We're blue and white and play alright: C2 to Serie A

So inspired by Deisler's Catenaccio Reloaded thread I decided to have a crack at taking an Italian side from the basement to the penthouse. I decided to go with Arzanese, who are predicted to finish 20th in Serie C2/B. I do plan to have a focus on younger players and my own academy, but if I have to break my policy due to extenuating circumstances I will. So without further ado, here we go.

EDIT: I may try making a new logo as the quality of the current one is horrible

Awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

It's a great slog up the divisions and if I I could offer one bit of advice, it would be focus on improving your junior coaching as much as possible!

Yeah I've already had requests accepted for junior coaching and my training facilities to be upgraded Some solid pre-season results too, I'm not sure why we're expected to finish 20th:confused:

I'm not sure why we're expected to finish 20th:confused:

I thought that about Santarcangelo to be honest.

Yeah, I guess in the lower divisions the team reputations are too similar to have a great idea on where everyone will finish.

U.S Arzanese: Pre-Season 2011/12

Taking a look at the squad first up, it was very clear we had a shortage of wide midfielders and wingers, or capable one at least. I toyed with the idea of bringing some in but I decided to play to the strengths of my current playing group and going with a 4-1-2-1-2 which my local team uses. I've given the player roles some additional instructions, but that screenshot gives you a fair idea of what I'm doing. From there I obviously wanted to strengthen my fullbacks and central midfielders, so I went out and signed Alex Misin, Andrea Gasperini, Fabian Mayr, Fabio Lorenzini, Marco Valtulina (to be trained as an AMC), Matteo Ciccanti and Mauro Coppini. All of them were free tranfsers except for Misin, who I signed for 5k. Thankfully the board accepted my requests for upgrades to junior coaching and the training facilities too, whether I get the next improvements as easily next time I'm not so sure.

As for the fixtures, it was certainly a mixed bag. We've played some great football at times, but some profligacy in front of goal and a horrible weakness for set pieces has let us down on more than one occasion. We certainly showed our potential though with an impressive 1-1 draw with Serie B side Crotone, but being crushed by C1's Sorrento quickly brought us back to earth. Despite the inconsistency, play-offs look like a strong chance for this team.

Lots of defensive signings - how is your strike force in terms of ability?

I inherited a pretty strong strikeforce actually: Gennaro Fragiello, Gianmarco Mascolo, Marco Incoronato, Niko Tommasini and Pasquale Carotenuto.

Mixed results in pre-season,good luck with Arzanese

That logo is total carp! Good luck with The Blue and Whites