F.C. Pro Vercelli 1892

[Smurph]

I wish I was as enthusiastic as you guys are! Thanks for the kind words, again.

February 2016

Horrible.

It's good to see us score goals. De Paolo, despite being rated my worst defender, is undroppable. I had to make up a word to show how important he is to us. You could argue that other defenders could get the same goals as he could, yes, but defensively he's a rock too. Looking at the amount of goals we've conceded doesn't help this point - but I'd really hate to drop him for another centre-back, though, providing we remain in Serie A, I think I might need to look for a replacement.

Good to see Balotelli get his first league goal for the club, though we were 1-0 up in that game, so it was really disappointing to lose. Really good to see Izaola get a goal against Inter Milan, but Sanogo definitely trumped him in that game, with just the four goals...

The game against Cesena was the worst though. That's a game that we really needed to get something from. A few encouraging signs, though.

These are our remaining fixtures.

Looking at the league table:

Getting points away to Bologna, home to Roma (!), Livorno and Catania are vital. We managed draws in all four of these games last time round, so now that we're at home 3/4 of them, wins would be excellent and probably achievable. A point or two against the other teams wouldn't go amiss either. We've still got a few very tricky fixtures but at least a lot of the bigger teams have been played.

[Murph]

11 games to get a wee run together mate, keep you chin up and get into them fookers!

[Smurph]

March 2016

We needed a win against Bologna...

...and a win we secured. Five minutes remaining and Ledesma scores his first of the season. We didn't deserve that at all but I'll certainly take it! No surprises against Udinese or Napoli and a decent performance against Cagliari gets us a point.

I've said it before, but our main problem is scoring goals. We have good strikers at the club but we're not creating any chances - and I'm not quite sure why this is. I can understand we're playing against better defences, but we're only creating five chances against the weaker teams, so this needs to change completely to have any chance of scoring some vital goals. I've chopped and changed the formation a bit to try and fashion more chances but nothing has happened, which is very worrying. The most we've scored in one game was two!

We're now bottom.

A win could see us out the relegation places though, so it's not over yet. Our win against Bologna certainly helps our cause, and with Roma and Livorno to play at home this month, we can hopefully get something from them. This is probably our most important series of games... ever.

[SodjesSixteenIncher]

Livorno at home. MASSIVE.

[Smurph]

April 2016

It was crunch time. We needed a few wins to have any chance of staving off relegation. This was the most important month of all as we hosted a few relegation candidates. We needed points.

Not great but we weren't expected to win. Couldn't salvage a draw at home to Roma.

Next up was Livorno at home. This is it.

b*****d.

So close but yet so far. Great to get back into it after a bollocking at half-time but yet again another late goal succumbs us to a loss. I wasn't happy with this at all, but it was promising to see us score two goals.

We don't make things easy for ourselves. I fear that may have been the final nail in the coffin.

Oh, what's that? The double over Sampdoria? I BELIEVE IT IS!

Three points. Three vital fucking points.

Three matches left.

AC Milan (A)

Catania (H)

Parma (A)

It's really going to be tough. I can't see a result against Milan, I don't think anyone can. That puts it down to the game against struggling Catania...

[Marshmallo]

Put 3 up front away to Milan and go for it. I believe.

[Smurph]

We had nothing to lose against Milan so I just went for it...

Man.

How unlucky is that?

Two own goals and a penalty. Not the greatest game but we could have done with the point.

However, it wasn't this game I had my full attention on. It was Catania v Bologna.

Unfortunately, the home side won 1-0.

Simple as this: We need to win our two remaining fixtures and we need Catania to lose both of theirs. We also need Cesena and Bologna to get very few points.

Pro Vercelli face the impossible.

[Mr. Brightside]

Keep the faith!

FORZA PRO VERCELLI!

[DarkBlue62]

This is brilliant. Come on PRO VERCELLI! Even if you go down you will bounce straight back up easily!

[Smurph]

Here we go.

Catania were the opposition and we needed to win this to have ANY chance of survival.

We took the lead and held onto it well. At the end of the day, Catania are a much better team than we are, and all their pressure eventually resulted in a goal. We had a few chances after that but couldn't do anything about it. Our poor-performing strikers acting up yet again.

And that's it. The final whistle blew. Relegation. Goodbye Serie A.

For the final game against Parma I put out a bunch of youths and players who are set to leave at the end of the season.

And it showed!

And there it is. The final league table.

It's not surprising really. Looking at it, we have the worst budget by far - and our highest paid player is Balotelli on €8,000 a week - which is nothing compared to the other teams. In fact, most teams are paying their players five figure sums of money - something we can't compare with. Bologna are paying their "squad players" €14,000 a week. Obviously, it's not all down to the budget, but it's definitely a factor. We've had to rely on young players who are decent but no-where near the finished article but they're certainly getting there. It was a good season in some respects. We got a few decent wins and held our own against some of the bigger clubs. The jump from Serie B to Serie A is a big one and there are certainly positives to take from this season and I know what's needed when we get promoted next season.

Forza Pro Vercelli.

[Mr. Brightside]

[Meatwad]

[Murph]

Great read mate, looking forward to you pushing for promotion again. Nowt wrong with being a yo-yo

[Smurph]

Pre-season 2016

So, after last seasons disappointment of relegation, I'm hoping to bounce straight back up to Serie A. I said to the board that I expect to get promoted, and as such have been given a very generous transfer budget of just under €8M. We also have 70% transfer revenue available so any departures we get a fair whack from.

Departures:

It was hard to say goodbye to Ciro Polito. He was excellent in his time but sadly he's too old now and wouldn't feature for us this season. A good servant to the club in his five year career at the club. Gianni was another one who I didn't really want to go, but at 33 years old, his legs had completely gone. He's still a very intelligent player but I have some promising youths in his position, so he had to go on a free. Gianni only featured seven times last season so it was probably for the best. Scardina was a really hard one to let go and he's now playing for Brescia in C1/A which is good to see. He had been at the club for five seasons too and scored a total of 27 goals at the club - which is a decent return. He could have still done a decent job for us but he would also have been used sparingly. Vecchione was a good servant to the club too in the four years he spent at the club, but due to a change in formation, he wasn't needed any more. The right midfielder may come back to haunt us, though, as he now plays for Chievo in Serie B. Spinazzola, Di Benedetto, Scarabelli and De Groot never managed to fill their potential at the club when they were signed as youngsters, but they were all signed when I was lower down in the leagues, so I guess it's understandable. Douglas Packer was good, but again the change of formation didn't work in his favour, and after a grand total of 0 appearances last season, it was time for him to leave.

Monachello, I didn't want to leave, but we have a lot of strikers at the club, so I left it was unfair if we kept him and never used him. €725K is a decent amount for him and I hope he does well (but not too well!) at Vicenza who are also in Serie B.

I had no choice in the Toninho transfer. The board accepted a €4.4M bid for him, which is understandable. He was only at the club for two seasons after being signed from AC Milan for €1.4M, but a €3M profit is not to be sniffed at. The influential midfielder made 66 appearances at the club, scoring 10 and assisting 12 times, so he'll be missed. Hope he does well for Grémio though - and he's welcome back.

Arrivals:

Florin Burcea is a free transfer from Otelul in Romania. He hardly played for them but he's got a fair bit of potential and can't argue with him on a free transfer. Will be used sparingly but I reckon he'll do all right.

Guido Rizzi is Luca Dolci mk II. Both the same player - young defensive midfielders. He was signed in January but this is the first time I can introduce him. Signed from Reggina for €375K he has a bright future in-front of him.

€7M man Rémi Salles is a very expensive purchase. Signed from AS Monaco, mostly in instalments, he is Toninho's replacement. Both very similar players, but I want my squad mostly Italian, so he fits the bill perfectly. I reckon he's better than Toninho, actually, and I hope he can give us a plethora of assists this season.

With those additions, and a few more, this is our squad for the coming season.

As you can see, De Paolo is still severely under-rated by Buenocunto. I'm starting to think he might not be the assistant manager that I need to take the club forward, despite his fantastic name. I'll keep Francesco until the end of the season but he may need to leave soon.

Balotelli has declined in quality, again, but I hope I can get him back on track this season.

There's a few players there I haven't introduced because they're youths or I just forgot! I'll give small introductions to them. Most of these guys will probably go on loan this season - I just haven't got round to shifting them out yet.

De Giosa will probably be our goalkeeper this season. Very young but has the potential to be the same quality as Lucchetti. He was signed from Grossetto for €180K last season but spent his time in the unders.

Monti was signed from Udinese for €55K. Not the greatest but if I could get a profit from him that would be decent.

Orsolini was signed from Roma for €650K. Young guy, again, and can play on the right or left of defence. Good player to have and should come better this season. Will be used sparingly so hoping I could get him a loan club.

Jean-Paul Leonard was signed last season from Cameroon side Coton Sport for €35K. He's a left back and was a complete bargain. He played a bit last season and I reckon he'll be used more often this season, coming in for Gavazzeni.

Falivena was signed on a free from Atalanta and is decent back-up. He spend last season on loan and I reckon he'll be on loan again this season. He doesn't have the best potential and stalled a bit, but we'll see what happens.

Greg Rafter is an Irish central mid. I only signed him because he's Irish. A free from Dundalk three seasons ago, he's made one appearance, and probably won't make any more.

Marras was a free from Juventus a few seasons ago and should be a reasonable right mid soon. Not used a lot. Looking to send him on loan again.

Rosati was signed two seasons ago from Cesena and should be a decent right-mid soon. He cost quite a bit (€875K) so I hope he can fulfil his potential.

Bini was another bargain from Udinese, only costing €30K. Still young and will probably go on loan, but he should be a decent enough player soon.

This is Alessandro Sau's fourth season at the club and has spent most of it on loan. I hope he can find a loan club again this season because I still have quite a lot of hope for him. €30K from Gela so not a lot of money lost.

Rognone has been here since 2005 (this is when the clubs transition period happened - from Pro Vercelli, to Pro Belvedere, and back to the re-founded Pro Vercelli when the two clubs merged). He's a real player and I quite like that he's been here all his career. He still, remarkably, has potential to be a reasonable player, so I'll keep him for longer and see what he can do.

Colombi has been here a while but hasn't became the player he was meant to be. Still decent, though. Hope I can make a bit of money.

Guisti. You know him, the striker from Bologna, but he might need a loan spell to get him back on track.

Federico Micheli was signed for €3.1M (in instalments) from Udinese and was rated FAR better than Buonocunto suggests. Hope he doesn't turn out to be an expensive flop. Might loan him out. Yet to be decided.

That should be you up-to-date with my squad to tackle Serie B. I reckon we're in with a good shout of winning if we don't go on a horrible run again in the middle. We have a lot of depth, though a lot will hopefully go out on loan, so it won't be as many players as that.

If you want to know anything else, just ask. I'll provide what you want (I only have the Italian leagues open, so I can't tell you anything outside of Italy in club team terms)

So yeah.

Our pre-season fixtures went like this:

Really good. I only took charge of the last two games as I hate pre-season. Good to see the strikers get a few goals - something they couldn't do last season.

Wait, what was that?

You better fucking believe it.

Sashi Chalwe is back and is playing in the white of Pro Vercelli.

Sashi Chalwe - Il Capitano.

Let's fucking do this.

[Mr. Brightside]

SAAAASHI!

[black and gold army]

Brilliant read so that was.

[Jambo Stu]

Chalwe

[Meatwad]

Sashi

[Smurph]

Chalwe

First half of 2016/2017

I just want to get Serie B over and done with so I've just been rattling through it with no updates. Managed to complete the first half of the season, so I'll give a review on this. If anything interesting happens I'll update more in the second half, but I reckon it will just be a season review, before doing monthly updates again when we're back in Serie A - where we belong.

It's been fairly plain sailing in the league. Not too many upsets. 12 games unbeaten from the start of the season was good and we went a few games in a row without conceding which is good to see. We were free-scoring at the beginning of the season but that seems to have dried up a little. We need to get that back on track.

Top of the league - where we have been the whole season. I'd expect it to continue. Would be really good to win the competition.

Out the cup to a Serie A side, but disappointed all the same, as it's Bari - a team I feel we need to be beating next season if we're to stave off relegation.

All in all, a good first half of the season. Long may it continue.

[Smurph]

Season 2016/2017

No updates as there was no drama.

It was Pro Vercelli's 125th year as a football club and for only the second time in their history they lifted the Serie B trophy aloft and celebrated their promotion into the promise-land of Serie A. The last time the club lifted the campionato cadetto was 110 years ago in 1907 and they won the Scudetto was in 1908 - so it looks like I need to win Serie A next season! The trophy below is Ali della Vittoria (Wings of Victory) and celebrated the Goddess of victory - Nike.

Delighted with that. I knew we were definitely going to be contenders but to win it is a massive boost to the club and it looks good on my CV too!

It wasn't all plain sailing in the league. We went on a large run of good form again but there was a month of fixtures in that which was horrible but we picked it up excellently at the end again and secured the title at home against Verona.

Our defence, on the most part, was excellent. De Goisa in goals was brilliant and a defence line of Orsolini - Chalwe - Ferrero - Civita was exceptional at times. Sadly, Civita has agreed to sign with Zenit St. Petersburg at the end of the season, but we should be able to get a player in place of him. I was sad that De Paolo rarely played, only when Chalwe was injured/on international duty, but I made him sign a new contract just because I love him. At left-back, we have Orsolini, Leonard and Gavazzeni, so we're more than covered there.

In midfield Dolci, Disabato and Sallés, with Ledesma as an AMC, was brilliant. Defensive mid, grafter, attacking mid and a guy who dwells on assists. Midfield were brilliant this season.

Up front I was disappointed on the most-part. Giovio finished the season on 16 league goals and Izaolo got 9 - but they really should have got more. The others were all used as rotational players and scored a few times but no-one particularly stood out. Nonetheless, we got goals, and we won games - winning the title.

Excellent season. Bring on Serie A - again.