Day 11

Trial Day—four teams consisting of free agents strut their stuff in front of scouts and managers, hoping to impress enough that they'll be offered a contract.

I have no idea how the players are broken into teams, but the match I watched—England Trialists IV against England Trialists III—was a fairly one-sided affair. The Trialists IV team never looked like losing, and took the game out 3-nil. I asked my scout for reports on the players who impressed me.

I was inundated with reports after the match, but only chose to act on one: Javlon Campbell, who was the standout performer in the match I watched, looks like a star in the making, so I offered him a trial until the end of pre-season. I'd go for a permanent deal right away if it weren't for fear of having too many strikers on the books.

Earlier in the day, Curtis Woodhouse, my Assistant Manager, came back with a list of potential central midfield loanees. I elected to scout them all, since I can't see their attributes—Football Manager implements a kind of fog of war attribute hiding for "non-famous" or unknown players.

I got my man Salomon Olembé. The veteran Cameroon international has spent most of his career in Ligue 1, the top division of French football, with a couple of years Premier League experience along the way, so this is a huge signing for little Lincoln City, fifth-tier English club.