Just a quick post to sum up probably my most successful season so far in the save. It's been my 9th season at the club, and the 2nd season we've had in League 1 and we stormed to the title with 5 games to spare, as well as winning the EFL Trophy on the way. Our squad dynamics and cohesion are as high as they can possibly be, and it's definitely been a factor - the actual ability of most of my squad should not have propelled us to such a dominant season. We did tail off a little towards the end, but we still managed to scrape 3 wins from our last 3 games to take us up to 97 points.
And as for the squad, what an effort from them all. Dimitris Papadopoulos, our Greek wizard in the middle, was fantastic, and we've already had to reject an offer of £2m+ from Burnley this summer. Lukas Puntigam and Ian Harding will be joining us on permanent deals as their contracts are expiring at their parent clubs. Our biggest issue next season will probably be at striker - I think I will have to dip into the loan market and get the best prospect possible from a Premier League club. We will also need a new GK - Allsop was brilliant this season but he's getting on a bit and his contract demands are frankly ridiculous.
It's shaping up to be the busiest summer so far. A number of club stalwarts are going to be leaving - as much as I'd love to keep them throughout our climb they're lacking in quality and want quite large wage increases to stick around. We've only got £60k p/w to spend on the squad so I can't have too much dead wood.
However, I do now want to fund our new affiliate Oxford City to see if they can climb up the divisions using our loanees.
I'm willing to put aside a few thousand in wages to sign up some youth prospects and send them out on loan to help out this season! I'll post an update once all transfers are finalised and we're underway in the Championship.