The next generation

Changing of the guard

After a strong first season in charge I took the chance to move the next generation into the first team & accepted offers on a few “older” players.
Slucho, Paucar, Montoya, Torres & Velarde were the main ones given first team spots a few were promoted to the squad.

Toreno Del Inca

We topped the group again, the kids settled in well enough it seems. Maldonado took his chance due to injuries with 5 goals in 10  games which isn’t a bad return for a young striker.
We got drawn against Cesar Vallejo who beat us in the final last year, you could say we got our revenge after beating them 4-3 on agg.
We then met Cristal in the Final who we beat in the Movistar semi finals so I suppose they got their revenge on us with a convincing 3-1 win.
Much to learn still for these young lads.

Opening Stage

For some reason my players don’t fancy the opening stage. We did improve on last years 7th by finishing 6th but we were 1st before we lost 3 on the bounce to slide down the table.
Positives were we are actually only 6 points off first so a good closing stages would get us back in the playoffs.

Closing Stage

I hate European clubs, yes I need to sell but they come in with the big budgets and take my best players by meeting their release clauses without any consideration for my plans.
On that note Zurich signed Gomez for £250,000 on deadline day leaving me with no senior left backs. Wonder if 16 year old Ruiz is ready? we will soon see.
Closing stage I do love the closing stage. We smashed it again well we finished 2 points clear but with a team full of youngsters so…
That meant we were in the playoffs (still not sure how those other two teams get in)

Copa Movistar

Cristal are fast becoming our bogey side the score says 4-2 on agg but to be fair we didn’t get close to them maybe just a step to far for our youngsters maybe they weren’t quite ready yet but losing will hopefully make them come back stronger.
They were certainly up for it in the 3rd place playoff after we won the first game 5-2 in the 2nd leg no one over 21 was selected. We lost the game but still won on agg.

Next season.

A few of our big players are leaving already, We had a brilliant intake and a potential 5* left back just what we needed is he ready probably not but he might need to be.
We qualified for the Libertadores qualifying stage. We need to get in the group to improve our bank balance. We made a loss of £6.5m last year. We are still £39m in debt. I don’t know how we are going to get out of this debt we are losing money every month any Arab billionaire fancies a club in Peru.

Thanks again for reading.

Dan