PGC: The Italian Job for FM15

[Athrill]

[Athrill]

[Athrill]

[AndyFal36]

End Of Season Standings Serie B

[AndyFal36]

End Of Season Standings Lega Pro Girone A

[AndyFal36]

End Of Season Standings Lega Pro Girone B

[AndyFal36]

End Of Season Standings Lega Pro Girone C

[Jonas Christensen]

MOTY 2014/15 Season

So with the first season over, here are the MOTY votes and results. From next season, Pedro will be giving a more creative MOTY post a go...

[redhawk]

Here is the HoF scoring for our first season, a tough season for all, with two sackings, and only one promotion!

[Athrill]

[smashin88]

transfer rumours

The crazy season is upon us and Spezia fans are getting ready for a big push this summer manager Andy Gillespie has vowed to bring in top talent despite the budget restrictions and will have his scouts working overtime to bring in the top talent he needs to take Spezia onwards to promotion

Alberto Cerri is top of Gillespies list as he looks for a striker to fire him too promotion and sources in the players camp say a deal to take him on an initial loan look highly likely at this point. Cerri himself has repeatedly talked of his admiration for Gillespie and the job hes doing at Spezia

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Gillespie is also said to be in advanced talks with fellow Belgian internationals bakkali and boyata both from English high fliers Man City. The managers reputation for bringing through youngsters and improving them really makes Spezia an attractive destination for europes hottest young talent

One player Spezia wont be signing is ex man city player Micah Richards he has been available on a free after his contract ran out but after repeated questions from reports Gillespie commented " I think id need to sign another 10 medical staff before I brought micah into the fold. No offense to the lad but hes spent most of his career on the treatment table. " Micah was unhappy at the comments and has had to seek a move to one of the lesser teams in the division much to the players dissapointment

[Advantageous]

Alessandro Jacobo - San Marino Calcio

One hell of a challenge ahead with my new San Marino side. Not only am I a season behind the lads, but I've also taken the smallest club who are currently in financial difficulty. The squad looks decent enough, so I've added a few new faces and retained two of the better loanees from last season. I'm currently in the process of rebuilding the back room staff, ensuring I keep with the ethos of the club by hiring/retaining the best San Marinese coaches, scouts and physios.

The aim for this season is to build upon the 10th place finish the AI managed the previous year. Promotion to Serie B needs to be sooner rather than later, to ease our financial woes otherwise it looks like I'll be selling the few star players we have. This will be a one club game for me this year (until the going gets tough) so stability is key with particular emphasis on the promotion and progression of top quality youth players to ease us up the leagues.

[Athrill]

[Athrill]

[Kaboooom]

[FFCStu1428]

Stuart ANCONA

So our first season of fm15 is over and im pleased to say we stayed up and went on abit of a run with some cracking wins. Stand out has to be the beat down i gave Pedro's boys. Going into the game he needed a win to be Crowned champions but he knew that my side was on abit of a run. I have to say it was the best my side had played all season and i was 2-0 up after 20 minutes, I then switched to counter and tore the Spainish lad a new one ( Sir Francis Drake would of be proud lol. ) as i ran riot to win 4-0. It's was a special result for me and my side as pedro has shown to be a top class manager all season and rightly won the league and MOTY.

SUMMER WINDOW.

Has i said in my last post i was going to have a major clear out this summer and that's what i have done. I have 3 players left from last season and have added some rather tasty signgings along the way.

List below of new signing

I am not done yet clearing out the dead wood and i with all the signing i have made i am £20 inside my wage bill of 43k.

The board want a mid table Finish again and the media see me finishing 13th again, i like to think i will finish higher this season with the signing i have made and with a flat 442 working well for me i will be looking for a top 8 Finish.

Well thats you upto date

More soon

[scooter28]

Well that didnt go to plan 2 points off auto promotion and losing 2-1 in the semi final playoff totally gutted fingers crossed for this season as the board expect me to challenge fot the title got a few player in onloan and others on a year or 2 contracts

as of now my business in the transfer market

On a positive not i have plenty to spend on players wages and transfers but its a struggle when you can only offer 4.5k a week on a players wages in serie B

As you can see i have plenty of money to play with but i think i might just leave it now until the winter transfer period kicks in if i see a bargain offcourse i will jump at it.Think i have the lads who can get me up to the promised land serie A i wont be long am on my way

[MaddogBaxter]

Foggia Calcio Update - Season 1 Week 3

Foggia finished the season in 7th place. A disappointing final few games of the season put pay to an outside play off challenge. We were 6th in the table until a 97th minute winner with the last kick of the season in Reggina game took them ahead. A bad way to end the season made even worse that Reggina are managed by Mike!

Foggia fans announce Vincenzo Sarno as their Player of The Season with Miguel Maza in 2nd and Valentin Gjokaj in 3rd.

Miguel Maza was my Player of the Season, thought he contributed the most to the team throughout the season and Valentin Gjokaj was my Young Player of the Season with some fantastic displays in the heart of defence.

Foggia's Best Eleven

That's it for Season 1. A decent campaign that promised much but ultimately ended in failure. Finishing lower than Mike was hard to take especially after being ahead of him for most of the season until the very end. it'll be much harder this season to get ahead so I'm aiming for a Play Off spot minimum next term. If Foggia finish ahead of Reggina next season I know Foggia will have been promoted to Serie B.

FORZA FOGGIA

[AndyFal36]

AndyF - U.S Latina

It was a disappointing finish to our first season of clan after an impressive start, which included a club record of 7 consecutive wins, but unfortunately we narrowly missed out on the PO's by just 2pts finishing in 9th place after a poor second half of the season. Even thou i didn't replicate my promotion in SP on clan this is a marathon not a sprint as you may well know from PGC:Going Dutch I'm in this for the long haul and looking to build the club slowly as I did at Eindhoven and hopefully spend another 20 years here at Latina

My player of the season has to be Chaouki Ben Saada who I picked up on a free after being released from French side Arles Avignon and was voted Serie B's signing of the season.

On to the new season and our predicted finish has dropped to 13th this time round so I will be looking to pick up a few HOF points this year, deep down I'm hoping for the PO's but I wouldn't be too bothered if i missed out as long as we bettered 13th.

There has been plenty of transfer activity this summer with 16 players signing for the club wither on loan or as free agents and 8 players leaving to pastures new bringing in a total of £1.4M the majority of that was paid by Bari who signed bad egg Riccardo Brosco who had recently been causing a bit of disharmony among the squad so I was glad he left.

Until Next Time......

[AndyFal36]

End Of Season Summary 2014/15

[smashin88]

SEASON REVIEW

So it was so close in the end but to be fair to the team the playoffs were a bonus and without an unbelievable run at the end of the season we wouldn't have even been in the mix. It was a turbulant season and a 6th place finish was above expectations star performers for the season were Felice Piccolo the captain and a rock at the back for the team Chichizzola the goalkeeper who has recently signed a new contract and fillip de Coll who has moved on for a reported 1.8 million. And so sneaking into the playoffs was a big let down in the end after being soundly beaten by Ternana manager Andrew Gillespie was not impressed " they shouldn't even have been in the playoffs they weren't deserving we were the form team and we let ourselves down we will be back bigger and stronger next year mark my words " this has endeared the manager to the fans who loving his passion have vowed to turn out in the thousands home and away during the next season.

And so on to the next season hopes are high in the spezia camp a really busy close season has seen no fewer than 30 players come and go at the club and some real quality has been added to the ranks Bakalli and boyata have come in from English high fliers Manchester City and addin to the premier league contingent is Ryan Mason an attacking midfielder for spurs. Manager Andrew Gillespie has also raided Spanish giants Barcelona for there top prospect at left back Alex Grimaldo and have signed Macedonian winger Babakovic for a knockdown price of £175.000. returning loanees include Belgian wonderkid Yuri Tielimans and Gagliardini from atalanta and to add to the international quality already at the club Dario Del Fabro has come in with Marco Motta Karim Rekik and alberto Cerri.

Manager Andrew Gillespie has said " were pleased.....in fact were very pleased weve strengthened every area of the team with quality players real top quality I think Rekik will be the defensive player of the year and we have the best striking options ever seen at this club were aiming for promotion nothing more nothing less this is going to be a huge season for our club"

[Athrill]

[Kaboooom]

[redhawk]

SEASON REVIEW

Time for me to round up my season with Pro Vercelli. Well, half a season, after I left my assistant manager to it for a while, because of the ridiculous crossing present in the match engine. The team I inherited was a bloated mess, with well over 100 players (I have sold/released over 100 players since my arrival), and very little quality to speak of, confirming my suspicion that this was a C club masquerading in the B division, with weaknesses and little depth right across the board.

TRANSFERS

To start off the season, we made some excellent signings to supplement a narrow diamond formation, despite the very restrictive contract regulations in Serie B (a maximum wage of £4.5K pw with no personal bonuses), meaning that Scandinavia was my main shopping destination.

Birkir Mar Saevarsson was brought in for right-back, after I missed out on the loan of Darnell Fisher, while the experienced Erlend Hanstveit was signed at centre-back. I have had never had much luck with getting Adam Campbell to score in previous games on Football Manager, but thought I'd have another go at it, and loaned him from Newcastle. Alongside him up front, the pacey Aloys Nong was brought in for free, with more free transfers in DC Sinkiewicz, ST Do Marcolino and DM Etuhu. My new goalkeeper was Lund Hansen, while for combative presence, Lee Williamson was loaned in, and Bran Easton was signed for left-back.

The two big deals in this window, however, were both in midfield. Daniel Berntsen, a tricky AMC was signed, and I splashed the cash big time on Marius Lundemo, somewhat of a risk, considering our perilous finances.

MATCHES

My season started off really well as we raced into a 3-0 lead at half-time in the cup against AlbinoLeffe, only for that start to become a very poor one, as we surrendered four goals in the second half. This translated into a horrific start to the league season, not winning until the seventh game. Any notion that this was the start of a recovery was unfounded as then we didnt win for another six games. A run of four games unbeaten offered hope, but the fortunes nosedived once again, and I left my assistant manager in charge for a while, awaiting a patch.

Even though the patch had not been released, I had to come back and try and save them from relegation, as they were six points adrift of safety, with ten games to spare. What followed was five wins and a draw in those ten matches, with it going down to the final day, finishing 4 points clear of the relegation zone. At least, I thought I was safe. In Italy, the fourth and fifth bottom teams have to playout against each other to see who goes down, and we scraped by, by one goal. Was never in doubt.

This season I think we can really push on and finish at least top half funnily enough. My tactic is down and refined so onwards and upwards!

[jdckelly]

So thats one season down and this games off to the usual start with playoff failure losing to an 87th minute goal no less in an otherwise even game. So new season and another charge mindlessly at the brick wall that is winning promotion.

Joe-Modena

[Athrill]

[Jonas Christensen]

So the first season is over, and it's time to evaluate on the performance... When the season started, the board had expectations of a top half finish, while my own expectations were the bottom positions of the playoffs... During the first half of the season, we had much difficulties with getting a consistent form going, but as the season progressed, the team started playing more like a team, and the goals were plenty... This meant that our strongest run wound up as 16 games unbeaten, amongst which 11 were victories, and the team was looking strong... This also meant, that while we before this run were contending for a playoff position, we wound up contending for the title.

However, an awful run to end the season meant that while we stood a great chance of actually winning the league, we wound up falling down to a 3rd place... Still, 3rd was a couple of positions higher than I had hoped and expected, so all in all, I was pleased with how the season went...

One of the main reasons for the 3rd spot was of course Brighenti!

Brighenti managed to bag 27 goals, and I was sure that meant, that Parma would use the co-ownership ***** to secure him the next season, as I only had around 58k in my budget.

So, in the new season, the board is now expecting more and we're to get a playoff spot again. We managed to keep Brighenti, who is once again going to be the key to getting that playoff spot, but since it was quite a gamble to only have one good striker last season, I went out and found 3 strikers on loan, who all look capable of competing with Brighenti for a place in the starting 11... Last season I only played with 1 strikers, but due to the quality of the ones I got in on loan, I've decided to alter the tactics a bit to allow for a 2nd striker at times... I was down to 1 DC as well, so quite a few DC's came in on loan as well from Serie A clubs...

All in all, 24 players have left the club, and a few gone out on loan, while 14 came in, but with a few already having gotten their loan cancelled again...

Below you can see 3 of the loan players that I'm hoping will play key roles this season...

While I'm writing this to, the 1st session of the league games have already been played, but as I was out of town, I had to leave the team in the hands of my assistant, and I frankly don't have any idea how the season has begun. I'm hoping he won't have screwed up too badly, as there will be pressure to do well this season, following the performance of last season.

[AndyFal36]

Media Predictions 2015/16

Serie B

[AndyFal36]

Media Predctions 2015/16

Lega Pro Girone A

[AndyFal36]

Media Predctions 2015/16

Lega Pro Girone B

[AndyFal36]

Media Predctions 2015/16

Lega Pro Girone C

[FFCStu1428]

Stuart -ANCONA

Really solid week for game for me and my side, We have hung in there so far and have no intention of going away anytime soon. Below is how the season has gone so far.

Stand out victory has to be my 7-1. For one of the few times this season everything clicked at the right time, If i could find some consistency i would be fighting out for top sport but i keep losing silly games. My away form is not the best either so if im to make the playoffs this season then im going to have to be lights out at home.

SUMMER WINDOW

Was a Really busy time for me this window with so many ins and outs, Below is the full Result of me ripping apart the side and bringing in all my new players. The Data it right upto date.

INS

OUTS

As i said the summer was really busy lol.

OUTLOOK FOR 2ND HALF OF THE SEASON

I would love to go up this season but there is still alot of Football to be played. Ali is going well this season and the leaders are very strong. We will keep fighting till the end as we always do and see where we end up. There is money problems looming up for us at the end of the season so promotion would go along way in sorting that out.

Big thanks to our fans ones again who have come out this season and made us no1 in the league for Attendance. They keep the club going big time!!.

Well thats you upto date more soon

[AndyFal36]

End Of Week Standings Serie B

Joe sacked - Modena

Davie sacked - Perugia

[AndyFal36]

End Of Week Standings Lega Pro Girone A

Jonas sacked - Cremonese

[AndyFal36]

End Of Week Standings Lega Pro Girone B

[AndyFal36]

End Of Week Standings Lega Pro Girone C

Mike sacked - Reggina

[Athrill]

[Kaboooom]

[scooter28]

Well what can i say got got 1 of the best sides in the clan and i blew it big time 1st season i finished 4th with perugia lost in the semi final playoff for promotion thought to myself right get a few players in and push on the 2nd season to my suprise it never happened we looked like a diffrent side from the season before and the board had no option really they had to sack me. So i had to drop a division and now i am in charge of the mighty

Unione Sportiva Lecce or simply US Lecce is an Italian football club based in Lecce. Currently it plays in the Italian Lega Pro after the relegation from Serie A in the 2011–12 season to Serie B and the sentence of the Federal Court of Justice that excluded the team from the Serie B and relegated to the lower division, due of its involvement in Scommessopoli scandal.

The club was formed in 1908 and has spent a large part of their recent history bouncing between Italy's second division and Serie A, where the team gained its first promotion in 1985.

Team kits

Stadium

Stadio Via Del Mare opened on the 11th of September 1966 with a friendly between Lecce and Spartak Moscow. The stadium replaced Lecce’s old Stadio Carlo Pranzo.

Stadio Via Del Mare could initially only hold 16,000 spectators and had a rectangular shape. Its capacity was increased in 1976 with a further 4,500 places.

The stadium underwent a major redevelopment in 1985 when Lecce promoted to the Serie A. Both curves and parts of the lateral stands got completely rebuilt, resulting in a capacity of 55,000 places.

Though the stadium fulfilled all requirements to host matches during the 1990 World Cup, in the end was chosen to build a brand new stadium in nearby Bari.

Over the years, capacity of Stadio Via del Mare has been gradually reduced due to safety measures, first to about 40,000 and later to its present capacity.

The aim is to reach the playoffs this season anything lower than that i will not be happy

[Athrill]

[MaddogBaxter]

FOGGIA CALCIO UPDATE - Season 2 Week 1

Big changes for the new season at Foggia as McAlister cleared out the deadwood from last seasons squad and added players of a better quality and a squad with greater depth to cope with the injuries and suspensions that halted Foggia's promotion challenge.

A promising season overall resulted in greater commercial contracts being finalised and the board have backed me by doubling the wage bill I had from the previous season.

The Foggia Board of Directors offered me a new deal which I happily accepted.

Here are the In's and Out's so far this season:

I'm expecting big things from loan signing Juri Cisotti from Chievo, an attacking left winger, he should be able to provide the crosses for my striker this season.

I've also signed Wladimiro Falcone on loan from Sampdoria, the young keeper currently in the Italian U19's has got great potential and will be a fantastic signing at this level.

So far my season has panned out like this

It was my first outing in the Italian Cup after last seasons good finish. A good win against former Serie B side Crotone 1-0 in the First Qualifying Round was a good start before being narrowly defeated by Andy's Spezia side 3-2. Not bad considering they are a league above and went on to beat Lazio on penalties in the next round! After a promising pre-season and good additions to the squad I was confident of a good season ahead.

We are in a very promising position with over half the season gone. Foggia were well placed in 2nd until I had problems attending matches (internet problems) and my Assistant Manager managed the side down the league down to 12th. Since then I've managed the side back upto 5th place just outside the Play Offs, level on points with Salernitana. If I can stay in charge I'm confident that we will finish the season in the Play Offs minimum. I've given the side a target of winning 11 out of the remaining 15 matches. I believe this will secure us a place in the Play Offs and a chance of promotion to Serie B. It could be promotion or bust as the clubs finances aren't looking too great!

The form player for Foggia this season has been Serie C/C top goalscorer Giovanni Abate. I originally signed him as a backup to Ettore Marchi but an early injury forced me to play Giovanni and he has relished the opportunity and banged the goals in regulary for us.

FORZA FOGGIA!!

[redhawk]

MID-SEASON REVIEW (2015/16)

TRANSFERS

This summer was going to be a busy one, as the team needed strengthening in several places, including left-back, centre-back, midfield and up front to support Adam Campbell.

Goalkeeper

This was an area I wasn't going to touch, with Russo putting on some decent performances and Lund Hansen learning the language. However, I needed to meet the squad registration requirements, and this meant I had to sell one and seek an U-21 keeper. And boy did I find one, Marcus Halvorsen, 17 years old and already rated a good Serie A keeper. A bit short for my liking, but his ability was enough to persuade me to part with £350k, and sell Danilo Russo for £215K.

Left wing-back

Long-serving left wing back and club captain Massimo Scaglia retired from the game at 37; to be honest he was never first choice, with his physical ability dwindling rapidly during the season, meaning Brian Easton played wing-back, something he is not totally suited to. My solution for the 2015/16 season was to bring in Jorgen Skjelvik, a very pacey converted wing back, with Easton as back-up. Just now, in January, after months of unhappiness, Easton was sold, so I have loaned Danny Lafferty as back-up to Skjelvik.

Right wing-back

I left this position well alone. Birkir Mir Saevarsson turned around his poor start to be my top assister, while Umberto Germano provides promising and adequate back-up.

Centre-back

Everybody, that was already here and that I signed, was bloody useless at this position last season. Erlend Hanstveit was a major disappointment, while Franco Cosenza and Mohammed Coly were error-prone. The only one to show ability was Lukasz Sinkiewiecz, and even he was liable to drop a clanger or three. This was a priority position as a result. Hanstveit and Sinkiewiecz remained, Coly and Cosenza were sold, meaning 3-4 players were need, as I play 3 at the back. In came the very pacey Mauro Maloca, the very strong Martin Bjornback and the promising Lum Rexhepi. Five centre-backs would be enough but I signed the young Pavel Bochniewicz on a free loan as emergency cover.

Combative midfielder

Last season in this position I had Dickson Etuhu, Lee Williamson and Kelvin Matute in this role. None of which impressed and none of which came into 2015/16 with me. Instead I signed Ricardo Cazzola and McDonald Mariga to fight it out for this spot. Mariga lost out in this battle, with Cazzola playing very well, despite being a walking yellow card early on, and I reluctantly had to let Mariga go just now in January, bringing in Moustapha Diallo on very cheap wages as a replacement.

Box-to-box midfielder

This was the biggest coup of the transfer window, of possibly the entire clan's window. Tom Cleverley agreed to come to me on a free transfer! His stats are incredible for this level, and his value even more so, giving me a few nervous moments, as he rejected my first offer, having initially agreed. Finally I was able to snag him and as his back-up I re-loaned Luca Castiglia, who was first choice in this role the previous season.

Attacking midfielder

This position was unchanged, after the discovery of Marius Lundemo in this role in the latter part of last season. Daniel Berntsen and he continued as the options.

Striker

Last season, Adam Campbell was the top scorer in the whole of Serie B, so naturally I reloaned him for this season. Discarded were Ettore Marchi and Fabricio Do Marcolino, in their place came in Marco Borriello, now in the twilight of his career, but still very capable, and the very quick Dag Alexander Olsen, with his 20/20 pace. Aloys Nong remained from the previous year, but he left just now in January after getting zero games, and I signed Barreto on a free for half his wages.

FIXTURES

As you can see, we have had an incredible season, especially when you compare it to last year! We started off with strong wins in the Cup, which sent us into the league season with our tails up. Having won our first two, I came up against Davie's Perugia, and again it was another strange game for us, Perugia pulling off one of the luckiest 5 goals wins I have ever seen! A rebound, a penalty, an own goal, you name it, he got it. We bounced back in style though, with two excellent away victories, before gaining a lucky result of our own, at home to Fallon's Latina. We then lost the derby with Novara, drew with Entella at home and only just rescued a point away at Brescia, things were looking shaky.

That late goal at Brescia was the turning point though, as we embarked on a nine game winning streak, hitting four teams for four or more, including bouncing back from 2-0 down after 20 minutes to beat Benevento 5-2. We are now still unbeaten since September, but there is a caveat to that: we have drawn six of our last seven. Okay, some of these draws I am happy with, such as away at Inter, Palermo and Ternana, but others have been careless, like throwing away a 3-0 lead lately, and we were lucky to draw the afore mentioned games.

There are two ways of looking at this. Positively: this was our blip where we were supposed to losing and we've got draws. Or negatively: we've hit our peak and the rest of the season will be an anti-climax. With morale poor at the moment, after my failed attempt at a team meeting, I am prepared for the latter. On that side of negativity, we are heavily in debt, despite me being way under budget, and it seems this will only get worse as the season progresses. We might need to get promoted just to keep our players.

Here are the key stats for my players so far this season:

[Athrill]

[AndyFal36]

End Of Season Standings 2015.16 Serie B

[AndyFal36]

End Of Season Standings 2015.16 Lega Pro Girone A

[AndyFal36]

End Of Season Standings 2015.16 Lega Pro Girone B

[AndyFal36]

End Of Season Standings 2015.16 Lega Pro Girone C

[Athrill]

[Advantageous]

Alessandro Jacobo - San Marino Calcio

Serie C/B

Great first season in charge of the Titani, securing a play-off position at the first attempt. Highlights of the season include beating Stu at home and the collective performances of the side. We really played well as a unit, conceding just 37 goals all season, with 14 of those coming from corners. That needs to be sorted out for next season and I'll focus on improving our set-pieces in general, as we scored just 2 from corners in all competitions.

I was delighted with 4th place and couldn't expect any higher with the limitations I have here. Bit of an anti-climax as we were destroyed in the quarter finals of the play-offs, but still a great season non-the-less. The stand out players were of course my loan signings, with the inclusion of Mirko Palazzi, our Sammarinese flying Wing-Back who was close to achieving 20 assists during the season and Ferrero, my back-up Striker, who stepped up to the challenge to finish top scorer of the San Marino side.

Mirko Palazzi - Right Wing Back

33 appearances, 1 goal, 15 assists and a 7.42 average. Not bad for a players whose technical prowess looks questionable.

Serie C Cup

Assistant knocked me out in the first round. Apart from that, nothing more to say here. I'll do my best to exceed my boards expectations next season, but anything beyond the 2nd or 3rd rounds would be an overachievement. The plan for next season is to do as well as I can in the Serie C Cup to boost my job security and hope that my achievements this year are enough to secure my job throughout the following season. I cannot see the side challenging for the top 4 again at the moment, unless significant players are added to cover for the eventual fire-sale.

Next Season

Speaking of fire sale, I now have an even bigger challenge on my hands this time around. After the success of last season, the board now expect more of the same, with the minimal target being top 4 (play-off positions). I have no idea how I'm going to manage that one, considering that my board are selling my players from under me in an effort to stifle the ever growing debt the club finds itself in. Not much I could have done to stem the tide there, as I have by far the lowest wage budget in the league and I only sign freebies or loanees, but thats the challenge when you take on San Marino it seems. Our attendance's this season have risen from 300 to 600 on average, a growth of 3%. Pretty appalling really, but the fact that it has risen at all has to be a positive. Right? This is unfortunately why we are losing on average a million per season. Our gate receipts are practically nil and the sponsorships are the only income we have here.

Transfer wise, I've only managed to secure one of my loanees from last season, with the other three believing that San Marino is now beneath them. During the closing months of last season, I made the decision to release all of my U20 and U18 players, as well as the corresponding staff. Lets be honest, there's no real reason to keep them in Serie C as they are just a drain on our perilous finances. The target for next season will be to sign as many good loans as I can, whilst selling my first team players for as much as possible. I have to think long term with this club now, and that may well be the decimation of the team in favour of a more financially viable model. I have to hope here that the playing staff turnaround will not cause too much damage in regards to the morale of the lads and the familiarity of our tactics.

A bit of a down-beat update, but there is always a silver lining. Our youth academy appears to be churning out decent players, with 2 more potentially 'Leading Serie B' players finding there way into the first team. Depending on the situation in the coming seasons, they could either become great additions to the squad, driving us up the leagues into the promised land... or make great profits for the club, driving our bank balance out of the red in the process.

[redhawk]