Exeter City: 2018-2019 Season Opening - koszak27's Dynasty

koszak27's Dynasty Blog

Exeter City: 2018-2019 Season Opening

Posted on August 20, 2016 at 10:48 AM.

(0)

September 1st, 2018

- Exeter, UK

Exeter City finished their first season in the FL championship in 19th place, only 12 points from relegation back down to League 1. At times, the team looked lost, ineffective and lacking composure. They started the season with losses in their first four league games and spent August and September in the relegation zone. By January 1st, the Grecians had improved slightly into 19th position and the sales of midfielders Zach Pfeffer and Ryan Ledson had left the transfer budget overflowing with cash. The team was poised to make a big splash in the transfer market and it seemed that help would arrive for a 2nd half push up the table. Five signings would indeed take place in that window but none of the players would put on an Exeter shirt until July:

Florian Martin, Cham. Niortais - LM, 28 yrs. old (70 OVR)
Okan Alkan, Balikesirspor - RB, 25 yrs. old (66 OVR)
Koray Gunter, Galatasaray - CB, 24 yrs. old (77 OVR)
Jose Izquierdo, Club Brugge - LW, 26 yrs. old (77 OVR)
Gael Perdomo, Tours FC - GK, 28 yrs. old (68 OVR)

German national Koray Gunter is one of five players joining Exeter City on a free transfer this summer.

All five free transfers would be immediately slotted into the first team squad with Martin and Alkan coming off the bench.

Florian Martin will add needed veteran depth to a young ECFC team.

Leaving the team would be several players with expired contracts:

Jang Suk Won - CB, 28 yrs. old (59 OVR)
Samuel Hadler - CDM, 18 yrs. old (65 OVR)
Seul Chan Jung - RM, 18 yrs. old (62 OVR)
Ritchie Robles - LM, 18 yrs. old (63 OVR)

Outside of the contracts, two other players left during the summer window. Danny Grainger was sold to Wigan Athletic for $420,000 and will join the team in the Premier League. Young attacking midfielder Duane Holmes was also sold off. He went to Millwall for $500,000 only a year after Exeter City purchased him for $400,000.

Exeter City's Captain, Danny Grainger, was surprisingly sold and will join newly promoted Wigan Athletic in the Premier League.

Coming into the club on loan was goalie Ryan Saville (54 OVR) from Southend United to serve as the team's backup. Exeter City also signed Romanian LB free agent Alexandru Bus (61 OVR). There were a few youth academy players moving into the senior team as well:

Domenico Sereni (ITA) - 54 OVR CAM
Leandro Serrao (BRA) - 45 OVR CDM
Ekene Kwei (NIG) - 64 OVR CM
Carlos Aldair (BRA) - 43 OVR GK

Jacopo Dezi has taken over the captain's arm band with his stamina and balance helping the team since 2014. The iron man plays in almost every game and has become a great play maker in midfield.

Jacopo Dezi has become the new Exeter City captain.

This was the starting XI for the Grecians to start the season. The team was back to a 4-4-2 to start the year:

Exeter City would again start the season with a Capital One Cup game and again it would go to penalties. This time, however, the team would be on the losing side. After reaching the semi-finals last season, they were eliminated in the first round. Following the early exit, Exeter City would also reverse its league fate from last year and would win every league game in August. They currently sit at the top of the table with 12 points and look to be a real contender for promotion and a trip to the Premier League.

Manager's Notes:
The five free transfer players are paying dividends now but I think I can really make out by selling one or two in the winter. The same thing happened with Ojamaa a few seasons ago and even if I only get a few million from the transfer, the amount of money it will free up in wages should really help. I'm going to really try and stretch each season's transfer budget and even if I only get a few bench players on free transfers I can make money the next year selling them off.

To start this season, the board finally came in with some decent transfer money with $1.1 million and $6,000 in weekly wages. It makes me think that the formula must depend on your team's player wages when it decides how much your budget is. There's no other reason as to why I got almost double the transfer budget for this 2nd year in the Championship. The only change was the large wages for the free transfer players.

The new players seem very good in the game. Izquierdo has 4 star skills and is very pacey. I'm using him on the right midfield now but I want to get a true RM at some point and put Izquierdo up front with Romero. Perdomo is a beast in goal and it looks like he has about 6 inches on everyone else when they shake hands before the game. Gunter is a really good CB and is an upgrade over Grainger.

With Captain Grainger gone, we are down to only 7 original players left on the team with 15 youth players. I'm hoping to try and keep all 7 of the original players at least through one year in the Premier League. Davies and Schimpelsberger have been good at the defensive back positions but they will need to make a big jump up in ratings to be starting in the Premier League.

This is our current depth chart:

Exeter City Depth Chart - 2018
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
GK	Perdomo (68)	Saville (54)	Aldair (43)
RB	Schimpelsberger (70)	Alkan (66)
RCB	Kim (73)	Danic (65)
LCB	Gunter (77)	Robak (60)
LB	Davies (66)	Bus (61)
RM	Izquierdo (77)	Martin (70)
RCM	Dezi (69)	Aina (69)
LCM	Beavon (73)	Ognenovski (69)
LM	Fagundez (72)	Brough (67)
LS	Romero (73)	Curiale (67)
RS	Sikorski (63)	Nichols (67)

We went back to the 4-4-2 to start the year after the midfield free transfers came in. Sikorski has still been serviceable but is starting to decline. Even at only 63 overall, Sikorski still gets his goals in the simulations though. If his scoring dries up, I will probably start Martin at RM and move Izquierdo up front to replace Sikorski.

The board has only asked us to avoid relegation again so this should be a stress free season. I'm confident the team will fight for promotion this season. They seemed very strong in the game I played and they seemed to be playing well in the simulations.

The next update will be July 1st, 2019 once this season has ended.