News Round-Up 11/7/11 – Staines

Yea, the Anonymous Don has found himself struck down by the Curse of the Blogger, a similar affliction to the Commentators Curse, where someone attempting to look knowledgable is immediately contradicted by an ever-changing course of events. I’m referring to yesterdays round-up, where I trashed Gillingham’s chances of signing Adam Birchall and hinted he will probably end up at Swindon, only to find out twenty-four hours later that the Gills are favourites for his signature…

In fact his personal circumstances (baby on the way) have thrown a huge spanner in the works, at least as far as trying to second guess which way a footballer I don’t know a hell of a lot about is going to go. So, using the power of logic (i.e. guesswork) I would imagine Gillingham would be his preferred destination due to location… therefore Gillingham will have to offer considerably less money than the Dons to drop the ball. Consequently, Swindon will have to offer a hell of a lot more than the Dons or Gillingham (and probably give some kind of promise on how often he’s going to play) to tempt him there…. possibly.

Actually, the way things stand nothing has changed as far as the Dons are concerned… there is still a favourite for Birchall’s signature, and it still isn’t Wimbledon. News he had a medical today at Kingsmeadow doesn’t really surprise me, after all if he was over for talks we might as well have got that requirement out of the way, kill two birds with one stone and all that. I’m kind of thinking not signing Birchall might be a blessing in disguise, if we do the guest books and forums will be full of Dons fans with renewed optimism tipping us for a playoff place, all well and good until we’ve only won once by the end of September, the new boy hasn’t scored and it emerges we’re paying him two grand a week…

I’m thinking the way we are going we might pull a surprise or two this season, even if that’s just a season of genuine consolidation in the league coupled with a decent run in one of the cups… after all, we’ve already made it through to the second round of the JPT… And we are about to sign one of the rocks our promotion winning defence was built on, a man who played through the pain barrier in our playoff campaign, Gareth Gwillim. Gareth has had his contract cancelled by Dagenham, so the Dons are free to snap him up. I won’t say a hell of a lot about GG right now, mainly because I’m currently working on part two of my squad preview and I’ll save it until then, but it goes without saying this is welcome news.

Tomorrow night the Dons make the short journey to take on Staines, and thanks to a quirk in my social life circa five years ago coupled with various events that will be explained in full in my forthcoming Days of Yesteryear feature on our playoff win, this will actually be my first visit to Wheatsheaf Park (as well as being my first game of the season). Not really much point in doing a full on preview for a friendly, especially after I missed Saturdays game… and its amazing how simply being out of the loop for a day has given me the impression I’m playing catchup and have missed major news, but tomorrow night should help me get over that…

It’ll also allow me to practice my match report writing skills, and I’m thinking of trying a few different styles over pre-season (much as the team are experimenting, so can I…). So the report will either be a couple of paragraphs or a full on two thousand word epic (like the good old days), largely depending on how many notes I take and how much time I get on Wednesday night to write it all up…

Either way, football is back, a truncated pre-season means we are a matter of weeks away from the big kick-off, and I’m ready for it. Oh yes…

News Round-Up 10/7/11 – Birchall

In my absence the Dons beat a Fulham XI 2-0 yesterday thanks to goals from Bret Johnson and Charlie Ademeno, and as I wasn’t able to attend and have only since read one decent report on the game I’ll not be commenting any further on the game. Rumours that I failed to show as my usual haunt in the JSS was closed for the day are wide of the mark…

As suggested in the preview we did see trialist striker Bas Savage in action, although whether he gets a contract or not depends largely on the Dons action in the transfer market, and news today coming out of Dover suggests Wimbledon have had a bid accepted for Adam Birchall. Swindon have also had their valuation accepted, so the way things stand at the moment they will presumably be favourites for his signature for numerous reasons, including  financial and immediate ambition. I suppose the only hope we have is if we match Swindon’s offer financially and the player then decides he’s going to get more opportunities at Kingsmeadow.

Either way, actually winning this transfer race would be a massive coup for the club, and Terry Brown. Brown had been adamant he wouldn’t be bringing someone in, at least as far as his comment in the press are concerned, which is sensible – you don’t want to give supporters false hope a big signing will come in, as well as the players already at the club. Yet the move for Birchall, coupled with the bid for Connell at Grimsby (albeit a player we quickly found ourselves priced out of the market for), shows when decent players become available, the club will try to bring them in.

And I don’t think there is any doubt Birchall is more than a decent player. Ok, he’s been playing a couple of divisions below League Two, but the sheer volume of goals he banged in for Dover suggest making the step up shouldn’t be a problem, providing he joins the right club. Plus he sounds more than just a goalscorer, exactly the sort of player we need to attract in these post Kedwell days.

Yet with Swindon clearly favourites, and Gillingham sniffing around in the background (although you have to wonder whether their pockets are deep enough to match the valuation), the Dons seem unlikely to pull this deal off. Without any remaining obvious targets Brown will probably end up offering a contract to a trialist, although the value won’t be anywhere near what the likes of Birchall or Connell would have commanded, there will still be plenty in the pot should another big potential signing emerge. In terms of finding that elusive Kedwell replacement, patience will be required, but the news Brown is being proactive has given Dons fans a nice pre-season lift.