F.C. Pro Vercelli 1892

[Mr. Brightside]

EASY EASY EASY! FORZA PRO VERCELLI!

[Ludo*1]

Absolutely love this thread. The day you stop, P&B riots.

[Smurph]

Pre-season 2017/2018

That's us back in Serie A then. Straight back up from Serie B. I sort of expected it but it's good that it was secured and now I can focus on staying up this season. Let's start with the transfers.

I had to say goodbye to two goalkeepers in Cristian Lucchetti and Ettore Oddo. Lucchetti could have still done a decent job and had a lot of experience but he wasn't used once last season and I didn't want to waste him again. Oddo was with us for years so it's naturally disappointing that he had to leave, but I don't think he was good enough, and to get €200K for him was a reasonable bit of business.

Getting €600K for Thomas Mascia was a really good piece of business too. He was signed for only €22K! He was decent but we have better players and I wanted to get rid of some of the depth I had in the squad. Far too many players.

Civita was excellent in the three years he spent with us, but much like Libertazzi and Paghera, I just couldn't negotiate a contract with him so he went to Zenit St. Petersburg on a free transfer.

Van Der Woule was going to be a decent player but I signed a replacement and the player coming in in the part-exchange is amazing. Or will be - hopefully.

Falivena and Marras were younger guys but they never really had a future at the club. I had no space for Rafter either. The others who left are all out on loan to get some first team experience hopefully.

We also loaned out Francesco Velardi. He was a brilliant player during his career and made 181 appearances for the club but he's out of contract next season and he's not good enough for the squad unfortunately. I thought it would have been nice to send him away on loan instead of letting him rot.

Then we have the arrivals.

Roberto Casali comes in as our back-up goalkeeper to De Goisa, signed from Roma for €2.2M. As you'll see when I post up the whole squad, he's got the potential to be an excellent player for the club. I'm going to make sure he's available to play with the U20's so he can get match experience and not just stagnate.

Pedro Luis Nunez was a bargain at €750K. He goes straight into our U20's squad but he can play in four different positions and he looks like he'll be an excellent prospect. Shame I couldn't put him out on loan.

Daniele Benetti is a player I have massive hopes for. Signed for €6M plus Van Der Woule he'll probably be moved to the U20's to get his confidence up but he's got the potential to be the best player at the club.

Francesco Cesarini will probably make a few appearances this season but will be a back-up player. €1.5M is a bit much, but again his potential is fantastic. He can play in a few positions too.

Leandro Pereyra comes straight into the first-team. €3.5M is a little expensive but he's already one of our best players and has the potential to be even better. He'll probably partner Ferrero this season as my main central defenders. He looks brilliant.

Lyskov, Turchetta and Mendes are youths too - but they're not good enough to merit a photo yet, and one is out on loan to Alessandria.

In January, we also signed this lad.

Raul Erdozia will probably make a few first team appearances after his €1.2M switch from Osasuna. He plays primarily in the centre of midfield and will probably be used as a back-up type player. Good potential, too.

Alas, that means our squad for the season looks like this.

Depth-wise, we should be fine, and can recall any of the loanees and the U20 players. There are a few players in there who probably won't play for the club (namely Bini and Mirko De Paolo (who I might just tell to get tae)) but that's because they don't fit into my formation and rejected loans.

Quality-wise, we should be fine. Still a very young squad but the potential is there and they all bonded well with the promotion last season, and the team will only improve. I'm hoping to avoid relegation with the squad of players and I hope we do and continue to improve.

Our pre-season fixtures went like this

Reasonable. Played a really inexperienced side against the U20's, Boussu, La Muela and Ascoli and stronger ones against Fluminense (which I really should have won) and Lecce, so it went fairly well. Good to see some strikers score too. The win against Torino in the cup took a while to come but a win is a win and we face Napoli in the next stage.

That was quite a mess of an update and I didn't type too much but I can't really be bothered just now. It's always quite hard to introduce players, especially when they're so young and a lot might not feature for the squad for a few seasons, but I need to introduce them anyway so I don't need to do it later - and I could completely forget and some guy could score 20 goals in a season and you won't know him at all. I should have covered the majority of players anyway and I'll remember to do the rest when they mature a bit further and come back from their loan spells. I doubt I'll do a massive post again with THE WHOLE squad but I might do it again in a few years. Anyway, I'm rambling and complaining about nothing now, let's get off to a good start in our Serie A campaign. First up?

Oh, that's a nice game to ease ourselves in. Thanks...

[Smurph]

August/September 2017

Last time at this stage, we were 15th in the league after six games - 2 wins, 4 losses. We had scored 3 and conceded 12.

Yas.

We shouldn't have beaten Inter. Should we? It's Inter Milan. We shouldn't be beating them. We did, though. We did beat them. We didn't deserve to beat them. Ledesma is a hero.

The loss against Fiorentina wasn't unexpected and their two goals came in the second half. Not too bad a result, I guess.

2-2 v Parma was disappointing. We were up twice and were pegged back almost immediately. They were the better team though. Was good to see Micheli score and Pereyra getting his first from defence.

I was not happy with the Livorno game. Livorno are one of the favourites to be relegated so losing that was a massive blow. Both teams had a sending off, they did first, but we never managed to capitalise.

The win against Empoli was good. They, again, were the better side - but a late corner came in and Pereyra headed it home again. Good three points.

Palermo should have been 0-0. In the 90+3rd minute Rizzi gave away a penalty and Romelu Lukaku slotted it in for them. I was absolutely fuming at Rizzi. We (somehow) managed not to concede before that and he goes and ruins it.

Still, we're doing better than last season.

Double the goals scored, half the goals conceded - and we have an extra point. Our home form is good but our away form needs an improvement. Still, if things stay the same and we don't have an absolutely horrendous break-down again, we should do reasonably well. Here's hoping anyway.

[Smurph]

October 2017

Really good month. We had Roma (2nd) and Juventus (3rd) to deal with.

We did a good job. Solid win against Bologna and it was good to see Izaola getting his first few goals of the season.

We were under a lot of pressure against Roma and didn't look like doing anything until the 80th minute when we scored. We looked the better team for the final ten minutes but couldn't break through the sturdy Roma defence.

The game against Juventus was brilliant. You're probably thinking "Aw, you were lucky again". Well, you're wrong. Here's the evidence:

Sensational performance. Unfortunately, our finishing was dire and we couldn't capitalise. I was actually shouting at the screen as Izaola decided he wanted to chip the ball into the net instead of simple rifling it home. Still, a very positive result - and we're still unbeaten at home.

Last time at this stage we had 7 points and now we have 11. Certainly a very big improvement and with a few really good results too. Pleasing.

As an aside:

I accepted.

I'm not sure why I accepted - as this game is about Pro Vercelli and no-one else - but I thought I might as well since they asked. I don't like international management too much but I'll probably stay for the World Cup in 2018 since we've already qualified and see how it goes. I'll probably resign after that, though, unless I want a pop at the African Cup of Nations presuming I qualify.

[Smurph]

November/December 2017

I forgot to update in November so you're getting a bumper update today. It'll be in a oner though.

That looks bad - but let's dissect it a little. In November, we managed to pick up 7/15 points. Two wins against teams below us and that I'd like to be winning against and a point against Atalanta - a team struggling just now. The games against Sampdoria and Sassuolo were good and fairly easy and it was good to get goals. The draw against Atalanta was disappointing but a point's a point.

Our losses came against AC Milan - a game we're not going to win - and (a narrow one) against Cagliari who are performing quite well.

December wasn't great, losing against Udinese was tough because it was our first home loss of the season, but Udinese are a good side and it was expected. The two losses against Napoli (one in the cup) were expected too - but the loss to Bari was a tough one.

Looking at it, it wasn't too bad at all. We might not have won too many but that was a fairly tough two months barring two games at the beginning. Our problem, again, seems to be goals. I'm still going to argue that we have a really young squad and really young strikers (bar Giovio and Balotelli, but they're not featuring regularly because of how bad they are) and they'll improve over time. The few goals that they do score are decent because we have a strong defence.

It leaves the league table looking like this:

This time last season we had played one game more and were on 16 points. We were 13th. We're 14th this time but two points safer and one less game played. We've scored seven more goals and conceded six less too. Certainly an improvement but we need to get a few more points. We're eight points clear of the relegation zone and last time we were only the three away - so that's a lot of positives to take. As I said before, I'm concentrating on staying up in the league this season. I'm not looking for anything more than that.

As for Senegal - I never wanted to play the friendlies but I decided I would.

Decent I suppose. I've thought about it, and I've qualified for the World Cup (thanks to the previous manager) so I'm going to sit it out until that tournament is done. I'm staying at it so I can mess about with tactics and see if I can make my own or go back to something along the lines of the Catenaccio or the Zona Mista - not nice to watch but defensive counter-attacking football which gets you point on board. If I can master this with Senegal and do well into the World Cup. That's how Italy managed to do it years ago in 1982 and how Italian teams were a dominant force in Europe. It's why people slate Italian football calling it boring and too tactical - but it's how you win games - and to be fair, it's not even that common in the game now as football adepts. Nonetheless, I'm going to put that into play with Pro Vercelli if it works well with Senegal.

In addition to this, I have some (kinda) bad news.

I start my exams in three weeks time and they're quite important. I've neglected studying since August so I should probably start now. I'll still play this if time permits but I won't be doing three months in a day. I could probably do a month every two days or something though. We'll see how it goes.

[TheScarf]

How are the Pro Vercelli board reacting to you managing Senegal as well? I mind in older games sometimes the board of the club you were at got a bit pissed when you took over a National team as well. Or was that because I was applyng for them?

[KeeperDee]

read from first till last. What a story, keep it up.

[Smurph]

How are the Pro Vercelli board reacting to you managing Senegal as well? I mind in older games sometimes the board of the club you were at got a bit pissed when you took over a National team as well. Or was that because I was applyng for them?

Probably because you were applying for them! They don't seem disappointed at all. I've never went out and searched for another job, though. I just accepted it because I was offered and thought I might as well. If they ever say anything about it I'd just quit Senegal.

read from first till last. What a story, keep it up.

Cheers man.

[Smurph]

January 2018

It was January so we could sign players again. My aim was to get a new AMC to replace the declining Ledesma (in fairness, he's scored a few goals and assists a few, but it's our weakest area) and maybe another player or two.

The introduction of Kevin-Prince Boateng brings some vital experience. At only 30 years old, he's our second oldest player, second only to Sashi Chalwe. His stats are still pretty good and he's a far better player than Ledesma and should assist more and hopefully still chip in with goals. I tried to get him on a free but he went to Hearts instead. I might have paid €4M for him but he was probably the best option available to us just now.

I always seem to sign a central midfielder and I did the same this window. He looks fucking ace though and still has potential to be the best player at the club. He'll slot right in and will be a definite starter for us. It's a shame his contract is only until 2020 as his agent wouldn't budge but I hope I can keep a hold of him. He was signed from Rapid Wein for €6M.

Those two signings should vastly improve our midfield and help us create more chances and means Dolci can move back to his more natural position of defensive mid. To balance the books, I sent Erdozia on loan to Basel - but he'll be back next season. It's also good to see us being able to give them pretty high wages - or higher than we could before. It shows our good progress as a club and maybe players like Paghera, Libertazzi and Civita will take new contracts instead of leaving on frees.

You might see by the screenshot that I searched for Aguero. I managed to sign him.

Unfortunately he's a young Spanish striker but he's got a massive amount of potential and was signed for only €220K. In the youths for now and maybe on loan next season. We'll see how it goes.

As for departures, there was the aforementioned Erdozia on loan, but Lyskov left to go to Torino. The board intervened when an offer of €1.5M came in for him. I would have liked to keep him, but that much for a youth is decent, and the fact he was signed for nothing in the summer - it's an excellent piece of business. I was really close to losing Pereya when Ajax came in with an €8M offer which broke his transfer release clause, but fortunately I managed to offer him a new contract and he kept it. Unfortunately, his min. fee release clause is now €11M - but it's an extra €3M which would be handy. I did have a replacement lined up so I might go for him in the summer.

So, it came to the matches...

That was always going to be a very tough month for us and I think we coped fairly well.

The game against Lazio was lost by a Sashi Chalwe own goal.

We couldn't take any chances against Genoa and a point was decent.

Inter rolled us over after our home win against them. Sanogo scored four goals. I cannot contain him. Ever. Toplek scored on his second appearance though which was decent.

The game against Fiorentina was an unlucky one. Boateng scored on his début and Benneti made his first start for us and they both scored. We went 1-0 up and got it back to 2-2 but they scored a late goal.

Good draw against top of the league Parma and Benetti got another goal which is very pleasing to see.

As I said, it was always going to be tough. Five very good teams to be played. 2/15 is a poor return but our next month is against teams closer to our positions where we should be getting points from. A win is vital though. Haven't done that in ages.

Still a better position than last year (we were 18th). More goals - but we're the same conceded (with one less game played this year). I genuinely think we'll turn this around this time, though. I have confidence in my team now.

[Smurph]

February/March 2018

I forgot to update after I did February (a few days ago now) so I'll put it in an update with March. I'd like to say I studied which is why I haven't been playing - but I've been finding other things to do instead. No studying whatsoever.

February was frustrating. Losses against Livorno and Empoli were pretty bad and those were games we needed to win if we had any chance of staying up. They're our equals and teams in the same circumstance as us - so it wasn't nice to see us lose. Livorno's winner was an own-goal by our goalkeeper and we took the lead early on against Empoli before being ripped apart. The incredibly narrow win against Bologna gave us some hope, a 5-minute strike from KPB got us the three points, but we then lost against Palermo after we gave away a silly penalty. These were mistakes I hope we didn't regret and we needed to cut these out if we were to stay up.

We were sat in 19th place - miles above Sassuolo but looking a little nervy and I don't know where our next win would come from. We could claw back a few points but after those results my confidence was a little low.

March reared its head.

Roma was first and we lost as expected to a far superior team. Roma were sitting 2nd at this point and it wasn't any surprise that they won. Things got a little brighter as we beat Sampdoria (a team who we have yet to lose against - I've won all four games against them) emphatically away from home to get a nice three points.

Milan and Juventus were next and I had resigned myself to defeat against both sides, waiting to pounce on Sassuolo to get our next three points, but two sensational defensive performances gave us 4/6 points from those two (Milan being in first position) and I could not have been happier. I was delighted with a point from Milan but to win away to Juventus is something special. We scored from our only shot in the first half - and excellent free-kick from Toplek, and Ledesma came off the bench to secure the points. Excellent performances against two teams I expected to get a pounding from.

The win against Sassuolo was decent and we had initially went 1-0 behind after they got a penalty but we clawed things back and won without a hiccup again. This game relegated Sassuolo.

10/12 points from our last four games is excellent.

With seven games left to play we see ourselves in 14th place. 13th is the highest I reckon we'll finish because it will be really hard to gain ten points to Lazio but being eight points clear of relegation is certainly pleasing and something to be very happy about.

At the 31 game mark last time we were in Serie A we were bottom on 23 points. We've got ten more than that at this stage this time. We've conceded four less and scored twenty more goals.

The last time we were in Serie A, 17th place was safe on 33 points. With how badly Sassuolo did, I think we might need more, but looking at our fixtures - I think we're safe. I hope I don't have to eat my words...

[Smurph]

April 2012

Needed to continue our recent good results.

It didn't start off too well with us losing against fellow bottom dwellers Atalanta. They scored twice in the final ten minutes so that was a bit gutting. The following draw against Cagliari was disappointing too and with us not scoring in two games I was starting to worry a little.

A good display against Udinese, who scored in the 87th minute, gave us a point to be proud of - but it would have been nice to have held on to the win. The game afterwards against Bari was quality though. Didn't look like losing and a very good 4-0 win helps our goal difference and gives us a good three points.

Three games left - nine points to play for. Nine points separate Pro Vercelli and Sampdoria in the relegation places. Delighted with that. Three games to go and try as high as possible now as it looks like we're clear of relegation.

[Mr. Brightside]

Belter!

[madwullie]

Inspirational shit mate - will be moving to a lower league club once I finally get bored of trouncing all comers with my Motherwell side.

[Smurph]

May 2018

Season 2017/2018 concluded and with relegation a very unlikely outcome for our heroes, I went on trying to finish as high as possible.

Two draws and a win in a reasonably tough end to the season. The game against Napoli was good but we conceded a last minute equaliser. They dominated the game, though, and our goal came in the 86th minutes, so a draw was perhaps lucky. Still quite annoyed we never won it so late on though. A trip to the capital for our final away game of the season. We scored in the 3rd minute and the 87th minute. They scored five minutes each half of half-time. Draw was a reasonable result.

The final game of what has been a very productive season was at home to Genoa. 3-0 was an excellent result and it means we could leapfrog them in the table to finish 13th.

I'm really pleased with that. Over the course of the season there was times that I thought relegation was a real possibility and times where the team were playing out their skins and fulfilling their potential. The future certainly looks bright for Bianchi and our star players are still under 23. I told the board I wanted to steer clear of relegation this season and we achieved a safe mid-table position and did well, getting some excellent results in the process.

I'm really, really looking forward to next season now. I think if I can keep the bulk of the squad and add a few more signings we can finish in the top half - that will certainly be my aim at the beginning of the season. I normally try and tell the boar I'll do worse than I think, but I'm really going to go for it and try and test the team now. There was glimpses of brilliance this season against the far superior teams.

The best player, ratings wise, this season was of course Vittoro Ferrero. I genuinely love this man. He's now made more appearances than Andrea De Paolo (who only made a few briefs cameos this season) and although I could probably bring in a better player to partner Pererya - I want Vittoro to do it. He was excellent again this season. Deserves to be captain.

After him comes the Croat, Mario Toplek. He did really well in the six months he's been at the club and scored a few vital goals and gave plenty of assists. He's going to be a star - but sadly I think his future lies away from Pro.

Really, the whole squad was great again this season. Our defence was solid most of the time. Our midfield is sublime. We may actually have too much quality there! Scoring goals seems to still be a problem and Izaola was incredibly disappointing. It was good to see some younger talents like Bennetti, Guisti and Michelli getting in and about the goals and they'll all probably be favoured next season over Izaola.

In other news...

Delighted we're getting a new stadium and we'll be able to attract more fans to Pro - but bad news that it's going to cost €36M. I know we have a loan - but this is the first time we owe money to the bank. I'm a little anxious about this and I hope it doesn't change the playing budget too much - but when it gets build (and if we don't crumble financially) it will be incredibly beneficial.

So, the season was a success and I can't wait for the next one.

I just have the small matter of winning the World Cup with Senegal before we can get started again!

[54_and_counting]

enjoyed reading this thread a lot mate, keep it up

[Smurph]

Cheers mate.

The next few updates will be on the World Cup campaign with Senegal. I don't know how well I'll do. The board want me to "be competitive in the World Cup" so I assume that means to give it a bash and just try our best - not win it!

Our group contained current World Cup holders Italy, Ukraine and the U.S.A. We were the fourth seeded side.

Ukraine were first up.

A fairly disappointing 0-0 draw but it was a very even game and a point was fair for both nations. Babacar had a few chances but squandered them and Ukraine hit the bar in the dying minutes but I'm fairly satisfied with a point.

Italy beat the USA 2-1 in the other game which is a good result for us. Italy *should* run away with this.

[Falkirkforlife]

I don't want to fall asleep in case I miss anything.

This > Sleep

[Smurph]

Current holders Italy were the next team to face the wrath of Les Lions de la Teranga.

What a first half that was. Managed to peg them back immediately both times with relative ease. Their first was amazing (and so it should be - it was by Pazzini) but it was gutting to concede to an own-goal which could have so easily been avoided. They were the better side and managed to get their winner eventually despite my best efforts to attack, attack, attack. We weren't expected to win this game, though, so a good performance was good to see.

In the other match, Ukraine and the US drew 1-1.

[Smurph]

I don't want to fall asleep in case I miss anything.

This > Sleep

Don't worry. I'll give you a break to sleep after this one. I have college in the morning.

It came down to the final game, then.

We needed to better Ukraine's result in order to qualify. They, fortunately, faced Italy - so we had the easier game. You don't get easy games at this level though. This is the World Cup.

1-0 down at half-time courtesy of a sublime Pearce free-kick. I got right in about the squad and changed things about and we were phenomenal in the second half - really showing how good we were. We completely dominated and it would have been incredible if we never managed to win this. 3-1 didn't flatter us at all.

During the whole course of the match I refused to check what was going on elsewhere in Russia.

Magic!

A 0-0 draw between Ukraine and Italy means that we qualify for the next round! I would have been disappointed to have gone out so early in the competition so it's good to be in the last 16.

Turkey.

That's not too bad actually.