Our scouting report for Fanfulla, our first opponents of the season, arrives Thursday morning. They’re fine. Not too much to worry about, but I see they’re got too young strikers that are rather cheap. I compare them to each other and … are they clones?
On Friday, our reserves play against Fanfullas reserves at ours. Ageless Jamie Cureton scores for us but unless something incredible happens, that’s probably the last time you’ll hear me mention them.
That brings us to the 1st of September and it’s my monthly dinner with the Board. I request a lunch, since we’ve go ta long drive ahead of us tonight. They’re very happy and looking forward to a long and successful era with me at the helm. I tell them that there’s something that might help my era be longer and successfuller: Investing in youth development. They apparently don’t believe that’s a requirement. I tell them I’d happily pay for some of it out of our 1.9M transfer budget. Still no. Well, hopefully my sustained awesomeness will change your minds.
Up to Lodi (suburb of Milan) we go. Our loan keeper Vigorito gets the start and there are some other minor shuffles. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel after our performance in the last match.
Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Matchday 1 @ Fanfulla.
We come out extremely flat and pay the price as Colombi latches on to high ball to nod past Vigorito. Not ideal. But at least that goal seems to wake us up a bit. We equalise in the 19th through Kim. I then run the gamut of emiotions over the next short period of time. We score. Hooray! We’re offside. Crap. They scream for a PK. Oh no. Ref turns it down. Yay! Assistant Referee flags it. Bastard. Vigorito saves it. Ball Don’t Lie! Colombi pounces on the rebound and scores. Maybe the ball does lie after all. We’re the better team, but the score doesn’t reflect that fact.
No changes at the break, and we dominate the half. We dominate so hard that when Zazzi scores a third for Fanfulla it’s completely against the run of play. I have a quick chat with AMarco to make a pair of changes and before the 4th official can get the sub board ready, we’ve pulled that goal back. Karuro with his first from a Juuko pass. Back to being down a single goal, we still make an offensive-minded swap. MC Al-Moyabed in for RB Williams and a re-shuffle, while Loussoukou replaces tiring Karuru. Loussoukou repays the faith with an equalising goal in the 70th but I want to push for this win. With ten mins to go, I bring on AMR Peltier for RM Juuko and go for the jugular. No luck. The spoils shared. 3–3. An inauspicious start for our on loan keeper.
Our magic number to win the league (Ha!) is 102. But we’re well clear of the relegation playoffs too!
Coach Mirko arrives on Monday and other than a few scouting slots, my staff directory is now full. Not good, but full.
SMarco tells me that our next opponents Scanzorosciate are solid defensively. Makes sense to say, as they haven’t got a single player with better than an 8 for finishing.
Zezinho arrives back in training finally, having been here for a month already. He’s a DMC, but by 4th choice one. However, he’s also my second best AMC. I try to re-train him as such.
I find this guy who’s not good, but has a great name.
Somehow, Bale-Droka-Droka has NINE teams bidding for him.
OK. Game time. Despite being a week apart, league matches feel like they’re coming thick and fast. Could be due to being engrossed in training now there isn’t much office work I can do…
A few line-up alterations due to some fitness issues. Vigorito retains his starting spot to make up for last week. Unfortunately he makes no difference at all, as the visitors do not attempt a single shot. We only attempt two of our own, but one is finished by Kim after Currarino run and cross. A very dull half.
We’re dominated in the second half and are extremely lucky to come away with a 1–0 victory. We did have a penalty shout turned away, but that’s the closest we got.
Still, we’re up a spot to 7th while our magic number shrinks to double-digits: 99.
First thing Monday morning, freshly back to the team Zezinho lets me know that he’s not a fan of retraining to be an AMC. That’s absolutely fine by me. Go back to DMC training, but do it somewhere else. Listed and reserved. Luckily, a bit of interest.
Who know what? Noor and Brighenti, you won’t be seeing the field either. You’re listed. We’re gonna try to reduce the wage bill a bit. Not as much interest from teams in those two, but oh well. Show off your talents for the B side and maybe someone will take a chance on you.
Scout says Como is strong. His report supports his statement. Six 5* players and eight more with 4*s. Decent goalie, solid defensive line, a capable attacker or two. No one I’d make a move for, but definitely not a pushover. We also haven’t pushed over any pushovers yet this season either! Plus we’re heading there, this time slightly north of Milan.
We receive multiple bids for all three of the players I listed. I do some fancy negotiating and it looks like I’ve lined up some moves. Zezinho is going for 95k to Melilla, Noor sale agreed to Bisceglie for 120k and Brighenti to Argentina for 50k to Arsenal de Sarandi. That could also be 5k/week off the wage bill. Very helpful.
One of my scouts finally finds someone worth my time and money. With Zezinho being my second best AMC but throwing his toys out of the pram, I needed a replacement and this guy has a 120k price tag around his neck. I offered 100k and 50k extra once he plays ten matches…for his country. Ha! It’s accepted anyway and in he comes!
Petravicius decides to give Elijah Price (Mr. Glass) a run for his money. Back Wednesday morning, injured again Friday evening. I got maybe 60 hours of full health from him but no matches.
I don’t pay too much attention to the UCL, but this catches my eye. I imagine this table flips itself by the end of match day 6!
We make a few changes for Como. Guideleye in for a debut at DMC, while New AMC Akoy on to the bench if needed. We make the drive back up to Milan, just north of it this time.
We’re walloped in the first half. A thoroughly underwhelming performance. They take a well-deserved lead in the 35th and we muster up nothing as a response. Karuru comes up lame at half, so I pop loanee Volpicelli (my only healthy striker sub) up front for the first time. We’ll give him a run out and hope my half time talk/fury gets them going.
We do play better, but with no change in teh score, we go offensive in the 60th. Peltier and Akoy come on for Juuko and Shaban and get the forward arrows from midfield. Akoy spurs us on and it’s his drive that’s saved poorly enough for Kim to pounce on a tying goal. That’s how it ends after a much more competitive second 45 minutes.
We’re in the promotion places! It’s early still, but we’re undefeated after our first three matches. Magic number is down to 96!
The deal to sell Brighenti is agreed for 50k and will take place…22nd of July next year? That’s 44 pay cheques of 1.1k. That’s 48.4k. Good grief. We’re stuck now, so he’ll just rot in the reserves. What a bone-headed move.
I double-check and Zezinho isn’t until 15th of December too. Another blunder.
At least Noor is leaving right now. 120k actually into the bank.
The scouting report on Legnano is that they’ve got a good striker. I man-mark with Cason and hope for the best. We’re at home and undefeated, so let’s hope this stadium is packed today.
It goes well. We;re all over them and Cason keeps their striker at bay almost all half, before he goes off injured. Damn it. I hope this doesn’t mess things up. I bring in Baudry to replace him and he promptly gets involved by scoring the opener in the 43rd from a Karuru corner. Let’s keep this going in teh second half.
It’s quite the eventful second half. They’ve got lots of the ball, and I make a hcange on the hour mark, replacing tiring striker Karuru with Volpicelli. That doesn’t seem to stem the blue tide, and things get worse on 71 when Baudry decides to get a second yellow card for “eye-balling”. I throw on Lwanga for Kim and drop into a compact defensive line-up hoping to kill off the clock. It doesn’t work out as I planned as we have sustained pressure on their net over the final 10 minutes with Currarino scoring at the death. And that’s the ball game. The stats make it look far more convincing than it was.
We’re up to 2nd, level on points with league-leaders/future Cup opponents Mantova. Magic number jumps down to 91. Obviously one bad loss could drop us out of the top ten, so I’ll keep my poultry calculator under lock and key.
The Board is pleased, but I am less-so, losing Baudry for a match and Cason for two weeks. Good thing I stockpiled DCs this season!
Scouting report for Lecco is that they’re got a pair of forwards that can do some damage. They’re a point behind us in the table and they’re another team from the Milan surrounds. We should just get a time-share up here. I just don’t want to sit through the meeting. Maybe I’ll just sent Petravicius since he’s never busy actually footballing.
I must say, I quite like our current striking triumvirate. Kim, Karuru and Okwi. Okwi is back but I decide to ease him back in, so he’ll be first man in off the bench today. Akoy unfortunately injured himself mid-week so his spot on the bench is taken by Al-Busaidi.
We’re immediately out of the gates. One of their two danger men isn’t even starting for them. The first 15 minutes or so is a flurry of activity in front of Lecco’s net. Shaban pounces on the rebound after a save from a Kim shot to get us out in front. Currarino hit the bar in the 13th, but makes no mistake a minute later to make it 2–0. Lecco must be shell-shocked as we make in 3–0 in the 16th. Currarino turning provider for Kim. We have a penalty appeal waved away in the 22nd before Lecco sucker-punch us in the 34th with their first shot on target. Still 3–1 at the break and playing well.
No changes at the half, but Okwi will probably come on at the hour mark.
More of the same in the second half. We’re peppering their keeper and before long something else must go in. The law of averages says so. Nothing by 61 so, as promised, Okwi enters the match for Karuru. On 68, Currarino again provides an assist to Kim for a speculative goal and the scoring is rounded out in the 73rd with substitute Okwi netting his own rebound. Currarino MOTM with a goal and two assists.
An emphatic victory for the new league leaders as we’re one goal scored better than Mantova at this point. Magic number is now 88.
Mauro calls to congratulate us, as he does after every big win. Here’s to many more this season!
Monday just happens to be the 1st of October, so we meet for dinner with me already knowing how happy I’m making them. Still, free meal!
We’ve got Gozzano as home next Sunday and SMarco tells me that this fella is good. A former Piacenza striker that ignored the “striking” portion of his job description. Seems he can do a job at this level though.
Cason and Petravicius return to light training, though both are a while from returning to first team action.
Scary news mid-week. Vigorito has been great since coming in on loan and has started generating some interest. Exactly what parent club Lecce were hoping for, I suppose.
Serie B teams Venezia and Chievo both have bids accepted, but remarkably neither team can come to terms with him! One on wages and the other as he’s not guaranteed first team football. For now, he stays as our #1.
Karuru makes way for Okwi to start this one, but otherwise we’re status quo.
Currarino pops in a goal after 6 minutes only to be ruled marginally offside. VAR would have had a long look at that one, I think. Stiil, it’s all us and there’s plenty more time.
Well, now there’s only 45 minutes left. 7 shots taken, all on target, their keeper on a 9. We’re all playing well and fit enough, so we continue.
After 60 minutes it’s still a stalemate, and as Gozzano still haven’t got anything going towards our end, I remove a defender to chuck Karuru up top to form a front three. Five minutes later Juuko scores, so I remove Okwi and throw on a left back to revert to our starting formation. Kim adds our second for good measure on 73 and we’re home and dry. Juuko with an assist on Kim’s helps him to finish on a 10 and get MOTM.
Just 2,300 in attendance to watch the league leaders in see that phenomenal performance. Shame…
Mantova keep pace points-wise but our goal difference lead increases to two. Our magic number now stands at 85. We don’t QUITE control our own destiny. Although we sort do, as we haven’t played them yet. We’ll get our first taste on Wednesday in our first Cup leg at their place.
Once again, we receive congratulations from the Board. They must have me on speed dial at this point.
The scouting report for Mantova says they’re a strong team. My own research suggests that they might be a one-man team. He doesn't look like a superstar, but those numbers don’t lie. Freshly returned Cason will be man-marking him all match long.
AMarco and I decide Cason should be the only change as we drive up to Mantua, just north of Bologna.
We hit the ground running, continuing our form from Sunday. We’re absolutely all over these guys. It takes until the 36th minute to get our noses ahead, and Calcagni should count his lucky stars that he’ll be credited with an assist. He lobs a 25 yard ball ahead to Kim. But Okwi picks it up dribbles from his own half to score a belter. The football equivalent of a Houston Rocket inbounding to James Harden who dribbles around til the shot-clock is expiring and hits a step-back three pointer.
Our intensity wanes slightly in the second half, but I pull off tiring playmaker Currarino (not a euphemism) in the 61st minute and make a pair of changes with ten minutes to go to keep us as fresh as possible. We see it and and finish off a great away leg with a clean sheet and an away goal. Another clean sheet in two weeks’ time and we’re through! Cason doing a great job marking the crap out of Cortesi who was figuratively (but not literally) invisible.
We play in Chioggia against Clodiense next, so rather than drive home the six hours tomorrow morning and then six hours back up on Saturday, we make the two hour drive from here and set up shop at a hotel.
The scouting report looks dire (famous last words) as they’re only scored three goals as a team this season and their “solid defensive backbone” is leaking about two goals per match.
We don’t mess with a good thing, and other than league keeper Vigorito returning and a couple of bench alterations, we trot out the squad that has played so well in the last few matches.
The first action of the match is Currarino forcing their keeper into a save that Shaban pokes in to the open net and we continue from there. Currarino doubles the lead in the 17th and Kim adds a third in the 38th that's sadly called back for offside. The impressivity continues.
Fitness isn’t an issue, but I swap out goal-scorer Shaban for Peltier due to an early yellow card.
We pop cruise control on at the stat of the second half and, just after the hour mark, I give both our hard-working strikers a break. Karuru and Loussoukou come for them. It takes Loussoukou three minutes to get on the score sheet and we head back home with three goals and three points.
We’re now two points clear of Mantova and on a run of five straight wins in all competitions. We’ve got consecutive home matches coming with our closest rivals, first in the league and then in the cup.
Magic Number: 80
