Northernpilgrim Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 Congratulations on promotion. Shame it's with Exeter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 Well done on another promotion! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 3, 2015 Author Share Posted December 3, 2015 Congratulations on promotion. Shame it's with Exeter Well done on another promotion! Thanks. Was close at the end but Exeter don't do things easily! 2019-2020 Preseason Report Transfers: A few ins and outs this summer. The outs were all players out of contract who had no future at the club, especially at a higher level. The only real loss was Cameron Dummigan, who had decent potential but wanted to play more. Jack Fox (DC), Adam Proctor (DL), Diego Arango (ST) and Carlos Vasquez (AMC) all come in on frees and go to the U21s. The loan of Patrick Reading was extended for another season, which I was happy about as he is still the best LB at the club. Darragh Lenihan comes in on a free from Scunthorpe and will be a new first choice CB. He can also cover in central midfield, and works well as a ball playing defender. Josh Morris can play all up the left side and is very technically sound. He is a step up quality wise from Kinsella and Ward, but less of a winger style player, so it will be interesting to see how he fits in to the team. His crossing and passing is second to none, but he won't be getting to the byline as much. Stefano Pino can cover all across the back 4 and the 23 y/o joins after his release from Parma. Jake Clarke-Saltier is another CB and he has a good level of quality. He will compete with Dion Conroy for the second CB place. American GK Cody Cropper comes in and I now have 2 extremely competent goalkeepers with him and Christy Pym. Hopefully the competition spurs them both on to improve. Matty Pearson joins for a large fee and is equally proficient all across the back four. He's so good at RB that I'm considering playing Seamus Conneelly in CM, where he can play, and starting Pearson. He has started shakily in pre-season though, so he may begin the season on the bench. Saul Martin is an excellent young striker that comes in due to our new partnership with Arsenal. He looks the business and has great finishing ability. With him, Gormley, Clarke, Donaldson, Lookman, Kinsella and Ward we have great firepower. Hopefully this will be enough to challenge League 1 defences. The final signing is Luca Mazzitelli. The 23 y/o Italian DM/MC is a great addition and joins after his release from Roma. His presence in the squad admittedly complicates the Conneelly/Pearson situation but it's a great problem to have. In other news, last seasons club captain and injury troubled left winger Josh Carson has asked to leave after disagreeing with my advice to work hard in training to get back into the team, and a move to losing League 2 Playoff finalists Blackpool should be completed imminently. Pre-season was a quiet affair but my youth system is pretty much devoid of players so the first team played the U21 fixtures too. A great result against Rangers was followed with a decent performance against Montpellier. We were at 2-1 at half time but I made 10 changes at half time so the result wasn't too important. A local team and our lower league affiliate rounded off the preseason games and Oldham at home is the first game of the season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Go Exeter! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dllu Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 The only way is Exeter! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 Very well done Dorling. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 6, 2015 Author Share Posted December 6, 2015 [video=youtube;1V9V1p_14pE] An example of some of the sexy football I'm getting from my trio of Italian midfielders. League 1 season is going well, sitting in 11th just before christmas. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 Time for the end of season report - yes, I missed the half way point but was enjoying myself and revising for an exam at the same time so I forgot about it. Due to an expanded scouting area, we were able to bring in players from further afield. In addition to Luca Mazzitelli, Antonio Romano and Roberto Insigne came in. Romano plays in the centre of midfield and Insigne can play up front or just behind the striker. Romano and Insigne both started their careers at Napoli before being released by Venezia and Perugia respectively. Tiago Casasola is an Argentine centre back who was once on the books of Fulham and was at Bari last term, while Dave Gnaase is an attacking midfielder most recently with Sandhausen. Finally, Maranhao is a striker from Guaratingueta in Brazil, although he did play on loan for Celta B in Spain for a couple of seasons. Insigne and Romano complete a midfield trio of Italians who have at times been very impressive. As you can see, the season had its ups and downs, although during the final stages of the season we certainly won more than we lost. It lead to a very satisfactory finishing position in the league, which I think accurately reflects the little bit of quality we're missing to make it into a playoff spot. Once again, Joe Ward and Steven Kinsella on the wings have been very impressive and Joe Ward is in contention for the player of the league award. I think a large part of our success this term can be put down to the fact that we had a relatively good injury record, there were certainly less major injuries to key players than the last couple of seasons. Here are the end of season player stats: I really think we are a couple of additions away from making a run at the playoffs. The defence is really where the improvements need to be made, as well as hopefully finding a striker that we don't have to loan in. The midfield players we have (Joe Ward, Steven Kinsella, Ademola Lookman, Luca Mazzitelli, Roberto Insigne, Antonio Romano, Josh Morris and Ryan Donaldson) are all a good quality for this level. Ben Holmes has also made a significant contribution this season, coming back from two loan spells at Bristol Rovers and making an impact. Onward Grecians! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Good season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 8, 2015 Author Share Posted December 8, 2015 Good season. Indeed. Was happy with it, may be hard to build on it though. Preseason has been fairly quiet on the transfer front. Alex Jakubiak and Will Grigg come in to shore up the front line. Sani George can play LB, CB and CM. Saul Martin and Patrick Reading rejoin again on loan so, if anything, we're short of a quality defender. The same usual bunch of players that are no longer required ship out. The biggest name is Joe Gormley, but the former record signing has struggled in League 1. Jack Blake was the fans player of the season in the Conference but he found League 1 heavy going as well, so drops down to League 2. Happy to get a fee for him though. Buying the stadium back from the council has put a hole in the finances and I may find my future budgets are limited. Would love a good cup run to get some funds in. 5 games in pre-season but with little youth setup to speak of, the first team played in most of the U21 fixtures too in an effort to gain match sharpness. A penalty victory over Montpellier and a goalless draw with Club Brugge are great results for a club at our level. We had chances against a strong Arsenal side too. Onward! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Half term report time. We've just reached the end of the January transfer window and things are looking pretty good at Exeter. We started off strong in the league and gained a reputation for solid defending and high amounts of possession. At home we generally have about 55-65% possession and dominate the chances. Heading into the New Year the bank balance wasn't looking great. Buying the stadium back and a higher wage budget meant that it wasn't getting better any time soon either. Player sales were inevitable unfortunately. Fortunately, however, we limited it to two major departures. Casasola was playing well and attracted interest from his native Argentina. He asked to leave and the squad agreed with him. a £205k profit was acceptable but the real money was in the sale of Lorenzo Insigne's brother Roberto. Unfortunately, he couldn't fetch the £22m his brother is worth but £1.2m rising to £1.5m for a player signed on a free and playing in League 1 was a good deal for us. He was playing very well and a key part of the team, however. Jordan Tillson kicked up a fuss about not playing so he left on a free, while Will Grigg was the highest earner and, aside from a few matches at the beginning of the season, rarely played and didn't really produce. He left on a free too. Reinforcements were needed. While the loan of CM/MC Erwin de Haan from QPR proved to be a short one, hopes are high for M/AM R/L Warren Clarke. David O'Neill is LB cover and Steve Nixon (although now injured for 2 months) & Tristan Gregory are cover at CB. These were very important players to bring in as both Patrick Reading (LB) and Josh Morris (LB/LM) picked up long term injuries. We then added to our depth in midfield. Lorenzo Tassi can play DM/CM/AMC and the 25 y/o joins after leaving Inter. Mateo Krivicic is a 25y/o Slovenian AMC from Freiburg. Pepin is a 24 y/o Equatoguinean CM from Roma, while the man we have high hopes of replacing Insigne of is 26 y/o M/AMC Matteo Ricci, who is allegedly already worth £2.3m. The good results continued in January, and while we lost at Chelsea in the FA Cup, the tie did give us a lot of money and the club finances are now over £1m in the black. All this means that, at the end of January, things are looking very good. We just need to keep this momentum going. And all of this without playing the same CB pairing for more than 3 games in a row! C'mon Exeter! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenzar Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Look at that Westcountry dominance! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Going great guns. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 That's bloody good progress the last few seasons with Exeter. Looks like you'll be playing in the Championship next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 The season draws to a close, and as usual, Exeter City make things very hard for themselves. We, at one point, had a 14 point lead in the table but as we got closer the end of the season the injuries piled up and the players started feeling the pressure. Patrick Reading did his cruciates, Luca Mazzitelli was ruled out for the rest of the season, Steven Kinsella got a 3 match ban for a red card, as did his replacement Warren Clarke, Josh Morris was injured, as were Antonio Romano, Darragh Lenihan, Matty Pearson, Tristan Gregory, Dion Conroy, Alex Jakubiak, Ademola Lookman and Christy Pym. Promotion was secured after the victory against Millwall. I wanted my first trophy though and it came down to the last game as we sat on 86 points with Bristol City in second on 84 points. They had a superior goal difference and their last game was away at 14th placed Preston and we were at 10th placed Portsmouth. So we did this: And this! Exeter will be playing in the Championship next season and are promoted as champions! The club may be getting a takeover shortly too, so hopefully a little cash injection might come with it. And the final squad stats: Once again the wizards on the wing, Steven Kinsella and Joe Ward were the main men. Saul Martin once again provided goals with Alex Jakubiak chipping in, particularly in the second half of the season. Josh Morris was excellent at LB and LM, which was important as Kinsella was banned for about 7 games and Reading was out for a while. Morris himself was out for 4 months, which meant that Sani George ended up playing a lot more than he looked like he would, at LB, CB and CM. Matteo Ricci proved to be an able replacement for Roberto Insigne and was a driving force in the latter part of the season, although he had to fill in at CM for spells when Romano and Mazzitelli got injured and he isn't quite as comfortable there. We struggled to maintain a consistent CB pairing and my priority is finding a new CB who will consistently be first choice. Other than that, general strengthening all over will be required for an assault on the Championship. The end of season awards reflected the performance of the wide men once again. We march on! Let's hope that the upcoming Championship experience is better than the last one with Colchester! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 That won't be hard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Good luck in the Championship Dorling. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 Preseason update time. A couple of events in the offseason: - I was awarded the League One Manager of the Year Award - Club captain Steven Kinsella won his first cap for the Republic of Ireland - There was a club takeover; the budgets are the same, the manager is the same, the targets are the same. Nothing has changed. So we head into the Championship season. The board wants me to avoid relegation. I think we could do it, but I've never won a match as a manager in the Championship so...we'll see. First off season business - the transfers: Ryan Donaldson has been a great servant, as has Dion Conroy, but their play time was limited in League 1 and they're probably not up to Championship level. CM David Morgan and CB Scott Wootton certainly won't make it, while young GK Ian King has a long way to go to forge a successful Football career. Squad strengthening was inevitable and we got to work. Firstly, the loans of Saul Martin (CF) and Sani George (LB/CB/DM/CM/LM) from Arsenal were extended for another season. The same was true for Tristan Gregory (CB) from Celtic. In addition, excellent young CM Ben Egan joined for the season from Arsenal as well. Full back was identified as an area of weakness as we had no dedicated left back (Patrick Reading would have joined for a 3rd season from Middlesbrough but his cruciate injury rules him out until after christmas) and our two main RBs Seamus Conneely and Matty Pearson may well struggle at this level. Tyrone Mings, who once cost Bournemouth £7.5m (but sadly never played for them in the Premier League after serious injury) joins after his loan filled spell at Norwich ended. Hopefully he will settle down and get his career going. On the right, Stephen O'Donnell comes in from Leeds. The Scot started his career at Aberdeen and counts Celtic and Luton among his former clubs. Ahead of O'Donnell on the right wing comes Francis, a 25 y/o RM from Oviedo, who started his career in the Betis second team. He will be backup to Joe Ward. In central defence, Jason Pearce comes in and will be the club deputy captain. The former Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Leeds and Wigan man is 33 now but has great leadership qualities and is a step up in quality from most of the other CBs at the club. Also at CB, 20 y/o Andrew Davison joins the U21 squad after his Brighton contract expired. Another addition to the U21s but with a decent chance of making a first team appearance at some point was 19 y/o Steven March from Leicester. Former Liverpool Youngster Jerome Sinclair further bolsters our forward line after his Blackburn deal ended and finally, possibly a key signing is natural DLF Soma Novothny. The 27 y/o Hungarian counts Napoli and Livorno amongst his former clubs and joins after his deal at Charlton ran down. As usual, we played 5 pre season games, taking advantage of our increased budget to go to Belgium for a couple. The game against Arbroath came in the middle of our Scottish training camp and was comprehensive. The 3-3 against Genk was very pleasing, especially as we were winning 3-1 until I made a bunch of changes, while the 5-1 to Arsenal was to be expected as they turned up with a team that featured Alexis Sanchez, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Hector Bellerin and pretty much everyone. As usual, a couple of lower league teams took a beating, including our annual thumping of our lower league affiliate Dorchester Town. Happy with the preseason in general, and we look in decent shape in the build up to our first Championship game against fellow newly promoted team Oldham. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 Good luck in the Championship Dorling. Many thanks! Going to be hard but more confident than when I tried it with Colchester! That won't be hard A win against Oldham in the first game and I can say I've already done better than last time... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 What a difference 5 years makes! 2016: 2021: 2 games in and I've got more points than I managed to accrue after 17 games of my last Championship season. Let's kick on! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DodgeeD Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Nice career so far. Especially interesting how you were prepared to drop down a division or two to get back on track... And also to see how Denziel Boadu fared in another life! He's now a player/coach for me at Asante Kotoko Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 Nice career so far. Especially interesting how you were prepared to drop down a division or two to get back on track... And also to see how Denziel Boadu fared in another life! He's now a player/coach for me at Asante Kotoko He has now retired in my game, unfortunately. Never found a new club after he left Exeter. A talent wasted! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 It wasn't hard to improve on your last Championship attempt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 It wasn't hard to improve on your last Championship attempt. It certainly wasn't! Time for the mid season report! First up, transfers: Chris Wallace (DM, MC) is a youth player signed by the DoF (I'd identified him as a transfer target when his contract was running down at Brighton). Adrian Summerskill and Paul Barnes are both GKs signed to cover me loaning out my 2nd and 3rd choice keepers at various points to keep them happy. Neither played. Jayson Molumby (RB) came in to cover the RB spot as Stephen O'Donnell went down for 3 months. My concerns that Seamus Conneely wouldn't be up to Championship football have proven to be untrue though as he currently has a rating of 7.09 from 14 games. O'Donnell is back to fitness now though so hopefully he will be phased back into the first team shortly. Dominic Gape (DM/CM) is a former Southampton youth who was in my side at Fleetwood. He wasn't getting games at Derby and was very reasonably priced. He will certainly have a role to play over the remainder of the season. Finally, Karlo Lulic. This guy. He's made the CM(a) position his own. He made a handful of appearances for Sampdoria and has played a lot for Dinamo and Osijek in Croatia. He and Matteo Ricci, who is playing AMC(a), are tearing opponents to pieces. Lulic: Ricci: Results have been far, far better than predicted: We narrowly lost out to Chelsea (hit the post 3 times), which was frustrating. A replay would have been worth big dosh, while a win would have got us a tie at Old Trafford. Never mind! The league is going well too, so well. No teams know what to do with our passing game. The wingers, Ward and Kinsella, are still performing incredibly well, and up front Novothny and Martin are both doing very well. Mazzitelli has lost his place as CM(d) to loanee Ben Egan, while Tyrone Mings, Tristan Gregory, Darragh Lenihan and Seamus Conneely/Stephen O'Donnell are performing brilliantly in defence. In goal, Cody Cropper is ever present and a frequent member of the USA squad, although yet to win a cap. So, the league table: Come on Exeter!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bucket Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Great thread mate. Congrats. Hope you can push on for promotion? But do you think it will be too soon to go up? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 I hope so. I honestly think with a couple of good signings I could aim for 17th. What I would love to do with the TV money more though is improve all of the facilities and really set up the club for the future. As it stands I have 6 games to go and I'm 3 points off second place. Come on lads! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bucket Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Good luck!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 19, 2015 Author Share Posted December 19, 2015 Well, the season is over and it ended in the most heartbreaking way. Not going to sugarcoat it because it's right there. We got to the playoffs and lost on penalties in the semis. Gutting. Here's how the table looked at the end of the season. A disallowed goal against Burnley and Sheff Wed and a last minute 25 yard equalizer from Leeds denied us automatic promotion. Joe Ward was again the main man. Steven Kinsella and Karlo Lulic obviously featured highly, while Ricci was a shining light. In all honesty though, the whole team performed. It was an excellent first season in the Championship. The stadium was 97% full on average so hopefully we can get an expansion at some point - but I don't want it at the expense of funds which will secure the future of the team or put the club at risk financially. Here are the final stats. A bunch of other players had a handful of appearances but were primarily out on loan. Goals were evenly distributed among the attacking players. Over all, we were a proficient passing and defending outfit. I really think, with a couple of decent additions, we can push on next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 19, 2015 Author Share Posted December 19, 2015 An interesting opportunity, but not one I'll be taking. And a pretty stunning confirmation of our midfield prowess: Plus an individual award for a player who just keeps getting better so it seems: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 19, 2015 Author Share Posted December 19, 2015 A man in demand! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bucket Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 Ahh man gutting. Hopefully next year you can kick on, win the league and go up without needing the play offs. Fantastic first season tho. What an achievement. Really need a bigger ground though to help you build the finances. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 19, 2015 Author Share Posted December 19, 2015 Ahh man gutting. Hopefully next year you can kick on, win the league and go up without needing the play offs. Fantastic first season tho. What an achievement. Really need a bigger ground though to help you build the finances. Winning the league would be a dream. Finances aren't great, I can't go out and buy players and I consistently have to bear in mind my tight budgets. 2022/2023 Pre season report: Let's start with transfers: First things first - the loans of Tristan Gregory (CB - Celtic) and Saul Martin (ST - Arsenal) were extended for another season. Originally, Arsenal decided they wanted me to pay a proportion of Sani George's (DLC/DM/MLC) wages that I could not afford, but at the end of preseason they listed him for loan again and he came back for his third season with us. Ismail M'Haidat is a once capped 27y/o Moroccan MC/AMC who looks a real talent and my coaching team believe he is better than Matteo Ricci at AMC. Bert Respen is a 22 y/o Dutch CB who will start alongside Tristan Gregory in the heart of defence, especially with Darragh Lenihan still a couple of months away from recovering from a major injury. A few young players come in to make up the numbers and provide a bit of squad depth. They will all be on the fringes of the first team and I expect some of them to mature into important squad members. They are: Daniel Boy (LB, Germany, 19, from Mainz) Charlie Gale (ST, England, 20, from Chelsea) Adriano Yearwood (CB, Jamaica, 20, from Chelsea) Jose Mota (LB, Portuguese, 20, from Chelsea) Keith Stacey (ST, England, 23, from QPR) Jas Keranovic (DM/MC, England, 23, from West Brom) Vasil Georgiev, a 31 cap, 22y/o Bulgarian RB, joins on loan from Lazio and looks real quality. Adam Phillips (MC/AMC, England, 22) joins from Brighton and provides real competition for those in the centre of the park. Niall Ennis is a 23y/o Striker from West Ham, and will challenge for a place in the first team. Danny Sands is a DM/MC who will provide extra squad depth, while 22/o ex Crystal Palace GK could well be our new first choice as it looks like Cody Cropper is MLS bound in the next few days. I still need another keeper really, and may well go to the loan market for it. There are a lot of transfers out this offseason. Heaney, Pym, Krivicic and Oxlade-Chamberlain weren't really up to it in all honesty. A bunch of players wanted to go out on loan so I shipped Francis, Pepin and Pearson out, with their wages covered. Pearce was on high wages and now 34, Jakubiak wan't getting any football and Mazzitelli was struggling for games. He was happy to return to Italy. Morris wanted to leave, Romano wasn't worth the wages anymore and Novothny wasn't going to be first choice and I couldn't really turn the money down. Cropper is likely to leave shortly too for £950k, making us look good financially, but perhaps weakening our depth in some areas. The new players all look promising though so I'm hoping they settle quickly. Preseason results: A strange pre-season, where we played well for the most part and I should probably be happier with the results than I was during the games. Saul Martin scored a hattrick against his parent club as an 82nd minute equalizer denied us a win against an Arsenal side containing the likes of Alexis Sanchex and Julian Draxler. We comfortably beat affiliate club Mansfield before a disappointing 3-3 against Beira-Mar during our training camp on the Algarve. A 90th minute equalizer denied us a win against Anthony Martial led, mega rich, Monaco and then we smashed a local side 7-0. Finally, the ever reliable Seamus Conneely scored a late penalty to give us victory in Jake Taylor's testimonial (I didn't follow my assistant's (Paul Scholes) rather harsh advice to go in hard on Jake Taylor during the game). We head into our opening game against Charlton looking pretty good to be honest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 Exe-llent Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 You would have gone up were it not for the awful end of season form. You only needed two wins from your last five but only managed one draw. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 23, 2015 Author Share Posted December 23, 2015 Half term report time. We've reached the end of the January transfer window and the season is going well. Firstly, transfer business. MC/AMC Marciano comes in after rejecting us in the summer following his release from Liverpool. He has obviously got bored of not playing football. I'm particularly excited about him. Danny McMahon (MRLC) is a 19 y/o Irishman who is versatile and has a decent bit of potential. He comes in from Bohemians. Finally, we've signed 19 y/o striker Steven Woodward on loan from Liverpool. He's scored 29 goals in 21 starts for Liverpool U21s. Out for a couple of weeks but should be pushing for some decent game time once he recovers. So here are our results so far: And the league table: If we can avoid our usual end of season collapse we could well do it this season. We have a great midfield now. Kinsella and Ward are still smashing it up on the wings, while we have a great MC/AMC stock with Ismail M'Haidat, Matteo Ricci, Luis Marciano, Karlo Lulic, Dominic Gape, Adam Phillips and Ben Egan. Keith Stacey has also stepped up in the deep lying forward position after Saul Martin lost a bit of form & Ademola Lookman and Niall Ennis faced spells on the sidelines. Surely we can do it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 Marciano's excellent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northernpilgrim Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 Grudgingly (because of my supporting Argyle, nothing personal!) I have to say congratulations, you've done a top job with C**y!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 23, 2015 Author Share Posted December 23, 2015 Marciano's excellent. He's certainly started very well, even if the team are being a bit dodgy at the moment. Grudgingly (because of my supporting Argyle, nothing personal!) I have to say congratulations, you've done a top job with C**y!! Cheers! If it makes you feel any better I have a pretty poor record against them, although obviously I haven't played them for a bit. I was down at Home Park in September as my ship was moored in Plymouth sound. Saw them draw 1-1 with Bristol Rovers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 24, 2015 Author Share Posted December 24, 2015 Well, the season is over... Did Exeter choke again? The usual end of season nerves weren't as bad as last year, but late goals were again the undoing of the team on a couple of occasions (although scoring a 92nd minute winner against Wednesday at Hillsborough was quite a moment!). Both Ipswich and Aston Villa scored in the last 5 minutes and, had they not, promotion would have been guaranteed. However, as it was, a win was required on the final day of the season to be absolutely sure, and it was against 9th placed Burnley at Turf Moor. Not easy. But we did it! With ten men for 75 minutes no less. An incredible end to the season. We're up!! And the initial budgets for next season suggest an amount of money that has never been dreamed of in Exeter before... And here are the heroes of Exeter. Once again, an incredible contribution from Steven Kinsella and Joe Ward on the wings. They have both played for the club in every division from the Vanarama National upwards, and they will complete the set by playing in the Premier League next year. Onward Exeter!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 24, 2015 Author Share Posted December 24, 2015 Further evidence of the potency and popularity of my wingers: And a couple of interesting results against Bradford this year: And of course the necessary stadium work. We need to increase capacity as well, but the board have delayed it as our finances are a bit shaky until TV money comes in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 Wow, Woodward very much the hero in that run-in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Very well done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 26, 2015 Author Share Posted December 26, 2015 Wow, Woodward very much the hero in that run-in. Yeah, he was incredible. 11 in 14 games, he provided exactly the kind of spark I wanted him to and I hope to get him to stay for another season. Very well done. Many thanks. Will be a real struggle in the Prem but should be the beginning of the future for the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDorling Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 2023/2024 Preseason report. Firstly, the transfers out. No real surprises here, everyone that left was really going to struggle in the Premier League. Long serving 3rd choice GK Nathan Yetton heads off to my former team for the only transfer fee received. I will be aiming to loan a GK in to replace him. Next, the transfers in. We needed to strengthen, obviously. I probably bought a couple more players than I planned on doing, but I feel that most of them will make considerable contributions. Sani George makes a permanent move, which was fairly cheap on reflection. I also loaned in Georgiev (RB/Lazio), Martin (ST/Arsenal) and Woodward (ST/Liverpool) once again. The other players were as follows: Jack Whatmough (CB, 26, England, from Rotherham) - will be part of my first choice CB pairing, probably with Giusti. Cauley Woodrow (ST, 28, England, from QPR) - Will add quality depth a ST. He is adept at playing DLF, which is great for my team, and has top flight experience. Pleased to get him so cheaply too. Giuliano Giusti (CB, 21, Italy, from Roma) - Will certainly be in contention for a starting spot. Lenihan and Respen will compete with him to play alongside Whatmough. Callum Gribbin (AMC/MRLC/AMR, 24, England, from Man U) - Really excited by this guy. Has a lot of potential and his value shot right up immediately. He can play all across the midfield. Impact sub to begin with. Felipe Silva (DRL, 20, Chile, from Boca Juniors) - New first choice RB to begin with. I'm very strong at full back on both flanks now. Janik Haberer (AMC/ST/MRL/AMR, 29, Germany, from Hoffenheim) - Massively versatile and has a lot of quality. Impact sub too, to begin with, but should Ward, Kinsella or Marciano struggle, he will get a chance. Jake Bidwell (DL, 30, England, from Bournemouth) - Excellent player for the price, with a lot of experience. He will provide support for the LB position, and may well prove to be first choice over Tyrone Mings. Satisfied with that. Obviously time will tell, but another factor to consider is that I also now have valuable commodities in my team and should people want to leave, I may finally be in a position to earn some decent cash from it. On to preseason games: An average preseason. We have a small stadium temporarily due to the upgrade, so potential earnings from big friendlies were cancelled out by the fees. However, we dominated on our Austrian training camp and in truth should have won against Athletic Bilbao - losing 1-0 via a penalty wasn't the worst result in hindsight. I played a lot of 2nd choice players against Dundee but was not satisfied entirely with the result. Let's hope for better against Tottenham in the season opener! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Pity Exeter couldn't win tonight, but it was still a good result. When I was at Exeter Uni we all had a soft spot them regardless of who we supported and a lot of us were still cheering them on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelBrown Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Great updates Dorling, I've been a silent follower for a while now and I'm thoroughly enjoying them. KUTGW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northernpilgrim Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Good luck in the Premier League. Be bold, be brave, and you'll be rewarded Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExeChris Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Definitely been following this one! Good result Friday, just lulling them for the replay... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darius1998 Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Got to say Exeter gave us Liverpool fans a big scare. Tom Nichols especially looked like being a very good player indeed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northernpilgrim Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Congratulations (and yes, it hurts writing that after last night's result!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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