Competition Performance
League
At the start of the season, we had decided that it was time to get promoted and start playing in the top division of Netherlands. Not sure that the squad is completely ready to face the elite big boys but it was annoyingly getting to be boring playing against bots in a lower division.
The road to the Division 2 league title was easier than expected and we convincingly beat the second placed team S4-GDH by a gap of 16 points.
League Cup
We retained the League Cup trophy as expected. That trophy was a must win after crashing out early in the National Trophy and glad that the boys were able to dominate the final and lift the cup.
National Trophy
Crashed out in the 4th round unexpectedly against a bot. Some poor tactical decisions from the manager in that match, but the team was quick to bounce back and get into winning ways again after the defeat.
Finances
Another season expected to end in a green for the profit column. Even though we spent a little over the allocated budgets, the overall financial result is on par with our goals set at the start of the season.
Stadium And Facilities
As planned, we increased our stadium capacity to 25K, and the Level 2 of the youth academy will be completed by the last round of the season.
Player Transfers
We spent close to $130 million to bring in new players and generated $75 million from player sales. The net transfer spend was $55 million which was a bit more than the budget allocated at the start of the season, but we had to cash out that extra bit to bring in some good prospects for the future of the club.
The player to go out was Lindsay Sulaiman WF who was considered a surplus to requirements at the club and we though it was wiser to sell him and get long term prospects with that money.
And we managed to bring in 3 players, all of them were bargains and were purchased well below their estimated value.
Brnaba Nakamura CF who is a direct replacement for the retiring Orville Dodd CF. He was sent out on loan and gained amazing experience, and is ready to fill in the shoes of Dodd next season.
Chris Kameni AM - we identified that our midfield was an area that needed improvement, and Kameni was a good player to decorate that spot.
Otto De Zeeuw WM - after sales of Lindsay Sulaiman WF, we were on the look out for wider players and had no hesitation to bring in De Zeeuw once we found him really cheap on the market.
We also got our first youth academy product in Ashkan Roldan DM this season. Although his learning is quite weak, he had amazing potential, so we decided to keep him in the squad even though releasing him might have given a small boost to our finances.
Player Training
After all the transfers and the new youth, our squad strength is now at 26. We had a great season once again in terms of gaining experience, especially since two of our players were out on loan.
Experience gains:
1x +11
2x +10
3x +8
2x +7
2x +6
1x +5
5x +4
1x +3
A total of 109 experience for 17 players (6.41 on average per player) which is a huge improvement from last season.
And that's all of this season. Very excited to start playing in the toughest division 1 in f4football, and next season will be a real challenging one for us. So until then, keep posted!