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We begin our first pre-season as Fleetwood manager. Everyone gets excited as they get to see their team again after a couple of months off as well as any new signings the clubs have made in the summer. For us this summer we have to be clever in the transfer market as we aren’t a club with massive finances currently.
We arrived at Fleetwood already knowing the next couple of seasons money will be tight and it turned out to be exactly that with this transfer window we had a massive £0 to spend on players. I also felt we already had a solid team to work with and didn’t need to go out signing players who weren’t needed. In the end only one player came in and that was Lewis Wing on a season loan from Middlesbrough. I’m really pleased we managed to get Lewis in as he is a quality player and improves our team and he can still improve which is exciting. Lewis has come in as he can play in centre mid or behind the striker and even on the wings if needed so he is a fairly versatile player. Also a couple of the young lads have gone out on loan to hopefully get regular game time and continue their development.
Pre-season has been and gone and it has been a massive success. We have played a variety of sides from top teams like Manchester United and Leicester down to local teams like AFC Blackpool. Our only defeat came at home to Leicester which was expected but one of the more shocking results was managing to get a draw against a semi strong Manchester United side. A positive pre-season in all with the new signings bedding in well and the lads getting to grips with the tactics and what we expect for the coming season and we didn’t suffer any major injuries apart from a couple of knocks which is kind of expected but nothing serious to keep them out for long. You can never read to much in to results but is all about getting the fitness levels up ready for the first game of the season against Wimbledon.
A quick note that in one of my previous updates I said Eddie Clarke would go out on loan but in fact he has been a regular in our defence recently and has looked comfortable in recent games due to Husband picking up a slight knock. I may keep him around and if he continues to perform well we may have a headache coming.
Our start to the season has been nothing but excellent!..if you don’t look at the last couple of results. We have really hit the ground running and the boys have really looked up for it this season and have gotten on board with the tactic. One annoying game early on was losing to local rivals Blackpool in the Carabao Cup 1st Round and a game we really could and should of won after we had more chances but just couldn’t convert our chances more, that was one cup I was hoping we could get a small run in but we will focus more attention on the league now unless we get a good run in the FA Cup and I’m not really bothered about the Checkatrade Cup as one of the Premier League sides will win that. We picked up a massive result up at Sunderland when we turned a 2-1 defeat around to win 3-2! Sunderland will definitely be up the top come end of the season so to already get one over them was pleasing.
As you can see we currently sit top of the pile along with Sunderland after 10 games in to the season. We have started way better than I imagined as I thought after the first 10 we would be around mid table at the minimum. Still early days but the signs are looking positive and we could have a fun season this year and hopefully something we can build on next summer to either mount a serious challenge for the title or even improve the team for the Championship.
Just a little something that I have enjoyed seeing over our first few months is seeing the amount of different goal scorers we have. Paddy Madden is our current top goal scorer with 6 but Ash and Wes are only a couple behind. Ashley Hunter has had a great start to the season with 5 goals and 6 assists in 12 games. Bigger teams should be looking at him if he continues that kind of form this season. Seeing a number of defenders pop up with goals is always a good sign that are set piece training is starting to pay off.
TheFMGamer 