To Hellas and Back

It's taken some time (including a new laptop) to get back in to the swing of things.

Some of you may remember my careers on here with Malaga and then Lorient. I've carved out a reputation of stabilising or 'fixing' clubs as I prefer to call them. Seldom will you see me winning league titles or cleaning up in Europe, I tend to set myself a little project. Recently examples would be securing back-to-back Champions League football with Malaga and upsetting PSG and their millions to snatch the Coupe de France with Lorient.

So, it's time to cross the border, again, with Hellas Verona.

Don't worry, I won't be posting Wikipedia quotes or putting up pictures of the stadium. Verona were recently promoted from Serie B and the media are predicting an instant return to the second division. I've been given a transfer budget of £1.3 million and a wage budget of £300,000, and, with a team crammed with loan deals, I'm going to have to do some number crunching as this squad needs some work, if we're to stay up. With no set philosophies in place, I'm glad to have the freedom to do as I please with no judgement. After terminating the loan deals of various youngsters, which, essentially aren't required, this is the current squad before transfer negotiations begin:

Goalkeepers

Centre-halves

Full-backs

Central midfielders

Wingers

Strikers

As you can see, there's quite an imbalance in the squad, whilst some areas don't require immediate attention, other areas are crying for reinforcements. With a limited budget, I'm hoping some of these players can be shipped out to give me some wiggle room in the transfer market.

The backroom staff at the club was fair to good, I have, however, brought in Feliciano Di Blasi (with knowledge of Qatar, bit of a bonus) as my assistant manager and Andrea Bergamo and Nicolo Milan as first team coaches. Importantly, in come one of the better Italian fitness coaches on the game - Gianpiero Ventrone. The physio department was revamped and also the Spaniard David Gonzalez joined the scouting network. The U19s staff required very little work and most were retained. However, I am currently auditioning for a new U19s manager.

It would be criminal not to take advantage of Luca Toni's style of play, and, therefore, I'll be alternating between my preferred 4-5-1 formation and a flat standard 4-4-2. I'm not a big supporter of the 4-4-2 in the FM series, but, with the wingers at my disposal and lack of central midfielders, it's a case of round pegs in round holes, for now. Within time, I'd fully expect us to be steering away from a basic 4-4-2 as this can be easily torn apart by some of narrow and defensive formations you can see in Serie A.

Transfers out

• Davide Varricchio to Foggia on a season long loan.
  
• Emil Hallfredsson to Parma for £1.5 million.
  
• Nicolas terminated his contract.
  
• Juanito Gomez to Torino on a season long loan.
  

It was important to shift some bodies out as the club were currently operating £8,000 under their wage budget. I tend to enjoy crisis management, and, by shipping these players out, we're currently £17,000 to the good. Varricchio was never going to play first team football, this season. His loan to Foggia was a no-brainer, the loaning club are covering all of his wages, with no monthly fee. With five wingers at the club, Hallfreddson had to move on. I feel, £1.5 million is a fair price for his services. There was some interest in my third choice goalkeeper Nicolas, but, nothing concrete. With no clubs even willing to take a punt on him for a loan deal, for our bank balance, it was best to take the £100,000 termination fee of his contract. We were over crowded in the forwards department, and, with so many options Gomez found himself out on loan. Torino are coughing up £40,000 a month, covering 100% of his wages and have also agreed a £1.9 million future fee. It's not a bad deal, as, there was very little interest and would find himself playing for the reserves, in due course. The centre-back Rafael Marques is to become the token shunned misfit of the group of the new regime. He's recently joined the club, but, is probably my last choice to start in defence. Hopefully, I'll be able to take advantage of his value in the January transfer window.

Transfers in

• Alessio Benedetti from Catanzaro for £475,000.
  

Buy low, sell high is how it goes, isn't it? Benedetti is a massive, massive punt. He's signed from Serie C1/B side Catanzaro, so, it's a huge step up. He's a former AC Milan youngster who can potentially control the midfield. I was shocked to find someone of his quality playing in such a low division. At 23, there's plenty of time for his physical attributes to improve, but, his technical and mental attributes are very encouraging. He's only picking up £1,000 a week in wages for a rotational spot in the squad, and, as we were lacking in that department, I'm hoping he can contribute.

That concludes all transfer activity and pre-season prep as all friendlies were delegated to my assistant manager. I'm not committing to any further recruits, at the moment, I'm waiting until January, where, I have £1.9 million to spend, if I need to.

I'll likely update as-and-when as I have quite a busy life, at the moment. Which... makes a change!

I tend to tweet a fair amount about Football Manager, so, if you fancy catching up there, my Twitter username is @a_walt3rs.

Enjoy.

Looks good mate

Forgot to add.

Purely for sentimental reasons, I've appointed a new Director of Football.

None other than Serbian and Inter Milan hero - Dejan Stanković!

In all honesty, this is a gutsy appointment, I don't even utilise the role of a DoF, I've purely appointed him because, well, it's Dejan Stanković.

There were other reasons, the previous Director of Football was on a whopping £12,000 a week, whereas Dejan is on a healthy £4,200 a week. The runner up for the new position was another Italian football legend - Siniša Mihajlović.

August - September 2013

Serie A

Some brilliant results in Serie A for the opening two months. Really impressive stuff. We started solidly against Sassuolo and were incredibly unlucky not to snatch a point against Genoa as Daniele Cacia's late header was ruled out for a foul. This was followed up with another disappointing result against Lazio. However, there was something to smile about as we grabbed a well deserved point at the San Siro! Donadel fired home (at the second time of asking) and we peppered the Milan goal, but, that elusive winner wasn't coming. And then, easily, our best result. Tactically, I got this one spot on. We played counter attacking football for the entire match. Inevitably, Juventus took the lead through a fortuitous Peluso goal, before a Iturbe and Rabusic snatch a grab in two minutes! This is possibly, the first time, I've ever beaten Juventus in any of the last three or four editions of Football Manager! Sadly, I watched us throw away a two goal lead at Parma as Cassano grabbed a brace. Some bit of good fortune, though, as Luca Toni came through the match (with a goal, too) after recovering from injury.

Considering the fixtures, I'm very happy with our performance in the league, some very tough games.

AC Milan are leading the pack with 14 points whilst Atalanta are propping up the table with 3.

Coppa Italia

Our opening game of the season saw us take on Serie B team Reggina in the Coppa Italia.

I used this to experiment with a few of the fringe players, and, was in actual fact a success. We've been fortunate in the next round as we've been drawn at home, again, against Juve Stabia.

Encouraging stuff.