Welcome to the second episode of "The Time Machine" where we venture into the parallel universe known as PC football management with the Lads...
As you know, we have gone back to 1996 and the Lads in the top division and still at the magical arena known as Roker. Now we have gotten our feet under the proverbial table after convincing Bob Murray that we are the best thing since a slice of Hovis, let's see what we have our disposal.
Well for one we have a squad that has a smattering of youthful talents as well as a fair old sprinkling of experienced heads. There is a squad limit of 30 players and the Lads have already 29, so if we are going to bring anyone in then some are going to be moved on. Some of the younger lads will be farmed out for loan, and there will be inevitable departures out of those Roker Park doors.
We will start with the goalkeepers, and the good things is that we have three of them. That's what I wanted, however one of those is an unproven youngster in David Preece so he's going to be one of those out on loan. Of the others, it's a dogfight between Frenchman Lionel Perez and veteran Tony Coton. Whichever performs best in our pre-season friendlies will get the nod come first game of the season.
Defence. Plenty of options in the full back slots which is good but only three central defenders which is not so good. With Dickie Ord able to play left back or centre half, one of the full backs can go. Since we have big things for a local talent known as Michael Gray, this means we will be listening to offer for nine times Welsh international Gareth Hall. Anyone who might offer us a bare minimum of a quarter of a million can take him off our hands like. That represents a small loss on what the Lads actually paid for him, but he just doesn't figure in our plans. Young left back Paul Heckingbottom is going to do the same as Preece as in being available for a loan move; it might just make something of the lad.
Midfield. Loads of options here for the wings and in the engine room which means we will be shipping out a couple of names here. In this case it's a couple of youngsters who we can't see any place for. Being available for transfer are Stephen Grant and his namesake Steven Pickering. Sometimes you have to cruel in reality when you can't find a place for everyone and have to cut and slice a squad. Of the two, Pickering is valued at £100K, Grant at £300K but if we actually get that kind of offers in then that's really open to conjecture. Still, it's more money into the Club if we do.
Finally, the forward line. An absolute plethora of riches here including the experienced Paul Stewart who had scored for Tottenham Hotspur in the 1991 FA Cup Final against Nottingham Forest. A couple of players will be leaving initially here, one permanently in the shape of David Mawson and one on loan in the shape of Paul Conlon. Mawson is valued at £180K so would again add some valuable funds to the transfer kitty, which I forgot stands at around a more than reasonable £3.3 million. We are also going to listen to offers for Lee Howey and Brett Angell even though neither have actually been made available for transfer.
So that's the squad outlined, what about the friendlies? Well, we have four of them lined up, the first three in a mini tour of Scotland no less. Neither of the "giants" as in Celtic or Rangers were available so we had to make do what we could actually get hold of. The first run out starts at the East Coast and Station Park where Forfar Athletic kindly host us. Then it's over to the West Coast for the other two games. Friendly number two sees us hosted by Motherwell at Fir Park before the tour concludes with a trip to Broadwood to face Airdrieonians. We will aim to give the majority of the squad some good minutes in the tank ahead of concluding our preparations with a prestigious home friendly against PSV Eindhoven at Roker. In all games, we will be playing a 3-4-1-2 kind of formation as our preferred style. It's down to the players to buy into it.
Join us next time for Episode Three where we recap those friendlies and find out where we will start the actual league season. Ha'way the Lads!
