Alpha Romeo Metaphor II

Sunday, 13 July 2014

Today is a big day. The players show up today. The preseason officially kicks off. I've got some 30 first team players arriving, 30 some youth players and 100 kids I've offered trials.

It's going to be a ****ing zoo.

We have to test everyone's 20, 50, 100 and 1500 meter times. We need to measure player's body-fat ratio. We need to measure players heart rate just before each distance test. We'll put them on treadmills and calculate their maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max). We'll also establish some baselines for later concussion evaluation. We'll also establish weight room benchmarks so that players are pushing to increase their strength but at a controlled pace.

Then we split up into teams of five and play 5X5. Just to try and manage the chaos better, we had only 20 matches with swapping out a team every 10 minutes.

And we have to get 160 people through all this in one day.

The seasoned veterans understand they need to take care of themselves and all of them showed up in decent shape. Not game shape, mind you, but decent shape. All the kids and trial players watched them.

I wasn't impressed with most of the winger loan signings that Savoia has made. Except for one, none are very fast, great dribblers or much of anything for that matter.

There were several trialists that impressed me. I took notes, of course. All of we coaches would meet after everyone went home to discuss the kids and the trialists. A number of the kids had obviously worked hard all summer knowing that their old boss was someone they had to impress all over again.

"**** it, I'm beat," I said to the gathering of coaches after the last kid had left. "Let's meet tomorrow and discuss. I don't know about you, but I can barely think right now."
 
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We met in the board room. Seriously, there's that many of us. I've got an Assistant Manager, Graziano Vinti, and nine coaches. I've got a Head of Youth Development, U20 Manager, U20 Assistant Manager and a U18 Manager as well eight youth coaches. After my June cull, I've also got a good skill balance amongst them. Additionally, the four physios and our kit man were present.

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"Gentlemen, good morning," I began. "Everyone rested after yesterday's chaos.? It's time to start bringing some order to the chaos. I'll begin by pointing out that four youth players are probably ready to move up to the first team. That's Uros Radakovic, Antonio Calabrese, Luca Callegari and Luca Camorani. I'd like to see how they adapt."

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"Boss?" Giorgio the kit man asked. "Should I get stalls ready for them in the First Team locker?"

"Not, yet," I replied. "There probably won't be room with all the loan signings we currently have. Let's talk about them next. Thoughts?"

"First of all," Fitness Coach Pietro La Porta said. "None of them are all that quick. Don't get me wrong, they're not slow but none of them could leave any defenders eating dust."

"Only Karim Laribi has a decent first touch," Alessandro Zauli added. He's my technique and ball control coach.

"Laribi and Luca Giannone are good dribblers," Simone Tiribocchi chimed in. He's coaching the offense. "But only Laribi showed any decent finishing yesterday."

"Any trialist wingers stand out to anyone?" I asked. My answer was shrugs and muttering. "Yeah, me either. No trialists really stood as potential winger material. My next concern is defense. We've only got two first team central defenders. I'm looking to sign a third and I'm hoping Callegari can step up as my fourth. Any trialists stand out?"

More shrugs and muttering.

"Okay, fair enough," I continued. "We need a fourth fullback. Any youth or trialists stand out?" More of the same. "Alright. Let's talk midfield. Anyone stand out?"

"Yes," Paolo Riela replied. "There's a young Spaniard, Nacho Huertes. Great first touch, good passing, good finishing. He looks like he has real potential."

"I hate to ruin your party Paolo," Pietro interjected. "But he's slow and he's not in particularly good shape."

"Let's take a closer look at him today," I said. "We'll be separating out the ones we want to look at closer today."

"There's a boy from Guinea, Yalany Baio," Defense Coach Alessio Frati said. "He looks decent enough."

"Yeah," I replied. "I chatted with him yesterday. Doesn't speak a word of Italian. Speaks English, though. Says he can play either fullback or in midfield. He didn't look half bad. You check him over some more today, Alessio?" Alessio nodded.

"You should give Lorenzo Paramatti a chance in one of the early matches," Daniele Corazza, Head of Youth Development. "I'm interested to see how he does."

"Done," I replied. "Anyone else?"

"There's a young boy, Floriano Marrocco, who washed out of the Roma academy," Daniele continued. "I'm baffled why. With your permission I'm going to talk to Savoia today and get him signed."

"There's another Roman boy, Simone Costalunga," the U20s Manager Remo Orsini said. "Lazio dumped him. I think he's got potential. We should bring him on board."

"Anyone else?" I asked. "I'm sure more will step up. We still need to fill out our U18 and U20 squads. Now let's talk our new additions."

"I think we're going to have problems with Matuzalem's fitness," Head Physio Gianni Nanni said. "I just have that sinking feeling. I've seen enough Brazilians in their mid-thirties. I'm not optimistic."

All of the trainers were nodding in agreement. I sighed.

"Well ****," I said. "We are stuck with him as our creative midfielder."

"We do have Federico Casarini," Simone noted. "He's not ideal, but he wouldn't be too bad."

"Let's give Nacho the Spaniard a shot," I said. "I'll get our scouts looking for a creative midfielder. What else. Alright. Let's go and get ready for training."
 
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First Team - U20s scrimmage

View attachment 326512Monday, 14 July 2014

Today we have a little old kick-about. First team against the kids. Nothing strenuous just begin to get some of the rust off for the returning players and better evaluate my younger players.

Nothing has changed with Diego Perez. 6 minutes in and Grazian Vinti is waving his yellow card at him. A kid had the audacity to try and take the ball from him. Diego just threw him to the ground.

The passing was rather aimless and occasionally wayward. Wingers Giannone, Improta, Laribi and Troianiello should have been blowing past their teenage adversaries, but they didn't. I wasn't particularly impressed.

My youth keeper Mouhamadou Fallou Mbacke Sarr played pretty well in the second half. Two kids had to be replaced because of injury, but nothing serious. Nothing that will last.

Thank God it's early, we have a lot of work to do.

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Wednesday, 16 July 2014

We have morning and afternoon training sessions. The players have lunch after the morning session and then a rest before we start up again in the afternoon.

We'll be playing either a 451 with Perez sitting in front of the back four or a 4231 with Perez and a box-to-box midfielder like Casarini, Franco Zuculini or Michele Pazienza alongside him.

So we work on passing and moving all week. Defense coaches Stefano Romanin and Alessio Frati are working with all groups of players so that we defend from the front. Everyone has a job defensively, there won't be any loafing this season.

I'm less and less impressed with our loan-signing wingers. I'm going to give them chances, but it's looking more and more like Savoia signed some duds.

Matuzalem is not impressing me, either. Yes, He's got sublime ball control and can zip a pretty pass now and again, but he's not working hard to get himself in shape. Not like Perez or Archimede Morleo or Dominico Mietta and the rest of the veterans. They're working their ***** off to get ready.

Savoia offered contracts to Nacho Huertes and Yalany Biao.

My scouts suggested Frenchman Matthias Leppilier as my dead ball specialist. He played the last two seasons for Novara and the season before that for Verona. He's hanging out in Milano suburbs (Novara is just west of Milano) waiting for a call. We chatted this afternoon and I'm driving up tonight to talk with him in person.
 
Gwen was back in England at a photo shoot otherwise she'd have made the three hour drive to Novara. The weather is gorgeous so the top was down on the Alfa. My trusty old GPS led right to his doorstep.

"Welcome, did you have a nice drive?" Matthias Lepiller said peering around me at the Alfa. He had a distinct French accent.

"I did," I replied. "Have you had dinner? May I buy you dinner?"

"Thanks but no need," he said. "My wife has dinner nearly ready."

We talked about living in Italy, the World Cup, how poorly our respective teams had done and how well the USA had played. We agreed that France had outstripped the very low expectations everyone had placed on them. We all talked about adapting to living in Italy. They grilled me about what London and Cadiz were like.

View attachment 326492Afterwards, Matthias and I stepped out back into his garden.

"You've been at Fiorentina, Verona and Novara, yes?" I asked. He nodded. "Well then you know the culture of calcio. I'm going to try and break Bologna out of the rut we've fallen into. Like so many teams in Italy, Bologna have tried to build a durable defense and have relied on the creativity of the striker to ****** a goal. They've rarely had much creativity in the midfield, either."

"That's where you come in," I said. "I've watched your match videos and I want you to fill a very specific role. I need a dead ball specialist who can fit in wherever he can. You're creative, a good passer and then there's your distance shooting. So here's my question, if you join, would you be willing to learn to play in central midfield so I can have an additional spot to fit you in?"

"So your plan is to bounce straight back?" he asked. I nodded. "What formations will you use?"

"A 4231 or a Barcelona-style 451," I replied. "Lots of ball possession, short-passing. Defend from the front. I want the team to win the ball back quickly and frustrate the opposition."

Matthias laughed at this.

"So you're Arrigo Sacchi Junior," he said. "Do you have the personnel? The management behind you?"

"I'll rebuild the defense," I said. "Most from last year are gone. That's probably not a bad thing. Diego Perez has a season or two left in him and he's our bulldog in midfield. Daniele Cacia can bang them in Serie B. I need help in attacking midfield which is why I'm here in your lovely garden on this lovely summer evening. I need creativity and goalscoring ability in the midfield. You've shown you can score in Serie B and I think you haven't reached your potential."

"I'll be honest and tell you that Bologna are a bit rudderless right now," I explained. "The current President, Guaraldi, has been heavily criticized for selling Diamanti. Not just for selling him but when he did. He sold him after the Italian transfer window closed. He's said he'd be willing to sell his shares to the right person or group. Rumors are swirling. I intend to ride them out by winning. Even new owners don't sack managers who are winning."

"The Rossoblu have gone through quite a few managers lately, haven't they?" Matthias asked.

"Far too many," I replied. "I've won at ever level so far. I intend to win in Serie B."

"Alright, I'm in," he said.

"Excellent," I replied. "You won't regret it. The Director of Football will work out the details with your agent. How much you want?"

"Four thousand a week," he replied.

"That shouldn't be an issue," I replied. "I look forward to handing you your shirt at the press conference."

He saw me out to my car with the attendant pleasantries and goodbyes. The drive back was just as nice but maybe slightly better as I'd found another key part for my squad.
 
Bologna Cup Semi-Final: Bologna v. Juventus

View attachment 326491Friday, 18 July 2014

Here we are, the first preseason friendly. The cameras are positioned and I'm hoping Juve are going to be rusty. Mainly because we sure as **** are. But it's Juve so Curva Sud or the Curva Bulgarelli as it's also called is packed to the gills with the Ultras. The middle of the stadium is less full.

It's blistering hot. 32 Celsius or 90 Fahrenheit with your typical Italian humidity. That's probably why the middle of the stadium is only half full.

This is the first Cup competition of three. The three matches of the Bologna Cup will generate over EU150K in TV income and EU300K in gate receipts. The other Cups are a Argentina Challenge and another with Roma, Napoli and Novara.

I started what I think is my best XI right now. Luca Ceccarellli is the third fullback but Gyorgy Garics is hurt so Luca plays today.

12 minutes in and Marios OikonoView attachment 326490mous has bundled a near post cross into our own net and Perez limped off. I hope it's not serious.

In the 24th, Matuzalem over-stretched reaching for a ball and flopped to the turf. He was done. This did look more serious.

In the 27th, Luca Giannone hit a free kick hard just to Buffon's left. Buffon only saw it as it dipped over the wall. He blocked it but it fell right into the path of the charging Dominico Maietta. Like a central defender, he thundered it home from 4 meters.

Juve's 2nd goal was well-deserved. They aren't the 3-time champions for nothing.

Overall, it was a decent run-out aside from the two injuries.

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Bologna Cup Third Place: Bologna v. Napoli

View attachment 326468Saturday, 19 July 2015

First of all, I need to inform you that Perez is fine. Secondly, I should inform you that Matuzalem is not. He'll be out two to three weeks according to Gianni Nanni, my Head Physio.

Surprisingly, Novara beat Napoli. Who'd have imagined that. My second stringers get to face Napoli. My back line is consists of three teenagers and fullback/winger who is **** at tackling. The experienced Ferdinando Coppola will get an excellent work-out.

Also, it's 34C or 93F. Like yesterday, it's a 3pm kickoff. It's brutal.

I'm interested to see if Kingsley Umunegbu does. He's not all that skilled, but he's easily the fastest guy on the team. If he's fast but useless, I'll get rid of him. But if he's fast and useful, I might just keep him around.

Sadly, Coppola was embarrassing. The first two shots, neither of them particularly difficult, went in. The first was from 25 yards and went right past him like he saw it really late. He gestured as if to see he didn't see it coming. But an experienced keeper shouldn't be beaten like that. Sadly, it got worse 6 minutes later. A bad angle shot went right under him. No excuses for that.View attachment 326467

I glanced over at my Assistant, Graziani Venti. He looked aghast. The other goalkeeping coach, Mario Paradisi, was attempting to strangle a towel in his rage.

"Dejan, get warmed up," I shouted down the bench. Paradisi leapt to his feet to help. Stejanovic replaced Coppola at 10 minutes. Coppola walked silently past everyone while looking at the ground and sat on the end of the bench.

"It's going to take some work to build him back up after those two goals," I muttered to Graziani.

It got even worse in the 35th minute. Devan Zapata dribbled past Luca Callegari and was about shoot. Luca attempted to recover with a desperation tackle. He got nothing but Zapata. The ref came sprinting up waving his red card. Seriously? It's a preseason friendly and he's just given up a penalty. ****.

After going 3-nil up, Napoli took their boot off of our neck. We started playing much better and only gave up one more goal.

The only player to acquit himself well was Stejanovic.

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Sunday, 20 July 2014 9AM

The only trialists left are the one's we have offered contracts. We have 36 U18 players, 28 U20 players and 30 with the first team.

"Boss," Daniele Corazza said. "Do you know that we have several loan signings in our U20 and U18s?"

"What the ****?" I said in English. "Sorry, In England and the USA I swear in Italian. Here in Italy I'll swear in English and Spanish. Really? Savoia signed them?"

There were shrugs around the table.

"Any of them any good?" I asked.

More shrugs.

"Then let's send them packing," I said. "What about the rest of the loan signings? What are your thoughts?"

Some shrugging, mostly murmuring.

"You guys, seriously, speak Italian, talk to me," I joked.

"I don't see how any of them are really that better than Camorani and Calabrese," U20 Manager Remo Orsini said.

"And both the boys have tremendous potential," noted Corazza.

"I agree," Attacking Coach Paolo Riela added. "The only thing I would say is we need a veteran like Troianiello to mentor them."

"Just so you all know, I've instructed Savoia to sign Matthias Lepillier," I said. "He can play any of the three attacking midfield positions and could help mentor our young wingers. So let's see if any of our loan signings do something. What else?"

"There's Marcel Buchel, the Austrian loaned from Juventus," Defense Coach Alessandro Frati said. "He's not much better than Uros Radakovic. And Uros is ten times cheaper. I mean that literally."
 
It's been a truly amazing adventure with Pucci to date. I followed your FM14 story on an old account and was happy to see you were continuing. Pucci has even inspired a story of my own. A great start to what I'm sure will be a successful era with Bologna, too.

Good luck for the season ahead!
 
William Spector said:
It's been a truly amazing adventure with Pucci to date. I followed your FM14 story on an old account and was happy to see you were continuing. Pucci has even inspired a story of my own. A great start to what I'm sure will be a successful era with Bologna, too.

Good luck for the season ahead!
Click to expand...


TotallyNotTrixy said:
Good to see you back! This was my favorite Manager Story for FM14!
Click to expand...

Thanks, guys!
 
Monday, 21 July 2014 9AMish

"Good morning, Roberto," I said as I walked into the Director of Football's office.

"Good morning," he answered and looked up from his laptop.

"What's the signing news?"

"There is plenty," he replied. "Please have a seat. First, the defender you requested, Federico Barba, should be here any minute. We've got him on loan until the end of the season. He's co-owned by Empoli and Roma as you know so I couldn't negotiate a purchase clause."

"Matthias Lepiller has the contract you suggested. 4K plus we have an option to extend him a year. The contract on the table has him here through the end of the 2015/16 season."

"Furthermore, I have offered contracts to all the trialists you specified. Here's the list."

I read through the list. Everyone I wanted to sign was there.

"I hear that none of the wingers I signed on loan suite your taste," he said.

"Yeah, they don't," I said and shrugged. "I'm going to give them a couple more chances, but I think two boys from the youth team can do the same job and have tons of potential for the future. The bottom line is that this season in Serie B is a great opportunity to give them playing time when the competition isn't as tough. There's also the financial impact of paying the boys trainee salaries."

"You honestly think we can win promotion on the first try?" he asked. "That rarely happens."

"You and Albano are counting on it, aren't you," I said. Then I smiled. Then I got up. "Got to go. Got to talk with my coaches. Ciao."

"Ciao."
 
Friendly: Bayern Munchen II v. Bologna

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Matthias Lepiller arrived just in time to get on the bus and catch the plane with us to Munich. New loan signing Federico Barba also joined us. Matuzalem is also healthy and hops aboard.

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We played well and dominated which is to be expected against the Bayern II squad. Aquafresca appeared at the end of two crosses and converted them.

This was a good work-out that allowed us to work on our passing game against a lesser side.

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Thursday, 24 July 2014 O-dark-thirtyish

The plane left Munich rather late and got into Bologna later. Later suddenly became far too early. We walked off the plane and onto the bus for a ride back to Casteldelbole. So I got back to Gwen's and my villa quite very early.

The smell hit me the second I opened the door. Indian food. A wall of curry nearly knocked me over. I heard noise from what had to be the kitchen.

"You're back," I said as I walked in the door. "How was your flight?"

"Good," Her voice replied from several rooms away. Had to be from the kitchen. "Hungry?"

"Famished." Yep, definitely the kitchen.

"What's funny about Italy, in my opinion, is the food selection," she said, her voice getting nearer with every step I took. "In every other country in Europe you'll find a wide selection of food from all over the planet. In Italy, you'll find a wide variety of food from all over ..."

"Italy," I interrupted. "I know."

Where was she going with this?

"I really miss Indian Food as you've heard me moan about incessantly," she continued as I approached the kitchen. "So I did something about it."

At this point I walked into the kitchen. The few contents of a cupboard we don't use much was sitting on the counter. Three empty boxes sat upon the floor. The cupboard was stuffed to bursting with thin boxes. The kind of boxes that Indian sauces come in. There were several decent sized bags of basmati rice sitting on the counter.

"Well, we now have enough Vindaloo until I retire from football management," I commented. "Or until the apocalypse. Whichever comes first."

"Palak Paneer or Baingan Bhartar?" she asked.

"Palak Paneer, please."

"Your laughing at me," she said feigning insult.

"You mad mad mad mad Englishwoman, you don't do anything half way, do you?" I asked as I picked her up off the ground in a bear hug.

"Well, my dear handsome Italian-American hunk, I know you're partial to Indian food yourself. So there." I set her down. "The water's still hot in that one and the other pot is the rice."

I turned on a burner, opened up a box of Palak Paneer and plopped the package in the water.

As I ate my dinner, she regaled me with tales of the foibles and psychoses of the entourage and all the petty dramas of the photo shoots for a fall fashion line.

"I'd like to think I'm not becoming a spoiled, insecure and narcissistic brat like so many of the models," she concluded. "I feel like I spend more and more time in my hotel room or hiding in a trailer."

"I can't imagine you become cliched or a stereotype," I said. "Cynical certainly, bitter maybe but I can't see you developing a series of phobias or an eating disorder. You're just there to do a job."

"But I can see where this goes," she countered. "All the little bits that drive me mad, I can see my agent negotiating clauses and such to keep me from getting annoyed with everything, keep me away from all the things that bother me."

"Our you could, I dunno, embrace the chaos and just roll with it," I said. "I guess I'm more used to being, what, the director? I'm usually always the center of the insanity. Buffeted and battered by all of it, but that's what I'm paid for, I guess."

"Hmmm," she said.

"Well, I'm going to shower," I said. "Meet you in bed?"

"Mmmm," she answered. "Romance."

"Eeeee," I squealed as shoved a finger in my ribs while walking past.
 
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Thursday, 24 July 2014 noonish

"Hey, boss," my former teammate and current youth coach Massimiliano Varricchio said. "You got a minute."

"Oh cut it out with the boss ****, Maxi," I replied. "What's up?"

"Simone Bertetto and Leonardo Rubini and Giacomo Biandamura are unhappy," he replied. "They're unhappy with how hard we're working them."

"Really? Huh," I replied. "What's the story? I've made it pretty clear that everyone at the club needs to work harder in training."

"They didn't have to work as hard last season before your arrival," Maxi replied. "They brought it to my attention. So I'm telling you."

"Hmmmm," I said. "In your estimation, are they putting in the effort?" Maxi shrugged. "This is puzzling. They worked under me this spring. They know the deal. Fine. I'll have a word with them."

"Take it easy on them Enrico," Maxi said. "They're just kids."

"Hmph," I grunted. "Thanks for the head's up, Maxi."
 
Friendly: Bologna v. Lazio

View attachment 325447Saturday, 26 July 2014

This was a real spanking. Bent over the chair. Pants down. And it hurt real bad. What this defeat made me do is ponder whether this team could dominate Serie B and compete in Serie A. I just stood quietly on the sideline and watched. Lazio were smarter, stronger, faster and more skilled. They exploited our lack of speed without mercy. It would have been worse except their finishing was rusty.

My experienced central defender Dominico Maietta looked flustered most of the match. Marios Oikonomou did not look like the right partner for Maietta. The striker tasked with bagging the goals necessary to get us back into Serie A, Daniele Cacia, had a real stinker, too. Nobody really looked up for it.

None of the borrowed wingers did much of anything. They just aimlessly ran around for while. The team looked so disjointed and Lazio never gave us a chance to get organized.

"Alright, listen up," I said once everyone was in the locker room afterward. "That was a pretty disappointing loss. But this is why we go through preseason. We have to work on playing more compact. We simply cannot have the gaps between the defense and midfield we did today. We'll work on that starting tomorrow morning at 9AM. See you tomorrow."

View attachment 325446
 
"Something's bugging you," Gwen said as we walked out of the restaurant. "Come on, out with it."

"Dammit," I said. "I'm worried that the squad isn't up to the challenge of winning promotion. It's been eating at me all through dinner. I don't even remember what I had."

"You did rather pick at it," she noted. "Which is unlike you."

I sighed.

"Well," she said. "You've done this before. Right?"

I sighed again.

"Will my defenders be able to pull it together?" I asked rhetorically as we got into the Alfa. "Will my midifield start working as a unit? What will I do if my keeper Stojanovic gets hurt? The backup has been horrid and the third stringer doesn't look capable in training. Will my strikers score enough? Will I figure out what the **** I'm going to do out on the wings? Keep the loan signings, blood youngsters? It just seems like too much right now."

"You'll figure it out my dear, dear Italian-American pile of worry," she said. "Look at what you did with Wimbledon."

"This is different."

"Is it really?" she asked. "Is the ball a different shape? Are the goals a different size? You just worry too much."

"You're right, you know," I said. "The ball is still round and I still worry too much. Those things haven't changed. Thanks for reminding me. Shall we go dancing?"
 
Thank God you've come back! I was so dejected at the thought of the alpha story dying and to find that it has been continued here is incredible. One question, does the story chronologically line up or are you repeating the year 2014?
 
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