keeper#1

October 2023 Update Another tough month offensively with only two goals scored and only one goal coming from open play in stoppage time after the game was no longer in doubt. The penalty tally was enough to win us a match which is plus. The defense also stepped up this month allowing just four goals in four matches (one goal per game). If we can keep this type of pace, we should be able to hit my target of 15th place. 7 October vs Perugia Both sides did an excellent job of keeping the home plate area free of activity. They had a couple of decent chances but our goalkeeper was able to scoop them up fairly easily. The outcome a 0-0 draw and a tough point earned. DRAW: Triestina 0 (0.75 xG) Perugia 0 (0.77 xG) -0.02 xG 21 October at Pisa Pisa kept their area clear. We did not. The worst goal came when we turned the ball over in our own 16-yard box which led to a quick counter and a goal. They added a second goal to seal the game and took all three points. LOSS: Triestina 0 (0.53 xG) Pisa 2 (1.37 xG) -0.84 xG 24 October vs Hellas Verona Another tough game for our defense as we just couldn't keep them out of the scoring area. They did an excellent job of keeping their goal mouth clear. We were able to score late on a tight-angle shot but we had no quality chances. LOSS: Triestina 1 (0.77 xG) Hellas Verona 2 (1.68 xG) -0.91 xG 28 October at Modena Our first game against a fellow relegation battler. We got the early advantage when we earned a penalty kick which was converted by Simone Ganz. This was the first game where we were able to get extended pressure and shots off from quality areas. We did a decent job of restricting their chances and kept a clean sheet to get a hard-earned three points. WIN: Triestina 1 (1.49 xG) Modena 0 (1.65 xG) -0.16 xG FOR THE MONTH: 1W 1D 2L 2 Gf (3.54 xG) 4 GA (5.47 xG) -1.93 xG We are in 16th place and in the playout places but we are now 1-0-0 against the teams below us in the table so we have a chance to earn some points in November and December as we play more teams around us in the table.

SUMMER/EARLY SEASON 2023 Sitting over 2 million euros in the hole, The Traders of Trieste did not splash cash around. In fact, we needed to sell a couple of assets to ease both the wage bill and reduce some of the bank debt at the club. We did bring in a bunch of players on frees for both depth and the first team. The biggest loss is center midfielder Luca Paganini, who had two goals, five assists, and a stabilizing presence in the midfield for us last season. Salvatore Pezzella was a good sale for us. He could never break through into our midfield and we found a good home for him in Chievo. We are still over a million euros in the hole but these moves helped us from further into debt. Ten new faces brought in for no transfer fees. The media have us pegged to finish in 19th place. My goal is to finish in 15th place to avoid the playout game. We've had a tough start to the campaign. Starting with the Benevento match, our defense started to settle in and play like they did last year. However, the offense has disappeared which led to a lot of draws and losses. 26 August at Cagliari Cagliari was the first side to give us a taste of our medicine - keeping us out of the home plate area while dominating their attacking home plate area. We had shots but they were all from wide areas or from a lone way out. They pounded our home plate area scoring three goals - all from 12 yards or less. LOSS: Triestina 0 (1.18 xG) Cagliari 3 (2.55 xG) -1.37 xG 29 August vs Torino Our first home match in Serie B was against relegated and title contender Torino. They completely shut us down offensively and peppered our goal with shots. We held firm until Torino were awarded a stoppage time penalty kick to take home the win. LOSS: Triestina 0 (0.34 xG) Torino 1 (2.08 xG) -1.74 xG 2 September at Brescia We finally showed up on offense against Brescia. Minesso tied the match with a header and new signing Emanuel Zuelli gave us a 2-1 lead with a right-footed volley. The defense could not hold on again in stoppage time allowing a late goal. DRAW: Triestina 2 (1.05 xG) Brescia 2 (1.76 xG) -0.71 xG 16 September vs Benevento Our best result of the first few weeks of the season but it was because the Benevento goalkeeper had a terrible match. He allowed both chances that we had from the home plate area. Minesso gave us an early lead. We gave away other penalty to allow Benevento to tie the match. Right winger Mattia Felici dribbled through two defenders and fired in the winning goal. WIN: Triestina 2 (0.66 xG) Benevento 1 (1.75 xG) -1.09 xG 23 September at Bari Our best overall match of the season, thus far, was at Bari. We played good defense allowing only a few shots from inside the home plate area. We were able to generate a couple home plate area shots of our own. They got on the board early. We fought back after winning a couple of 50-50 balls in the air, Ganz got behind the defense and tied the game. DRAW: Triestina 1 (1.09 xG) Bari 1 (1.76 xG) -0.67 xG 26 September vs Parma Not much to say here. We had a lot of chances outside the home plate area. Our goalie stood on his head making save after save as we allowed a lot of chances from the home plate area. DRAW: Triestina 0 (0.55 xG) Parma (1.59 xG) -1.04 xG 30 September at Salento A game without a lot of chances. We gave away our third penalty in seven matches and that goal was the difference in a 1-0 loss. LOSS: Triestina 0 (0.48 xG) Salento 1 (1.70 xG) -1.32 xG FOR THE PERIOD: 1W 3D 3L 5 GF (T15th) 9 GA (15th) 5.35 xG (19th) 13.19 xGA (20th) Sitting in 16th but we are the best placed promoted team at present and six of our seven matches were against team in the top nine places of the table.

End of 2022-23 Season As I mentioned last week, Triestina won the Serie C/A title. We slowly pulled away from the back once we got to the top of the table. Mantova, along with 10 other Serie C/A teams, entered the massive Serie C playoffs. They earned the 4th promotion place along with the three regional champions. Three teams, Piacenza, Virtus Verona, and Pro Sesto, were all relegated. Pro Sesto was automatically relegated while Piacenza and Virtus Verona fell through the relgation playoff trap door. We also won the Serie C Supercup played between the three regional champions. Our diverse scoring attack was led by Mattia Minesso, who put up a team-high 30 goals. He was followed by reserve center forward Simone Ganz, who scored 14 goals, and Lauri Ala-Myllymaki with 12 goals. Lauri also had a team-high 10 assists. Not a great intake with no elite talents and only three top talents in the group. Still some players who could provide some depth for us in the coming seasons but I'm not sure a player who can break into the first team consistently. We built our core group of supporters and the expense of family, corporate and casual supporters.

Back from holiday and ready to post

Leaving today for a week long holiday. I'll have a write-up on the end of the season and the offseason when I return.

March 2023 Update We did an excellent job of keeping the opposition out of the "home plate" area during the month. The only clear chances that we gave away penalty kicks to Vicenza and Sangiuliano. The PK against Vicenza didn't cost us any points but the Sangiuliano PK during a win in a draw. Sangiuliano also did a great job of keeping us out the "home plate" area which helped them get a draw even though they did not have a lot of chances. On the whole, we had two wins and two draws in the month while outscoring the opposition 9-6 and having +1.13 xG than them. A solid month which allowed us to maintain our lead at the top of the table. We hold a nine-point lead with just 12 points left to play for. Barring a complete collapse, the title is ours. It's just a matter of when we clinch not if we clinch. \

January-February 2023 Fixtures Over the past couple posts, I've talked frequently about the "home plate" area and it's importance. This what I'm talking about. In ice hockey, the offensive zone is roughly 65 feet and the top of circles are about 30 feet from the goal line. The "home plate" area goes from the top of the circles, through the faceoff dots and angles in toward the goal line. Translating this to football, I'm looking at an area from the top of the 18 yard box, in line with the six yard box and then angles in to the end line. On offense, I want high percentage chances from this area and on defense, I want us in front of the attacker in a position to block the shot or force them into a pass wide and outside of the "home plate" area. In January, teams started to force us out of the home plate area and our results started to suffer. We had our first loss of the season to Pro Sesto and then closed the month with a loss at Pro Vercelli. As you can see, Pro Vercelli did an excellent job of keeping us out of the home plate area. The result: zero goals and a xG below 0.70 for the match. In the two matches, we won...we had more shots in the home plate area (including one penalty kick). For the month, our opponents had a higher xG than we did and we split the month with two wins and two losses. As the month of February went on, we got back to what we do best...getting shots from the home plate area and as we did this, our winning ways started to come back. We opened the month with a tough 1-0 to the Juventus U23 team. We had plenty of quality shots in front but just couldn't find the net. They went against the run of play and scored on a header from a corner kick. The turning point was the match against Padova. We played lock down defense and had lots of good chances which we converted. We took the momentum from this match into three tough contests against Novara, AlbinoLeffe and Mantova. We won all three matches and have an iron grip on the top of the Serie C/A table. 12 point lead over Vicenza with just eight matches remaining.

Definitely following. I like the concept behind this save.

The senior team players, yeah they're gone. The U20 and U18 team players; those are the ones I'm making the decisions on.

On the field is the easy part. Trying to figure which players, whose contracts expire in June, that we want to keep around, most likely, in Serie B is the hard part.

December 2023 Update December was not as prolific as November. Knocked out of the Serie C Cup in the quarterfinals while getting two wins and two draws in the four league matches. 4 December vs Arzignano Arzignano did an excellent job of keeping us out of the home plate area. We had a lot of chances but they were all from wide areas or from deep. Arzignano took a 1-0 lead when Cayfor finished a well-crafted move. We finally broke through the second half when Ala-Myllymaki got free in the penalty box and took advantage of his chance to tie the game. We had lots of chances after that but they were all low percentage chances and the game ended in a 1-1 tie. DRAW: Triestina 1 (1.95 xG) Arzignano 1 (0.36 xG) +1.59 xG 11 December at Piacenza This was a very frustrating game. We gave away one real chance on a penalty kick which resulted in almost all of their xG. We responded by hitting the post three times. It took a late goal by Ganz for us to earn a 1-1 draw. DRAW: Triestina 1 (1.63 xG) Piacenza 1 (0.86 xG) +0.77 xG 18 December vs Pro Patria This was a match where we had plenty of good chances from inside the home plate area but just couldn't convert on any of them. The good news was we limited Pro Patria's chances. The game was a very boring 1-0 win after Ganz picked out a low corner on a well-placed shot from inside the box. WIN: Triestina 1 (1.90 xG) Pro Patria 0 (0.71 xG) +1.19 xG 23 December at Virtus Verona Look at all those quality chances from inside the home plate area. Virtus Verona had the bold strategy of not defending our attackers inside the 18-yard box. Minesso opened the scoring by sitting unmarked during a goal mouth scramble that he tapped in. Virtus Verona tie the game on a low percentage 22-yard chip over the goalkeeper. Minesso plays playmaker and finds Furlan with the crossing through ball on the left wing which Furlan buries to give us a 2-1 lead. We expand the lead to 3-1 when Minesso hits the post. The goalkeeper clears but right to Furlan who finds Ala-Myllymaki in the box to make it 3-1. Virtus Verona makes it a game at 3-2 but can get no closer. WIN: Triestina 3 (2.65 xG) Virtus Verona 2 (0.73 xG) +1.92 xG FOR THE MONTH: 2W 2D 0L GF: 6 (8.14 xG) GA: 4 (2.66 xG) +5.48 Starting to put more distance between ourselves and the rest of the league. Not a great intake. Hopefully it's improved come April.

November 2022 November was a great month for us. It was an offensive explosion. We scored 3+ goals in five of the seven matches. Vicenza was the only league team to hold us under three goals in a game. The defense was adequate but shaky. Need that to improve if the offense dries up at some point. 6 November at Lecco Lots of shots on goal from the center of pitch. Very few wide angle/low percentage shots. In ice hockey, you want to be shooting in the "home plate" area which is a pentagon shaped area in front of the goal. If you expand that area out from football, we got a large percentage of our shots in that "home plate" area. Left forward Cristano Lombardi opened the scoring from a tight angle. I think his goal is represented by the purple star inside the six-yard box. Lecco tied the game up in the 25th minutes. Just seven minutes later, Lecco take the lead when Tordini takes a direct goal kick from the goalkeeper. I rip the team at halftime for their lack of defensive effort. Lombardi responds late in the second half with his second goal of the game to tie the match. Mattia Minesso comes off the bench and does what he does best...create a goal when he finds Ala-Myllymaki streaking into the box. WIN: Triestina 3 (1.34 xG) Lecco 2 (1.57 xG) -0.23 xG First time our opposition has had a higher xG than us. 13 November vs FerapiSalo Another match we completely dominated. Lots of shots from the "home plate" area, three of which led to goals. Alessio Sabbione continued his aerial dominance on set pieces when he opened the scoring in the 7th minute. FerapiSalo tied the game after a good spell of dominance in the middle portion of the first half. The second half proved to be a tactical battle until Simone Ganz found some Minesso's bench magic when he draws a penalty and then buried the kick. Ala-Myllymaki put the game away with a third goal. WIN: Triestina 3 (1.96 xG) FerapiSalo 0 (0.92 xG) +1.04 xG 17 November at Vicenza This was a game where we got a lot of shots on target but not a lot of them were from the home plate area. We scored on one of the home plate chances but the other two were saved while the rest of the shots were from either outside the area or from a wide angle. Minesso puts us out in front early in a situation where we were playing 2 v 6 inside the box. A situation where we shouldn't score but we found a way. The rest of the match was a defensive stalemate but it was enough to preserve a 1-0 win. WIN: Triestina 1 (1.67 xG) Vicenza 0 (0.69 xG) +0.98 xG 26 November vs Sangiuliano City Lots of quality chances from the home plate which led to four goals. The action started early when Gori scored from inside the box in the 2nd minute. Our defense felt generous and let City tie the game just three minutes later. But Ala-Myllymaki scored right after the kickoff and we regained our one-goal lead. After that, things settled down for the remainder of the first half. Ala-Myllymaki doubles our lead when splits the centerbacks and its 3-1. The Triestina defense decided to take a nap as low cross thru the box to a wide open winger and they close the gap to 3-2. Ganz finishes the game off when he scored from inside the penalty dot. WIN: Triestina 4 (1.46 xG) Sangiuliano 2 (0.59 xG) +0.87 xG 30 November at Trento Just four days later, we decided to play a defense-optional game against Trento. We jump out to an early 2-0 lead after goals from Minesso and right winger Federico Furlan. The lead expanded to 3-0 when little used left forward Pagarini capitalizes on a defensive mistake. Then, our defense took a nap and let Trento to close the gap to 3-2. Late in the second half, we put together a ten-minute offensive flurry. Two goals by Minesso which completed his hat trick and a goal from Ala-Myllymaki allowed us to relax and cruise to a 6-2 victory. WIN: Triestina 6 (1.81 xG) Trento 2 (1.71 xG) +0.10 FOR THE MONTH: 6W 0D 0L GF: 17 (8.77 xG) GA: 7 (5.48 xG) Difference: +10 (+3,79 xG) 18 points from a possible 18 allowed us to move to the top of the table and get some cushion between us and 2nd place.

Bassompa looks like an ideal anchor man.

Excellent work!

Well done!

October 2024 Update 2 October at Juventus U23 This was a very boring game from the fan perspective. Not a lot happened. Teams got shots on goal but they weren't of any real quality. I brought on super sub Ella Petrelli in the second half to see if he could shake things up in the center forward role. He got a great chance off that was saved but he buried his second chance to give a slim 1-0 lead over league leaders Juventus U23. We continued to restrict Juventus U23's shots on goal and held on for the 1-0 win. WIN Triestina 1 (1.00 xG) Juventus U23 0 (0.85 xG) 9 October vs Renate This was a match that we dominated from start to finish. We kept Renate out of our penalty box and we peppered their net with shot after shot. We jumped on the board early when the ball got cycled, after a throw-in, to left bak Sarzi Puttini, who hit a curling shot from 20 yards, to give us the lead 1-0. Midfielder Marco Crimi was sitting on the back post and was able to head home a Ala-Myllymaki cross to give us a 2-0 lead just 21 minutes into the game. In the second half, we gave little used center forward Mattia Minesso some playing time and he rewarded us with an 81st minute goal when he saw the goalkeeper overplay a cross and got himself out of position. Minesso slotted home the chance and gave us the 3-0 win. WIN: Triestina 3 (1.74 xG) Renate 0 (0.17 xG) +1.57 xG 16 October at Padova This game pissed me off. We got out to a 1-0 lead when Simone Ganz broke away from his center back market after a long pass from Mirko Gori to give us a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute. The game was uneventful after that goal. In the second half, the fourth official put up five minutes of extra time in a second half that featured no goals and no injuries. in the SEVENTH minute of extra time, De Marchi powers home a cross from a corner kick to give Padova the tying goal. We put the ball in play to restart the game and the referee blows for full time right away. DRAW: Triestina 1 (1.11 xG) Padova 1 (0.69 xG) +0.42 xG 19 October at Novara This match kicked off a key three match string against teams in the playoff/promotion mix. Three matches which could make or break our season early on. How do we respond? We jump all over Novara. Starting in the 35th minute, Ganz goes against the run of play with a blast from the top of the box to give us a 1-0 lead. Ganz finds the back of the net later in the first half when Alessandro Lovisa plays an over the top ball that allows Ganz to run behind the Novara backline. Ganz completes his hattrick late in the second half off of a pass from Ala-Myllymaki. WIN: Triestina 3 (1.76 xG) Novara 0 (0.76 xG) +1.00 xG 23 October at AlbinoLeffe This was another frustrating match. We could do everything but find the net and AlbinoLeffe could barely get across midfield. I rotated a lot of players after the Novara match but even with that in mind, we should have been able to find, at least, one goal with all those attempts on target. DRAW: Triestina 0 (1.70 xG) AlbinoLeffe 0 (0.06 xG) +1.64 xG 30 October vs Mantova 1911 A match that we should have won easily but our defense decided to take the night off on the the defensive side of the ball. Mantova takes advantage of our first defensive lapse which resulted in Alessio Sabbione giving away a penalty kick and they are off to the races up 1-0. We tie the game when Sabbione redeems himself by sitting onside right on the goalline as the ball finds it's way to him for an easy tap-in goal. Mantova come out quickly from halftime to retake the lead when Monsah rises above everyone to head home a corner kick. They did an excellent job of limiting our chances and I was looking at my first defeat as Triestina manager. I tap Minesso on the shoulder and bring him on again as a sub. He responds with a 79th minute goal to tie the game and then, after we earn a PK of our own, scores the game-winner in the 89th minute. WIN: Triestina 3 (3.32 xG) Mantova 2 (1.39 xG) FOR THE MONTH: 4W 2D 0L Triestina 11 goals (10.63 xG) Opponents 3 goals (3.92 xG) xG Difference: +6.71 xG We sit behind Juventus U23 by one point but they have played one more match than us also I don't think that they are eligible for promotion as a U23 side.

Yes and no. I'd like to see more wins than draws but at least we aren't turning draws into losses.

September 2022 4 September 2022 at Virtus Verona We dominated the play against Virtus Verona everywhere but on the scoreboard. We just couldn't score. We had plenty of chances but none of them found the target. It was a low key affair until sub Ella Petrelli broke the deadlock in the 75th minute. Verona thought they had tied the match but had the goal called backed for offsides. Petrelli almost doubled the lead but his shot hit the crossbar and went out of play. Virtus Verona finally tied the game after our defense fell asleep late in the match and they earned a draw. DRAW: Virtus Verona 1 (1.07 xG) Triestina 1 (1.48 xG) +0.41 xG 11 September vs Pro Sesto We absolutely dominated this game from start to finish. Loanee Ala-Myillymaki scores on a free kick in the 4th minute to open the scoring. Four minutes later, Gori finds Cristiano Lombardi with a defense splitting pass to double our lead. We had some great chances later in the match but did not score. Pro Sesto never had a great look on goal in the entire match. WIN: Triestina 2 (1.77 xG) Pro Sesto 0 (0.19 xG) +1.56 xG 14 September at Pergolettese 1932 Pergolettese dominated the play for most of the match by keeping the ball away from us as they dominated possession almost 2 to 1. We fought against this lack of possession by taking advantage of the one great chance that we had. Geno buries the penalty kick chance to give us a 1-0 lead. Pergolettese continued to pile on the pressure and we, eventually, broke when they scored off of a set piece. DRAW: Pergolettese 1 (1.28 xG) Triestina 1 (1.42 xG) +0.14 xG 18 September vs Prodenone Home again and we put a fence around our goal allowing just three shots. Furlan sat on the back post on a crossed set piece to open the scoring in the second minute. Right before the halftime whistle, we doubled our lead when Paganini lurked on the back post when Furlan broke free after a throw-in. Our center forward, Ganz, finds Ala-Myllymaki alone in the box and he buried his 76th minute chance to give us a 3-0 victory. WIN: Triestina 3 (2.07 xG) Prodenone 0 (0.47 xG) +1.60 xG 25 September vs Pro Vercelli This is was a tough back and forth match. Quick ball movement frees up Petrelli in the box and we pop out to a 1-0 lead. Pro Vercelli tied the game right before the half when Furlan turned the ball over in the midfield and three passes later Cami put the ball in the back of the net. Pro Vercelli's Della Morte outmuscled both the centerback and the goalkeeper to poke the ball into the net and gave Pro Vercelli the lead. We earned a corner deep into stoppage time. The initial cross was cleared but not out. Centerback Sabbione was left alone in the box and he finds the back of the net to allow us to steal a draw. DRAW: Triestina 2 (1.68 xG) Pro Vercelli 2 (1.82 xG) -0.14 xG FOR THE MONTH: Triestina 9 (8,44 xG) Opponents 4 (4.85 xG) +3.59 xG Two wins and three draws. Should have beaten Virtus Verona but should have lost to Pro Vercelli so those two matches balance each other out. Complete domination in two of our three home matches. Sitting in 7th place and solidly in the playoff fight but we haven't played a team in the top half of the table yet.

Triestina Team Introduction Goalkeepers We look to be set at goalkeeper. Matteo Pisseri has the starting job locked up. Loanee Davide Mastrantonio has the backup and cup goalkeeper job. The goal will be work with his parent club and see if we get him to join us permanently as third-string goalkeeper Alessio Pozzi does not look like he has the skill to take the starting job and might get pushed by a goalkeeper currently on the U20 or U18 team. Wing back is another position where we seem to be on solid ground. Aging Matteo Ciofani has the right back starting job and is backed up by two capable players who can also slide into the center back position as well. We only have one true left back on the roster in Daniele S. Puttini, who is a good but unspectacular player. Only three true centerbacks on the roster and two of them are under 20. We may need to depend on the two right backs who can slide into the middle more than I thought we would need to. I don't want to be in a position when I need to depend on a young player as a starter at the center back position. We have a lot of options at the center midfielder positions. Mirko Gori is the leading candidate to play at the base of the midfield triangle as the defensive midfielder. Since that position is going to be the engine room of the team, I need an all-around type of player and Gori looks like he could fit that bill. The more attacking midfield positions has lot of competition featuring both experienced and youthful players in the mix. Lots of options on the right side with two players on loan both costing us nothing in salary. The left side has just one option in Mattia Felici but he is a young player with a good amount of potential. Three good center forward options. One with experience and two younger players who are pushing him to stay good and, most importantly, there is not a lot of dropoff between the starter and the backups. The board want us to reach the Serie C/A playoffs which is in line with the media prediction of 5th place. We are a title contender if things break right for us but we aren't the odds-on favorite to win. Once you get into the long and winding road that is the Serie C playoffs, anything can happen. We've got fans in all categories. The majority of our fans fall into the Core and Fair Weather fans category. The goal will be converting our 3rd largest group "casual" into core fans. We had a decent Head of Youth Development when I took the job. However, I searched potential upgrades and gauge their interest. Emidio Franchellucci, a Model Professional with reserved media handling, was available and had interest. He's not the best at gauging how good a player is and how good they could become but the personality combination was too good to pass up.

A confluence of issues has caused me to put a stop to this save: 1) The team earned two promotions in three years and reached the Bundesliga 2) I have yet to build any sort of pipeline of Czech talent into the club. This has been due to the club unwilling to put money into a scouting budget 3) The club refuses to put any financial backing to keep the club in the Bundesliga. Given no transfer budget and a tiny wage budget to keep the club up. I have a new save started: The Traders of Trieste

The Traders of Trieste After the board let me down in Germany, I've started a new save in the far northeastern corner of Italy. The city of Trieste boasted a rich history and was once a key port city during The Middle Ages and was the endpoint of one of the world's greatest trade routes. For these reasons, I am starting my next save (hopefully longer than three seasons) with Triestina located in the city of Trieste. The port city of Trieste sits at the head of the Gulf of Trieste on the Adriatic Sea. The major waterway is shared by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. The city is considered the European endpoint of The Silk Road trading route to Asia. From The Renaissance to the end of World War I, Trieste was the major port for the Habsburg Monarchy. It is the intersection of the Latin, Slavic, and Germanic cultures of Continental Europe. It is a city with a rich history and a club that does not match that rich history. I intend to change that. I will use the city's rich trading history to create a network of affiliate clubs to loan young players to improve their skills for the senior team or to sell to other clubs. As time goes on, this network of clubs will be used by Triestina to poach the best of the best from these clubs to make the club the best. First in the northeast corner of Italy and then push the Milan clubs for best clubs in northern Italy which would put us in the conversation of the best club in Italy and possibly all of Europe. Triestina was founded in 1918 when the clubs of Ponziana and Foot-Ball Clib Trieste merged. It took just six years for the club to move from Serie C to Serie B and then five more to go from Serie B to Serie A. The club stayed in Serie A from 1929 until 1956 and reached it's high point in 1948 when it finished runners-up. After 1956, the club bounced between Serie A, B, and C until 1994 when the club folded for the first time. The club reformed in 1994 as US Triestina Calcio. The new club never reached Serie A but had a very tumultuous 2005-06 season when they switched managers five times. In 2012, the club went bankrupt for a second time and reformed as 5th tier club US Triestina Calcio 1918. In just five years, the club had re-established itself in Serie C. They have four trophies in the case: 1958 Serie B, 1962 and 1983 Serie C, and the 1994 Serie C Cup. Years per division Serie A; 26 (1959) Serie B: 22 (2011) Serie C: 33 (current) Serie D: 8 years (2017) Serie E: 1 year (2013) The club play in the largest stadium in Serie C. The Stadio Nereo Rocco which, in the FM universe, holds 28,565 people in an all-seater stadium. Celso Sala was born in nearby Venice and wants to bring the following philosophies into the club: play with an attack-minded 4-3-3 formation using the DM as the main playmaker primary source of talent should come from the youth academy - ideally bringing 2+ players per year into the senior team from the academy Use a network of affiliate clubs in neighboring nations as "trade partners" - Triestina sends players out on loan and then picks the best of the best from those club's youth systems to bring into Triestina Give the Head of Youth Development free reign when it comes to training and development for the players in the U18 and U20 teams while playing in the club's 4-3-3 formation Get the club back into the Serie B and finally return to Serie A for the first time since 1959

Depends on the player and the club. Most of the Bundesliga clubs have wanted me to take on most of the wages to bring in players on loan.

March-End of Season 2025 I have to deviate from my normal style of post breaking down my scouting report and game plan for each match. I'm traveling, my daughter is currently asleep, and, more importantly, there are 11 games to report on so it would have made for a really long post. Five wins. Three draws. Three losses. 18 points from a possible 33. +10 goal difference thanks to some big wins over St. Pauli (4-0) and Bielefeld (5-1). Where does leave the final table? With one of the lowest point totals to win the 2.Bundesliga, we won the league with just 58 points - an all-time low in the three points per win era. Looking back at the history of the 2. Bundesliga, 58 points would have finished 2nd three times and made the promotion three times. We are dealing with something truly historic and unexpected here. Even looking at last year's table, 58 points would have only been good enough for 5th place. This year, it was just a league where everyone was evenly matched and no one really got out ahead of the pack and cruised to the league title. How did we do it? Well, we hopped on the back of Seydou Traore and let his goalscoring ability carry us to the league title. He was our best (and really only) goalscorer with 28 goals across all competitions. Nobody else on the team scored more than seven. When Traore was off "playing" in the African Cup of Nations, we lost three of the four matches when we had to rely on someone else to play that center forward position. Traore was assisted on a long of his goals by right winger Mateo Kilmowicz who had 13 and left winger Gabriel Gonzalez who had eight. How did the new signings on defense do? Mamadou Doucoure was a solid signing providing us stability along the back line. Loanee Niels Nkounkou played next to Doucoure on the left side of defense creating a nice partnership there. The right side was a little weaker but still solid. Grill was a big stabilizing force in net. Grill finished the season with 0.96 goals allowed/90 and a 79% save percentage (130 saves on 165 shots on target). The board, however, has completely put me in financial handcuffs. What the actual hell is that transfer budget?!?!?!? We picked up some more fair weather fans at the expense of our family-minded fans. Only two of our top prospects were a) old enough and b) had interest from other clubs to go out on loan. They did a good job in the 3rd and 4th German tier this season. Hopefully, I have a bigger loan class next season to develop some young talent at the club since the board won't really let me hit the transfer market.

2025 Youth Intake We need a better intake than we had last season. It won't take much to be an improvement over last season. This year's intake found a way to just ooze over the low bar set last season. Just one potential elite talent and four top talents. I'm not expecting a team full of world beaters in the intakes but something has to improve going forward. We just can't compete with the bigger clubs if the intakes look like this every season. At least, the personalities are good and by good, I mean, it's not an intake full of malcontents and slackers. If we can teach up the mental side of the game with Manjang, he has the potential to be a good player. He's a strong dribber and a physical talent for the wing position. But his on the field smarts are just not there right now. Teach him up and he could be a solid player for us in a few seasons. I like the looks of Diaby more than Manjang but my HoYD says that Manjang has the higher ceiling. Diaby is more of a ready-made player than Manjang. He's a smart player for his age of the field and is a technically sound player. He just needs to grow into his body and he, too, could be a solid contributing player for us. Indjai is a really interesting player. He's not really good at anything right now but my HoYD rates him highly. Hopefully, he's one of those players who is better on the field than his attributes because right now I'm just not seeing it. I don't have high hopes for Koroma given that he doesn't want to try to improve himself. Overall, he doesn't look like a great player either. It's going to take a combination of mentoring, a swift kick in the ass and on the field improvement for him to fulfill his promise. I like the looks of Aamir. He could be a good all-around central midfield player for us. Needs a lot of work on the technical and physical side of his game. Potential is there.