Alfa Romeo Metaphor III

This is by far the best series on here and the reason I made an account. Will 100% be following!! Keep It up!!
 
View attachment 24066824 May 2016

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"Thanks for flying here to meet with me," Antonio Candreva said as we sat down in a cafe in the center of San Sebastian, Spain.

"Well, you're a key player for Lazio and with all the rumors I've been hearing, I wanted to meet with you in person as soon I could," I said.

I explained that Igli Tare and I were teammates and would be working together. I told him that I thought the core of the team: he, Marco Parolo, Balde Keita, Felipe, Aymen Abdennour, Miguel Layun and keeper Ertri Berisha just needed to be augmented with more talented teammates. I explained how I would build two squads capable of challenging on two fronts, Seria A and Europe. I elaborated on my plans to bring in a main striker and that Miroslav Klose would be a back-up due to his age. I told him my thoughts on who Igli Tare would sell because they hadn't impressed me when we'd played Lazio last season.

"So you think you can recruit better players than them?" Antonio asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "I've extensively scouted a large number of players to fill those same roles. They've all indicated that they would be willing to join Bologna, but Lazio is a much easier sell."

"Take Marco Verratti at PSG," I said. Antonio nodded. "So you know his situation. He's rarely used yet he's always in the Azzurri for every friendly or competitive match. He'd be great alongside Parolo, no? My sources tell me PSG would be willing to sell him cheap."

"So where do you stand?" I asked. "Has anyone approached you, yet?"

"No, but the word is that Real Madrid and Liverpool want me," he replied. "Either of those two would be dream moves for me."

"You know they'll have to pay to get you and pay alot, right?"

Antonio shrugged.

"I wouldn't stand in your way, but the supporters would string me up if I didn't fight to keep you," I said. "So if offers appear, you'll understand if I put up the appearance of not wanting you to go, right?

Antonio nodded.

"But this is all hypothetical as no offers have materialized," I said. "I would prefer you stay, the supporters love you and you and Keita are a dangerous attacking combination. I want to add two more dangerous attackers to play alongside you two. I envision you playing in the hole behind the striker or out on the right wing. Any thoughts about that?"

"No, I just want to play," he said. "As long as I'm not at fullback or anything ..."

"No worries there."

"Thanks for flying out to meet with me," he said. "I have your mobile so I'll keep you posted on any developments."

"My pleasure," I said. "I look forward to working with you."
 
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I highly enjoy the effort you put in your stories, will follow this with pleasure.
 
I have to admit, my enthusiasm with Alfa II waned lately because of the constant tension between Enrico and DoF. It was funny at first, but having Enrico deal with an incompetent owner/DoF combo made me feel a bit depressed. Seeing him at Lazio with a fresh start and with bromance with Igle has rekindled my love affair for you stories. Thank you!
 
PatrickLFC said:
Safe to say Enrico's managerial idol isn't Brendan Rodgers :p
Click to expand...

It is amazing that liverpool's Director of Football bought Balotelli and Lambert. WTF was poor Brendan supposed to do with those two? Adapt his system? LOL ...
 
ForGreatJustice said:
I have to admit, my enthusiasm with Alfa II waned lately because of the constant tension between Enrico and DoF. It was funny at first, but having Enrico deal with an incompetent owner/DoF combo made me feel a bit depressed. Seeing him at Lazio with a fresh start and with bromance with Igle has rekindled my love affair for you stories. Thank you!
Click to expand...

Hammer, meet nail.
 
View attachment 240121Monday, 30 May 2016 9am-ish

"Ciao, Enrico," Igli Tare said as he answered my call.

"How's Vlore?" I asked. He had a villa just north of the southern Albanian port city. He is Albanian, ya know.

We exchanged pleasantries about his summer residence and Cadiz to which I'd returned.

"What's up?" Igli finally said.

"Is is always like this at Lazio?" I asked. "Am I going to have any players in my squad come July?"

"Enrico, have you been reading the newspapers?"

"Uh ..."

"Enrico, you know better than that. Just stop."

"Have you heard anything?"

"You know you'd be the first to hear. It'd be a conference call with you and Claudio."

"I know, I know. I'm just really wound up."

"Relax and go talk to Marco Verratti, I just got confirmation while we've been talking that PSG accepted our bid of 4.5 million for him."

"Okay, Igli. Okay. That's great news. Marco is going to be a key player."
 
View attachment 240120Wednesday, 1 June 2016

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I roared up the driveway and eased to a stop by the front of the villa and right behind a Ferrari. Marco Verratti sauntered down the steps as I climbed up and out of The Alfa.

"That the new one?" he asked.

"Year before last," I replied. "Gwen surprised me on my birthday."

I followed him in and shook hands with his girlfriend and parents. We withdrew to the back patio.

"So as you probably know, PSG have accepted Lazio's offer for you," I said. "And I'm here to talk to you about joining the Biancocelesti."

"I think that Lazio can challenge for the Scudetto with a few more signings of your calibre," I said. "I want you patrolling the midfield next to Marco Parolo and setting up Balde Keita, Felip and Candreva plus whatever striker I sign to rotate with Klose."

"I'd like my agent to join us," he said nodding. "Can we bring him up on Skype? Do you have that on your iPad?"

"I do," I said.

After several minutes of fumbling, his agent had joined us via Skype and we all exchanged pleasantries.

"Marco and I have talked," his agent said. "And he'd like 45 per week with a 7.75K appearance fee, 2K for the bench and 5K for goals scored. We'd like a 3 year contract."

"Okay and I can do one better because I really want him at Lazio," I said. I knew that several other clubs wanted to sign him. "5 year contract, 52K per week. 20K per goal. 5K bonus per international appearance. And 400K if he scores 10 goals during a season. And an option for the club to extend him a year."

"I want you to score more goals, Marco," I said. "So I want to provide incentives for you to do that. How's that sound?"

Marco nodded.

"It's been a pleasure talking with you," his agent said. "Obviously, you've met our requests. We appreciate that your offer is very serious. We'll consider your offer and get back to you."
 
View attachment 239839Monday, 6 June 2016

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"Welcome, please sit down," Vincenzo Rennella said in French accented Italian as he led me to the back patio of his villa outside of Seville.

His agent, he and I sat down.

"Thanks," I said looking around his pool, garden and house. "I just love Spanish villas. You've lived here the whole time?"

"Yeah. This is the perfect size for us."

"What does your wife think?" I asked. "She's got to love this place."

"It's good it's Roma," he said and smirked. "After my agent called, I told her and her first reaction was a raised eyebrow. By the end of the day, she'd ordered a tourist guide to Roma."

"That's good to hear," I said. "So what do you think? Betis have agreed in principle to selling you to us."

"I'm interested, but I'd like to hear about your plans," he replied.

I told him that it would be he and Klose up top except when we played three up top when he'd likely be out left if not in the center. I explained our midfield situation with Antonio Candreva, Balde Keita, Marco Parolo and Marco Verratti. I furthermore explained that after I shored up the defense, I think we could challenge for the Scudetto.

"Do you have any questions?" I asked.

He did. He asked about my fitness plans and the facilities at the club. I explained that he'd be getting chiropractic care, acupuncture and yoga classes to improve his overall resilience.

"I'm certainly interested," he said. "Are you, can you talk contract terms?"

"I can."

"First off, thank you for driving up from Cadiz," his agent Alejandro Munoz said in Spanish. "I can speak a little Italian so I think I understood most of that. We want a contract of three years. We want 18,000 per week. We want an appearance fee of 2,000 and an unused subtitute fee of 1,000."

"Okay, here's my counter offer," I said. "I want to give you lots of incentives to score goals. I'm willing to pay you 15,000 per week, 4,000 appearance fee, 2750 unused sub fee, 9,750 per goal, and that's the max I'd be allowed to give you plus, if you score 15, you get 100,000. How does that sound?"

"What about a loyalty bonus?" Alejandro asked after the two whispered in each others ears. "For accepting your offer? Would you pay 500,000. That would seal the deal."

"As long as your fee is under 100,000," I said.

"Then I think we have a deal," Alejandro said.

"Great," I said standing up and shaking their hands. "Igli Tare, the Director of Football, will be in contact either today or tomorrow to finalize all of this. I look forward to seeing you in July."
 
View attachment 239464Monday, 13 June 2016

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We had our meeting with our new doctor today. We're in week 21 according to our doctor in Bologna so our new doc checked Gwen over. Gwen's got a bit of a belly sticking out. And BOY does it stick straight out. I love it.

For those of you who may have forgotten, I'm going to be a Dad sometime in September. I'm hoping for during the international break early in September. But apparently babies are unpredictable and you just never know.

According to our new doctor, Gwen and baby are doing great. A nurse even showed us the ultrasound. The kid is getting bigger than in March when we first saw her/him.

I'm not so sure about Dad. I can handle the pressure of managing a football club, but my offspring that is currently growing in Gwen's belly? That freaks me out. I'm excited and panicky at the same time. Breathless might be a better word. Thank God we're doing these breathing classes. I don't know how much they'll help Gwen, but it might just keep me from fainting.
 
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