Smurph Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 Thanks for the kind words, guys. It makes it better if I know people are enjoying it too. March 2014 March was a kind month for us. Really happy with how things went. Two excellent wins, three decent draws, and one loss - but I can't complain with that. 9/18 points is cracking too, given our recent form, and a five game unbeaten run is great. Good to see Libertazzi score quite a few goals. Need him to be doing well. We've managed to pass the 40-point mark, which is normally a good thing, but given how tight the league is - but I feel I should be definitely safe now. Still eight games to go, mind. Famous last words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meatwad Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Good stuff. Reckon you'll have a harder task keeping the team together next year or you got something in the works? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 To be fair, I think there are only five or six players in my squad who would make it in a lower-end table of Serie A - so I'll keep the best ones, hopefully, but with my increasing wage and transfer budgets, I hope I can bring in a better calibre of player. April 2014 We continue our 50% monthly target (well, I've decided getting half the points total per month is decent) Losing 2-1 to Frosinone isn't too bad given they're second, but we lost to a late goal which was irritating. Same story happened against Cosenza, and we managed to get back from 2-0 down, only to concede in the final few minutes. The two wins were decent enough. Benevento are already relegated so it was a simple win (their only win STILL this season was against me...) and a win against rivals Novara is pleasant. Close to finishing in the top half of the table. That would be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 17, 2012 Author Share Posted March 17, 2012 ...and so season 2013/2014 has finished. Our final month of results The loss against Vicenza and Empoli was poor, but the other results were decent enough. Slap bang in the middle of the table. Can't complain about that at all. We were supposed to finish 22nd, so that's definitely something to be proud about. We seemed to score a lot of goals, but concede the same amount - so our defence needs improving, but it was definitely a great start to our time in Serie B. It's a really tight league, and a lot of the teams are of a similar quality, if you look at the fixtures I played and the final league table. All in all, a great season for us. Oh, and Benevento beat Siena too, with I'm happy about! Frosinone got promoted via the play-offs, and Piacenza got relegated. That's our main squad and how they did in the league. De Paolo (who made Serie B team of the year) and Ferrero were the main CB partnership and did very well for the most-part. RB and LB were fairly dodgy and went in and out of form, so I had to keep changing them. Ledesma was great too and got 23 assists, though he's the main set-piece taker. Up-front, Libertazzi and Berger made an excellent partnership and scored a lot of goals. Libertazzi also got 8 assists. It's going to be a struggle to keep our best players but I'll obviously try my best. Fortunately, due to the clubs rise in stature, my wage budget and transfer budget will continue to increase, so I'll be able to attract better players to Bianchi. Bring on next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 And we resume in August 2014. It's now our second season in Serie B and due to this our finances have increased. Starting at the club four years ago, we were estimated at around €0M, going above and under that line. Now, in 2014, we're €8M up - therefore my transfer budget for this season is €5.5M and my wage budget is at a generous €66K p/w. Excellent. It's good to see that we're now able to challenge the better teams in terms of transfer fees and wages - although we're still miles off some of the much larger reputation clubs in the league. I don't like spending money, but if we want to be more successful, I probably should put my hand in the boards pocket and use what I've been given. Our ins and out this transfer window: No-one really left. A few youths and someone we signed when we were in C2/A were the only casualties. Managed to keep a firm hold of our better players which is excellent news. Now I just need to negotiate new contracts with them, as both Libertazzi and Paghera's need renewed. Balaj, Mascia, Marras and Falivena are all youngsters with a lot of potential. Pepe's on loan from Corinthians and should be a decent enough goalkeeper for us. I don't have a reserve/U20 GK of any decent quality, so he's only here to make up the numbers. Eweka is on loan, and is essentially a German Berger (loan guy from last season). Looks decent enough. Candiani is on loan as a back-up left back. We do have Pasquale, but he's not fulfilled his potential. The other two, as you can see, I spent a fair bit of money on. Francesco Civita is a right back who we signed from AS Roma. I already have Andrea Bagnai, but I thought I might as well get a better player if possible. This lad looks top quality and at such a young age, I believe he can be an excellent Serie A player soon. Toninho is a young Brazilian centre midfielder who came from AC Milan (previously at Vasco da Gama, and on loan at Padova last season, doing decently enough). His technical attributes are probably the best I have at the club, although his mental ones are somewhat lacking. I reckon he'll play with Paghera (who is the opposite, really) in the centre of midfield, and should be a formidable pair. THEREFORE, our team for this season looks like this Still a really young squad with a few bits of experience knitted through. I don't think we're weak in any position, really, and have sufficient depth in them all. I can't see any problems in that though. Pre-season went fairly well, and we've eaten a little into the first few games of the league campaign Two decent results in the league so far, both fairly comfortable. The table looks like so Top. Not for long, probably, but it's good to be there. If we can do what we did last season in terms of a start, that would be excellent, but I'd rather we had a consistent season rather than spells of greatness and spells of sheer shiteness. We'll see how it goes, though. Have I missed anything? No? Good. Let's dae this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 September 2014 Started off very well, finished a little sour. Deservedly won against Sassulo and ChievoVerona, but the game against Bari we really should have got a point from. Libertazzi scored but it was wrongly ruled offside which was a bit of a downer. Torino won comfortably. Both Bari and Torino were relegated from Serie A last season, though, so that's not so bad. A little blip in the table, but it's far too soon to make any suggestions. Quite funny that we managed to thrash Vicenza in our first fixture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 October 2014 Fairly disappointing. Loss against Cesena was expected, but the game against Monza was sh*te. Really didn't offer anything, and that's a game we really, really should be winning. Same against AlbinoLeffe - a dejected performance. The two wins were good, though. And we weren't expected to beat Livorno at all. Shame to be out the cup though. League doesn't look to bad, but it's already clear that Vicenza are going to run away with it. Still proud to be the only team to have beaten them so far! (Although I'm the only team that Monza have beaten...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 November 2014 Excellent start! Shite finish... Our main problem is clearly goals. Libertazzi just hasn't been doing the business and Eweka has been really quite poor. The other two are young guys. The game against Padova was a freak game, probably. But we really need to get this issue sorted out. Another slip down the table, but if we can get a bit of form going, the goals flowing, and a few wins under our belt, we can hopefully climb a little higher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 December 2014 A GOAL. THREE in fact. Didn't win any of the games, though, and our win-less mid-season run continues as we descend down the league in horrible fashion. We need to start picking up points again. Our final game of the first half of the season is against Varese, so hopefully we can secure the three points against them. As it's January, I've changed my board expectations to a mid-table finish, but we need to improve a bit if we want to secure that. I've a €3M transfer budget and a €67K wage budget, spending €55K, so I have a bit to play about with if I want to bring in any fresh faces. If I do that, though, I want to rid of a few players, as we have quite a large squad. The most disappointing thing is, I'm resigned to Libertazzi and Paghera leaving the club in the summer. ChievoVerona have offered Paghera a contract, and due to previous negotiations, he's not interested in signing a new contract. Neither is Libertazzi. It's annoying, because their agent asks ME what I should be giving them, so I give them a vast improvement on their current deal, and he just goes "nah, he's not interested". TELL ME WHAT WOULD INTEREST HIM AND I'LL OFFER HIM THAT, THEN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 January 2014 (and a little bit of February) I never realised I never did an update for January until I played a little in February, but I'll just carry on with this anyway. 6/9 points in January is decent and our loss was against the team who were at the top at the time. It was good to see Monachello getting a few goals to up his confidence and Gianni has been excellent recently. Because of how poor we were doing, I changed formation from my trusty 4-4-2 to a 4-1-2-1-2 with a DM, two CMs and an AMC in midfield - and it seems to have worked pretty well. I like using wide players but if we're getting results this way, I have to persevere. The game in February against Sassuolo was a very good result and a good start to the month. The league is now starting to take shape. We're only five points off a play-off spot, so if we can manage to maintain our decent form we could maybe sneak up there in the next few months. We're 14 points clear of the relegation places and we can firmly put that behind us now as I don't see us slipping up that badly. Hoping to push on a bit. As it was January the transfer window was re-opened. I only signed two players - two youths who should turn out to be quality players - but neither are ready for the first team as of yet. Both cost €1.5M in total which is a bit hefty for two youngsters but I very much expect them to be ready to make a claim in the first team next season. There were no departures of note, but I learned the fate of our two best players - Alberto Libertazzi and Fabrizio Paghera. Unsurprising really. I'm glad Libertazzi won't be in Italy next season meaning he won't come back to haunt us. Paghera stays in Italy but he's less of a threat I feel. Really disappointed that both of these players are going, of course, but I reckon I can get suitable replacements for them both. I just them both to keep playing well for us this season and don't slip up because they won't be here next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Good read Smurph, good luck for the rest of your season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 Cheers Murph! (It feels weird typing that!) February 2015 This was going to be a tough month. We had to play both Bari and Torino, who are both contesting for the Serie B title, and we also had to play a high-flying Cesena. Not to mention Chievo too, though they've been off the boil recently. Easy. The loss against Bari was unsurprising but the wins against both Torino and Cesena were excellent, and beating Chievo too was nice. 12/15 points in February. Nice one. Six points off the play-offs now, just like we were at the beginning of the month and we're doing really quite well just now. We beat the teams above us (bar Bari) but it's quite worrying that we've not really made up any ground. We need to keep this run of form going for as long as possible and try and get in and about it. However. We will have to do this without the service of Fabrizio Paghera, who is out for four months due to a torn calf muscle. We've lost our most influential midfielder and the one who fills in the gap between defence and midfield. Our Andrea Pirlo, essentially. To rub salt into the wound, we're also without Alberto Libertazzi for the next four months, due to a torn calf muscle. We've lost out most influential goalscorer and assister. Our Alessandro Del Piero, essentially. Not happy with that at all. It's more annoying that they're both definitely out for the remainder of the season and will be moving on in the summer. I wanted to play them as much as possible and give them both a good sending away - more so for Libertazzi because he's been here a while and he's been immense. Oh well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 March 2015 The task we were facing wasn't a monumental one, we just needed to keep up our good form and not slip up too often, and hope that some results went our way too. I'd say we kept our part of the deal. The results against Monza and Cosenza weren't the greatest at all, we seem to struggle against the teams we should be beating comfortably, but three successive wins after that makes up for it. Toninho was worrying me a little but he played exceptionally well against AlbinoLeffe and Padova. Great to see Guisti in amongst the goals too. He has 2 in 3 and he's one of the two players I signed in January there. He's replaced Libertazzi before I really wanted him to, but he's looked really decent so I'm happy enough with that. That propels us two places in the league into 8th place and one point off the play-off position. Excellent. Next fixture? Nae pressure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 April 2014 As per last month, we just need to keep going and get results. Excellent result against Siena - the match I was fearing the most. Absolutely shite performance against Monza who are now relegated. 1/6 points from them. We had 23 shots to 4 against Verona. We pumped them. Absolutely pumped them rotten until they bled. We just fell at the final hurdle and went floppy. A severe disappointment for all. Gela was a simple win but it would have been nice to have upped our goal difference. A win's a win anyway. One point away from the play-offs. Essentially, Bari have won it, and if not it's Cesena's. Just the eight points separate 2nd from 9th. These eight teams will fight it out for second place and the four play-off places available on the quest to get to the top flight. Five games. Fifteen points. Tense. Fucking tense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 We are all F.C. Pro Vercelli! You can do it, Smurph! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 First up was Brescia. Solid enough win. Didn't look in doubt at any point. Goal from Giusti was from a corner and Velardi's was a run from midfield. The other fixtures in the league were like so: Good to see a few of our fellow promotion chasers drop points! Next up: Home to Triestina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 As you know, it was Triestina who were now the team to face the wrath of Pro Vercelli - who are currently on a 12 match unbeaten run. Triestina had taken points in 19 out of 20 of their last games, but ten of those have been draws. Not a problem. Velardi got us off to a great start with a shot from outside the box. Excellent goal. De Paolo then secured the points from us in the second half with a header from a corner. No real threat from the away side and it was a fairly comfortable win. Some of the teams around us dropped points but we continue to push forward. There was a midweek result: Lecce 2-2 Bari. That means Bari have secured promotion. We continue to rise with three games to go. The lowest we can finish is 9th now, so I've just taken that section of the table. Next up is Lecce away from home. Potentially a very tricky tie... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 Lecce away from home was always going to be a tough task... ...and a tough task it was. Two of their goals came form corners which is annoying. Our goal was (another!) absolute screamer from Velardi. Still 4th. The highest I can get now is 3rd and the lowest 9th, but I want to finish between 3rd and 6th. On our way to achieving that. Two games left. Away to Reggina is next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widge Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Offt unlucky, you need to sign Gylfi Sigurdsson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Chin up mate, you can do it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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