Formed in 1936, Pescara are a professional football club currently plying their trade in Serie C in Italy. I've decided to take them on as my new challenge as my fvaourite save of FM22 was definitely the one where I took Palermo from Serie C up to the top tier again, and I'll be looking to repeat that feat with The Dolphins and hopefully going one step further and eventually winning Serie A and enjoying some European football one day.
Throughout their history, Pescara have competed in Serie A for a total of 7 seasons, most recently in 2012/13 and 2016/17. However, on both occasions they finish rock bottom of the table and were immediately relegated again. They finished 5th in Serie C last year and their fans are hoping for a swift return back to the second tier within the next couple of seasons for sure.
Talking about the supporters, there is a good base at the club with nearly half of the fanbase made up from hardcore and core supporters, with less than a fifth being classed as casuals. As mentioned, they want promotion in season 1!
Meanwhile, the board are a little more lenient with their expectations and a playoff spot in the first season will be seen as sufficient.
We play our home games at the Adriatico with a capacity of just over 20,000 although in the early days I don't expect our attendances to be getting anywhere near that number. The club's colours are predominantly blue and white.
The club has the basic foundations in place for moving up the Italian football pyramid, with good training and youth facilities, whilst the junior coaching and youth recruitment are seen as adequate.
There is a little bit of money for me to play with to make my own improvements to a squad that already looks relatively strong in most areas. We'll get on to the team in our next update.
I have two keepers available to me, neither of which are outstanding, but both of which can do a job. Alessandro Plizzari will be the first choice for this season and being only 22, he can still improve over the coming years into a fine keeper.
Full Backs
We're all good in the full back departments with cover on both sides and some decent players as well. Alessandro Crescenzi is possibly better than Serie C and if we can keep hold of him, he'll be key for us this year.
Centre Backs
Loads of options here too and again a good level of quality with a couple of real stand out players. Riccardo Brosco will be at the heart of the back 4 throughout most of the season!
Central Midfield
To be fair, I'll probably need to trim the squad a little in this area as we actually have too many players! Definitely an area I don't need to worry about improving! Luca Palmiero is the best player in the whole squad and my team will be built around him!
Wide Midfielders
Now this is the area that needs improving in numbers and quality. Both wings are lacking in options and the standard of player available to me isn't great either!
Attacking Midfield
I desperately want to play a 4-2-3-1 formation with this team, but at the moment I don't have a decent player to sit in this hole. If I can't pick one up, I might need to rethink the formation and drop back to a 4-1-2-3 instead.
Strikers
Up front, I have three proper out and out strikers available to me. All quite similar in quality and they will provide good competition for each other throughout the season and it remains to be seen who becomes my first choice. On paper, at first glance, Edoardo Vergani is the one I'm drawn to.
I didn't waste any time addressing the couple of areas in the squad where I wanted to make improvements. Firstly, we start with the arrival of a new attacking midfielder.
NEW SIGNING: FRANCESCO BOMBAGI
Signed from Catanzaro
Fee: £40k
Bombagi is a great signing to fill that attacking midfield void for us. He is creative, has a good eye for a pass and can get himself in the box and finish as well.
Then there was the addition of a wide attacker who can play down either wing for us.
NEW SIGNING: MASSIMILIANO GATTO
Signed from Como
Fee: £145k
Gatto immediately becomes our best wide attacking midfielder (on paper). He helped Como to promotion from Serie C2 seasons ago, scoring 13 times in 37 games and if he can return those numbers again for us, I'll be happy.
When looking through my centre backs in more detail, I noticed I didn't have a single one that can use their left foot at all. I desperately wanted to bring in a CB with a strong left foot and managed to pick one up on loan.
LOAN SIGNING: GUILLAUME GIGLIOTTI
Signed on season long loan from Bari
Another player that has helped a previous team get from Serie C to Serie B. The experience of these players that have been there and done it already should prove very valuable to us this season.
With the players I have at my disposal, my assistant seemed to think that we were most suited to a tactic that was focused around the park the bus, route one and fluid counter attack styles of play. I have therefore used the fluid counter as a base and modified it to something I'm a bit more happy with. I didn't go for the attacking midfield role in the end and focused on our strengths to play the counter attacking game with a DM instead.
Before we played our first competitive game, I booked a couple of quick friendlies to build some match fitness. I had to cram these into the schedule.
And that's because with the way the preliminary rounds for the Coppa Italia work, we had an early game during pre season to play against Bari, who are currently residing in Serie B. A tough opener for my first competitive match in charge.
We pushed them all the way though and actually created a lot more chances than they did throughout the game. Unfortunately though, it was the lottery of a penalty shootout that decided the game and it wasn't us who won!
Following that, we had 5 more friendlies to get match fit for the start of the season. Fair to say they went pretty well and the lads seem to be pretty fluent with my tactic and philosophy.
The bookies make us odds on favourites to lift the title and get promoted this season. No pressure then! Three of my players have made the media dream 11.
I fully expected us to kick off the season with a win as we took on Messina who were predicted to be well involved in the relegation battle.
It was a comfortable enough opening day for us.
Monterosi would be our next opponents and they'd be right up for it after beating Picerno 4-0 in their opening game.
But we gave them a taste of their own medicine and they end up on the wrong end of a 4-0.
Our next fixture was against Picerno. Now if Monterosi could beat them 4-0 and then we beat Monterosi 4-0, then predictions all round were that this could be a silly result in our favour.
It wasn't, but it was another win on the board!
New signing, Gatto, is already proving his worth as he followed up that brace with the only goal of the game as we record another win over Fidelis Andria.
Crotone have had an unbeaten start to their season with 2 wins and 2 draws, so it was fully expected that they would give us a game.
And they did at least become the first team to score past us in the league this year, but it had no bearing on the outcome of the game as we win it pretty comfortably.
Could we make it a perfect 6 from 6 as we went away to Cerignola?
No we couldn't! Our first bad performance of the season and we were punished for it!
We brushed ourselves off and quickly got back to winning ways though with a much better performance in front of our home fans against 5th placed Catanzaro.
After 7 games, we are living up to our title favourites tag and lead the division. Most wins, most goals, least conceded! Happy manager!
Avellino have begain their season well with 4 wins from 7 games and they sit 6th as they came into the game with us.
And they gave us a tough game and will probably be disappointed not to walk away with the win. An injury time equalizer from substitute, Aristidi Kolaj, rescued a point for us, but it was a fair result on the balance of play.
Monopoli were predicted to be not too far behind the top teams in the division, but had made a disappointing start to their campaign.
And they failed to register a single shot at our goal as we cruised to a 2-0 victory.
We played Foggia in a pre season friendly and spanked them 4-1, so we went into our league game with them full of confidence.
The result wasn't as emphatic this time round but it is another win. Luca Mora and Luca Palmiero, my two centre mids combined for the winner. I think I'll name this partnership "Luca Luca".
Our 2nd defeat of the season came in our next game against Virtus Francavilla though in a match where everything seemed to go wrong. Not only did we concede two goals that could be considered lucky for the opposition (both resulting from deflections), we had a man sent off and I went through three left backs in a single match because of an injury as well. Not a good day at the office.
That led us into our first game of the Coppa Italia Lega Pro and we'd drawn Monterosi who sat just behind us in 2nd in the league. However, we have beaten them 4-0 in the league already this season.
But I did decide to rest virtually my whole first 11 for this one, so it was a bit of an unknown as to how that would turn out.
The second string got the job done though and we're through to the next round.
We were back at full strength for the league game against Turris and the first team chalked up another victory.
Juve Stabia were coming off the back of a 6-1 win over Monterosi, so their confidence would be on a high coming into their game against us.
But they couldn't live with us to be honest.
We'd then return to the Coppa Italia Lega Pro where we'd already knocked out one of the top teams in our own division. Now, we'd face off against Padova who lead the way in Serie C Girona A. I wanted to rotate my team again and hand out rare starts to most of my second string, but I knew it could bite me in the **** with us playing such good opposition.
But again the lads performed admirably, earning a 2-2 draw to take the game to extra time. Up step Aristidi Kolaj with a brace to see us into the next round!
Grateful for the rest, the first choice 11 was back in for the league game against Taranto and another 2-0 win was recorded.
Latina may only be 7 places behind us in the league, but the points gap is already 13! So I expected us to kick on and beat them.
We played really well and as expected, the win came. Luca Palmiero dominated the game from the centre of midfield, picking up an assist and a goal, and generally dictating the pace of the game throughout.
Gelbison are struggling. They're 19th in the league and only have 11 points so far this season.
They're goal got peppered by us for 90 whole minutes as we had 28 shots!! Only two goals were scored though, as they're keeper kept the score respectable.
That brace for Edoardo Vergani takes him to 10 league goals for the season and the young striker is putting himself firmly in the race for the golden boot.
We're 7 points clear at the top of the table and 11 points clear of 3rd! It's fair to say we're flying at the moment and hopefully we can keep this momentum going and continue to stretch our lead at the head of the table.
One of the teams that are closer to us in the table are 4th placed Viterbese, so they should present one of our tougher fixtures right now.
They shut us out completely in the first half and we couldn't find our rythym at all. However, once Francesco Bomnagi had curled in his effort from 18 yards out on 47 minutes, we went on to dominate the rest of the game and take all 3 points.
That makes it sixteen wins in my opening 20 games and life is good!
Coppa Italia Lega Pro time and our quarter final opponents were Turris, who sat just behind us in 2nd place in our division. Again, I'd undergo heavy rotation to hand starts to some of the players who aren't getting a lot of game time.
But this time, my loyalty to the second string was punished by our opponents and we are out of the cup.
I wasn't taking any chances back in the league against bottom of the table, Giugliano, and back at full strength, we gave them an hiding. Totally blowing them away in the first half!
One player that is performing well above where his attributes suggest, is winger Luigi Cuppone. The 25 year old Italian is currently running with a 7.35 average rating in the league, with 6 assista dn 5 goals in 13 appearances!
But even he couldn't do anything for us as we labour to a 0-0 draw with Potenza. A bad day in front of goal really as we did generate 24 chances!
So we are officially half way through the season now and have played everyone once. So our next game would be against Messina who we had started the season against, with a 2-0 win.
And we completed the double of them here.
Meanwhile, it's France who lift the 2022 World Cup.
Monterosi are our nearest challengers in the league, sitting 2nd, but 11 points behind us. We've already beaten them twice in the league and cup this year already, so this was a good opportunity to extend that lead further.
But it was third time unlucky for us as this time we are beaten and they close the gap at the top a little!
The January transfer window is now open and there is a departure from the club. Facundo Lescano is not good enough for me and has hardly played up front, so it was time to go. He joins Godoy Cruz for £44.5k.
We put the disappointment of the Monterosi defeat behind us with back to back 2-0 victories over both Picerno and Fidelis Andria.
Nearly 10,000 people turned up for the fan day against Fidelis and hopefully the performance and decent day out will encourage some of them to keep coming back this season.
We're now 23 games into the league season and have a healthy 10 point lead at the top of the table, having only lost 3 times this year! The biggest stand out from our season so far is how solid our defence has been. Incredibly, we've only conceded 7 goals in 23 games!
We lead the way in most of the team stats at this point. Most points per game, most goals, most shots, fewest shots against, most dribbles, most clean sheets and fewest goals conceded!
Crotone are 5th in the league and would be one of the sides in the division that would fancy their chances of getting a result against us.
And to be fair, they did nick a point with an injury time equalizer as we had a rare lapse in concentration right at the end of the game. Luca Palmiero's goal was the pick of the bunch today, as he banged home a cracking free kick from 23 yards.
On transfer deadline day, I brought a new signing into the club to boost my attacking options until the end of the season.
NEW SIGNING: FEDERICO MELCHIORRI
Signed on a free transfer
Melchiorri has been without a club so far this season after being released by Perugia last Summer. I've given Federico a contract to the end of the season and he has a player status of impact sub, which is exactly what I expect him to be.
Cerignola are 18th in the table, but they'd pulled off a shock win over us earlier in the season. We wanted revenge for that!
And revenge was sweet!
But we followed it up with probably our worst collective performance of the season, which sounds weird to say as we didn't even lose. However, we definitely deserved to!
Next up was a top of the table clas between us and Avellino. If they win, the gap would be down to 5 points, if we win then we extend our lead to a whopping 11 points.
A massive win for us saw us keep a big lead at the top!
We followed that up with a thumping of Monopoli! A stunning performance where we dominated the entire game and 4 different goalscorers on the scoresheet...it doesn't get much better than that!
Just three days later we would take on Foggia, who sit 8th in the table.
They didn't pose us any problems as we win again, and this one confirmed we'll play in the playoffs as an absolute minimum!
It's clear to see that our creativity is coming mostly from the left side of the pitch, with my left back and left winger both in the hunt for the most creative player of the season.
Earlier in the season, Virtus Francavilla beat us 2-1 at our own gaff. So we were looking for some redemption in the reverse game here.
Even having to play a whole half with 10 men didn't stop us getting the result! Great determination and grit shown from my team today! We haven't exactly had to dig deep too may times this season, so it's nice to see we have that in us when we need it.
With just 8 games to go, we are 15 points ahead at the top of the league. Surely it's just a matter of time before we wrap up the title now! This is quickly becoming the greatest season I've ever had on any FM...I mean, just look at that goal difference!!
Last time we played Turris, they knocked us out of the cup. However, we played our second string that day and I wouldn't be taking any chances like that here as we look to get the title wrapped up as quickly as possible.
Maybe they're our bogey team as they managed to nick a point off us here as well!
No such luck for Juve Stabia though as Edoardo Vergani bags his 19th and 20th league goals of the season!
Two goals in six 2nd half minutes ensured another victory over Taranto in our next game too and that title is edging ever closer.
Although the title is pretty much wrapped up already with our ridiculous goal difference, we are just 1 point away from officially sealing it.
The nerves got to us a bit against Latina and we weren't anywhere near our best. However, an injury time equalizer from Federico Melchiorri seals the league title for us!
On top of the league title win, we've also got an excellent youth intake to celebrate as well!
There is a handful of players who look like they could come through into the first team at some point, but the most promising looks to be right winger, Paride Castello.
With the league title already assured, I took the opportunity to give the 15 year old a debut off the bench in our next game against Gelbison and make him the youngest player to ever play in the division. We only managed a draw though against the bottom side, although the youngster nearly had all his dreams come true as he hit the crossbar in the 90th minute!
I took it one step further against Viterbese and handed the 15 year old his first start.
And the youngster gave a decent account of himself on our way to a solid 3-0 victory.
We're finishing the season in style and in our penultimate game, we record another 3-0 over Giugliano.
And it was another 15 year old that stole the headlines after this one. Alessio Bosisio came off the bench to score and become the league's youngest ever goalscorer.
We'd finish the season with an away day at Potenza.
But it was an underwhelming end to the season and we couldn't give our fans one last win to cheer in Serie C.
But who really cares...we dominated this league all season and it's Serie B football for us next season!
As winners of one of the three Serie C leagues, we will now enter one final competition at the end of the season. A mini league with the other two winners for the Serie C Super Cup. And our first opponents would be Pordenone.
Despite us dominating the game with 58% possession and 15 shots to their 4, somehow we didn't win this football match and the Super Cup won't be ours.
At least we finished things on a high with a win over Reggiana.
Serie C Girone C = Winners (promoted to Serie B)
Coppa Italia Fanta = Preliminary Round (knocked out by Bari)
Coppa Italia Lega Pro = Quarter Final (knocked out by Turris)
Italian C Super Cup = 2nd
The entire squad pulled their weight this year in what was a brilliant season in Serie C. Alessandro Plizzari may only be 23 years old, but proved he has plenty of potential between the sticks. Despite keeping a total of 24 clean sheets in the league this year, our centre backs were actually our weakest area of the team based on their ratings across the season and I might need to improve my options in this area for Serie B next year. Luca Palmiero was identified by me as a key player when I joined the club and the centre midfielder proved me right as he bagged 13 goals and 7 assists this year. Both first choice wide men, Gatto and Cuppone contributed another 17 assists between them as we had plenty of creativity down the wings. Edoardo Vergani was identified as first choice striker early on in the season and never looked back as the 22 year old scored 23 goals this year.
Most of this year's new arrivals were loanees, with differing levels of participation in my first team. The one thing that is shared between them all though, is that they all made a solid enough contribution with some solid average ratings in there.
The Best 11...
The Awards...
In the Player of the Year award, my players filled all of the top 3 spots, with right back, Tommaso Cancellotti coming out on top!
Incredibly, 10 of the 11 players in the Team of the Year are from Pescara! Shows just how good we've been this year!
So it was no surprise to see my players pick up the goalkeeper, defender and midfielder of the year awards too.
The future looks bright as well, as our U20s won their league as well!
The Commercials...
Over the Summer, I will be looking to move some players on from the club for sure. Whether it be through being released or sold, some of the fringe players and older players are likely to leave the club as I look to bring in reinforcements to strengthen us for life in Serie B. However, I won't have a lot of money available to me so I'll need to be shrewd in the transfer market.
Although three of my older players have taken the decision to retire from football, so I won't need to worry about them. None of them are really club legends having only been here for a season or two at most. The players in question are Luca Mora (centre mid), Gianmarco Ingrosso (centre back) and Federico Melchiorri (striker).
In addition to the retirement of the guys above, I released a total of 13 players from the club this Summer, which were made up of a mix of both first and youth team.
The most notable was centre back, Riccardo Brosco, who had a good season for us last year. However, his wage demands became totally unrealistic and he leaves the club.
So with so many players leaving, it's time for some new arrivals.
First in was a young Croatian centre back who joins us on loan.
LOAN SIGNING: MARO KATINIC
Signed on season long loan from Dinamo Zagreb
The 19 year old will provide good squad options for us at centre back and has the ability to move into my defensive midfield role if required as well.
My first permanent signing was that of a player that spent last year here on loan.
NEW SIGNING: LUIGI CUPPONE
Signed from Cittadella
Fee: Free Transfer
Cuppone had a good season for me last year scoring 12 goals and getting 9 assists, so I was keen to keep him here. With his contract running down at Cittadella, I managed to snap him up on a free and am glad to make him an official Pescara player.
Then, possibly my most important signings of the Summer in the form of another two experienced Italians.
NEW SIGNING: LEONARDO CAPEZZI
Signed from Salernitana
Fee: Free Transfer
Capezzi will slot straight in as an important player in my central midfield. He brings with him experience of both Serie A and Serie B for a few different clubs and is a fantastic signing for us.
NEW SIGNING: MATTEO COTALI
Signed from Frosinone
Fee: Free Transfer
I had this one wrapped up back in January when Cotali accepted my pre contract offer. Again, he is a significant upgrade on the level of player we had at the club and will likely be an important figure for us this year.
There's going to be a new man at the heart of our defensive line this season as well.
NEW SIGNING: STEFAN SIMIC
Signed from Hajduk Split
Fee: Free Transfer
Another one that was confirmed back in January on the pre contract arrangement, Simic will go straight in as a first choice centre back!
There was another loan signing who then came in to complete what I think is now a very strong midfield for us.
LOAN SIGNING: MANU SILVA
Signed on season long loan from Juventus
The young Portuguese central midfielder is another good acquisition for us and if he performs well, I have the option to make his deal permanent for just £575k.
We continue to get stronger by the day and our next loanee is further proof of that.
LOAN SIGNING: LORENZO PIROLA
Signed on season long loan from Inter Milan
Pirola is the icing on the cake for now. I'm ridiculously pleased with the business we have managed to get done in the window so far.
In addition to all the new signings, there is a striker now in amongst the ranks who wasn't here last year. Gennaro Borrelli was out on loan last season at Serie B side Frosinone and I welcome him back with open arms.
All that was left now was to add a bit of flair out on the wing.
NEW SIGNING: ERIC OCANSEY
Signed on a free transfer
Ocansey was released by Kortrijk and he is perfect for us down that right wing. Great pace, flair and dribbling skills and I expect him to do well at this level this season.
Pre season went well and the new players all seem to be blending well together.
As a newly promoted team into Serie B, we still have to undergo a preliminary round for the Coppa Italia this year and we'd drawn a Monterosi side that we are very familiar with from last season.
But we've left them behind in Serie C and our squad has improved greatly...and it showed here.
Before the league campaign kicks off, we have the first round proper of the Coppa Italia to play and we'd been drawn against fellow Serie B side, Sudtirol.
In an entertaining game, we are the ones who just about come out on top and progress to the next round.
Based on the fact the bookies expect Sudtirol to finish below us in Serie B this season, we won't get too carried away that this result means we'll be competitive this season!
Our first game of the season would be against a Cosenza side that are 50-1 to win the title, just like us! Should be a good judge as to where we are.
Now we weren't dominant by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a good start to the campaign for us and a great start for Edoardo Vergani who gets an opening day hat trick.
And it's back to back hat tricks as Vergani bangs in another 3 on our way to a comfortable victory over Cremonese.
Cesena were promoted via the Serie C Playoffs last season and they were one side this year I fully expected us to beat.
We squandered chance after chance to win this game in the second half after their sending off and it looked like we were going to have to settle for a draw. Up step Leonardo Capezzi in the 92nd minute to seal the points!
Benevento are right up there amongst the favourites to win this division this year, so we knew they would pose us the biggest threat we'd experience in these early stages of the season.
At 2-0 up, we were in dreamland and I thought we were going to pull off a big upset. However, our opponents came out and hit us hard in the second half to get themselves a well earned point.
Meanwhile, Bari had started their season really poorly, only taking 1 point from their opening 4 matches.
But they made it two points as they hung on to a draw against us, despite us dominating!
After two draws, we then suffered our first defeat of the season at home to Pisa. We must do better with our defending of set pieces as their two goals here came from a corner and an indirect free kick.
Sudtirol would be up next for us and we've already knocked them out of the Coppa Italia this season with a tight 3-2 win. However, they have pushed on from that and started their league campaign just as well as us and sat 3rd at kick off!
They went into a 2-0 lead and we looked bang in trouble. At that stage of the game, we'd had 2 shots to their 9 and weren't in it at all. I made some tweaks to the tactics and gave the lads a kick up the **** and it sparked them into life. An incredible turnaround and in the end we ran a bit riot on their goal to record a big win!
Lubomir Tupta has been asking me for some more game time of late, so it was good to see him reward me with two goals after I gave him his first start up front this season.
Now, Sampdoria would be easily the biggest team I've faced off against in my career so far. They were relegated from Serie A last season and are expected by most to make the immediate return to the top flight.
And they proved too strong for us, as expected.
However, it's been a good start to life in Serie B for us and we're nowhere near the relegation battle in the early stages and possibly punching well above our weight...but hey, I'll take it!
Our next opponents, Brescia, haven't lost yet this season and came into our match with 5 wins and 3 draws from their opening 8 games.
But they have now!! What a brilliant performance from us...definitely our best of the season!
Unfortunately, we couldn't follow it up against Ternana though and have to settle for a draw, having to rely on a 95th minute penalty for that point too!
I wanted better against a Modena side that are struggling at the bottom end of the table!
And boy did I get it! Much better from the lads here and just the response I was looking for!
That was Edoardo Vergani's third hat trick of the season and takes him to 13 league goals for the season! It's great to see the lad in such great form, but it is attracting interest from bigger clubs.
His 14th goal came in our very next game...another win as we beat Venezia!
It wasn't all good news though as we lose Eric Ocansey to injury for up to 8 weeks! He's contributed with 3 assists and a goal in his 11 league games so far.
And we definitely lacked a little spark without him in the side as we can only manage a 1-1 draw against Ascoli.
Next up we'd face two teams with the most similar names in Italian football back to back...Reggina and Reggiana.
Two more games that we won! We are on fire right now!
And just as everything was going sweetly, the board have thrown a right spanner in the works. The club has been losing money on a monthly basis ever since I took over and the financial situation now sees us nearly £5 million in the red.
Therefore, the board have reduced my wage budget by £17,000 per week!!! I feel like I'm going to be put in a situation now during the January transfer window where I will be forced to sell some players.
Now I did have £135k left in the transger budget, so with a little bit of jiggling, I have managed to claw a little bit back meaning I now only have to lose £11k off the committed budget but it's still a lot!
As much as I don't want to lose him, my number 1 keeper Alessandro Plizzari could be the sacrifice I need to make. Not only is he the highest earner at the club, taking home nearly £9k per week, but I could probably bag over a million quid for him...and there is interest from Serie A club, Spezia.
Until the January transfer window comes round though, it's back to the action and our next game in the league would pit us against Citadella.
And we were made to work hard for it, but it's yet another win on the board and we are now 8 games unbeaten!
It's a run that has taken us to the top of Serie B! There's no denying that we have taken to this level like a duck to water and we're flying as we approach the half way stage of the season!
We've scored more goals than anyone else in the league by quite some way and the main reason for that has been the incredible form of Edoardo Vergani who is averaging a goal about every hour!! He leads the race for the golden boot and if he keeps up this form, all the other strikers in the league are going to have a hard time catching him!
And he was on target again as we beat Frosinone. Although we did do our best to give away the 3 points in this one after leading 3-0!
A solid 1-0 win over Pordenone followed!
The Coppa Italia 2nd Round was up next for us and we'd drawn Benevento, who were one of those sides who will be up there in Serie B this season.
And they absolutely dominated us from start to finish. We were lucky to take this as far as a penalty shootout to be fair and justice prevailed for them by winning it. We were really poor!
I demanded better from the lads back in the league and they responded well as we finish off the year 2024 with a couple more victories!
As January turns, the transfer window opened and I have bad news! Goalscoring machine, Edoardo Vergani's contract is up at the end of the season and I've been trying to convince him all year to sign a new one, but to no avail. With just 6 months now left on his deal, he is free to speak to other clubs and I'll be losing him to RB Leipzig on a free at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Gennaro Borrelli has only played 6 times for me this year and failed to find the back of the net. With us needing to free up wages, he leaves the club to join Padova on loan for the rest of the season and they will pay £1200 a week towards his wage.
As I continue to try to drive the wage bill down further, Lubomir Tupta leaves the club to join Slovan Bratislava for a fee of £113k. He was unhappy with a lack of first team opportunities and again only had 6 months remaining on his deal, so I decided to get something for him now!
Our first game of 2024 ends in defeat as we lose in a tight match against Cremonese. The sending off of Matteo Cotali definitely had an impact on the result as we looked like winning before that, where as after it, our opponents certainly looked in the driving seat.
That was our first defeat in 12 games though!
Cesena are having a good season as they returned to Serie B with us last year. They sit mid table at this point and well clear of the relegation battle they were expected to be in!
And they took a further step forward as they record a win over us! It's back to back defeats for the first time this season for us and I wonder if the recent departures as I try to balance the books, off field financial issues and the fact our top goalscorer is leaving at the end of the season is going to have a negative effect on our form.
Against Benevento, we were definitely playing better and got ourselves in front. However, Mattro Cotali got himself sent off for the 2nd time in 3 games and again, it's cost us the points here as we were overpowered with just 10 men for the whole second half!
Despite losing our last 3 matches, we do remain at the top of Serie B by a single point. However, there are a whole host of clubs queing up behind us just waiting to take advantage if our poor run of form continues.
The January transfer deadline day came and I did everything I possibly could to offload more players to bring the wage bill down. My main focus was on trying to shift goalkeeper Alessandro Plizzari as previously mentioned. However, the best offer I could get for a player worth up to £1.8 million, was a £250k from Bari...now I'm sorry, but that's just taking the p155. It means that the club remains over £5 million in the red and still overspending on the wage budget by £6k per week! Not sure what this means for the future right now.
Bari find themselves hovering around mid table this year, with no real worries about relegation but no real hopes of promotion either.
And we played out a bore draw with them in a very uneventful match.
An injury time penalty saw Pisa nick all the points in our next game and we're now on a 5 game winless streak.
Sudtirol are struggling though and facing the relegation battlers gave us the perfect opportunity to bring that streak to an end.
And we did with relative ease!
Returning to winning ways would be the big confidence boost we'd need as we went into tough games with two of the best sides in the division.
But neither Sampdoria, nor Brescia, could get the better of us and we pick up two good points.
From a 5 game winless run, we were now on a nice little 3 game unbeaten streak.
And we made that 4 with a win over Ternana. Nice to get this result as they held us to a disappointing draw in the reverse fixture earlier in the season.
Then we had some very welcome news.
We've had a bit of a 'get out jail free' card. There has been a takeover at the club and we have a new board. As part of that takeover, they have cleared the club's debts and we are now back in the positive bank balance again.
Modena would be our first opponents under the new board and it was a perfect opportunity for us to impress, with our opponents down in 18th position in the table.
However, we actually suffer one of our most disappointing defeats of the season.
4th vs 6th as we took on Venezia next and with the season approaching the final run in, this would be massive for both sides.
Luigi Cuppone came off the bench with 25 minutes to go and it was his brace that earns us a big 3 points!
With just 7 games of the season remaining, we find ourselves in a position we could have only dreamed of at the start of the campaign - we're in the title race!! With the top two going up automatically and then 3rd to 8th contesting a playoff, we are at least going to be in that mix for sure.
Before we sign off for this update, let's take a quick look at this year's youth intake. It's not as good as last year, but it is decent enough.
16 year old striker, Lorenzo Adelfio could progress to become a future first team player for the club - that's if his low determination personality doesn't hinder him.
Now I said in our last update that we'd had a 'get out of jail free' card with the new board coming in and wiping out the club's debt. It's not a gesture of good will from them though and we will now have to start paying back towards the loan that was taken out.
In all fairness, it is the only debt the club has, so we're far from being 'in trouble'.
The first of our final 7 games would be against 12th placed Ascoli.
And we made the perfect start to our run in.
Reggina were up next for us.
And it's another win. It was nervey there for that final 10 minutes, but we managed to hold on for a big 3 points.
AC Reggiana came up with us last year from Serie C, but they look like they'll be going straight back there this year, so this is a game I didn't expect to lose.
And we didn't! It was an easy victory for us and good to see Edoardo Vergani getting back on the scoresheet after a few games without a goal.
Four games remaining and we sat top of the table. We just needed to win the last four and we'd be Serie B champions, starting with Cittadella.
So of course, we lose the game which immediately saw us drop from 1st down to 3rd and out of the automatic promotion places again.
But a big win against Frosinone moves us right back into contention again. Eric Ocansey was sensational here with 2 goals and 2 assists...easily his best performance of the season!
With just two games to go, we sit 2nd! Two of the top four will get automatic promotion, but it's so tight, it's hard to say right now which two it will be!
But before we even kick a ball again, Pisa are out of the running after losing to Salernitana in their next game. With 4 points between them and us in 2nd and only 1 game left for them, they will be settling for the playoffs. It's now between three of us!
Our penultimate game of the season would see us take on Pordenone, who sit 18th in the table and desperately need a win to take them out of the relegation places. Forget league standings...this would not be an easy game!
Or at least I hadn't expected it to be! We absolutely blow them away and whilst we might just be staring back to back promotions in the face, this result might just cost Pordenone their place in Serie B.
But we're not there yet. Here's the top 3 going into the last game of the season.
And here's the scenarios...
* Sampdoria are already promoted and a win confirms them as champions
* If we get a point, we are promoted
* If we get a point and Sampdoria lose, then they will win the league with a better head to head record
* If we lose, but Benevento fail to win, then we will be promoted
* If we lose and Benevento win, then they will be promoted ahead of us with a better head to head record
Basically, we need a point against 6th placed Salernitana on the final day! Meanwhile, Sampdoria play Pordenone who we just thrashed and Benevento go away to Cesena!
At half time in our game, we found ourselves 1-0 down! Sampdoria were 4-0 up and cruising to the title, whilst Benevento was 0-0! At this stage, we are going up but there was a massive 45 minutes ahead of us!
But in that second half, we were not anywhere near good enough and completely fell apart. A disappointing effort when I needed a big game from my lads!
So that left us relying on a favour from Cesena against Benevento.
But we didn't get it!
So on the final day, we lose 2nd spot and an automatic promotion place with it. We'll drop into the playoffs and will play the winners of Frosinone vs Salernitana. Based on recent results, I hoped Frosinone would come through that tie!
