some changes to those limits anyway. At just twenty, he does have a lot of experience, albeit at a poor level, yet could be considered to be a key player if I do get him.

2. Juan Dalbon – Just thirty-six minutes of action for Juan this season in a stop start career at Preston, but, as per his recruitment report (Analyst – D – but Scout Report – B+ showing his form is impacting his sellability) he could be a strong candidate for finding value in difficult places. Fast, technical and can finish, he does remind me a lot of Merola in that he’s quite weak mentally but I think he’d be an interesting prospect as a second striker, actually making him slightly different and able to co-exist with Moreno, should I get him.

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The plan will be to see how these moves progress before the 30th June contract deadline and then create an entirely new focus once the players are unattached! It’s going to be a fun process but I do certainly feel clearer in what I want to achieve!

Forza Biancoscudati!