Back where I belong...

[NotAnotherUserName]

11th March 2016 - Brindisi, Italy

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"Dino?"

"Antonio, have you heard?"

"Heard what? You're going to have to be a bit more specific my friend..."

"Word is Luigi will be moving on at the end of the season, I'm told Nevio is on the hunt for a replacement."

"Already? Why? Oh it doesn't matter...is Nestor available, what about Fabio...it has to be one of the guys who knows what the club means..."

"Well...that's why I called you..."

"Oh..."
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[NotAnotherUserName]

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Buffon, Guardalben, Micillo; Thuram, F.Cannavaro, Vanoli, Benarrivo, Sartor, Serena, Lassissi, Torrisi, P.Cannavaro; Fuser, D.Baggio, Walem, Stanic, Ortega, Breda, Boghossian, Bolano, Longo, Paulo Sousa, Dabo, Maini, Saccani; Crespo, Di Vaio, Amoroso

What a team, how's it come to this? Here's some history for those of you that are interested Parma: the football club milked for all their worth | David Gendelman | Football | The Guardian

Dodgy owners taking the club from the brink of greatness to the Italian 4th tier via multiple bankruptcies, and they really were great at least if my memories of Football Italia on a Sunday afternoon haven't become warped over time...how could they not be with those players.

I'll be playing this save as Antonio Benarrivo, taking over a Parma side recently promoted to Serie C or Lega Pro Gerone whichever you prefer.

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[NotAnotherUserName]

We start out with a pretty thin squad, no right backs, 1 even vaguely worthwhile centerback and 1 center mid of any value.

However we do have a healthy wage budget with a £30,000 surplus and a transfer fund of around £850,000 which will certainly help my plan to put together a young squad that will develop as it works through the divisions.

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Transfers:
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No players brought in over the age of 20, all Italian. A fairly dramatic rebuild yes, but I'm not banking on having the same kind of budgets next season, I also assume Parma have quite a high rep at the start especially for their division.

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Academy:
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Luca was here when I arrived, the next Vialli by all accounts, he's already getting first team minutes. However Milan, Napoli and Torino are sniffing around with the managers personally coming to watch him play...

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[NotAnotherUserName]

August - December 2016

With so many kids in the team I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the lack of consistency, at times it feels like I can't buy a goal...which this being Italy you'd think was par for the course. Not helped by the fact that I seem to hit the post at least 3 times a game.

That said we had a pretty good start setting the pace but fell apart in November dropping down to third until beating top o the table Teramo in the last game of the year to bounce back.

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Finances have been looking surprisingly good turning over a profit of around 100,000 each month. The cash balance sucks though and I imagine the winter break will eat into what we've managed to build up so far.