[FM11] Spezia - the supreme underdogs

Spezia Calcio 1906 is an Italian football club. The current incarnation of the club has only existed since 2008 as the old club was declared bankrupt in that year. Spezia Calcio 2008 was formed and the next year bought the rights to the old club and adopted their current name.

In FM2011 they start in Serie C1/A. I have been playing this career game for a few years so they are now in Serie A.

The game is being played with no real players.

The rise of Spezia under my management has been fast, probably too fast. Predicted mid-table first season, we won promotion and the Serie C cup. Tipped to go straight back down, we went on a blistering run of form and amazingly finished 2nd instead of the 22nd that was predicted. It has been a fantastic run of success, but it is likely to all come crashing down. We are now in Serie A, against the big boys. And we are very much the underdogs.

Financially we are stable, but I am incredibly limited in transfer money and wages. My transfer budget for this season was 325k, my wage budget 80k a week. A drop in the pond compared to all the other teams in the league.

This means I have to keep the core of lasts year team, and I add to it with free transfers. Predicted to finish last, and 5000-1 odds of winning the league, I am doing something a bit different. If I am going to go down this year, I'm going to go down in style.

The Tactic

Clicky

I am doing a sort-of Barca. Deep lying forward, wide inside forwards, creativity in the middle, and solid defensively. Will be looking to have a decent amount of permission. A big ask, but I think it may surprise other teams as they will be under-estimating me.

Lets have a look at who I have to play this tactic.

Goalkeepers

Jose Luis Torres

Signed on a free transfer in the summer. One of the first names on the team sheet. Good quality goalkeeper.

Paolo Rota

Last years number one. Has experience in Seria A. Good quality backup. A signing from last season

Alessio Erbini

3rd choice keeper but developing nicely, hoping he will become my long term backup keeper. Again signed last season.

Defenders

Sergiy Ponomarenko

Another summer signing, my first choice right back.

Roberto Colle

Again a summer recruit (played a formation with Wbs last year). Decent backup.

Brian Sparling

My highest paid player, but my best defender and still has lots of room to develop. Also joined in the summer. Scotland U-21 international.

Marco Cecconi

One of the players in my squad since the start. Decent defender with room to improve, often starts alongside Sparling. Italy U-21 international.

Antonio Germano

My other good defender, competes with Cecconi for a place in the starting line up. Joined last season.

Nicola Ferriero

Very much a backup player nowadays, joined in first season but lost his place in the starting line-up last year.

Yohan Bonnot

My starting left-back, joined this summer. Good quality player very glad to have signed him.

Lorenzo Menichini

The backup left-back. Will leave at end of this season as better prospect coming through.

Vincenzo Tafuro

One of the best prospects in my team, predicted to be a leading Serie A defender. Hoping to loan him out this season to help him develop. Very excited by him.

Midfielders

Jose Guerreiro

My first choice defensive midfielder. Another summer recruit. Nice determined player.

Cedric Chevalier

Joined last year, was first choice last season but needed a better first choice player for this position. Still decent back up.

Michele Velardi

Another player from the starting squad, hasn't developed as well as I would have liked. Definitely third choice as DM.

Guglielmo Martini

Joined in the summer, first choce playing the playmaker role in midfield. Adds some nice experience to the squad.

Massimiliano Baldini

I love this guy. Can play DC, DMC or MC naturally. Signed in january last year. Currently first choice for the support role in midfield.

Patrizio Romaniello

My other choice as midfield playmaker, and another player with me from the start. Versatile player who helps provide cover at AML. Still can develop lots according to my coaches.

Mario Monaco

Another of last years signings, decent enough backup but will not be bidding for him when the co-ownership comes up.

Giovanni Papini

Naturally a wide player but has all the right stats to cover in the middle. A versatile backup player who started at the club.

Daniel Sprefacio

The odd one out. Fitted well into my WB formation of last year, but doesn't fit in at all with the new tactic. Will be letting his contract run out at the end of the season. Another player who started at the squad.

Attackers

Daniel Fritz

First choice AMR. Decent enough player who joined last year. Definitely my weakest position.

Ibrahima Diarra

Versatile backup AMR/L. Not the best player but for now provides cover. Another player to replace at the end of the season.

Pierre Eychenne

One of the best signings of the summer, currently first choice as AML. Been injured for early part of the season.

Nicolo Messina

A very exiciting player. Already has lots of awesome attributes, apparently he still has lots of room to grow. Retraining him to be my first choice AML, and provides cover up front.

Federico Nicolosi

My main striker. Again a summer recruit. Fits in very well to his role.

Antoine Badouin

Serie B player of the year last season, but now most definitely a backup. Will be looking to replace him in the summer.

Giacamo Di Martino

Another person who started with the club. Has good potential, just doesn't have the right personality. Good poacher, just superfluous to tactical needs. keeping him this season as backup.

As you can see not too bad a squad, but obviously lacking in quality for this level in most cases. This season is going to be interesting one.

So far we have been proving our doubters wrong.

Fixtures

Came out quite well from pre-season and not lost a game so far. Tactic has worked very well and lets see if the team can maintain this form.

Hope you have enjoyed this first update

Good luck. I enjoyed a great career on 11.2 with first Pisa, then Alto Adige

Good idea to play without real players. Puts a different spin on the game, IMO.

Best of luck in Italy.

So a post-january transfer window update.

League table

Fixtures

Performing well above expectations

I am amazed at how well we've done in the league and cup. Instead of being annihilated by the bigger teams we have managed to get draws, some small losses and even a few surprise wins. The 3-0 away win against Roma in the cup especially memorable given the 3-0 loss to them earlier in the season. That cup win sending us through to the quarter finals. As you can see from the league table we've conceded very few goals, only Udinese, Palermo and Juentus have conceded fewer. Not been banging them in the other end, but we are doing what we set out to do. Only real bad point has been losing Nicolosi for 3 months after he scored 2 in the win over Roma.

Interesting also to see how terrible Lazio and Parma are doing in the league.

Transfers roundup

This window was good and bad. The bad first. Napoli made a £2.1m bid for Cecconi that the chariman accepted and off he went. This happened late in the window so I had to scrabble round a bit for reinforcements. Made me extra worried as I realised Sparling has a £2.5m release clause in his contract. Not sure how I will keep hold of him in the summer.

Now for the good. Papini, whilst a useful back, was sold for £900K, a very good return. We signed a co-ownership deal with Lecce for Di Martino brining in another £325k. The income from all these sale has help boost my finances as I am losing money every month even though I am packing out my stadium. Lack of a TV deal is really hurting.

These are the players I bought in:

Ricardo Graziani

Good young Italian defender, should hopefully fit straight into my starting line up. Cost £1m.

Leonard Callebaut

Experienced and well-rounded Belgian DM/MC, will help provide competition for Baldini in central midfield. Useful as well as Chevalier's contract is up in the summer. Bought for £925k over 48.

Dino Paris

Exciting young Italian right winger. Will compete with Fritz for first team slot and deals with the fact Diarra will be leaving in the summer. Cost £1.5m over 48.

Fabricio

A very much last minute signing, was offered round by his agent and he was too good to ignore on a free transfer. Very useful cover on the left as Messina most definitely does not want to play there.

Not too bad a transfer window, and financially ended gaining 1.2m even with transfer spending thanks to some deals spread over 48 months.

Now it is just a case of seeing whether our form from the first half of the season can be carried into the second, and how the team will adapt to the january changes.

Wow what a second half of the season it has been. Instead of form dropping, it has carried on supported by my new signings. This is how the second half of my season ended up:

Table

Fixtures

We won the Italian Cup. Completely unexpected and came down to a nail biting penalty shootout. That plus our final position in Serie A has made us very stable financially.

Stable enough for the board to do this:

New stadium

Whilst it won't be ready for two seasons it will hopefully help ensure our long term financial stability.

Another step to securing our finances was selling Sparling. Unwilling to negotiate a new contract I cashed in on his £2.5m min release fee. That, plus bonus money has left us with 9 mil in the bank. I will be doing another pre-season of wheeler dealing as players leave and I reinforce the squad.

But blimey, I am so very proud of my team. Predicted to finish last by a long way, they have shown everyone they are not to be underestimated.

Pre-season transfers

Transfers out

After the Cecconi and Sparling transfers of last season, I decided to have a clear out of players with minimum fee release clauses. Bonnot, Guerreiro and Nicolosi left this way. I also let a few backup players contracts run out. Moanco and Velardi's co-ownership came up. I bid £0 but the other teams didn't so I released them on a free.

Brian Sparling - Newcastle £2.5m

Yohan Bonnot - Blackburn £3.8m

Jose Guerreiro - CFR Cluj £2m

Federico Nicolosi - Southampton £2.5m

Roberto Colle - Pescara £450k (was getting old and needed a better RB)

Dario Sprefacio - Free

Ibrahima Diarra - Free

Cedric Chevalier - Free

Antoine Badouin - Free

Lorenzo Menichini - Free

Michele Velardi - Free

Mario Monaco - Free

Nicola Ferriero - Mantova free

Transfers in

With the income from those transfers and the prize money from last season I actually had a decent amount of money to spend. £4.6m transfer budget and £145k per week wage budget. Faced with also having to compete in Europe I knew I needed to strengthen all areas of my squad to give me good depth. My first priority in bringing players in was defence as a lot of players in that area had left last season. Next I strengthened my attack and midfield. Very pleased with the players I got.

Juan Carlos - Free, good quality left back very good bargain.

Owen Bruno - Real Sociedad £700k, versatile defender who can player anywhere in the back four. Will start in the centre.

Pietro Arena - AC Ajaccio £400k, nice central defender, will provide competition for Graziani.

Manuel Costa - Getafe £1.3m, probably going to be first choice right back.

Sonny Dabo - Freiburg £80k, a complete bargain for such a good defensive midfielder.

Nunzio Balzano - Palermo £450k, versatile midfielder who has some potential.

Alessandro Troiano - Free, looks like he could be a very good playmaker in central midfield for me.

Marco Garau - Barletta £325k, versatile winger who can play on either side. Very good player to have in my squad.

Gareth Swattridge - Free, provides extra options on the right and up front. Bargain.

Angelo Ruggeri - Parma £1m, nicely experienced striker who will fit well with how I play.

Finances

After all that transfer spending I am left with £6.5m in the bank, much better than last year. However the new stadium throws a few spanners in the works. I am having to pay almost £250k a month in loan repayments, I will be very dependant on prize money again to keep me stable. Luckily have got a £1.2m TV deal but still not much.

Squad

Here is how the squad looks after all the comings and goings this summer.

Goalkeepers

Jose Luis Torres - voted Serie A goalkeeper of the year last year. Love this guy

Paolo Rota

Alessio Erbini

Defenders

Pietro Arena

Owen Bruno

Riccardo Graziani

Antonio Germano

Sergiy Ponomarenko

Manuel Costa

Juan Carlos

Vincenzo Tafuro - cannot wait to see him develop fully

Midfielders

Massimiliano Baldini - Mr. Versatility

Leonard Callebaut

Sonny Dabo

Nunzio Balzano

Guglielmo Martini

Patrizio Romaniello

Alessandro Troiano

Attackers

Daniel Fritz

Dino Paris

Marco Garau

Pierre Eychenne

Gareth Swattridge

Fabricio

Angelo Ruggeri

Nicolo Messina

Giacomo Di Martino

Very happy with the depth in the squad, now lets see how the season goes!

Surely Castel di Sangro are/were the supreme Italian underdogs?

Surely Castel di Sangro are/were the supreme Italian underdogs?

A quick read of wiki says you are probably right, I do not know that much about Italian football. I, for example, only just found out Spezia won the 1944 title, but it wasn't counted as a Scudetto. Definitely an incentive to win the league with them.

Apologies for the delays in updating, real life has been very busy recently.

League Table

Fixtures

Another good season so far, team has again been solid at the back. Still lacking up front, but suffered with injuries lots early in the season. Very pleased with our Euro Cup performance, we came 2nd in our gropu and will play Bayern Leverkusen in the first knockout round.

Finances

Doing much better than I thought we would. With the stadium loan and higher wage budget I was expecting to loose money every month but we have actually had a profit since the season started.

Squad

Torres again a key player this season, with Arena, Bruno, Baldini and Eychenne being the other in form players. Disappointed by Balzano and Messina still hasn't reached his potential yet.

Transfers

Only one player in and out. Leo joined to bring more quality to our midfield, and Martini was sold as he was now surplus to needs.

Rest of season

I am hoping we can finish in a similar position to last year. There are places in the team that need strengthening in the summer but I want to see how players will perform in the rest of our games. Also hoping for another good cup run. Europe is a fun adventure as far as I'm concerned. We've already got further than predicted so I don't mind what happens there.

A long read of The Miracle of Castel di Sangro will tell you a lot more.

League Table

Fixtures

Finances

We hovered around 6th to 8th for most of the season, but some good results propelled us up to an unexpected 4th. I doubt we will repeat that position next year. Inter completely dominated the league, and Piacenza were completely dominated. Also very pleased with another Italian Cup win, especially against our big rivals Genoa.

Financially we are very healthy which is good, as training and youth facilities upgrades are in the works.

Players of the season

Dino Paris - provided lots of goals and assists from both flanks.

Manuel Costa - solidly dependable at right back.

Nicolo Messina - continues to develop and scored some very good goals.

Jose Luis Torres - a wonderful goalkeeper, his 17 clean sheets speaks for itself.

To commemorate the clubs last year at the Alberto Picco, a retro-style kit has been introduced for the upcoming season.

This transfer window was certainly busier than I expected, and more expensive. But the first major outlay of the summer was £3.5m on the upgrades to the Training and Youth Facilities which should be finished by the end of October.

Lots of players left the club, 12 in total. Di Martino, Ponomarenko, Rota, Romaniello, Germano, Fabricio, Balzano, Erbini, Garau, Callebaut, Arena and Ruggeri all left the club, and bought in £7.5m in cash.

Transfers in

Idrissa Ouattara - £70k. Absolute freaking bargain, look awesome already and still has lots of potential. Will need a bit of physical beefing up.

Alberto Zaccheroni - Free. Bit older than players I would otherwise sign, but available on a free and slots into the team well.

Jiri Adamek - £1.6m. Good GK already an an excellent prospect too. Long future ahead of him at the club.

Lodewijk Humblet - £1.5m. Versatile DM/MC with very good all round stats.

Gaetano Indelicato - £625k. Solid defender.

Ramon Alzamendi - £500k. Another bargain, instantly my first choice on the left wing.

Davide Giordano - £2.7m. Another good GK and excellent prospect.

Sergio Villa - £4m. Very skilled defender, tempted to play him and Baldini as a ball-playing central defence pairing. Bit weak physically though, but is still fairly young.

Riccardo Bianchessi - £1.7m. Has the right skills for my team, and provides very good competition to Messina.

Domenico Pesenti - £3.8m. Solid RB who will provide competition to Costa.

Spent much more than I thought I would, but most of is spread out over 48 months. Still have £10m in the bank so enough of a cushion for the season.

The Squad

So after all those ins and outs, here is what the squad is now like.

Goalkeepers

Jose Luis Torres

Jiri Adamek

Davide Giordano

Defenders

Owen Bruno

Gaetano Indelicato

Sergio Villa

Riccardo Graziani

Manuel Costa

Juan Carlos

Vincenzo Tafuro

Domenico Pesenti

Midfielders

Massimiliano Baldini

Sonny Dabo

Idrissa Ouattara

Lodewijk Humblet

Leo

Alessandro Troiano

Attackers

Alberto Zaccheroni

Dino Paris

Pierre Eychenne

Ramon Alzamendi

Gareth Swattridge

Riccardo Bianchessi

Nicolo Messina

Aims

My aims for the are similar to last season

• Finish top half in the league, preferably in the Euro qualifying places
  
• Have a good run in the Italian Cup
  
• Enjoy ourselves in Europe
  

Lets hope this season is as good as last years.

Ouattara looks like an absolute steal. Right about the physicals though. I reckon he would make a world class fullback if retrained...

Yeah chuffed with him, I'm hoping I can boost his strength a lot through training as with his pace and well rounded stats he is ideal for my high pressing, high tempo midfield.