Pre-Season Tournament 2024–25

## July 2024 preview

Yeovil Town accepted an invitation to return to the European Continental Cup, hosted in France this year. Yeovil Town shared a group with **Monaco** (*France*), **Olympique Lyonnais** (*France*) and **Villarreal** (*Spain*).

## Season Welcome From Sascha Krause

"Believe it or not, but our transfer incomings is more or less done for the season.

After the disappointing end to last years campaign, I knew where we went wrong and what we needed to move forward. Aside from tactics, I felt we really needed to strength in 2 key positions; RB and DM. However, Isaac Hayden and Lukas Klunter still have huge roles to play for us and they won't be going anywhere. It just means that our ideal starters are our two new players.

For RB, we picked up the talented Benjamin Henrichs in a hefty deal worth £33,000,000. This is big money for the club that was topped only by our following signing. The 27-year old German arrives from Napoli as the solution to our right flank. Plenty of pace and a great engine, he is more than comfortable with taking on his man as much as he is able to break up their attacks.

Declan Rice is the second player we brought in. Compared to Isaac, he is much more defensive-minded and is much quicker across the ground. Arriving for £35,000,000 from West Ham United, the 25-year old will become a key figure for our midfield for years to come. Hayden is approaching 30-years old so we needed to cover ourselves for the future. When a player like Declan becomes available, you don't pass on that opportunity.

Finally, arriving on a free transfer over the summer is 34-year old Goalkeeper Alex Smithies from Cardiff City. Up until now, we have been lucky enough to avoid injuries to Ruben Blanco and Frederik Schram. But Smithies became available after running down his contract with Cardiff and he is someone we respect a lot. He gives us some more depth and will get some time in the league cups. On the topic of Goalkeepers, Frederik has consented to swap jerseys with Ruben. Ruben will now wear the number 1 shirt. Schram is happy enough to be our second choice keeper now as he gets enough minutes to keep his place in the Iceland national team.

Finally, Mats Hummels and Danny Welbeck intend to retire at the end of this season. When you consider that Mats only joined us a few months ago, it might look like bad business. But now he's getting a fresh start with the squad and he will want to go out on a high, I have complete faith in him to help guide us towards a tighter defence this year. Come next season, we will have to evaluate whether Callum Davis is ready to step up into the first-team or whether we need to look at the market. Then again, Jay Lewis could have a great season too. He is only 17-years and is definitely one for the future. But we've decided to keep him around this season so he can become accustomed to the first team. We'll probably be looking at another 3 or 4 years before he is completely ready, whereas Davis could only need 1 more if he has a good season this year. Losing Welbeck will be easier to replace, but we will likely need to invest in a new winger in January to help smooth the transition.

With a number of out-goings expected, other shirt numbers opened up. Below is the full 32-man squad for this pre-season tournament. In it, you will find the updated numbers of a few players.

## Group Stage: MD1

 R. Brewster | 3'

**AS Monaco Post-match Interview**

"Here we go! This is exactly what we have been working on. Lethal out the gate but the defensively solid to then play on the break. S. Mounie wasn't quite ready for today so we gave Brewster the start. I have to say... I liked what I saw. With Hudson-Odoi and James down the flanks, we have so much pace that we looked like a team reborn. The fact we limited them to 1-shot, whilst it will be far from the norm, is a sign of progress towards our goals.

Dru Yearwood, who took the 8-shirt this season, thrived in the LCM role and managed to pick up 3-assists. If he can form a partnership with Ward-Prowse, we can score a LOT more goals this season. What pleases me most is that we performed well today without any of the first team defenders and missing key players, including our summer signings, to international football."

## Group Stage: MD2

**Villarreal Post-match Interview**

"Similar story to the last pre-season. In this game, I fielded a lot of kids and players low on minutes. I won't read much into the results, but I did learn something about the depth of our squad. We're lacking a back-up winger now who can stretch the game with his pace. Mark James completed this role last season, but since we're looking to use him in the first team this time around, our reserve team is desperately lacking pace. We'll look into this.

This game was sloppy from us, but not reflective of our ambitions or where we are as a team."

## Group Stage: MD3

 C. Hudson-Odoi | 9'
 R. Brewster | 27'
 R. Brewster | 51'

**Olympique Lyonnais Post-match Interview**

"Happy with that! Quick out the blocks for both teams, but after the second half, we played exactly how we needed and didn't concede many more chances. With Napoli confirmed for the semi-final, we're setting up to treat the game as though it was an away fixture for the Europa League. We have 2 important qualifiers coming up so this will be a great warm-up for us."

## Semi-final

 S. Mounie | 7'

**Napoli Post-match Interview**

"There we have it! That was the best I've seen us play over 90-minutes for a long while. Calm and composed on the ball, plenty of possession and created a number of chances for ourselves. When the time came to shut up shop, we did exactly that whilst managing to hit them on the break with 2 swift counter attacks!

But today is not enough. We now need to get revenge on Villarreal by showing them what we're actually made of. Interestingly enough for Benjamin Henrichs, his debut for us was against his former team. Himself and Rice had a great game and certainly showed the crowd what they'll bring to Yeovil this season.

Unfortunately, Marwin Reuvers has departed the club. It was the right timing for everyone and having made 135 appearances for the club and being at the heart of our meteoric rise, departs for Leeds United as a club legend."

## Final

 Eliminated

**Villarreal CF Post-match Interview**

"So it's not the result we wanted, but it was a performance we deserved. Comparing this team today to the one on the last day of last season and the difference is a world apart. There is a new style and swagger about the players and on another day, we would have won this 1-0 ourselves. Villarreal sat deep and put their whole team behind the ball for the majority of the game and they certainly made us work hard for our chances. Comparing them to your average Premier League side who plays like that, we should have the difference against them. We also lacked Callum Hudson-Odoi for the majority of the game and he's a difference-maker by himself.

I can confirm that with our two latest signings, our incomings is complete for this window. Josh Sims arrives from Southampton after we paid his release clause. At 27-years old and with plenty of experience playing on the wing, he was the perfect solution for our lack of depth. For the fee we paid, I think we got a brilliant deal! I also mentioned that we were in the market to bring in Danny Welbeck's eventual replacement. We identified a brilliant little kid over in Argentina. His name is Gonzalo Rescaldani at the 21-year old arrives from Newell's Old Boys for a small fee—comparative to his talent. He won't get a lot of time this season as we need to develop him and give him the occasional minutes, but he is definitely one for the future."

## Transfer Window

###  **Contract News**

* L. Klunter extended his contract until **2028**
* S. Mounie extended his contract until **2027**
* I. Hayden extended his contract until **2028**
* M. Besic extended his contract until **2027**
* O. Jackson extended his contract until **2029**
* L. Sorensen extended his contract until **2029**

## YeoLaTengo Monthly Review

July comes to an end and with it, a rather successful Pre-season tournament for the club! Sure, we didn't win it, but it was mostly about fitness and performance.

New signings Rice and Henrichs didn't get a lot of minutes, having returned late from international football, but looked good in the minutes they did receive. Sims arrived late and missed the tournament altogether so he will be a few weeks behind everyone else.

Interestingly, of the 14 goals scored, only one was not via one of our front three. Which emphasises the focus on getting the most out of the attacking players as opposed to the more varied approach to goalscorers we had mostly had previously. In all in, July showed promise for what's to come as we all hope to build on the foundations of previous seasons rather than repeat them again.

August is a massive month. We start the season with a trip to Old Trafford, followed by Chelsea at Huish Park. Between our Europa League qualifier against Norrkoping, we travel to fan favourites Leicester City. Results could have a huge impact on the fortunes of the season. Everyone wants to get off to a great start, but few seldom have opening games like ours.

**Expected First XI for the season:**

**GK**: Ruben Blanco

**RB**: Benjamin Henrichs

**CB**: Reece Oxford

**CB**: Mats Hummels

**LB**: Antonee Robinson

**DM**: Declan Rice

**CM**: J. Ward-Prowse

**CM**: Dru Yearwood

**LW**: Callum Hudson-Odoi

**ST**: Steve Mounie

**RM**: Mark James