Season 2 of my Football Manager 2021 journeyman series starts now!
Shama Deadman has completed his first year in management, guiding part-timers Cambrian & Clydach to a 6th-place finish in the Cymru South. If you want to catch up on the story so far, you can find Part 4 on the link provided.
Now, though, the focus is on Shama’s preparations for the 2021/2022 season. This chapter will include all Cambrian’s pre-season results and summer transfers as the manager plans for life without his star player…
BIG NEWS!
After completing my first season at Cambrian & Clydach, I went home to Guernsey for a week to recharge my batteries. I wanted to escape football for a while before heading back to south Wales to prepare for the next campaign. Or at least that was the plan.
In the middle of the night, I was startled awake by my phone. After nearly knocking it off the table trying to pick it up, I saw that I was getting a call from Mark Morgans – Cambrian’s director of football.
“Hello? What do you want, Mark?”
“Sorry to disturb you, Shama, but I’ve got some big news and it can’t wait.”
“Yeah… okay… so what is it?”
“You’re… you’re joking, right? You woke me up at midnight, just to tell me about some bloke in Turkey who lost his job?”
“He was the youth coach at Antalyaspor. Also used to play for Partizan Belgrade and the Senegal national team…”
“Well, unless Lamine Diarra fancies moving to the Rhondda Valley, I don’t care! Do you have anything that’s ACTUALLY important to us?”
“We’ve found a new parent club as you’ve requested. Barry Town United, in the Cymru Premier. They’ll agree to loan us any players they have for free, and in return, we’ll play a friendly against them in pre-season.”
I wanted to ask why Barry Town United needed two suffixes in their name, but my head was hurting, so I just said, “That’s good.”
“Oh, and before I forget… I spoke with Liam yesterday. He’s having second thoughts about leaving Cambrian. I reckon we might be able to get him on a new contract after all!”
“Wow, that’s great! I’ll fly back to Wales first thing in the morning and sign him up ASAP.”
“Oh, Shama, there’s no need to cancel your holiday just for Liam. I’ll handle the contract talks myself.”
“No, no, I insist. And by the way, Mark… you’re fired.”
“What the h-“
[If you’re reading this, Mark, apologies. I couldn’t afford your wage demands. 😦 ]
This was undoubtedly Cambrian’s biggest signing of the summer. Liam Edwards had been in outstanding form last season, providing 16 goals and 9 assists in 34 matches. Securing the midfield magician’s services for two more years – and on HALF his inital £500-per-week wage – was a huge result that would’ve been unthinkable a few months ago!
It also helped a lot that the chairman had increased my weekly wage budget from £1,100 to £1,400, allowing me some wiggle room when negotiating Edwards’ contract. Liam was still our highest-paid player by some distance, but at least now we could keep him and strengthen the rest of the squad!
TRANSFER WINDOW
A few notable players left us in the off-season, including my former assistant manager Mark Crutch. Frankly, Crutches was way past his best as a defender, and he wasn’t a very good coach, so he wasn’t worth keeping around.
Winger Josh Bull finally got off the wage bill, while Andre Griffiths and Dai Thomas were bit-part midfielders at best. Left-back Joe Donovan had caused us too many broken hearts, and right-back Morgan Rowling had weaved his last wand at Cambrian.
We also said goodbye to a couple of lads who aren’t on that list above. Lloyd Davies‘ contract ran out in May, and while he was probably our best full-back last season, I didn’t think he had the ability to take us forward. Meanwhile, midfielder Emanuele Zimanga decided to go home to Italy after Brexit took effect.
We’ve made six signings so far this summer. One of the first was Irish centre-back Cian Trehy – a former Crystal Palace youth-teamer who was actually recommended to us by our new scout.
We also significantly strengthened in both full-back positions. Ex-Wigan youngster Marcus Snell will vie for the left-back slot with the more experienced James Parry, who was at Afan Lido last term. Jake Nicholls slots in at right-back, becoming the latest Swansea youth graduate to join us.
A couple of former Barry midfielders complete our list of newcomers. Callum Sainty is the more defensive-minded of the two and has been on my radar for some time. Meanwhile, Jordan Cotterill is an experienced attacking midfielder who played alongside his cousin – former Wales winger David – last season.
SQUAD REPORT
Our squad looks much less top-heavy than it did last year, of that I’m sure! We’ve added plenty of depth in some important areas, and I’ve also promoted a couple of youth-teamers to complete the squad. So, without further ado, let me re-introduce you to our main men:
Young Londoner Harry Churchill is an excellent goalkeeper for this level, especially when it comes to his reflexes and handling. 37-year-old Neil Collins is pretty solid as a backup too, and remains a commanding presence despite his age.
New boy Trehy is a tough-tackling Dubliner with some decent mental attributes, even if he’s a tad sluggish. He will hope to break up the rock-solid central defensive partnership of Jarrad Wright and Connor Young, who are both pretty reliable and didn’t make too many mistakes last season. Wright’s pace and concentration probably gives him the edge over Young.
Snell is a quick(ish) and determined left-back who is perhaps best-placed to be our regular number 3, even if his crossing ability leaves plenty to be desired. Fellow signing Parry and 17-year-old Harry Blake may have some things to say about that.
Nicholls is a clearer first-choice at right-back, as he has a good attitude and can be effective at both ends of the pitch. That means Chad Goss may have to wait a little longer to find out when he will… he will be famous.
While vice-captain Kyle Jones‘ match ratings last season weren’t great, I am expecting an improvement from the cool-headed defensive midfielder this term. Ball-winner Sainty should add some strength and intelligence to our midfield, though I’d also like to see a bit more from our captain Cian Morgan after retaining him on a non-contract basis.
Edwards’ creativity, consistency and versatility makes him one of the Cymru leagues’ outstanding talents, and I’d love to see if he can better his 25 goal contributions from last term. The young starlet has been joined in attacking midfield by ex-Barry stalwart Cotterill, who shows a lot of flair and technique, and can also hit a mean long shot.
Lewis Ellis may play a slightly reduced role this season, but the right-winger’s endeavour should still get him a fair share of goals and assists. Out on the left, I’m intrigued to see if 16-year-old Jamie French can handle the step up to playing regular senior football.
Ryan Prosser was our 17-goal top scorer last season, having proven himself to be a danger with his head as well as his feet. He does blow very hot and cold, though, and can often go weeks without scoring. That could open the door for either the clinical Jamie Wilson or the pacey Dylan Reid to oust their mentor from the starting XI.
Here’s the latest revision of my Venables-esque ‘Christmas tree’ tactic. This positive system has worked a treat for us in home games so far and has already shown that it can tear teams apart.
Edwards has thrived as a shadow striker behind the poacher, who I find just needs to have a predatory instinct rather than be particularly fast. And while this system does look like it’s packing the midfield, the two carrileros will drift wide to support our full-backs and help us stretch play out a bit more.
But of course, sometimes you just need to go route one. This is a more obvious direct counter-attacking tactic, where a lot will depend on the effectiveness of our playmaker and the tenacity of our ball-winner in midfield.
I’ve also been working on a revised 4-4-2 over the summer. After last year’s experiment with two strikers and an inside-forward went Pete Tong, I’m gone right back to basics and will have two out-and-out wingers support the frontmen instead. It’s really not that revolutionary, but I’ll show it off to you if/when the time’s right.
BACKROOM STAFF
There’s been huge upheaval in the Cambrian backroom as well. Only fitness coach Chelsie-Jane Mason and physio Leighanne Kelly have kept their jobs, with Chelsie being the last survivor from the previous regime. Everyone else was either too expensive or simply not good enough to keep on [sorry again, Mark].
Taking over as assistant manager is former Llanelli Town midfielder Luke Morgan, who’s a decent disciplinarian and is an improvement on Crutches in most areas. I’ve brought in Richard Gunney as a defensive and possession coach, while ex-Undy manager Jason Pritchard will work with our attackers. Surprisingly, Lamine Diarra did not fancy joining Cambrian.
We’ve also replaced our chief scout and Head of Youth Development, but we won’t bother with a director of football this year. Everyone who applied for the role was asking for far too much money. I’m not wasting 3 grand a year on a mediocre DoF who might try to sign anyone claiming to be Hal Robson-Kanu’s cousin!
PRE-SEASON
Pre-season started with an early wake-up call against our new parent club Barry, who opened the scoring after just 16 seconds. The Linnets then moved towards victory as broadcaster Alex Jones added a couple more goals for them.
We did at least get two goals back through triallist midfielder McCauley Power, who was so impressive that I offered him a contract immediately. Sadly, former Hull youth player turned us down and signed for Colwyn Bay instead. [So much for all those ‘McPower’ gags I had written up…]
Defeat to Barry was followed by a confidence-building win at Bryn Rovers [can’t you tell I like “Gavin & Stacey”?]. Despite suffering an early setback at newly-relegated Taffs Well, we won that match as well, thanks to two goals from Wilson.
Jamie showed he was a young man in form by bagging another brace in Round 1 of the League Cup. Considering that we lost twice to Pontypridd in the league last season, it was encouraging that we got our own back with a solid defensive display in the second half.
After winning another friendly in midweek, we hosted Cymru North newcomers Caersws in Round 2. This was actually a much tougher match, not least because the Bluebirds literally had God Himself on their side! I kid you not; a young winger named Morgan Freeman fired Caersws into the lead early in the second half!
Our (Shawshank) redemption came midway through the half, when Ellis blasted in an equaliser after a sloppy throw-in from the visitors. That goal took the tie to penalties, where Churchill made a crucial save before Prosser and Tomlinson held their nerves to send us through.
In reaching Round 3 of the League Cup, we’ve already met one of our objectives for this season. As far as the Welsh Cup goes, we’re expected to match our efforts from last term by getting to Round 4… but I’ve a feeling the luck of the draw won’t be on our side this time.
Another top-half finish in the Cymru South is our main goal. With the recruitments we’ve made, anything less would be a huge failure. I’m quietly optimistic, though, that we can aim for the top four, or even launch a serious challenge for promotion.
The bookies have surprisingly priced us as 9-5 third-favourites for the title. That could be a load of rubbish, for all we know, because they’ve also made both Swansea University and Haverfordwest odds-on to go up! I’m not a gambling man, but even I know that’s not how odds work!
I think you can call that a successful transfer window!
I’ll be back with another chapter on Friday, when Cambrian kick off their second league season with Shama at the helm. As ever, you can stay updated whenever a new post goes live by hitting the ‘Follow’ button below and/or following me on Twitter @Fuller_FM.
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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