2015 Wealdstone career - 'Ya want some, I'll give it to ya'

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC

Wealdstone, July 11th 2014, 9 p.m.

Howard Krais, Chairman of the Board of Wealdstone Football Club, finished the rest of his cup of coffee and studied the signed contract in front of him once again. The many events of the previous week was still on his mind.

Only a week ago, he wouldn’t have thought of this surprising development. Actually, everything seemed so positive back in May after Wealdstone FC had been promoted to the Conference South league for the first time in 26 years by winning the Ryman Premier League. A major step for a small club like Wealdstone FC.

The manager, Gordon Bartlett, had been a very important person in this promotion. Bartlett was almost a legend at Grosvenor Vale after being the club’s manager for 19 years and with experience as manager for non-league football clubs for almost 30 years. But he had suddenly decided to resign from his position and search for new inspiration at other clubs.

The resignation had put Wealdstone FC in a critical situation. Perhaps the most critical situation since they had to sell their football ground to a supermarket chain back in 1991 in order to survive a financial crisis and thus becoming “homeless” for 17 years before the owners of the club had taken over Grosvenor Vale (“The Vale”) in Ruislip a few miles from Wealdstone with a 2,640 attendance capacity.
 
 

 


Where and how can you find a qualified football manager just a few weeks before season start? He had definitely felt the situation to be less than comfortable and had made use of his network. After a few calls a football agent turned his attention to a young Danish lad.

“He is a natural talent. He will live up to your expections, I promise you” the agent had stated.

Howard Krais had decided to have to talk to him and indeed the young Dane had been impressing him. He got caught up in the moment and they had agreed on the terms and the contract was immediately signed by both of them.

He was happy with the fact that Wealdstone FC now had appointed a new manager even though everything has happened so fast.

Despite his young age, the new manager had talked for hours of his managerial experience for many seasons in a club named “FMH”. Not a football club he had ever heard of but well who the h*** knows anything about Danish football?

He was certain that the medias in time would learn to appreciate the new manager of Wealdstone Football Club
 

 

 

Notes:

There will be no use of in-game editors, no cheats and no unlockables (unless they are achieved through gameplay)

 

Hope you will enjoy the career story

 



[dirtboy]

Good luck, love a story

[UKFootballScore]

'You got no fans, if ya want some I'll give it ya!'

[JustM1kePlays]

Good luck mate!

[OHP]

The squad

 

Wealdstone, July 13th, 7 p.m.

The first training session had been completed and the new manager of Wealdstone FC went through his notes from the training session. Some of the notes were positive, others less positive. The squad would probably need to be strengthened to survive this season in Conference South.

I had started at the office at 6 a.m. in the morning and my assistant manager had given me some very thorough descriptions about each player in the squad. The assistant manager reports had given me some worries about the quality of the squad and I had spent most of the day with phone calls to agents regarding some transfer free players. The financial state of Wealdstone FC was okay, but not promising so it was necessary to use the funds wisely.

After all, the chairman and I had agreed on a £18K transfer budget and a £3,660 wage budget per week if I could make sure the team could get a respectable league position.
 

 
The assistant manager believed we should improve the standard of the squad throughout - so we needed to find new players for many positions!
 

 
Goalkeepers:
Well, actually there was only one keeper in first-team squad; Jonathan North (23), ex-Watford youth player and our first-team keeper for the previous 4 seasons. I decided to sign two talented backup keepers on free transfers. Jonathan Miles (21) from Tottenham reserves could become our first-team keeper within a season or two but for the moment I believe the experience Jonathan North possesses will keep him on goal for our side.
 
Defenders:
The star player of the squad is definitely Luke O'Nien, a 19 year old very talented central defender (can also play in midfield) on loan from neighbouring Watford. If I was able to make use of his potential our defensive part would definitely do well. Our captain Wes Parker (age 30, been here for 4 seasons) and Carl Martin (age 27) and young Moroccan wing back Samir Bihmoutine (20) also had good stats and as wing backs we have James Hammond (24) and Ryan Watts as backup players.
 
Our defence therefore seems to be the best part of the squad. I signed two talented defenders (Adam Fenwich, DC/21) and Lance McGlen (DR/19) but solely as backup players and sold two central defenders after receiving interesting transfer offers for them (total £17K transfer sum).
 

 

Midfielders:
The situation in midfield was more worrying then regarding keepers and defenders. I therefore went on the transfer market. I was very happy to sign Nathan Luscombe (AM LC/24 years, ex-Hartlepool) on a free transfer (previously youth player at Sunderland). I also signed Huw Johnson (MC/20 years, ex-Hayes & Yeading) on a free transfer  and bought 18 year old Taylor Miles (MC) from Concord Rangers {£4K). I also signed a couple of talented midfielders as backup players.
 
Nathan Luscombe could become a real star at Wealdstone if he could fit in our playing style.
 

 
I managed to sell three midfielders with low potential (total £7K transfer sum)
 
Attackers:
The most experienced player in Wealdstone is with definitely Scott McGleish. Age 40 and with experience from more than 600 matches. Last year's top goal scorer for Wealdstone with 23 goals in 43 first team matches. However, his salary on £425 per week took a lot out of my wage budget and he had definitely lost pace and stamina through the years. I needed to find a few good attackers so that Scott McGleish could be replaced. Still a player like Scott McGleish could be perfect to have on the bench as a super-sub. I began negotiating his contract and he accepted to reduce his wage to £350 per week on a 2-year contract but still he was the player with the most expensive contract in the club.
 
The other strikers in the squad were Jonny Wright (28), Michael Malcolm (28), Lewis Putman (24) and talented Vences Bola (20) but I was able to sign two very talented strikers on free transfers: Lewis Nuttall (18 - ex-Burnley youth player) and Danny Elliott (18 - ex-Nottingham Forest youth player)
 

 

After this, I was happy about my squad which is as follows:
GK: Jonathan North (23), Jonathan Miles (21 - new) and Luke O'Reilly (18 - new - on loan at Tonbridge)
DL: Samir Bihmoutine (20) and Ryan Watts (26)
DC: Luke O'Nien (19 - loan from Watford), Wes Parker (30), Carl Martin (27) and Adam Fenwick (21)
DR: James Hammond (24), Nikki Ahamed (23) and Lance McGlen (19 - new)
ML: Nathan Luscombe (24 - new), Luke Pigden (24)  and Toby Little (25)
MC: Taylor Miles (18 - new), Huw Johnson (20 - new), Jack Mills (22), Frederick Champion (20 - new) and Tommy Smith (18 - new)
MR: Carl McCluskey (27) and Tom Hickey (21)
SC: Scott McGleish (40), Jonny Wright (28), Lewis Nuttall (18 - new), Danny Elliott (18 - new), Michael Malcolm (28), Lewis Putman (24) and Vences Bola (20)
 
We were now ready to begin our journey together....

Thanks for your comments lads - I hope you will find this career enjoyable enough
 
@ukfootballscore: It's good that I did some research before beginning this career. Otherwise I wouldn't have had any clue on what you were saying
 
But yes I did stumble over this "Wealdstone Raider" - what a character he is ^_^


 
And watch him "in action" here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAhEFuq62-I

[OHP]

The first season - 2014/15 review

 

After only a few weeks preparations and some decent results in the friendlies we were ready for our comeback match in Conference South (now Vanarama Conference South).

 

My tactics were based on a 4-4-2 as I was unsure whether my midfield was strong enough defensively for us to play 4-4-2 attacking. Based on this observation we also play with fullbacks instead of wingbacks and central defenders instead of ballplaying defenders (even though Luke O'Nien has the qualities to do so). Later in the season I changed from fullbacks to wingbacks as I felt the defensive play was OK.
 
We started out away against Eastbourne. Our start in the match was awful. After 3 minutes we were behind 1-0  but Nathan Luscombe scored twice making the standing 2-2 but unfortunately Eastbourne managed to score once more and gain a 3-2 win. We were not happy with the result but at least we had proven that we were worthy to play in this league.
 
The result was followed by a home draw (2-2 against Bromley) before winning our first match (2-1 away against Bishop's Stortford). The first victory were followed by decent results in the next matches and we found ourselves in the best half of Vanarama Conference South.
 
I had some difficulties in the beginning with my budget but after selling a few players I had been able to make longer contracts with some key players and I even found the funds to sign this young striker for only £4K at AFC Fylde in December. Instead I sold Lewis Putman to Ebbsfleet for £1K and Scott McGleish to Bath on a free transfer (Scott McGleish was injured for two months and had only played 4 matches as substitute with no goals and I wanted to sell him before his stats decreased too much)
 



At New Year we had achieved a 10th place in Vanarama South only 3 points away from the playoff spots. In general we had been placed from 5 to 14 and had never been in real relegation risk.
 

 
I was quite happy about this as many of the things we wanted to improve had proven successful. Nathan Luscombe had been a success on our left wing and on the right wing I had been surprised by the efforts by Carl McCluskey. McCluskey had played a lot better than I would have expected.
 
We had struggled with our goalscoring for periods but I was still happy about the efforts made by the strikers. Danny Elliott and Lewis Nuttall had been performing nicely despite their young age and suddenly Jonny Wright also started scoring regularly. Lewis Nuttalls stats had improved nicely since he arrived at Wealdstone.
 
 
 
In general I was happy with my defence but they seemed to give away goals too easily from time to time. In general Luke O'Nien had difficulties regarding showing us his big potential but he did improve solidly as the season progressed.

 

The cup results were okay but not impressive. We won two matches in FA Cup and one match in FA Trophy before being beaten by Conference Premier team Wrexham in both tournaments by narrow defeats (2-1 and 1-0).
 
We did improve our league results as the season progressed. We were placed just below the playoff zone for most of the last half of the season but in the end we just missed the playoff matches. It would have been nice for Wealdstone FC and our players to get this experience but finishing in 7th place was still the best result ever for Wealdstone FC and the board was quite happy about my results (I even managed to get the budget in balance !).
 


Our best result of the season was a 5-0 win home against Hemel Hempstead after a hat-trick by Jonny Wright. Jonny had been fantastic for us in the second half of the season and he finished as our top goal scorer and finished on top of the League rankings (together with many of his teammates btw.)









My standard lineup had been like this for the season:



My best signings for the season had definitely been Nathan Luscombe. But I was also happy about the signing of young midfielder Taylor Miles and the two young strikers Lewis Nuttall and Danny Elliott. Luke O'Nien had been playing most matches in defence but had not at all been our best rated player. I have to admit that I did not make him show his potential enough - quite a missed opportunity there




Player of the year and our top goal scorer (20 goals): Jonny Wright





Top assist maker (11 assists): Nathan Luscombe (look how he has improved his stats )




Thanks for reading I will be back with the 2015/16 season in a short time !

[AventzgerYT]

Great read mate. Keep it up!

[magpiemadman]

Great going mate doing fantastic for your first season back

[Callum98]

The title of this career should be 'Ya want some, I'll give it to ya'

[OHP]

@Callum98: Nice idea; I will edit it immediately

[GillSCFC1999]

Jonathan Miles briefly played for Stockport

Anyway, great job

[corey]

Wealdstone, someone needs standards.

[JustM1kePlays]

Great write up mate. Looking forward to next season

[Nath]

Nice layout, solid season KIU

[Thaatguy]

Really love your careers, OHP!

[OHP]

Jonathan Miles briefly played for Stockport

Anyway, great job

 

 

Wealdstone, someone needs standards.

 

 

Great write up mate. Looking forward to next season

 

 

Nice layout, solid season KIU

 

 

Really love your careers, OHP!

 

Thanks all for your positive comments - a pre-season update for season 2 will be on here shortly

 

@Gill: Jonathan Miles is developing quite well - could become first choice as keeper in season 2

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC - 2015/16 pre-season update

 

The board provided me with a £18K transfer budget and a weekly wage budget of £4,330 (a total sum of £243K for the season) and with this budget I was trying to attract new players at the same wage level as my present players as I was spending £4,190 per week at present on wages. Not a lot more but I hoped I was able to strengthen the squad with these funds.

 

 

I searched for younger players with expiring contracts and immediately after leaving their former clubs I tried to get the best possible players (possible compared to my small budget  )

 

Transfers in:

Jonathan Mitchell, GK, 20 years, free transfer from Derby (previously Newcastle Youth teams) - sent on loan at FC United

Tom Andersen, DC, 21 years, free transfer from Burnley

Daniel Pappoe, DC, 21 years, free transfer from Brighton (Ghanaian national player)

Ben Harding, MC, 30 years, free transfer from Torquay (more than 300 league matches on his resume)

Harry Middleton, MC, 20 years, free transfer from Doncaster

Charlie Harris, MC, 20 years, free transfer from Brighton

Calaum Jahraldo-Martin, MRL, 22 years, free transfer from Hull

Adam Mekki, AMRL, 23 years, free transfer from Barnet

Mani O'Sullivan, AMRLC, 21 years, free transfer from West Bromwich

Rhys Oates, SC, 20 years, free transfer from Barnsley

Alex Wall, SC, 24 years, free transfer from Luton (signed mid September)

 

Transfers Out:

Adam Fenwick, DC, 22 years, sent on loan at St. Neots

Lance McGlen, DR, 21 years, sent on loan at Buxton

Jack Mills, DMRC, 23 years, free transfer to AFC Hornchurch

Frederick Champion, DMC, 21 years, £1K transfer to Margate

Tom Hickey, MR, 22 years, free transfer to Hereford

Ryan Charnley, SC, 18 years, sent on loan at Redditch

Jack Vasey, SC, 20 years, sent on loan at Redditch (signed for £4K last season from Boreham Wood)

 

With 10 players coming in and 7 players going out this naturally put our budget under pressure but I managed to balance the budget (spending £10 too much per week :ph34r: probably wouldn't get me sacked)

 

In general it was young players - except for Ben Harding (30). I think Ben Harding can be an important leader on the pitch with more than 300 league matches mostly for Aldershot. Harding arrives after two seasons at Torquay in Vanarama Conference Premier. He could become an important player with the many young players in the squad!

 

 

The biggest talent among the new players was probably the 20 year old keeper Jonathan Mitchell who has been a part of Newcastle's youth academy and Derby senior squad and is considered to be a major talent. However, Jonathan Mitchell had no first team experience besides 13 matches on loan for Workington so I decided to send him on loan at FC United in order to gain more experience - he could become our first team keeper in 2016  if this plan turned out succesful !

 

 

In defence I signed two young talents from Burnley and Brighton with good heading and tackling stats instead of Luke O'Nien (and with captain Wes Parker starting to ageing at 31) and in midfield young Harry Middleton and Charlie Harris were nice prospects.

 

 

 

In the pre-season we received one of the offers that needs to be thought long about before saying yes or no. Torquay made a £75K bid for our left winger Nathan Luscombe (would have increased our budget with more than 30 %) but I decided to turn it down as Luscombe was a key player for us. Perhaps a wrong choice - only time can tell :wacko: 

 

 

Thanks for reading !     

[jakebanno]

Loving this

[corey]

Frederick Champion was a great player for my career. You sold Millsy, I'm ashamed

[Thaatguy]

Any idea how long till the next update?

[Jack]

You've got no fans!

You've done pretty well so far, what's the main objective for the save? I'm doing an almost identical save with St Albans and I'm finding it very hard.

[DSW]

Nice! Your write up is great!

[BigBash2014]

Nice! Im so hooked onto this that I'm impatiently waiting for the next update...

[OHP]

You've got no fans!

You've done pretty well so far, what's the main objective for the save? I'm doing an almost identical save with St Albans and I'm finding it very hard.

 

 

Nice! Your write up is great!

 

 

Nice! Im so hooked onto this that I'm impatiently waiting for the next update...

 

Thanks for your comments

 

@Jack: I find it a lot harder than in FMH 2014. FMH 2015 requires a lot more from you than FMH 2014. Therefore this takes a little longer than in previous versions

 

@BigBash: Sorry for the delay but next update is coming very soon...

[OHP]

Wealdstone - 2015/16 season update

 

We had a great start on the season. Especially because we had tightened the leeks in defence with Andersen & Pappoe in central defence. I had decided to play in a quite defensive style in our away games and it seemed to help us getting decent results. We went through our first 13 matches of the season undefeated (5 wins and 8 draws) and it helped us being in the top battle of the league. However, our matches were quite dull to watch for the viewers - we played four 0-0 matches :wacko: but the results were more important for us than the style

 

 

Our participation in FA Cup ended in 4th qualifying round when we disappointingly lost 0-1 away to Maidstone from Isthmian league in a replay match - our first defeat of the season :blush:

 

 

Instead we managed to win our following six league matches (four of them were 1-0 wins) so perhaps it was okay for us not to spend time playing FA Cup matches.... However it was less than planned (but perhaps not the worst that could happen) to lose 1-2 at home against Corby in our first (and only) FA Trophy match this season

 

 

In December we were able to sign a contract with 29-year old midfielder Andy Bond who could give our young squad some more experience in a vital position. Andy Bond had experience from 341 league matches (33 goals) but he had been released from Stevenage after last season and had failed to find a new contract until he joined Wealdstone FC on a 2½ year contract

 

 

We went undefeated through our first 18 league matches before losing 1-2 away to Hendon. 10 wins 8 draws and a 7 point lead to the followers. I was very happy with the results - perhaps better goal scoring had been nice but look at the defence - only concieving 11 goals in 18 league matches is real class

 

 

Unfortunately we lost both matches in the Christmas days and at New Year our lead had been reduced to one point ahead of Bishop's Stortford  Nothing was secure any longer...

 

 

In January we were able to strengthen our midfield again. Port Vale decided to put a 17-year old midfielder, Jordan Bradley, on the transfer list, and I signed him for Wealdstone on a free transfer and with a very small effect on our wage budget  . Perhaps not strong enough for Port Vale in League Two but with very fine prospects for Wealdstone FC in Vanarama South....!

 

 

In March we also signed some more experience to our defence so that we could rotate if necessary in defence. And this time it was a player from my own country, 31-year old central defender Mads Ibenfeldt who had played for Southend in the 2014/15 season but had been released before this season but had - like Andy Bond - been unable to find a new team. Mads Ibenfeldt has a long history playing in Tier II or III in Denmark.

 

 

During the season, we sold 25 year old right wingback Nikki Ahamed to Chelmsford (£2K), 31-year old midfielder Ben Harding to Havant & Waterlooville(£1K) and 29 year old right winger Carl McCluskey to Woking (£1K) to free up our wage budget. They were not doing bad but I still had a few problems with the wage budget :mad:

 

With six matches left of the season we were heading for promotion with an 11-point lead to Basingstoke in second place. We had started playing less defensive and it had helped us getting some more goals but we had also become moore leeky in defence....

 

 

...and then with four matches left of the season we won the league   :D  

 

 

The promotion to Vanarama Conference Premier was celebrated a lot. Unfortunately that perhaps was the reason why we ended up losing the final four league matches oft the season.... :mad:  so in the end our league title seemed less secure than it had seemed but still a comfortable 6 point lead to Bath in the final standings.

 

 

Our right winger Adam Mekki had been great and ended on first place in the season's rankings with an 7.77 average with his teammate strikers Jonny Wright and Danny Elliott also being placed in top 10.

 

 

Our goalkeepers (Jonathan North and Jonathan Miles) also finished with nice averages regarding goals concieved. Jonathan North was so close to winning this title but a 0-3 loss in the final round was enough to push him away from 1st place

 

 

We had many new players in our standard lineup - Tom Anderson and Daniel Pappoe being very strong in defence, Adam Mekki doing great on right wing and Andy Bond doing nicely in central midfield

 

 

Top goal scorer of the season: Jonny Wright - 17 goals

 

 

Top assist maker of the season: Nathan Luscombe - 11 assists

 

 

Top average rating of the season: Adam Mekki - 7.75 rating

 

 

An exciting season had come to an end. Wealdstone Football Club had been promoted to Conference Premier for the first time in the club's history despite a very small budget. I hoped to get an increased budget for the coming season as this season's budget had been very tight.

 

Thanks for viewing   :P  

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC - 2016/17 pre-season update

 

I was looking forward to strengthening our squad prior to the club's debur in Vanarama Conference and to make longer contracts to some of our key players. I was happy when they offered me a £190K transfer budget and a weekly wage budget of £5,370 - a total player budget of £470K. My budget problems disappered immediately

 

 

However, it seemed difficult to attract qualified players to the club so most of the player budget went to longer contracts and signing talents for the future more than for the present season. Furthermore, I was uncertain whether we could survive in Vanarama Conference so I was reluctant to spend a lot of money in the pre-season.

 

The most promising signing for the future I think is Alex Bass. Portsmouth had transfer listed Alex Bass - a 17 year old goalkeeper - who could be signed on a free transfer. I think he looked like a future first team keeper for us, so I decided to sign him on a free transfer and send him on loan at our league rivals Halifax FC to gain more experience.

 

 

We managed to signed a strong left wing back, Anthony Straker, 27, on a free transfer from York. Straker has experience from almost 300 league matches and 4 caps for the Grenadian side. Anthony Straker has also represented the England U-18 side twice in his younger days <_< I also signed a 21-year old Guadeloupean defender with a small transfer fee. The board was a little disappointed with the signing of him but he was to prove they were unfair in their judgement of his abilities   

 

 

In total the squad only changed a little compared to last season.

 

Transfers In:

Jonathan Mitchell, GK, 21 years, returned after loan spell at Chelmsford last season

Anthony Straker, DL, 27 years, free transfer from York

Sylvain Traoré, DC, 21 years, £2K transfer from Evolucas (Guadeloupe)

Chris Abbott, D/M C, 21 years, returned after loan spell at Truro last season

 

 

Transfers Out:

Jonathan Miles, GK, 23 years, on loan at Lincoln (needed match experience)

Wes Parker, DC, 32 years, £1K transfer to Gloucester (sold due to falling stats)

Taylor Miles, MC, 20 years, £5K transfer to Portsmouth (due to a big club release clause)

 

I will be back with the 2016/17 update soon

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC - 2016/17 season update (Vanarama Conference)

 

I was anxious before the season start. I was unsure how the team would do after the promotion. Especially due to the few new players I had brought on to the squad.

 

Our season started with a difficult away match against Grimsby which ended in a 0-0 draw. This result gave us more confidence and after two more draws we won the next 4 matches (among those a splendid 5-0 win over Aldershot) and after 7 matches we were actually placed in the top of the league  Very surprising but very nice

 

 

Following this impressive start our level fadid a bit - the following 6 matches gave us only 3 points due to 3 draws and 3 losses   But still - a very positive development so far with a place in the best half of Vanarama Conference.

 

Our participation in FA Cup ended in 4th qualifying round once again - this time it was our league rivals from Eastleigh who shortened our cup series with a 3-1 home win in a replay match after a 1-1 result at Grosvenor Vale. A quite poor performance, I'm afraid! :huh:

 

 

Young Jonathan Mitchell had taken over as my preferred first team keeper and Jonathan North got tired and unhappy with being on the bench so in November I sold him to Farnborough in Vanarama South in a £1K transfer. Instead I signed Liechtenstein's national keeper Benji Büchel on a free transfer after he had been released from Bournemouth earlier this season - a solid backup keeper. My third keeper - Jonathan Miles (yet another Jonathan) was having a good loan spell at Lincoln so I thought it was better to let him fulfill this loan spell.

 

 

At New Year we had managed to climb back into the best third of the league being placed 6th just below (3 points) the playoff zone after a fine December. Lewis Nuttall had been a real beast for us with 21 goals in only 27 matches - he was turning into a class striker ! The board was quite happy with our performance

 

 

Despite the league successes we performed lousy in the cup tournaments. Following our early defeat in FA Cup we also fell in the second round of FA Trophy after a 0-1 defeat in a home replay match against league rivals Woking - not good enough in my eyes  :angry:

 

 

With 8 rounds left of the season we were placed just 1 point below the playoff zone - perhaps we could make it to the playoffs ?

 

 

The board was happy and I took the liberty of asking the board for improvements to the training facilites - and they agreed  (new status: Adequate)

 

 

However, we didn't get any closer than this. Just like last season we kinda fell apart in the final rounds and with only one win in the final 8 rounds (7 points total) we dropped to 9th place far away from the playoff zone.

 

 

However, our only win in the final rounds was a nice one ^_^ Lews Nuttalls performances was less impressive in the last part of the season but instead young Vences Bola (a part of the original Wealdstone squad when I was signed as manager) had made his way to first team and pulled off a fine performance in this match :lol:

 

 

Lewis Nuttall completed a fine season with the best ratings of all players in Vanarama Conference and only just lost the chance of becoming league top goal scorer in the final rounds - a splendid season from Nuttall !

 

 

Our starting lineup for this season changed a bit since last season. Sylvain Traoré had developed into a fine player in defence and young Vences Bola had moved from bench to starting lineup instead of last years top goal scorer Jonny Wright (now 31 years) in this season.

 

 

Top goal scorer and best average ranking: Lewis Nuttall - 29 goals - 7.86 average rating

 

Top assist maker of the season: Nathan Luscombe - 12 assists

 

Another good season with progress had come to an end. Finishing 9th in our debut was very good. Our cup results were less than impressing but I was hoping for improvements next season   I had a few wishes for the squad. In central midfield Andy Bond had not impressed and with his age (31) I had only small hopes for improvement. We needed more "steel" in midfield. Luckily I had found a good solution on a Bosman - but more about this later

 

I will be back with the pre-season update soon   :D  

 

Feel free to leave a comment if you wish

[jakebanno]

You couldn't of been more unlucky, you'll go up next year

[OHP]

Wealdstone FC - 2017/18 pre-season update

 

The board offered me a £220K transfer budget and a wage budget of £8,450 per week (total budget £660K) and expected a respectable league position. It was fine enough for me as it was a lot more than last year's budget of £470K   I was ready for the transfer market

 

 

Transfers In:

Adam Davies (GK), 25 years, free transfer from Barnsley

Richard van den Berg (GK), 24 years, free transfer from Olympic Charleroi (Belgian 3rd league) - sent on loan at Dorchester

Brad Bailey (D/DM L), 20 years, free transfer from Cardiff

Josh Sampson (DC), 20 years, free transfer from Preston

Jack Alexander (DR), 20 years, free transfer from Bristol City

Bas van Dijk (D/DMC), 24 years, free transfer from Eupen (Belgian 2nd league)

Jake Ellam (AMLC), 20 years, free transfer from Sheffield Wednesday

Harley Willis (MR), 19 years, free transfer from Peterborough - sent on loan at Whitehawk

Jadan Hall (AMR), 23 years, £18K transfer from Burnley (record transfer sum paid for Wealdstone FC  )

Wayne Riley (AM/S C), 27 years, free transfer from Chester

Nana Boakye-Yiadom (AM/F RC), 21 years, free transfer from Barnsley

George Maris (SC), 21 years, free transfer form Barnsley - sent on loan at Histon

Ryan Charnley (SC) 21 years, back after being on loans for the last two seasons !

 

 

I was quite happy about the many transfers. Once again the transfer market was full of quality keepers signable for small funds. Even though I had been happy concerning the performances from Jonathan Mitchell last season I definitely was happy when it was possible to sign quality keepers like Adam Davies and Richard van den Berg on free transfers. In fact the squad now had 5 keepers with quality for the team now or in future. I picked Adam Davies and Jonathan Miles as the first team keepers for this season while Alex Bass (18 years) was sent on a new loan (Boston United) for match experience and last season's preferred first team keeper Jonathan Mitchell (22 years) was sent on loan at Alfreton to continue his development instead of sitting on the bench at Wealdstone. Richard van den Berg (24 years) had nice stats but with experience from 3rd tier only in Belgium I believe he could do well with some English match experience so he was sent on loan at Dorchester.

 

Brad Bailey would be a fine backup for Anthony Straker in left back and the signing of Jack Alexander could be the solution on our right back position which had been held by Carl Martin (now 30 years and a natural centre back). Josh Sampson was only signed as a backup player in central defence.

 

In midfield Bas van Dijk could be the solution to bringing more "steel" to our midfield and with Jake Ellam and Jadan Hall we looked quite poisonous on our wings. Wayne Riley was signed as an experienced backup player in midfield and attack. Experienced players like Mads Ibenfeldt, Andy Bond and Jonny Wright was sold as I think they had their best years behind them (and I had not been too happy about Andy Bond's performances last season)

 

Nana Boakye-Yiadom was a talented striker but was not expected to have a key role to play in this season....until something bad happened

 

 

Lewis Nuttall had been our most scoring striker last season with 29 goals - and young player of the year in the league - (in total he had scored 58 goals in 115 first team matches) but a bidding war between Coventry and St. Johnstone ended with Coventry signing him in a £90K deal (record transfer sum received for Wealdstone). Lewis Nuttall had been our star player last season but with a Big Club Release clause in his contract there was nothing we could do about it.... :mad: I was unable to give him a contract offer to get rid of this clause (he expected £2K per week and I was only able to offer him £850 per week). Sad but good luck and thanks for the three good seasons in Wealdstone.

 

Transfers Out:

Jonathan Mitchell (GK), 23 years, on loan to Alfreton

Mads Ibenfeldt (DC), 32 years, £1K transfer to Havant & Waterlooville

Chris Abbott (D/M C), 22 years, £2K transfer to Eastbourne Boro

James Hammond (DR), 27 years, £1K transfer to Farnborough

Toby Little (D/M L), 28 years, free transfer to Margate

Andy Bond (MC), 31 years, £2K transfer to Maidstone

Huw Johnson (MC), 23 years, free transfer to Brackley

Tommy Smith (AMC), 21 years, £26K transfer to Cheltenham (also a Big Club Release Clause deal - not a wanted transfer from my point of view)

Jonny Wright (AM/F RC), 31 years, £1K transfer to Dorchester

Lewis Nuttall (AM/F LC), 21 years, £90K transfer to Coventry

 

In total we had sold players for £105K more than we had bought players so at least ouf financial situation had been improved with these transfers (but still I would have preferred to keep Lewis Nuttall here at Wealdstone FC !

 

We were ready to improve last year's performances in Vanarama Conference !

[Callum98]

Unlucky to lose some of you're bigger players, but good going mate.