Celso was signed for 30k from Costa Rican powerhouses Deportivo Saprissa. He is very creative and can conjure attacks out of nothing, which is what we hope that he will do in the coming years.

By the way, my settling in to Holland hasnt been going all that well, especially since I lost again, this time 2-0, with a terrible performance against a bunch of Belgian amateurs. I think we forgot who was who. But now, I had to get something fixed up.

Me and my coaches had a meeting after the game and went over tactics and the training schedule that the players were following. We made some adjustments, especially as our next opponent was Roma, and we were expecting a sell-out crowd.

We drew more than 8000 fans, but we also lost 6-1! Defending was bad, but really, a lot of the players were struggling. Dijkhuizen got us a late consolation, but that wasn't such a great feeling. It just sucks.

Well I realized that we needed a new keeper and left back, and maybe a striker. I talked to Harry about it and he gave me the list of targets that we could still get.

1. Senol Kok - AGOVV Left Back - 18k
2. Jacco Ros - Free Agent - Keeper
3. Alex Fernandez - Coslada Striker - Free

Now I had heard about Alex Fernandez having a bright future in the game, and offered him an 850/week contract. He waited a while, then accepted. But his arrival was rather sour. In the press conference he said that he saw us as a stepping stone on the road to greater things. Understandably, I was pissed. And so were the fans. I talked to him and he apologised for his comments, but the damage was done. My new wonderkid was already hated by my fans.

Senol Kok was an amazing left-back. Harry said that we should get him even if we spend our whole budget on him. Even though we paid only 14k for him, his qualities are sure to impress the fans just as they have impressed myself and the technical staff. One bargain done, it was off to another, and we signed Jacco Ros as our backup keeper on a free. He was almost as good as Peter (Van der Vlag), our number 1. But this done, some players had to leave, and three did just that. Ale-Geert de Vries, our former backup, and Davy Veltman, a midfielder, left for AGOVV Apeldoorn for a total of 85k. Much needed cash into our coffers. It went straight into the wage budget, and no longer were we on the brink. Stephan van Hoving, a reserve player, also left. Veendam bought him for 60k.


All said and done, we are still working on getting a fitness coach into our ranks, providing the damn board let us. And there might still be room for a couple of loanees, especially a striker who's just about to take off...