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Stockport County’s tough start to the season was very much predicted by the manager Mike Bridge. A loss and 2 draws in the league and a shock defeat in the cup means they are winless up to now across all competitions. On another day those draws could have easily been wins but the honest truth is that the squad is lacking quality across the board.
Bridge had his hopes pinned on the elder statesman in the team carrying the youth players through. Unfortunately though, Johnstone, Kolasinic, Vlasic and Gudmansson have not done what they were in the team for. Their quality should have meant we were more competitive, so Bridge in the last week or so has made some drastic changes and transfers to mitigate the damage to the season.
As stated we were meant to suffer results wise but not this heavily. Firstly, Johnstone is the captain and unavailable for transfer. He is however not immune from being benched and Amelia being given his shot between the sticks. This will give him the time he needs to surpass Johnstone and be County’s number 1 until Isaksson is ready. Kolasinic has been made the scape goat at the back, but truthfully it was a toss up between him, Max or Bell. With Kolasinic’s value being slightly higher and with him being slightly older he has been cut. His replacement came in last week, Greiml has come in from Shaktar and will need some time to catch up but he will rate up in 8 games or so and will fill the 5th defender slot. The major changes are in midfield and up top. Vlasic was replaced by Benrahma as a slight upgrade in midfield, but even that change didn’t work. We’ve cashed in Benrahma after trading Vlasic selling him to Wrexham and we’ve managed to pick up veteran striker Sadio Mane to replace him. The higher mains and lower seconds up top will hopefully mean more goals. We’ve lastly sold Gudmansson to Bayern Leverkusen for 44 million. This was after requiring cash to bid on the very exciting AM from Manchester United Correa. With a few teams in for his services we had to pull out all of the stops to get his services. A 21 21 attacking midfielder means that he will support Mane in getting the team some points. Asked whether there would be any further transfers at either County or his caretaker club Monaco, Bridge said both teams couldn’t make any further moves as their isn’t enough cash for either team. He did however say that with both sets of players he was happy with the quality he now has. Yes, age could be lower but that will naturally come down as more and more youth players are found and promoted to the first team. County have a Goalkeeper, two defenders and a defensive midfielder cooking in the youth team. At the end of this season they will scout an AM and a FW and that will be the done of the team for the future. At the end of next season they will scout a defender and an AM or FW, the choice will be determined by which scouted player is better in this season’s EOS.
540 words
Bridge had his hopes pinned on the elder statesman in the team carrying the youth players through. Unfortunately though, Johnstone, Kolasinic, Vlasic and Gudmansson have not done what they were in the team for. Their quality should have meant we were more competitive, so Bridge in the last week or so has made some drastic changes and transfers to mitigate the damage to the season.
As stated we were meant to suffer results wise but not this heavily. Firstly, Johnstone is the captain and unavailable for transfer. He is however not immune from being benched and Amelia being given his shot between the sticks. This will give him the time he needs to surpass Johnstone and be County’s number 1 until Isaksson is ready. Kolasinic has been made the scape goat at the back, but truthfully it was a toss up between him, Max or Bell. With Kolasinic’s value being slightly higher and with him being slightly older he has been cut. His replacement came in last week, Greiml has come in from Shaktar and will need some time to catch up but he will rate up in 8 games or so and will fill the 5th defender slot. The major changes are in midfield and up top. Vlasic was replaced by Benrahma as a slight upgrade in midfield, but even that change didn’t work. We’ve cashed in Benrahma after trading Vlasic selling him to Wrexham and we’ve managed to pick up veteran striker Sadio Mane to replace him. The higher mains and lower seconds up top will hopefully mean more goals. We’ve lastly sold Gudmansson to Bayern Leverkusen for 44 million. This was after requiring cash to bid on the very exciting AM from Manchester United Correa. With a few teams in for his services we had to pull out all of the stops to get his services. A 21 21 attacking midfielder means that he will support Mane in getting the team some points. Asked whether there would be any further transfers at either County or his caretaker club Monaco, Bridge said both teams couldn’t make any further moves as their isn’t enough cash for either team. He did however say that with both sets of players he was happy with the quality he now has. Yes, age could be lower but that will naturally come down as more and more youth players are found and promoted to the first team. County have a Goalkeeper, two defenders and a defensive midfielder cooking in the youth team. At the end of this season they will scout an AM and a FW and that will be the done of the team for the future. At the end of next season they will scout a defender and an AM or FW, the choice will be determined by which scouted player is better in this season’s EOS.
540 words
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