The Alfa Romeo Metaphor

View attachment 361259Enrico Pucci @enricopucci - 30 July 15
Wombles rock! 700 more season tickets sold for 14/15 than last season.
3329 tickets sold wimb.led.on/e4jaF94 #Wimbledon
 
League One: Peterborough United FC v. AFC Wimbledon

View attachment 360766Didn't sleep at all last night. Too wound up. Did we play too many money-makers against big clubs when I should have been testing them out against sides like we'd play in League One? Should we have played a few semi-pro teams to get the offense purring and our confidence in front of net built up? Too late now. But tell that the hamsters on their treadmill who decided to run all night and keep my brain churning over every decision I'd made since May.

Did I really need to loan Ricci? Will Leandro be too slow and injury-prone to succeed in a higher league? Will Michael and Lovers be able to score in League One? Will Nole ever score? Or will Banton take his place at left wing? Will Barlaser and Tomlinson play as well their second season as they did in the first? Will Fenerbace pony up an exorbitant amount of money for Danny Boy to "bring him home" to Turkey? Will my defense be good enough for League One or will I have another season defensively like I had in Cadiz when my defense frequently caused my palm to meet my face? Please God no. Will my three fullbacks be good enough for League One?

All that worrying ends now as the players file back into the changing room under Peterborough's London Road stadium.

"Here we go again," I said. "The pundits say we're going to get relegated. They said the same thing last summer. We have a opportunity to go out there and impress everyone. Prove we can compete in this league. I have faith that you guys at the back will be well-organized and play tight, aggressive defense. I have faith that we can dominate the midfield and create chances. We've done it against the big boys in our friendlies, why not now against Peterborough?"

GK: Daniel Lincoln
D: Cameron Dummigan, Andrea Sbraga, Manny Smith, Jim Fenlon
CM: Mark Tomlinson, Daniel Barlaser
AM: George Frampton (R), Matteo Ricci (C), Matteo Nole (L)
F: Michael Smith:

Subs: Chris Dunn (GK), Kris Thackray (D), Brad Smith (D), Steven Gregory (M), Mary Byrne (M), Dylan Griffiths (M/F), James Loveridge (F)

Jason Banton wasn't quite fit enough to make the bench.

We started nicely. In the 2nd minute, George Frampton hit a corner to the top of the box where Daniel Barlaser controlled the perfectly and unleashed a hard shot right at the goalkeeper. Easy save.

In the 5th minute, the Posh won a corner. Manny lost right winger Britt Assombalonga at the near post and Britt met the near post cross with an easy deflection into the net.

1-0

At least there's lots of time left. We just needed to play our usual high tempo style and we'd create some chances.

In the 8th minute, Manny hit a Route One high ball for Michael. He flicked the ball on to Ricci who raced in on goal but had his shot tipped wide. Manny got himself free at the back post but his header zipped just wide.

Ricci hit through ball for Michael in the 10th minute, but he squared it of Nole as he was getting closed down. You know what happened next.

Then the game settled down into a midfield battle with neither team creating any real chances until the 42 minute. We'd worked the ball up our left flank and Fenlon played the ball into the box for Nole. Nole spotted George charging in toward the far post and chipped it into his path. The Posh left fullback managed to get their first and cleared to the top of the box where Danny Boy connected with a volley. It flew inches with of the keeper's left post.

"Except for one mistake, we've played well," I said once everyone was in the changing room. "And we've been quite unlucky. Keep at 'em, you're doing everything right."

View attachment 360765I have no idea what Dougie Freedman said in his locker room, but the Posh came out charging to start the second half. When we did escape our end of the field, they raced at us with dangerous-looking counters.

In the 51st minute, their left winger Manu Lanzarote beat Cam to end line and whipped in a near post cross. Posh striker Tyrone Barnett met it with a thundering header that smashed into the near post and rebounded directly into the hands of a stranded but now grateful Daniel Lincoln. Andrea let Barnett go and we should have been down 2-0 if that header had been an inch more to the right.

We really couldn't get our offense going in the second half. Posh defensive midfielder Gaspar was everywhere. Just before 70 minutes, I threw on Dylan Griffiths, my teenage attacking prospect, for Matteo Nole who hadn't done much in the second half. This didn't make a difference. The player on the ball never seemed to see his teammates dangerous run and when he did, his pass went astray.

It was just one of those days. I said so once everyone was back in the room afterwards. That seemed to improve everyone's mood.
 
Sunday, 2nd August 2015 11:30am or so

"Hey Cam, got a sec?" I asked.

"Sure, boss," Cam stopped jogging toward the next drill and spun to face me.

"So we've both probably heard the rumors that Carlton Cole wants to sign you for Morecambe," I began. Cam nodded. "So I just want to be clear on the subject. If you want to go, I'll sell you, but I want to be sure that you would want to move to the Skrill Premier and up north to rural Lancashire."

"Boss, no way I want to go," he replied. "First, it's the Conference. Second, I'm a city boy. Belfast, right? I remember the last bit of the train to Lancaster and then driving from Lancaster to the stadium in Morecambe. No way I could live there. I'm in ****ing London now, right? I'm loving playing for this club and can't wait for the new stadium next year. I mean it'd be all well and good if a rural club in the Championship or Prem came in for me and all that. But this isn't the case."

"True, thanks," I said. "Just want to be clear. Thanks for talking, off you go."

"DANNY!" I yelled across the field, and I mean that literally. New Malden is really just a ginormous pasture sub-divided. I jogged over towards Daniel Barlaser to have the same conversation.

"Gaffer, what's up?" Danny said as we met up in the middle of everything but not really near anyone.

"Just want to talk about Fenerbahce," I said. He nodded just like Cam did then looked at his shoes. "I totally understand if you would want to move to a big club like them. And back in the motherland and all that. Totally get it. Plus, you've got family there, right?" He nodded again. "What're you thinking?"

"Well," he replied. "I, um, actually, I don't know. I was born in Gateshead. I'm a born and bred member of the Toon Army. My parents moved down to Tolworth for my Dad's new job. That's why I joined the Academy a few year's ago. I was shocked when you gave me start last fall and blown away that I kept my spot. Because of you I'm in the U19 Turkey squad. So, um, I'm flattered and all that. About Fenerbahce. I honestly don't know. I realize I'd go into their youth team. That I'd be loaned out. So I don't know."

"If you want to go, I'll sell you," I said. "But I'm not giving you away for a bag of balls and pat on the shoulder from their Director of Football. We've invested in you and I think you've got some possibility. Let's keep talking. They're going to want you for nothing and if you want to go, I'm going to try and gouge them. Publicly, I'm going to fight hard to keep you. The fans, i.e., my bosses, wouldn't have it any other way."

"Bottom line," I concluded. "If you want to go, I'll let you but only for a lot of money. I'd have to pay a lot of money to find a player of your age and skillset."

"You do what you gotta do, boss," he replied. "I'm just going to keep my head down and work hard."

Love that kid. That's my Danny Boy.
 
Monday, 3 August 2015 8pm-ish

Consider the chart below. Brighton under the affable Harry Redknapp (either love him or hate him) have a debt of 129M. That's just fkn staggering. Ten times ours. Yeah, yeah they're worth 59M or fifteen time's what we're worth. How can any team with Redknapp as manager be considered financially secure. Seriously. Look what he did to Portsmouth; they're still in League One and have only now begun to tread water.

But they've had staggering wage bills and a combination of high wage bills, annual losses in the 8-15M range plus building a new stadium and I can't even fathom how they are treading water.

Oh, but how I'd love to have a season ticket holder base of 20K. Our hope next summer is we climb over 5K season ticket sales once we open the New Plough Lane.

View attachment 360557

We'll see how my troops stack up against the Championship free-spenders.
 
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Capital One Cup, First Round: AFC Wimbledon v. Brighton and Hove Albion

View attachment 360100"Good luck there, lad," Harry Redknapp says as we shake hands after we'd followed the starting XIs out of the Kingsmeadow tunnel. It's an oddly cool night for early August which is usually sweltering. I'll take it. My players are mostly fit and raring to go but the cool temperature guarantees nobody will be cramping late in the match.

The other thing that is odd is that the League Cup is not particularly popular amongst the Wombles. Kingsmeadow is only half full. It was the same last year when faced Wolves in the first round. Maybe they just don't expect us to beat a Championship club and have decided to save their money and use their time for something else like their August vacation.

I've done my best to get the boys both pumped up yet at the same time relaxed about achieving a victory considering decimal point difference between the two sides. Part of this is proving we can compete with the big boys.

Jason Banton isn't quite match fit so I'll bring him and Michael Smith on late. Jim Fenlon needs a rest so Kris Thackray starts at left back. I prefer him over Brad Smith as Brad has been making a lot of mistakes lately. Matteo Ricci starts again as Banton is on the bench and Leandro Depetris is still out.

The match starts with both teams sizing each other up. The first real shot in anger occurs in the 8th minute when we got Route One! Lincoln hoofs the ball forward, Brighton let it bounce and Lovers controls the ball in stride and races goalward trailed by several defenders. Tomasz Kuszczak, the former Man U backup, dives to push his shot around the post.

Brighton's first chance comes in the 13th minute. Spanish defensive midfielder Angel unleashes a howitzer of a shot. It hits Andrea Sbraga and deflect for a corner. If it hadn't hit Sbraga, that shot was going in for sure.

We clear the corner but Danny Boy loses the race to the rebound. As soon as Gael Bigirimana gets to the ball first I know where it's going and I know we're going to be in trouble.

"BACK DOOR, THACKS! WATCH THE BACK DOOR! THACKS! BACK DOOR!" I scream.

Brighton work it across the top of the box. Thacks is playing left fullback today, but the central defender in him takes over and he charges valiantly out to close down the man with the ball at the top of the box. This leaves right winger Kazenga LuaLua wide open at the back post. Manny Smith reads the situation too late and his diving block is too late. LuaLua pops the ball into the wide open net.

0-1

We quickly give the ball away after the restart and the Seagulls pin us in our half. In the 20th minute, Thacks chopped LuaLua down just outside the box out to our left. Thankfully, LuaLua's shot was a bit too high.

In the 37th minute, Danny Boy almost plays a pass into the path of George Frampton. Almost. George just can't quite get to it and it rolls harmlessly to the keeper. Kuszczak lumps it upfield and Sbragas thunders a header about two-thirds of the way back. George latches onto this one and goes wide from just outside the penalty box.

In the locker room, they're looking pretty frustrated. Albion are always a step faster and always have a pass available, whereas we created three chances, two of them were Route One.

"Listen, our game is about getting the ball on the ground and moving it around," I said. "We need to start looking around before we get the ball so that we know what to do with it when we get it. So go out there and show me something different. I have faith that we can compete with these guys."

We started out the second half well. We stole the ball from the Seagulls and began moving it around in their half. Angel, as a Spaniard must taken as a personal afront that an English side boasting four Italians were playing the Tiki Taka, and chopped Ricci down with a knee high tackle.

As my new signing lay writhing on the turf, Brighton raced upfield but midfielder Will Buckley shot high.

Thankfully, Ricci got up and was able to walk it off. First impressions is that he's more durable than Leandro.

We were pressing and pushing. We created many almost chances. You all know where this is going. I was starting to feel hopeful that we might just equalize. And you all know what always happens when I start feeling hopeful. In the 59th minute, their left midfielder LuaLua turned Cam this way and that with a swift run upfield. Sbraga didn't see Buckley storming forward from the backside on a near post run. But LuaLua did. Fens didn't warn Sbraga as Buckley sprinted past, Manny didn't warn him either and Lincoln was ball-watching.

View attachment 3601010-2

So as Buckley was celebrating his near post deflection goal, Sbraga spun on his teammates and threw his arms into the air in disbelief. Then he pointed at his ear. Then he put his fingers to his mouth and pulled words out. Sure, he doesn't speak English ... yet ... but I think he just communicated very clearly with his teammates.

That and we'll be reinforcing Andrea's message when we watch the vid tomorrow morning.

The Wombles had seen enough started heading for the exits. I sent on Michael for Lovers and Jason for Nole.

We kept pushing and kept creating chances but Ricci, Jason and Michael weren't wearing their shooting boots. On the other end, we got lucky that Brighton didn't score again and Lincoln spectalarly tipped a Johan Elmander chip over the crossbar in the 86th minute.
 
Wednesday, 5 August 2015, a wee bit after 10am

Daniel Barlaser didn't even have time to blink. He was participating in a 5x5 drill and Steven Gregory stuck out his toe to try to block Jim Fenlon's pass. The deflected pass flew straight up and smashed him straight in the nose. He stood there in shock for a micro-second before an eruption of blood came out of his nose.

Brian Carey was supervising this group and I had strolled over to watch. We quickly got Danny Boy lying on his back and our physio Jon Whitney came racing over and quickly got some kleenex shoved up his nose.

I'm not sure which is worse, performing a groin trap and getting it in the gentleman's sausage or catching a ball square in the nose. I've never seen it cause permanent damage in either case, but gawd almighty it hurts. Everyone gathered around in sympathy. It'd happened to all of us.

Whits later confirmed that Daniel did have a broken nose and would miss this weekend's match.
 
League One: AFC Wimbledon v. Crawley Town FC

View attachment 359531Our home opener is a sell-out. Once again, the weather is unusually cold for August in England; 55 with strong gusts.

"As you all know, Jason starts at left wing," I said. "I want to exploit their right back, Jermain Grandison. He's big and slow. Their other back, by comparison, is fairly quick and a decent defender. So everything up the left side."

I repeated this in Italian for Matteo Ricci who would start instead of the injured Danny Boy.

"I want to see attacking football out their today for our fans," I continued. "I expect to see a better performance out their today than in our last two matches. Now go and get 'em."

Depetris translated this for Ricci and Sbraga.

"LEANDRO! LEANDRO! YOU MARK DRURY, NUMBER TEN, YES, NUMBER TEN!" I yelled in Spanish in the 4th minute. Leandro gave me the thumbs up. It was pretty clear that everything Crawley did went through Drury.

In the 14th minute, Ricci played a ball into Jason Banton's path and, zoom, he was past their right back. But not the Crawley center back who sprinted over to cover. Fens one-timed a cross into the box. Lovers came back to the ball from an offside position (he hadn't gotten back onside from trying to anticipate a rebound from a potential shot from Jason), won the ball from the central defender and lashed it into the net.

Everybody looked over at the linesman in hope she wouldn't raise her flag, but she did. Everyone in the stadium groaned.

The goalkeeper hoofed the free kick forward, Manny won the header and we started dinking the ball around the midfield. The main two protagonists were Ricci and Depetris. The fans had seen Danny Boy and Depetris do this before, but not these two. So there was a certain amount of wonder about what exactly the result would be.

Once the two had lulled Crawley to sleep they combined on a lightning passing play that sent in Lovers. Lovers aimed his shot toward the far corner but hit it weakly. The keeper was able to make a diving save and smother it.

The crowd oohed then applauded.

Sbraga won the punt from the keeper and George got chopped down as he collected the rebound out on the right sideline about 50 yards from goal.

Everyone jogged forward as Leandro jogged over and began fiddling with the placement of the ball. They all lined up for his back post special. He launched it in and it hung there. I couldn't tell if it was going to go long or drop. George charged in and leapt in a vain effort to reach it which only succeeded in unnerving the keeper who played it safe and tipped it over the bar.

Geo's corner got headed right back to him. He zipped a pass out to Ricci at about 30 yards out who lasered a pass over to Cam at the top of the box. Sadly, Cam's shot blazed high.

This, in a nutshell, is how the first half went. Crawley didn't get their first chance until the 30th minute from a free kick. Their only other chance was a great one from a corner in the 36th minute when Mohamed Coulibaly, the guy who tortured us last year when he played for Rochdale, smashed a header into the post from 2 yards out.

The other talking point from the first half was the 15 offsides calls. Neither teams offside trap was all that great, but the attacking players were just far too enthusiastic.

We were incredibly unlucky not to have scored considering the chances we had but also incredibly lucky that Coulibaly's header wasn't 2 inches to the left.

"Alright, good half more or less," I said in the changing room at halftime. "I want everybody to start looking around starting holding back your runs just one breathe. These guys are slower than us but we're making our runs too quick."

I waited for Leandro to translate.

"Leandro, Ricci and Mark, I want you guys to make sure we don't get caught out on the counter," I continued. "Just be mindful."

"Bottom line, we just need to keep doing what we're doing," I concluded. "The goals will come. I have faith they will if we keep out-working them and out-passing them."

In the 48th minute, Coulibaly started building up speed and Jim Fenlon looked like he was going to be in trouble. Fens decided that Coulibaly wasn't going to get past him and chopped him down out near the sidelines and about 40 yards out. The ref called him over and carded him.

Coulibaly looked like he wanted do some damage and now Fens had to be extra careful.

They played the ball short and began dinking the ball around near the halfway line. It looked like they were going to hold onto the ball a while when Mark Tomlinson leapt in and intercepted a pass. He quickly dished the ball to Ricci who played the ball up the left to Jason. Jason raced to the end line and curled in a cross.

Lovers met it with a downward glancing header past the frozen keeper.

1-0

Phewh.

Okay, I take back what I said earlier about our offside trap. In particular, I take back that the Crawley attackers were always offside solely because just weren't paying attention or were too excitable. I wasn't giving any credit to our defense. I should have. In the second half, Andrea Sbraga was making sure that Fens and Cam were staying even with him. He was constantly calling out there names and, when they looked, drawing a line across the pitch to indicate they were to stay even with him. Martin is an experienced defender and just knew to listen to Andrea's bark. So far it appears that Andrea has learned two words in English: up and out. He yells 'UP!' when he wants everyone to step up with him. He yells 'OUT!' when he wants to defense to follow the ball quickly up the field. The kid is well schooled in running a defense.

I bring this up because in the 56th minute because Red Devil forward Graham Burke received a pass and Martin cut him off and was shuttling him over toward Andrea. Burke decided to head back toward his own goal with the ball as Andrea stepped up. But Andrea didn't just step up, he also yelled 'UP!' as he did so. Fens, Martin and Cam all stepped up a half second before Burke executed a cheeky back heel to halftime substitute Luke Giverin.

Giverin was now home free to turn with the ball and race goalwards except for the fact that he was standing where Cam used to be and was clearly offside.

The match continued to be played in the middle of the pitch with neither side able to create much of anything. Of course, I was fine with this.

In the 68th minute, I replaced Lovers with Michael and Leandro with Steven Gregory. Ricci moved up into the hole and Gregs moved in alongside Mark to keep Crawley stifled.

It worked. As we approached the 90th minute, Martin Riley started limping. I quickly got Manny Smith warmed up and standing next to the fourth official holding his card. The fourth official signaled 4 minutes on his clock then programmed in the number 2 in red and 3 in green to signal the change.

The 91st minute rolled by and there hadn't been a pause in the play.

By the 92nd minute, the coaches and I were all jumping up and down and yelling at the ref. Hanks was berating the fourth official to say something into his headset.

By the 93rd minute, I just went and sat down on the bench. The ref wasn't going to listen to me.

View attachment 359530Afterwards, I walked up to the refs.

"So Andy, what the **** was going on with not letting me replace my injured player?" I asked.

"My headset wasn't working," the ref replied.

"This is a pretty small stadium," I continued. "You didn't notice all of the Wimbledon players and coaches trying to get your attention?"

"Watch yourself, Enrico," the ref warned.

"Watch myself?" I spit right back at him. "Seriously? I'm simply asking why. It's a reasonable question that you ought to be answering. If not to me than to your bosses at ref central and with the FA. Is there nothing further you'd like to say in response to my question or simply questioning you out of line?"

"Do you want me to write you up for conduct unbecoming?" he asked.

"If that would get the FA and ref central to review the tape?" I said. "Or didn't you notice all the TV cameras around the ground."

At this point I felt several sets of hands grabbing and dragging me away. I decided not to yell anything that would really get me in trouble as Hanks, Rachubka and Wools dragged me back to our locker room.
 
Monday, 10 August 2015 11AM

"Alright, Dave helped me make a YouTube clip and we've forwarded a complaint to the FA about Andy Woolmer," I said to get everything started. "Hopefully, they listen to my complaint. Our antics even made the match recap on Sky Sports. We look pretty funny all jumping up and down and ****."

We watched the online recap of the match. It got a few laughs.

"So we all watched Leyton Orient v. Sheffield United yesterday," I said to move to the next item on the agenda. "Thoughts?"
View attachment 359529
"Lucky," quipped Hanks.

"Embarrasing," added goaltending coach Paul Rachubka.

They say this not because of how Sheffield played, but because of the lone and game-winning goal: Orient keeper Jamie Jones was slow getting the ball out of his feet and Sheffield's Victor Anichebe blocked it into the net.

"Leyton did a really good job of bottling up the middle," Tactics Coach Alex Inglethorpe said. "They set out two defensive midfielders and they mostly kept Sheffield at bay."

"And that penalty was total bull****," added Wools. "It was just from a long through."

"And the lad heaved it some 80 meters," Technique Coach Brian Carey added. "There's full grown professional footballers who can't kick the ball that far."

That got a few more chuckles.

"What you go for us, Lil?" I asked.

"The lad who missed that penalty, Jamie Murphy, has absolutely been on fire lately," Chief Scout Lil Fuccillo began. "There are loads for rumors that he's about to be bought for vast sums though I can't see why. He's not all that talented. But we need to watch out for him."

"Also, Anichebe is really painful to play against and he's rather good don't you forget," Lil continued. "Phil Parkinson always and I mean always lines them up in 442. As we discussed, we might want to pay Gregory and Tomlison in the middle with Leandro or Ricci in the hole behind the striker. Leyton showed that they can be shut down without resorting to a very defensive formation."

"They are a young and talented team," he said. "Average age is just over 25. They are a Championship side fallen on hard times. Their stadium is often half full, but fifteen thousand is still a lot of people cheering for you. Their midfield is far, far better than ours. At least on paper. But Leyton have shown how to play them. They are best attacking up their left flank, so Cam is going to have to be on his toes."
 
Tuesday, 11 August 2015 9:13AM

My phone jangled in my pocket. It was an Italian number. I didn't immediately recognize the city code.

"Ciao, Enrico."

"Good morning, Enrico, this is Maurizio Stirpe calling, I'm Chairman of Frosinone Calcio, is this a good time to talk?" he asked in Italian.

"Sure."

"Great," he continued. "I'm calling because I want to talk to you about becoming our manager."

"Okay."

"We've just sacked Roberto Rizzo and I've been following your work at Wimbledon and I have to say I'm really impressed. I also know that you did good work at Cadiz but were undermined by the Consortium that owns the club. That simply wasn't fair."

"Frosinone is ... um ... in ... um ... sorry, where? Please help me out?" I asked.

"In Lazio, southeast of Roma," he replied. "It's a beautiful hill town, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It's about 75 kilometers away from Roma. Stadio Maltusa seats almost ten thousand, 9,680 to be exact. We're in Serie C1/C."

"What's your debt load right now?" I asked.

"15.6 million euros," he replied. "My father was a famous President for the club and I'm born and raised here. We're working on restructuring our debt so that it less burdensome but we're in similar shape to pretty much all Serie C teams. Everyone holding financial stake in Frosinone is a local and we all bleed gialloazurri (yellow-blue)."

"Okay, um, then there's the question of control," I said. "Here at AFC Wimbledon, I have absolute control over the team, buying, selling, loans, everything. It's a fan-owned club, literally. Anyone can buy a membership and start attending what are called the Supporters Trust meetings. The Chair and Board members aren't football men and don't meddle ever. So I'm in a pretty good spot and I've assembled a pretty good side."

"I know," Maurizio replied. "I've been watching online. They are looking quite good. To answer your question, as is customary in Italy, you would have a Director of Football above you who reports to me and is in charge of buying and selling. You know how this works and this is how we do it. Just to be clear with you, the Board has full rights to change the transfer and wage budget without consulting you which as you know is very much the standard in Italy."

"If you're willing," Maurizio concluded. "We'd like to fly you to Roma to have a little chat. If it goes well, we would make a formal request to Wimbledon to hire you."

"I'm humbled that you'd consider for the post," I said. "But I want to think it over. Can I call you around dinner time, say 9pm or so? Would that be okay?"

"Of course," he replied. "This is my mobile so just call me back at this number. Thank you so much for listening to me."

"Talk to you tonight then, Ciao."

"Ciao."
 
wanpablo23 said:
ahh rome??!!! where would enrico prefer to go in Italy?
Click to expand...

Bologna, Venezia, Roma, Lazio, Inter, Milano, Juventus ... any would do ... Hah!

Not Naples. Don't want to be near the Camorra.

Seriously, I don't know. Not sure I want to sign on with Frosinone. Read next entry.
 
Tuesday, 11 August 2015 9:22AM

“Normally when you get off the phone,” said Gwen sitting down across from me. “And the conversation was in Italian, that was in Italian, right, I usually say something about how sexy you sound speaking Italian.”

“Heh,” I smirked.

“But that wasn’t a friend calling was it?”

“Nope,” I replied.

“And that wasn’t your former in-laws, was it?”

“That was a job offer.”

“Wow.”

“The club is Frosinone,” I said. “They’re a small club at the same level in Italian football that Wimbledon is in England. They’re just outside of Roma. Sort of like Gillingham are just outside of London.”

“Okay, Roma is good,” she said trying stay calm but the excitement shone through.

“75 kilometers or just under 50 miles southeast of Roma and they’ve just sacked their manager. Like with Wimbledon, I’d have to rebuild the playing squad, hire coaches, etcetera.”

“You don’t sound all that excited,” Gwen said.

“Well, in some ways this would just be a sideways move,” I replied. “And Wimbledon are a financially sound club that is going somewhere. The new stadium, the improved training facilities. I’ve signed two players, Sbraga and Banton, who could play for any Championship side.”

“Then there is two main problems,” I said. A small frown appeared on Gwen’s lips. “First, they’re deeply in debt. Secondly, I wouldn’t have the kind of control I have here at Wimbledon.”

I sighed.

“You like it here, don’t you?” Gwen said.

“Yeah, I do. I mean, AFC Wimbledon are special. I mean they really are. How many clubs on the planet are fan-owned and run well. How many supporters would organize a security detail when they learn that their manager has been threatened?”

“Hmmm,” Gwen intoned. “You can’t just walk away can you.”

“There will come a time,” I said. “Maybe sooner than you think, that I’ll get an offer that’s a step up. Or maybe Erik will fire me after a bad losing streak. Football’s chaotic that way. You’ll get to live in Italy and Spain. Don’t worry, I promise you will.
 
Tuesday, 11 August 2015 9:30AM

"Hey, Erik, got a minute?"

"One sec."

A moment later ...

"What can I do for you?" Wimbledon Chairman Erik Samuelson said.

"I've been approached by an Italian club, just a few moments ago. I wanted to inform you. They called to see if I was available."

There was silence on the other end.

"Don't worry it's not Inter or Milan or Bologna or anything. It's Frosinone. I'm not interested."

I heard an exhale on the other end of the line.

"Good. Great. I haven't had a manager poached from under me. I suppose that will happen eventually."

"But not today. Frosinone is just outside Rome but they're a hot mess financially. Plus, I'd have a Director of Football over me and Boards of Directors often are more active in club affairs over there. Anyway, nothing to worry about. I'm not going anywhere except to training in an hour or so."

"Any news on the gangster front since I have you on the line?"

"No, the Wombles Watch has kept them pretty much at bay. And I haven't heard anything from the Inspector in a bit."
 
Friday, 14 August 2015

Today is the draw for the first round of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. We will face Oxford United. We were the last two teams picked. Interestingly, this draw pairs the last two champions of League Two against each other.

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