You can catch part one, the introductory piece, here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nSo as I rocked up on the island of Okinara I found what I expected. \u00a0A bit of sunshine, a nice big stadium and no players or staff. \u00a0Fortunately I had a couple of months to sort it all out before the J3 season started, but where to start? \u00a0Where I normally start in these situations to be honest, rejects and regens. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThere were well over 2000 Japanese players unattached and loads more playing as amateurs at other clubs, so the next move was pretty obvious. \u00a0Trials, trials and more trials. \u00a0That\u2019s how we recruited. \u00a0The first group I brought in were the tallest players available on a free in Japan. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Well, traditionally Japanese footballers are quite small so I figured that if I bring in a load of big lads, that is going to give us at least one advantage. \u00a0The next part of the plan was to have one hell of a load of matches to check these guys out in. \u00a0I planned to do a cut after every two matches played, until I was left with what I felt was a squad I could work with. \u00a0After each cut I would check in with the newly appointed scouts to see if there was anyone else I should be looking at in that position. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt took time and plenty of eyeballs, but I ended up relatively happy with the 20 players that had been offered a contract. \u00a0Where possible I was hoping for height and pace, but that wasn’t always possible. \u00a0With very little to choose between, I ended up following the coach reports alongside the pre-season friendly performances, ruling out anyone that it was claimed had consistency issues or was potentially made of paper. \u00a0Within the group there were 15 teenagers and 5 aged anything from 25 to 40. \u00a0The teenagers have potential, but it will be up to me to tap into that potential as fast as possible as the season progresses. \u00a0The \u201csenior\u201d players are not guaranteed starters by any means and even by the end of pre-season I was far from having a concrete starting XI in my head. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019ve created the squad view that I will use to monitor performance over the season. \u00a0I am building towards implementing the \u201cSearching the Stats\u201d recruitment model that I prefer to use when I am watching the pennies. \u00a0As you will learn in the the next post, the pennies are going to need careful watching at this club. \u00a0There is little point having a 25,000 seater stadium if you do not fill it. \u00a0And you don\u2019t fill it when you are playing J3. \u00a0You rarely fill it when you are playing J1, unless you are Urawa Reds.<\/span><\/p>\nThe J3 rules tell me that the top team gets promoted automatically, and the second place team enters a play off against the team that finishes second bottom in J2. \u00a0I have no idea whatsoever how we are going to fare. \u00a0The bookies tip us to come bottom (16th), the predicted finish on the home screen when I chose Ryukyu suggested 12th but I have no idea other than I would be surprised if we finished bottom.<\/span><\/p>\nThe #ArgSt17 <\/a>has been used throughout pre-season and has been nice and solid – but we have been playing plenty of whipping boys to build familiarity in the tactic and the players in the hope that it gets us off to a confident start when the league season gets underway. \u00a0We haven\u2019t played anyone that should be capable of beating us at all, so it is not a fair gauge of where we are at all.<\/span><\/p>\nI will delve deeper in the next post, but I am financially curious as to how the figures work out here. \u00a0The \u20ac17k weekly wage budget adds up to the club going bust with some very speculative sums, but the squad has been assembled for a fraction of that so I will work out whether that means I have an upside.<\/span><\/p>\nThe prize money for winning the league, yeah we can dream, is \u20ac40k so this is not the sort of place where I can just gamble on getting promoted and make back all the money spent at the end of the season. \u00a0This year needs careful planning and financial management – dull, I know, but it will be necessary. \u00a0I have a long term strategy in place for the club where we produce high quality players that can be sold on, whilst making sure we consistently move up the leagues and eventually into continental football. \u00a0Mind you, show me anyone that doesn\u2019t have that kind of aim for the LLM save.<\/span><\/p>\n\r\n