Transfers





Welcome to Part 2 of my Harrogate Town save. In this chapter I will be showing you how I've got on during my first month with Harrogate, leaving you with our first game of the season against Sutton United in the next chapter.





I am very excited to be showing you all the transfers I have made in my first transfer window. From the first chapter I mentioned that we had around £8k in wages which has helped me in the signings I have made. Please see the picture below.









These signings will all be an integral part of this season. I am very pleased with the signings of Rai Simons, Aaron Kuhl, Milan Van Ewjik and Adrian Molina. Let me show you a little more about my signings.









































Rai Simons is an absolute coup for us. Coming in from Chesterfield on a free, he has been a revelation in pre-season, scoring 6 goals and assisting 3 in 3 matches. Looking at my squad before, I realised I needed this type of striker if I wanted to be in with a chance of the playoffs. He has great finishing and composure for this league and some very good physical stats too.













Aaron Kuhl is probably a player that a lot of Football Manager fans have heard of. Once a youth prospect for Reading, and a good one at that. He has found himself struggling to set himself at a club. I think this is his opportunity now. Coming in as a key player for our midfield, he will be a clinical part of how we play this season and has potential to stick with us for quite a few seasons ahead.













































Well, the first thing to mention with Adrian Molina is his £40k release clause. I couldn't believe it when I found him and the fact he was happy to join Harrogate was even better. At 21 years old he has a lot of time to improve and with a finishing stat of 14 already, I can't wait to see where he takes us. I like to think that he will be our little Spanish magician, which not many teams in this league will have.









































Although my tactic in the last chapter didn't include any full backs, since these signings I have decided to adjust my tactic to fit the squad I have. Ewjik is a 17 year old, Dutch full back with amazing potential. I got him in on a free transfer and looking to put him straight into the first team, to improve him as much as possible, hoping he is capable of playing much further beyond this division. As you can see from his stats, at 17 he is incredible and with playing time he could become a legend for this club.









Pre-Season





















Overall, I'd say we have had a very successful pre-season. We have had some good wins and our losses haven't been terrible, especially our 2-1 loss to Brighton which I was proud of. Half way through pre-season I had changed the tactic we were using. I found we were scoring a good amount of goals but conceding too many. I also noticed that my squad including the new signigns weren't being used to their full ability. Not having any full backs was leaving us too open at the back, so bringing in Milan Van Ewjik and Niko Hämäläinen were two very good choices. Our first game of the season is a few days away and I think we're very much ready to get a win on the opening day of the season.









Change In Tactic

































As stated above, our tactic has changed, but our way of playing has also slightly changed with it. To counter our leaky defence, I saw a chance to play more possession based football. We had the players to do it, so I tested it and it worked like a treat. Although we lost to Brighton, we put up a very decent fight and there was almost a glimmer of hope to pull it back to 2-2. I was very pleased with the performance in pre-season and i'm glad this squad can play a varied range of football if needs be.





Overview





To conclude, our signings have been perfect and have all performed amazingly. We have achieved a good pre-season and ready for our first game of the season, feeling like a win is around the corner. We have also managed to set ourselves a tactic that works best for us with the hopes of not changing it too much through the season.





Unfortunately, we didn't sign Danny Philpott, who went to Eastleigh instead. But we did sign Erwin Vandenbergh and Tony Mcnally who are very good scouts for us. I am keeping an eye out on some decent staff members and will notify if any changes occur. We have also managed to get QPR as a Senor Affiliate which you can see from some of the players loaned in from them.





In the next chapter, we will go through our first 7 games of the season and give you an update on how things are going. Please leave a comment if you have enjoyed reading this and give me a follow on twitter @thejonkyblog





In case you missed chapter 1:





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