[FM20] Il Sogno Siciliano

[TerminalPortugal]

For this save we will be playing with 26 year old Luca Marino, an Italian hailing from the Sicilian town of Mazara del Vallo.

The save will have every default European league loaded, this will not be altered throughout the whole save.

I have wanted to do a save where we load the whole of Europe and just see where we end up. There will no real rules to this save apart from I will be trying to play the game as realistically as possible in terms of when our avatar moves clubs. Basically if he can get more money, or manage a better club then he will take those jobs. To avoid us being at the same club forever, young Luca Marino is a greedy fella. He will try and get as much money out of the board as he can and if he thinks he’s being undervalued then he might walk or he might let his contract run out. The first rule will be there will no loyalty to anyone.

The secondary idea behind this save is to try and play pretty attacking football. We try and do this generally anyway, but we will try and build tactics that are just about scoring goals (obviously within reason). I also would like to start using some attacking midfielders as I rarely use them so I will try and build tactics that include that.

The background to our character is that he was a good player playing for local side in Sicily; Mazara Calcio, and that injury curtailed his career very early on. So Luca decided to do the next best thing and become a coach. He already has his Pro Licence and he starts with Professional Footballer (Local) reputation, so at least the first ten years of this save won’t be a battle with the board to get qualified as a coach.

The first year of the save we are going to treat as Luca’s final year of study, so we can only start looking for a job on 1^st July 2020. From there basically the world is our oyster and we can go wherever we like whenever we like.

To add to the realism I will be tracking our finances. We are going to start with £3,000 and we will obviously have to make sure that we are able to survive so when we find a club I will make sure that realistically we can afford to take the job etc.

In terms of updates I am going to switch it up from Turtle Race Journeyman save and have monthly update with results, the club, the squad and players and our finances.

[TerminalPortugal]

June 2020

We just finished our UEFA Pro Licence. This allows us to manage any club in any nation in Europe, and is a certain requirement to manage in the UEFA Europa League or UEFA Champions League, with that final hurdle out of the way, we are free to pursue a career in football management. During the course I picked up an agent who will represent us and open up his contact book to clubs across Europe who might be in need of a manager. We have no experience of management as yet, so this will be a big step.

Looking at our finances, we have about £3,000 to our name, and with current costs we will need to find something before the middle of September as around then is when we will likely run out of money. We currently rent an apartment in Valderice, which is just north of Trapani, and bought ourselves a Fiat Punto in Mazara del Vallo for 800 euros. We will need it soon enough.

Hopefully from next month, the agent will come through with available jobs and hopefully there will be someone willing to take a chance on a young manager.

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza-Eivissa

It only took until the 5th of July 2020 to find ourselves our first job. Our agent had a contact out in Spain, who identified that Ibiza were looking for a new manager and were willing to experiment with the appointment having dispensed with Pablo Alfaro. We got a plane out there and after a short meeting, we were told that they liked what they heard and that they wanted to appoint us. The money is pretty good as well - £1.6k a week, is very much a number I can live on for now. Now we just need to find a place to live. We plan to go back to Sicily and drive get a ferry with our stuff over to Ibiza.

Club History

Only a few Third Division titles to the clubs name.

The Current Starting XI

Club Expectations

#

Last Season's Table

We finished in 7th last season in the Segunda Division B de Espana Grupo I

Our Contract 

We signed a two year deal with the club at £1,600 per week.

The Clubs Finances

The clubs finances are not looking very healthy at the moment, we are over £2m in the red.

The First Team Squad

Stadium

Our Stadium at Can Misses, it holds 4,500 of which there is 500 seated in Ibiza. The council own the stadium and it is an old synthetic pitch.

Best Players

Out of the whole squad these five look like the stand out players, that I can see in the squad.

 

 

 

Edited August 9, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

Tactical Overview

We have three different tactics (all tactics have the same passing style, pressing etc, only positions are changing). The style will be tiki-taka short passing, and a high press. We will work our way through them in the early season and see what works and what does not work.

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza-Eivissa - July 2020

We have been in Ibiza for almost a month now, and pre-season training has started in preparation for the season. I have now met the boys and told them what I expect of them. There have been no games as yet. We have some pre-season friendlies and the start of the league season next month. We were moved to Grupo B III. 

This will be our division for the coming season. We will play the likes of Atletico Madrid B, Valencia Mestalla, Villarreal B as well recognisable teams such as Gimnastic and Hercules.

The club did not have much staff and we do have a budget for key staff members, the hiring is a mix between ourselves and representatives of the club. We brought David Prieto as assistant manager, based on a good recommendation. 

In terms of ourselves, we have had to get settled in Ibiza. It took about 3 days to drive across from Sicily to Barcelona to pick up the ferry to Ibiza. We stayed in a hotel while we found our flat, which we were quickly able to resolve. At £1,600 a month, it should be pretty affordable for us and is right in the town, which should give me plenty of time to focus on the training. They did insist we pay a pretty large deposit of a month's rent, so our bank balance is looking a bit brittle at the moment, but we should be able to live within our means

 

Manager Assets:-

Fiat Punto 2001

Manager Bank Balance:- 

As of 29/07/2020 - £1,814.40

 

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - August 2020

Early in the month, the odds for the new season came out and we were made 12th favourites for the league. The press were expecting us to finish about mid-table.

We began our campaign with a behind closed door friendly against our B team and we won quite easily. I decided early on we would use my current three formations and see which worked best and we would deploy that one for the first game of the season. We would continue to win our friendlies against Formentera and Sta. Eulalia. Then it was time for our first league game of the season against CD Eldense, who hail near Valencia on the mainland. In the end we managed to get a 1-1 draw away which I will take as our first game in management. It was a pretty even game, they took the lead in the 2nd half and we equalised about 10 minutes later. Neither side looked too threatening in the first half.

We sit 11th after our draw, as August comes to completion.

Manager Assets

Fiat Punto 2001

Manager Bank Balance as of 26th August 2021

£3,499.58

 

 

Edited August 9, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - September 2020

In the early part of the month, we had a meeting with our scouts. We had this meeting at least weekly, but on this particular occassion they told me about a defender named Tiri, that could play right across the backline. He looked good so we got in touch with his people and after some dealing with his agent we got him to sign on the dotted line.

September was an interesting month for us, we decided to experiment with the different formations I wanted the boys to be able to play in. The first two games ended in draws, which meant that we had drawn our first three games of the season, but finally in the 4th games against much fancied Castellon we finally got our first win by 1-0. The we seemingly decided to continue to repeat that as we won the next 2 games also by the same scoreline. Well as long as your winning it is not a problem. We went away to Levante B and also got the win by 2-1, before we welcomed Hercules to Ibiza and gave them a good hiding winning 3-0. The boys are beginning to understand the system, we deployed our 4-2-3-1 more than that other formations this month. I like the idea of the opposition struggling to pin us down because we might change things up on them on the night. So far we look good.

The league table sees us in 3rd place, three points behind UE Cornelia and Gimnastic.

Manager Assets

Fiat Punto 2001

Manager Bank Balance as of September 30th 2020

£5,590,65

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - October 2020

We continue to mix it up for the opposition and the results have been good this month as we continue to over-perform it seems. In terms of the games, we started off the month with a home cup tie against lower league Constancia, we deployed the 4-1-4-1 and came out 8-0 winners, in a fantastic ruthless display. Next up was a tough one as we went away to Cartagena, and we changed it up again and came away with a 3-0 win. A week later we welcomed Villarreal B to the Can Misses and again changed it up for another win. It seems that teams are finding it very hard to predict how we will line up. Eldense was the next tie in the cup and we knew they had seen us play the 4-1-5 against them in league opener so we changed to the 4-1-4-1 this time around a got a late penalty to win the game. They are a hard side to break down, no matter how we play. Next we did draw a game at to Las Rozas, before a big win against Conquense where again we deployed the 4-2-3-1 this time around. I am enjoying mixing up the tactical system against the teams in the league, they are finding us hard to predict.

We sit in 3rd place in the league one point behind Cornelia and Gimnastic.

Now that we have played a few games I though we should probably cover the squad in a bit of detail and how everyone is performing. Angel Rodado has been the go to man for goals. He sits on 14 in 14 at the moment and he seems to be pretty lethal at this level. none of the other strikers have really had a look in with him this kind of form. Alex Manchuca has generally occupied the right wing position, he at the moment has the most key passes which for me is a key stat, he is averaging over 2 key passes a game which is very nice and shows good creativity from the wing. Borja Martinez is on loan from Hercules, he has been great for us this season, primarily from the left wing position he has got goals this season and leads the side in assists with 5 so far.

Every time I see the chairman he seems to have a huge grin on his face. They keep telling us we are doing a great job. I am becoming a lot better at speaking Spanish, it is pretty easy when you know Italian already.

I am beginning to think about perhaps buying a house out here in Ibiza, it is such a nice island and it makes sense to pay my own mortgage rather than someone else. Speaking to the bank they are saying I need a deposit of around 10% of the value of the house, so it will be something we save up for, but I think I should be able to scrape enough money together to buy something in the next year or so.

Manager Assets

Fiat Punto 2001

Manager Bank Balance as of 28/10/2020

£7,270.10

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - November 2020

November is complete and we went out of the Copa Federacion to Ebro on penalties to record our first loss (if you count penalty losses). The form has been okay this month, but we have picked up quite a few draws in the league. We are still doing well but we have lost a little bit of the killer instinct. We have picked up a few injuries mostly in training, which has not helped us much. Still things are positive for us.

We sit in 3rd place equal on point with Gimnastic, and 7 points behind leaders UE Cornelia.

This is the squad view at the end of November. Roblado has moved on to 17 goals from 20 games, Martinez is the next highest scorer on 8 goals and has the most assists on 6 this season.

Manager Assets

Fiat Punto 2001

Manager Bank Balance as of 25/11/2020

£8,944.34

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - December 2020

We took our first loss of the league season away at Alcoyano. It was bound to happen eventually and we were definitely not the better side that day, however we recovered well to record two wins in our next two games before the Christmas break.

The President called us in for a board meeting with the Club Treasurer. The meeting concerned the finances of the club and the need to try and minimise costs. The board decided that the wage budget would be cut to £18.5k and that I was responsible for getting spending down to that level, which we are currently spending £5k a week more than that. I was not too happy, we are on a promotion run and they want to want me to get rid of players when we already have a pretty small squad to begin with. We barely sell any tickets to our matches and that I think is the route of the problem. The league does allow terracing so it is not down to the fact that we only have 500 seats, in a 4,500 capacity stadium. There is just not a lot of interest and support for the team on the island. 

Anyway if we are promoted they had better pay me my 15% increase in salary.

The league shows that we sit in 2nd place at around the half way point of the league season, we are 7 points behind runaway leaders UE Cornelia and 2 points ahead of Gimnastic.

The squad is above. Angel Rodado has 18 goals this campaign which is pretty good going. Martinez has 9 goals and Boyko 6. We are very much reliant on the goals of Rodado to get us through games. I was going to offer him a new contract since he only has 7 months to run on his existing contract, however with the board reducing the wage budget severely they are not allowing me to make him any kind of realistic offer. So we might end up losing him and some other players next season. U.D. Las Palmas are already sniffing round Rodado.

This month the plan is to go back to Sicily for Christmas and visit the family, we have budgeted £800 for the trip and we also have the car MOT after that, which no doubt will be expensive considering the age of the car we have. We may need to consider getting a new one at some point, when we have some spare cash laying about that we aren't saving.

Manager Assets:-

Fiat Punto 2001

Manager Bank Balance as of 30/12/2020

£10,973.21

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - January 2021

We didn't deploy the 4-1-5 this month, it will be back next month. I don't want to become predictable, so we went with a 4-1-4-1 and the 4-2-3-1 back to back and we won all our games this month, so it seemed to have worked. Wins against Levante B, Villarreal B, Cartagena and Vallecano B this month.

We sit in 2nd, 5 points behind UE Cornelia, and we are now 9 points ahead of Castellon, who have overtaken Gimnastic.

Marca, published a review of our league at the end of January, with some of the key stats for the players. Good to see we are represented in the good columns, but it is generally by Angel Rodado, showing how important he is to us.

Also published in the newspaper was the manager changes that had happened this season. It's always a helpful reminder of how quickly you can lose your job if things go badly.

The squad at the end of January. Martinez and Javi Perez have been the guys getting the goals this month. Rodado has been out injured and young Equatorial Guinean Mbemgono has been starting up front in a few of the games, he didn't really perform too great so that is a bit worrying with the situation with Angel Rodado. At the back Alex Quintanilla our Basque centre back has been in superb form and one of the key players for us and a big reason why we have been so solid at the back.

I am not an accountant, but I decided to look at the finances produced by the treasurer, and our problem is pretty clear, we make almost no money and spend a quarter of a million euros a month. That is a surefire way to get into debt.

In the middle of the month we had a meeting with Fernando Soriano our Director of Football and our Chief Scout Miguel Angel Echavarri. The meeting was to discuss the youngsters graduating the Ibiza Juniors this season, who would be ready for the senior squads next season. Soriano doesn't like the quality coming through, he doesn't think there is much coming through. He does like a youngster, who played attacking midfield for us, who actually lives in Majorca, the island next to Ibiza in the Balearic's. Apparently there is also centre-back that could be decent. We won't know for sure until the their season is over in April and they will play a friendly against our Youth Side.

We returned from our Christmas visit to Sicily and the family seemed to be good. My brother Alessandro had found work around Verona and was moving in February to start his life there. It was a bit of fly in and fly out visit due to the commitments to the club and the fact we had games and training to take care of. We had to get the MOT for the car and it came to around £600, so the finances have taken a bit of a hit, but we can afford it.

Manager Assets:

Fiat Punto 2001

Manager Bank Balance as of 27/01/2021

£11,353.36

Edited August 10, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - February 2021

Another good month for us. We did lose away to Getafe B, with the 4-2-3-1, we did not deploy it for the rest of the month instead opting for our other two formations. We got wins against Eldense, Alcoyano and Intercity. We had dropped points to all these teams before, so we looked at what formations had worked and which hadn't and reacted accordingly, and we got the wins.

It is an 8 point gap between us and UE Cornelia, who are pretty relentless at the top of the league, having said that we have opened up a 10 point gap to 3rd placed Castellon, so we look very good now for a promotion playoff place.

Angel Rodado has pretty much been playing this month carrying an injury and it has affected his performances but he still got a brace against Alcoyano and another against Eldense at the start of the month. Martinez, who is on loan from Hercules has continued his fine form this month, with another couple of goals. Vitaliy Boyko is a guy we have not spoken about much, he plays all around the positions when we change up the tactics and is an important cog. He has been amongst the goals this month as well and is having a fine season. He has had an interesting career so far, started in his native Ukraine, and wound up in Ibiza B Team, now playing for us in the first team.

Outside of football we have been looking at some cars to replace our ailing Fiat Punto, but not found anything that takes our fancy as yet. Hopefully our little Italian Stallion doesn't pack up on us, it's 20 years old now and has over 200,000 km on the clock.

Manager Assets

Fiat Punto 2001

Manager Bank Balance as of 24th February 2021

£12,940.95

 

[dllu]

A good start so far. And a nice touch with the "manager assets". I look forward to seeing when you'll be able to - or forced by the MOT to - part with your almost-vintage car...  

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - March 2021

We completed another month in the league and we had some tough games this month, but we passed the test very well. Gimnastic was up first, and now we have at least some reference tactically of how they play and how they did against our formations. Earlier in the season we played the 4-1-5 and had gotten a draw, so this time we went with the 4-2-3-1 and this time got the win 2-1, a narrow win, but one we will take against one of the better teams in the division. Valencia Mestalla was up next and we had beaten them earlier in the season with the 4-1-4-1, so we went again with it, but this time we got a draw, in a 2-2 goalfest. Conquense was a team I expected to beat, we had beaten them with the 4-2-3-1 quite easily last time but I expected the 4-1-5 would do just as much damage and we got an easy win 2-0. Last up was Las Rozas, who had proved a tough team to break down. Earlier in the season the game ended 0-0 and we had played the 4-1-5. This time we went with the 4-1-4-1 to allow a bit of space on their backline, and it worked well, as we caught them very early through Boyko to win 1-0. Las Rozas are a defensively minded side so getting an early lead helped a lot.

Valencia Mestalla and Toledo had a game postponed for a waterlogged pitch but everyone else has played the 32 games up to now and we are closing on UE Cornelia, who have started dropping points this month. It is now just a 2 point gap to them inthe league. Castellon also had a good month and are now 8 points behind us in the league.

A local Ibiza paper that normally has an 8 page spread every weekend covered the story that this was the best we had ever done in Grupo III. Since the groups change every year it appears to me I am unsure that is that much of an achievement, but still there is a feel-good atmosphere around the club and the city and that can only be a good thing, with us riding high in the league. Still doesn't mean the locals come and watch the games though.

 

The biggest problem at the club had been the finances. Every month we had a finances meeting, where the board put it in rather nice terms that I needed to reduce the wage bill. I was getting annoyed with them. They had sold the club as one thing, and had halfway through the season slashed the budget. That is not my fault. With the fact that I was doing very little to cull an already diminished playing staff and probably that fact that we were doing well in the league and they did not want to upset me, the chairman Amadeo Salvo had been in talks with several banks and had secured a loan for the club to the tune of £3.5m. This meant the bank balance went back to positive, but we would now have even more outgoings every month. However the board are still not letting me negotiate any realistic deals for our standout players like Rodado, so it doesn't really help me much on the football pitch.

The squad are looking, some very nice performances this month. Rodado has got himself up to 23 goals in 32 appearances, and looks like he could break our goals in a season record. Boyko and Martinez continue to excel. Javi Lara, a veteran for the team has been getting a few assists this season and has been again one of those guys where he can do multiple jobs on the pitch especially when we change formations.

Elsewhere I had warned that the car we had bought in Sicily was probably on it's last legs and one day this week it would not start, some problem with the engine, that set me back £350 this month. We probably need to move the Fiat on to be honest. We have saved a fair bit of money and to be honest, buying a flat in Ibiza can probably wait.

Manager Assets:-

Fiat Punto 2001

Manager Bank Balance as of 31/3/2021

£14,491.13

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - April 2021

At Ibiza we have the odd press conference every now and then. Press Officer Antonio Cruz tends to arrange them with the local press. My goal in press conferences is not to give anything away about the team and generally be diplomatic. Ms. Antonio Hernandez representing The Spanish Football Express (never heard of them), was all about hyping up our title chances. I went down the diplomatic route, saying we had a chance, but we needed a bit of luck all that. For the final question she seems to have interpreted "It's in God's hand" to me not being prepared to answer the question, I wasn't about to answer the question directly as to who would win the league, but at least print what I say.

Later on predictably the press were stirring the pot when we played UE Cornella in the league this month, a top of the table clash, and I decided to put his team under pressure. When Onesimo decided to downplay what we had achieved I decided to risk it all and tell him he would be eating his words after our match. It was a risk, not one I would normally allow myself to take.

The local press were running stories and the run in for the title was coming down to the following fixtures, the game between the top two earmarked as the decider already in the mind of everyone.

The fixtures this month had some tough ties. We started with Toledo at home and we went with the 4-1-5 and got the win. Sant Andreu were next and we went 4-2-3-1 and got a narrow win, we did the job in the first half and managed to stave them off. Next was Atletico B, always a tough affair especially with the travel to Madrid for the game. We went 4-1-4-1 and the game was a goalfest. We led three times, but got pegged back every time. It was a draw I would take but that meant going into the grudge match against Cornella we were behind them by a couple of points. The press conversation we conducted probably entertained the fans, but amplified the pressure on both sides. Well in the end we came through, not really sure how we did, in the end we finish the game with 9 men and score two goals with 10 vs 11. But my prophecy had come true, Onesimo is left regretting having a go at us.

The words continued to flow after the match after we reveled in our win.

Following the game against Cornella, results had gone both our ways and both us secured a playoff place anyway, which probably means the match in the end wasn't that important.

At the end of the month, me and the Director of Football got together again to watch the Juniors train in preparation to face our Youth side, this time to go through some of the names in the Junior side. Soulyeman Niang looked the most promising of the players, a Spanish/Senegalese dual national, who had been a stalwart at the back for Ibiza Juniors. Then we had Jeroni Aneas, he was the chap that everyone was talking about from the first meeting concerning the Junior side. He was a winger from Espories in Majorca. He had some decent flair and you could see he was the kind of player that could do the unpredictable. Ivan Tovar, was another winger, he had a bit of pace and could take a nice free kick, he scored a couple in the training session. Fernando Moreno, was another winger who had been kept out of the side by Aneas for a lot of the Junior season, and has occasionally played right back, his main attribute was pace, but his technical ability was a bit lacking. Abel Moreno, no relation to Fernando was another guy who stood out, he was super aggressive in midfield, very decent at breaking up play and had a bit of an engine on him, his technical ability again was a bit lacking however. The final Junior that seemed to stand out of the pack, was another Spanish/Senegalese dual national in Lamine Diouf, he is a centre back, that could play right full back, he had a decent tackle and was exceptionally brave, especially for headers. He was also huge standing at over 2 meters tall, certainly someone who could if worked on correctly provide an aerial threat from set pieces and deal with ball into our box in the air. 

The Juniors ended up winning the game against our Under 19s, 4-0 showing some promise. Aneas stood out on the day.

The Director of Football decided to bring in pretty much all the youngsters into the set up. We were lacking in the Under 19s so at least we might be able to develop one or two of them.

Looking at the squad, Borja Martinez stands out for special praise as he now has 17 goals and 14 assists this season as he has driven our creativity forward. Rodado of course is always a threat and he has moved on to 24 goals this season. Boyko is getting up there in goals as well with 11 this season. Also Quintanilla, our Basque centre-back has been a serious threat from corners and side free kicks, bagging six goals from centre-back

With the win against UE Cornella we find ourselves one point ahead in the league. My understanding is that the top four go to the playoffs and there is no real benefit to winning the league beyond saying you won the league and getting a trophy. Either way the winner of league will be between us and Cornella this season.

With the Fiat Punto, pretty much on it's last legs, we went over to Valencia to check some cars, and found a nice Fiat 500 1.2L with pretty low mileage. We made the guy an offer of 8,100 euros which he took. Later in the week we went over to the garage and sold off our weary Punto a graveyard of parts salvaging, he gave us 180 euros for it, so we made some money. At least now we have a somewhat reliable motor, we hope. So our cash has taken a hit but we needed a new car anyway, sometimes you just have to dig into the savings.

Manager Assets:-

Fiat 500 1.2L (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 28/4/2021

£8,652.82

Edited August 10, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

3 hours ago, dllu said:

A good start so far. And a nice touch with the "manager assets". I look forward to seeing when you'll be able to - or forced by the MOT to - part with your almost-vintage car...  

Thanks, yeah I am also interested what Luca might be able to accumulate over a career. Already had to sell the Punto, too many issues with it.

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - May 2021

The regular season is over and we secured the title against Villarabia after Cornella had dropped points in their second to last game against CD Toledo. It is a little bit anti-climatic for us, because despite the title win, we are not actually promoted as yet, we have to go into the playoffs. They are are a bit complicated to understand, but as I understand we have several opportunities of making it to the top division. We just need to make one of the finals during the various phases. Well either way it will all become clearer nearer the time.

The board actually played a pretty good one, by making the title decider against Villarubia a fan day where fans can get into the stadium for a reduced price. According to the chairman he thinks it was a success, especially because we captured the title that day. Hopefully more fans decide to come to games, the club really needs the money.

The board have told me, that should I wish I am allowed to employ a data analyst. At this time I am a little unsure if it would just be a waste of money; money that could be better spent on the playing staff whether we go up or we stay in the Segunda B.

The draw for the Segunda B Playoff took an eternity but eventually we have been paired up with Grupo IV winner CD Lugo. They hail from Galicia, and it will be quite a trek to get across the country to play them. They definately have more of a history than we do. Hopefully we can upset them as I am sure they would be favourites for a tie between us two.

Lugo won their division quite comfortably ahead of Cultural Leonesa.

In terms of the final table for us, we won the league by 6 points from UE Cornella, who kind of fell away at the end.

In terms of the top players this season. Leo Ramirez was the best player in the league, he played for Cornella, 2nd place was Rulo, and then finally in 3rd was our top striker Angel Rodado. Rodado also took away the golden boot with 22 goals this season and he won more man of the matches than any other player with 8. Borja Martinez shared the assist crown with Rulo of Cornella. At the other end we also had the most yellow cards picked up by a player as Niguez managed to go into the book 13 times this season.

It has been a great season for many in the team this season, there are just a few games to go and we certainly deserve to be promoted. As mentioned Rodado was top goalscorer with 25 in all competitions. Martinez ended up with 17 goals and 17 assists, showing what a presitigous talent he is at this level. Boyko and Javi Perez ended up with double digit goals this season, and Alex Machuca picked up 8 in the end from the wing. A good season but one that is not yet over.

Well last time out we bought ourselves a Fiat 500 and now we are saving money up again to hopefully scrape together enough for a deposit.

Manager Assets

Fiat 500 1.2L (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 26/5/2021

£10,160.73

 

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - June 2021

We face CD Lugo away. This was a difficult one, as I had very little to go on as to how they would line up against us. I assumed that because we were away that they would expect that we would be more defensive, so I decided to buck the trend and go for the 4-1-5 which I consider to be the most attacking of our formations. It almost backfired, as they got a lead and we trailed for long periods. They could have had a 2nd goal, but it was disallowed and there would be contraversy about the decision after game. We did eventually get a late penalty which Borja Martinez put away and we got out of Galicia with a 1-1 draw. The return leg was only a few days later, and this time we went with the 4-2-3-1, and it worked wonders early as we quickly got 2 goals up. Lugo pulled one back but they could not getting any more and that was enough to see us progress to the final, where would play Extremadura.

Extremadura come from the central Spain near the Portuguese border.

So we had another trek to get to their ground for the game and again there was not much time between games, only five days to make all preparations.

This time because we had gone 4-1-5 away before, I decided we would go to what I considered the most measured formation in our arsenal, the 4-1-4-1 for the away game and what do you know it worked wonderfully well, as Rodado and Martinez got the goals, after Extremadura had taken the lead. A late red card probably didn't help them, but we did not care, we will take the win and await Extremadura for our home leg.

The second leg was simpler, with the job done against Extremadura away, now was the time to attack and so we went back to the 4-1-5 and pretty much blew them out of the water right from the start, as we came through 4-0 winners and 6-1 winners on aggregate, and that was enough for us to secure promotion.

One of the major benefits we got was that the board at least decided that next year's budget should allow us to sign some of the guys that we had basically been resigned to losing this summer, as previously we could not retain them. The new budget would be enough to retain the key guys and we got to work offering out the contracts for a good season.

All the guys above were pretty much stalwarts throughout the whole season and at least we manage to get them back for another season, this time in LaLiga 2.

In terms of the board we had been able to achieve promotion ahead of schedule. If you ask me another season in the Segunda B and we would have been out of business or in administration. They want me to repair the damage to club that has been done financially, which I think is a bit rich considering when I arrived I was under the wage budget and the club had already £2.5m worth of debt. We will see what we can do, but I am not going to break my back trying to fix their mismanagement.

Edit: forgot to add squad view, a couple of players have retired and Borja Martinez has left after his loan finished.

For the team of the season, the fans went with the 4-2-3-1 as our formation. We used all systems pretty evenly so this one is as good as any.

Angel Rodado

Borja Martinez  Vitaliy Boyko  Javi Perez

Alex Machuca

Miguel Nunez

Tiri   Juanito Vicent    Alex Quintanilla   Jorge Devesa 

German Parreno

Rodado is the player of the season and well deserved the amazing goalscoring he accomplished this season.

Plenty of club records broken this season, including single season goals, single season assists, most man of the match in a season and clean sheets.

The board have announced a training camp. It will be a local one in the Balearic Islands, but at least will give the players some focus to bring them up to speed in the new season.

The board decided (since they have joint responsibility with myself over staff appointments) to bring a chief data analyst to the club. Hopefully he proves useful.

Playing La Liga 2 football requires a much larger stadium than we currently have, so we are taking advantage of a rule that the Spanish FA have in place that allows us to defer investment in a stadium for 2 years to bring it up to the required capacity. I guess this is prudent since next season we will be amongst the favourites to go back down and the club don't want to build a new stadium when we already only get around a 6% utilisation of the stadium, which must be one of the worst in the league.

In terms of the manager, I am looking forward to the break. Whilst I am still expected to make preparations for the new season. I am going to have a 2 week holiday in Italy at the end of June to early July and then come back and make preparations for the new season. No doubt the Director of Football will be on the phone to discuss transfers and whatever else he can think of, but we need the break. Football management is taxing. Also we are awaiting news on the fact that since we were promoted we should receive an increase in salary, I believe it is 15%, so that will be very nice and very welcome.

Manager Assets

Fiat 500 1.2L (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 30/6/2021

£12,187.96

 

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - July 2021

Fixtures

The new season is underway and we have been in Palma de Majorca for our training camp. While we were there we scheduling some friendlies against some of the islands sides, all either within Palma itself or another part of the island. Well things have gone very well in terms of the results on the pitch. We are continuing with our three tactics and have deployed them all so far and the results have been great, we are yet to concede a goal and we scored plenty, although of course the opposition was not the best. Anyway these games are all about fitness anyway.

Finances

In the early part of June we got a report from the Treasurer, regarding the types of income that we had come in, and it looks pretty pitiful. Most of the money generated came from sponsorships. We didn't even crack £30k at the gates this season, it shows how under appreciated the club are in the local community, hopefully that will change with a season in La Liga 2.

Retirements

We had a couple of retirements from the first team, which we will need to replace either with youngsters or transfers in to the club.

TV Money Announcement

We had some great news on the financial front, we will be receiving £4.94m over the course of the season from TV Revenue for playing in La Liga 2, hopefully that will go a long way to resolving our current financial issues that we have at the club. I am sure the chairman is happy with that.

Youth Setup

Now that the club have reached La Liga 2, we can have our Under 19's participate in the Elite U19 competitions, so that should be a step up for our youngsters this season.

Transfers

We brought in three transfers this July. The first is a loan move for Dani Villa from Granada. I think he will suit this level very well and can play in all the attacking positions.

Secondly we brought in Jose Irizo on a free transfer. He was unattached and he adds more quality in the attacking positions. Very happy to pick him up.

The final transfer is Carlos Garcia, a young centre back who was released by Espanyol. He will compete for those centre back spots this season.

I am unsure whether we will get anyone else in at this stage, it is possible this will be signings for this window.

Injuries

Talking of centre backs we had some bad news when it came to young centre back Juanito Vicent, who got a bad injury in pre-season training. He will miss a good chunk of the season unfortunately.

Staff Update

The final news involving the club this month, was that our assistant manager David Prieto left to take charge of Ecija, so we had to replace him and we have got a suitable replacement in.

Borja Cantarutti, joins us as assistant manager, he had a long career as a player and I think he has what it takes to be a very good assistant and coach.

Pre-Season Odds

In the media they have released the pre-season odds for La Liga 2 and we are expected to be relegated this season. I expected as much, so we will see if we can survive the drop.

Manager Update & Job Interviews

In terms of myself as a manager, I travelled to Sicily as I said I would on holiday, saw the family and friends. It was all very nice. The interesting part happened  a couple of days before we were due to go back to Ibiza. Our agent called us, telling us that he had been in touch with several clubs, including Foggia who play in the Italian third tier. They are a club that have some history in 90's Italian football, and after parting with their manager, they were interested to have an interview with me. I attended and met the board and told them what my vision for the club would be if I was appointed manager. They told me that they would be in touch soon to let me know their decision.

Six days later they told me that they enjoyed meeting me and liked what I said but they had gone with Gianluca Urgnani, and Under 18 Coach from Inter Milan. My agent said that they liked me but they were hung up on this guy from Inter, and that at the very least it was good news that clubs in Italy were beginning to take notice of us. Would have taken the job, you ask? Well if they paid me the same as they're paying Urgnani, you bet your ass I would take it!

Career Progress So Far

Manager Assets:-

Fiat 500 1.2L (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 28/07/2021

£13,790.32

 

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - August 2021

Fixtures

We finished up our friendlies, which were all local clubs, they did not provide much of test, which worried me a little going into the season, if we were expecting the steamroll sides and then find we were playing a class above. However the first result of the season was a huge surprise for us. Racing Santander are a shadow of the side that used to play regularly in the top division however still it was an unexpected result. We deployed the 4-1-5 since it was the first game of the season and I wanted to be as positive as I could be and it came out trumps as we demolished Racing 5-1. Aneas the youngsters who came through the academy last season I decided early in the season to call up to the first team and he got on to score his first goal for the club and make history as he became our youngest scorer, at the tender age of 16 years old. The good times kept rolling as we went away to Alaves, and changed it up to the 4-2-3-1, and got another remarkable win away. The final game of the month, saw us recieve FC Andorra and this time even with the 4-1-5 we could not break them down. Andorra defended well and kept us to a draw. A really good month from us which gives us confidence that we can stay up this season.

Press

Racing Santander manager, believes we could stay up. He was responding to me saying that it was early days and that I was not sure (got to play things down). He should probably keep his mouth shut, his team look like they might be for the drop this season.

League Table

We currently sit in 4th place, 2 points behind Las Palmas and equal on points with Real Valladolid and Huesca.

Player Stats

Looking at the league leaders, Angel Rodado is the our only player in any category, he has had a very good start to the season with 3 goals and a great rating of 8.17 so far. Glad we could sign him to a new contract at the end of last season.

Summary of Our Travels

One away game for us this month, as we went up to Alaves and had two games back on the island. Over 1,200km accumulated this month.

Squad Overview

In terms of the squad, I have to highlight Angel Rodado, who has already bagged himself three goals this season and has our best rating so far in our opening games. Javi Perez has been about as good, he has picked up three goals already as well and is blossoming in the attacking midfield roles or on the wing, he is an important player for us this season. Jose Irizo, having just joined the club has already given the fans plenty to see why we brought him on board, again he is one of the front guys who are getting so much joy in the 4-1-5.

Miguel Nunez is getting on in age but he has started the season very well, he has picked up an assist and been solid defensively, he is winning 86% of his tackles and has an 87% completed pass accuracy which have been key to why he has been so good in helping us build up play.

Finally we have to pick out Alex Quintanilla our Basque centre back. Every team needs someone to keep things tight at the back, and he currently boasts a 100% tackle win percentage which is pretty insane after 3 games. You just ain't getting past him.

Manager Update

We have been busy with the new season that we have not had much time to think about ourselves. We again are building up a nest egg for a house, but we only have 1 year left on our deal and I have to be conscious that if things don't go well they could let our contract expire. I have also been pretty annoyed. In my contract it clearly states that I will get a 15% increase if we are promoted, but the board are still paying us the £1,500 per week we always got. It got to a head when I pulled the Director of Football aside and asked him what was going on. He gave me some hogwash that there had been a freeze on the promotion clauses. They forget that I am aware of the TV money. I spoke to my agent, I was ready to walk, but he calmed me down and told me to forget about it. We would get them when they renewed our contract... if they renew our contract, I corrected him. So on the house front, we may wait and see whether we sign a new contract and just save up the money we make, and then buy something when we get a longer term contract.

Manager Assets:-

Fiat 500 1.2L (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 25/08/2021

£15,384.37

 

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - September 2021

Transfer Window

As August ended and September began so did the transfer window and it was big news over here in Spain as Real Madrid went postal signing both Bernado Silva from Manchester City and Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint Germain for a combined £371m, added to Jorginho from Chelsea for just shy of £50m and Eduardo Carnavinga from Rennes for £37.5m. They were clearly not holding back the purse strings.

It would be nice to even have 1/10,000th of their resources.

Fixtures

We came back down to Earth this month. We did beat Real Madrid Castilla, but then suffered losses to Numancia and Barcelona B before securing a draw at home to Huesca. To be honest we were only outmatched against Barcelona B, we deserved a point against Numancia, and we could have beaten Huesca but they defended well. We have switched it up this month and I still think it is helping to unbalance opposition managers facing us.

Injuries

We had a big blow this month as star defender Quintanilla is going to be out for a while with broken ribs sustained in training.

Travels This Month

We made a trip to Madrid for the Numancia game and another to Barcelona, as well as the return and games in Ibiza itself. Over 2,000 km this month travelled.

League Table

We now sit in 9th, which I am still very happy with. We are equal on points with Real Valladolid and Albacete and a point behind Alaves, who we already beat this season.

Top Players

We have no one in the top players list aside from Devesa and for the wrong reasons, as he has already picked up 3 yellow cards. Abe of Barcelona is not messing around when it comes to putting the ball in the back of the net and Alex Collado looks like a great player for Barcelona B carrying a rating of 8.19 at the moment.

Press

Maybe my Spanish is not as good as I first thought, as a question from the press, stating that Cartagena were looking at me, seemed to be taken for more than I meant it when I said it is nice to hear that clubs are interested and think I am doing a good job at Ibiza. That became "Merino wants Cartagena job". The Ibiza board took it well and responded hoping we stay. Well my answer to that is, it depends what they pay!

Manager Update

We are travelling a lot with the team but I did find time to meet a girl out in Ibiza Town, her name is Erica and she is native of the island. Just dinner at this stage, nothing too serious. Outside of any romantic fronts. I got a call from my brother in Verona and he was in a bind with some bills so we have sent him £500 to tide him help him out. Spoke to my agent this week and he says there is some interest in our services, but some of the clubs are not at this wanting to sack their managers. He would keep us aware of any interest that comes our way.

Manager Assets

Fiat 500 1.2L (2018)

Manager Bank Balance on 29/9/2021

£16,752.81

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - October 2021

Fixtures

We will start of with the fixtures this month, and it has been tough going, but we picked up 5 points, and that is pretty acceptable for me. We first went off to Tenerife, and got a great result there. They had a man sent off after just 6 minutes and we made sure made them pay for their ill discipline. We then hosted Albacete and it was a close run game, but they just outscored us 3-2. Extremadura is a team I know well having played them twice last year in the playoffs, we went with the the 4-1-5 because they had capitulated against it, but they had learned from their mistakes and the situation was different and they countered us well and got a 1-0 win.

Oviedo came to town and we went 4-1-5 again and this time picked up the 3-0 win. I think the 4-1-5 is becoming a go to home tactic for me or when I need to try and win a game and the other two work better on the road. We went back to the 4-1-4-1 for the trip to Zaragoza and got a very creditable draw there. So overall I am pretty happy with the month and how it has gone for us.

Press

There was plenty of press conferences and interviews this month. Not a part of the job I enjoy especially in Spain. Apparently my comments on Cartagena went far enough for the fans to write a letter to the board to go out and get us, shows how things can get out of hand. Cartagena are in the division below us and all I have heard is that they can't afford us. I note that I do speak Spanish fluently, perhaps there is just a gap in translation between Italian and Spanish. Then I got myself in more trouble before the Albacete game, with the press going back and forth between me and there manager talking about relegation. Their manager was so defeatist that I just told them that if he talks like that to his players he will make it easier for us. Well when they won 3-2 there was egg on my face. We did learn our lesson later in the month when again more press speculation linked us to Atletico Balearas, again in the division below and we made sure to not say anything about it. The board seemingly like to come out to the press every time that I say or don't say anything concerning alternative jobs.

League Table

With this months results out of the way, we sit in 9th place, and two points off of the playoff spots, which I am very happy about.

Top Players

Alex Collado of Barcelona continues to be the man of the division producing the goods week in week out. I wonder how long before he is part of the first team Barca set up. Simon of Andorra has got himself a tonne of goals over the last month and half, he looks handy in front of goal. Again the only place we appear is in the yellow cards department with Devesa now moving onto six for the season.

Injuries

Injuries to key players has been an issue, particularly in training. I like to train the boys hard because only that way are they going to become better players and we have first hand experience of this. But still the injuries are unfortunate and losing someone like Rodado and Quintanilla is very hard for our team to bear.

Travel This Month

It has been a hectic month in terms of travel, we had to go off the coast of Morocco to the Canary Islands at the start of the month, followed by trips to close to the Portuguese border and north to Zaragoza this month. We racked up over 7,000 km this month.

Squad Overview

The boys are doing a good job and despite injury, Rodado continues to be the top goalscorer at the club with 7 this campaign. Irizo has done well for us in the creativity department grabbing himself 5 assists this season. Although my stand out this month is Dani Villa, the loanee from Granada, who scored 3 this month in the absence of Rodado, he certainly filled a gap we were lacking. I am also going to mention Carlos Garcia, who had to step up with Quintanilla out, and he has done very well, getting a 7.06 rating and 92% tackles won percentage which is great.

Manager Update & Job Interviews

Well it was such a hectic month that we had to blow off Erica. We just didn't have time this month, with jetting off all around Spain, and her islands. We were called to a meeting by the board to try and settle a dispute between the Head of Youth Development, Chus Herrero and Director of Football Fernando Soriano. The disagreement centres around the part that Chus should be playing with the youngsters at the academy. Fernando feels that he should be leading the team to scout the island and the neighbouring islands of Majorca and Menorca for talent and they were stepping on each others toes. Well we made the decision that Chus, should be doing that and Fernando should be dealing with first team talent. Fernando didn't look to happy, but I could care less, I am not his biggest fan, not since the discussion about my wages.

In other news, my brother rang to say that the money we sent had helped and to thank us, so that's good.

Probably the biggest news was at the end of the month. My agent gave a call and said that there was an Italian club that wanted an interview with us. We explained that we about to go out to Zaragoza for a match, and so we conducted a Skype interview. The team in question is Pontedera, a club from near Pisa and Florence in Tuscany. They are team on their way up the leagues and they were interested in us, hearing about our exploits in Ibiza. We did the interview with the chairman, and up to the end of the month we still have not heard back whether we are successful or not. Obviously the key factor will be the money, but still it is good to be linked to jobs back in the homeland.

Manager Assets:-

FIat 500 1.2L (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 27/10/2021

£18,282.26

 

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - November 2021

Fixtures

November is in the books and it was an unbeaten month for us. Not the kind of unbeaten month that you make a big song and dance about, but nonetheless it is good going for us. We started off hosting Elche and neither side could get on the scoresheet as we played out a bore draw. We then travelled to relegation candidate Marbella and got a nice 4-2 win over them. Next up was Valladolid at home and we went with the 4-2-3-1 and it we got a 1-1 draw, before getting a very good draw away to Levante also by a scoreline of 1-1. I can't really complain, we are doing well considering where we were meant to end up this season.

League Table

At the end of November, we are just outside the playoff places sitting on 24 points, a point behind Real Oviedo.

Top Players

I mention him every month but Alex Collado continues to average over 8 this season, and now also has 6 man of the match awards and 12 assists. What a great player he is at this level. Simon continues to lead the scoring charts for Andorra with 13 this season. Our only presence on this list is in yellow cards, Dani Villa now has 6 this season.

Finances

We should quickly go over the finances of the club. Being in the second tier is doing the club the world of good as the bank balance has now risen to £1.35m in the bank, and we look like at this stage that we will be staying for another year as well, which should continue to help, with the TV money flowing in.

Press

We were linked with the CD Toledo job earlier in the month, we have learnt to say nothing at all especially for these Segunda B clubs.

Valbuena, manager of Levante and I shared a few comment sin the press. He was saying we are doing a great job, but the press had to twist it to ask if he was being genuine. Anyway for once an exchange between me and another manager in the press did not turn into a war. We both got a point out of the game, I will probably be the happier with a point all things considered.

Travels This Month

A month that sees us actually travel relatively little, as we spend most of our time between Ibiza and the south of Spain to visit Marbella and a quick ferry over to Valencia for the Levante game.

Manager Updates and Job Interviews

To start off with general life on the island, we managed to meet back up with Erica and we have been spending a little more time together. I guess you could say we are a bit of an item at this stage but it's still not too serious. On job front, we did not get the Pontedera job as they opted for Alessandro Del Canto. Later in the month our agent again informed us that another club, this time Piacenza were interested in having an interview. Again it was another Skype interview because of our commitments at the moment at the club. Again the interview went well and the club liked me but they opted for Roberto Muzzi instead. The Ibiza board at the moment haven't indicated they will offer us a new contract, although me and my agent suspect they almost certainly will, but they could be stopping this attention I am getting by giving me a long term contract, but I guess they are probably not willing to do that at the moment.

On the finances front, we continue to hold off on settling down roots here, and buying our own property while our contract situation is not certain. 

Manager Assets:-

Fiat 500 1.2L (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 24/11/2021

£19,880.40

 

[Fudal]

Loving the story!!

[TerminalPortugal]

4 hours ago, Fudal said:

Loving the story!!

Thanks.

[dllu]

FC Andorra in the Second Division without a human manager? Impressive!

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - December 2021

Fixtures

Our form takes a turn for the worse, with two losses and a draw in the league this month. I had convinced myself that we were probably not in a relegation battle but that does not seem to be the case. In fairness we had some tough games this month, with Deportivo away and Malaga at home. Both these sides not that long ago were in the latter stages of the Champions League and now find themselves in La Liga 2. We did get a good draw against Las Palmas however, although we have shown a worrying lack of goals, with only one scored this month. This month also saw us kick off our Copa del Rey campaign against Cultural Durango, a team from the Segunda B, and we just about got past them 2-1. We have not won in 5 now, although I would say we are not easy to beat either with three draws in that time.

Copa del Rey Draw

We face a tough draw in the Second Round of the Copa del Rey at La Romareda early in January.

League Table

We sit in 14th, a worrying tumble from where we were before. We are three points ahead of Real Valladolid, and a point behind fellow First Phase Playoff Finalists Extremadura from last year. We do have a cushion of 7 points to the relegation place, and are 5 points away from the playoffs, as the league has suddenly contracted. A good January and we could be playoff hopefuls again, a bad January and we could really be staring at relegation.

Top Players

I mention him every month but Alex Collado, is just a great player, averages 8.1, 8 man of the match awards, 14 assists. Fantastic season for youngster. Simon still leads the scoring, and it is even more impressive when you see that Andorra are very much relegation threatened. We have no one in the top lists, which is probably better than having them occupy the top spots in the players with the most yellow cards list.

Early Youth Intake Meeting

After resolving the situation between Chus and Fernando, we finally get to hear from Chus who has been working with the youngsters as there is a scouting meeting called between myself, Chus and Miguel Angel Echevarri, our Chief Scout at the club. The report this year looks absolutely brilliant. Chus believes the youngsters coming through this years could be a golden generation for the club with some great defensive midfielders, attacking midfielders and very decent centre back from the island that has caught the eye. I wait with baited breath for when they take on the Under 19s.

Squad Overview

It's difficult to single out anyone for special praise this month as we have not been great. So we will look at how people have performed over the season. Angel Rodado, has had a few injuries but still has picked up 11 goals in 18 starts this season which a good return. Jose Irizo has the most assists this season with 5, but he has gone off the boil recently. Miguel Nunez from left back is having a good season, as is his colleague from right back Jorge Devesa. All our tactics rely of width and so they have the most important job on the pitch so it is good that they are playing well this season. Alex Quintanilla has been the best centre back this season, but he has had injuries this season and only played 12 games.

Vitaliy Boyko has struggled at this level, he only has one assist and one goal to his name. Javi Perez has done well this season with 4 goals and 4 assists. Dani Villa on loan has been pretty decent with 4 goals and 2 assists this season. All round we are not great but also not too bad.

Travels This Month

This month has been horrific on the travels front, with long distance trips to A Coruna, Durango in the Basque Country and off to the Canary Islands, covering over 8,000 km in about 14 days or so of football before the Christmas break.

Manager Update and Job Interviews

This month has been non-stop fielding offers from clubs that want us to attend interviews to be their new manager. However at the moment we seem to be the guy that they chuck into the bottom of the shortlist. Just someone for the board to meet that is a bit more inexperienced and provides a contrast to the other applicants. We has two interviews with Spanish clubs and 1 interview with an Italian club. The Spanish clubs were lower league clubs, but probably clubs with more pedigree than Ibiza. We first interviewed with Pontevedra, but they opted to go with Jose Aurelio Gay, and we interviewed with CD Toledo but they opted to bring in Emilio Larraz instead. The Italian job, was the Cremonese hotseat but they went with Mattia Biso. So we didn't get any offers, but my agent is very positive about us as a manager. He tells me that he has never known for a young manager to have less than two years experience and to be linked with so many potential moves.

My agent explained that we probably would have got many more if there was not a rule in La Liga 2, that managers can't manage two different clubs in the same division in the same season. He said he might start exploring options with some clubs in La Liga 2 later in the year, to take over for the new season, if they want my services.

In the Italian papers I also noticed this. Urgnani had not lasted long at Foggia, perhaps they will come back in for me.

On the personal front, it is Christmas and we booked expensive tickets back to Sicily that cost us around £1,000 this month, we also had to buy presents for the family which set us back £340 and since Erica and I are an item now, I decided to treat her to nice meal in one of the best restaurants in Ibiza Town, before I jetted off to Italy for £300. She seemed to want me to visit her family for Christmas, but I told her I had already promised my mother that I would be going back to Sicily to visit them. Considering the offers we are getting I am unsure that a relationship in Ibiza is recommended as we could be made a better offer at any time, but for the time being it is what it is.

Manager Assets:-

Fiat 500 1.2L (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 29/12/2021

£20,211.30

 

Edited August 11, 2020 by TerminalPortugal

[TerminalPortugal]

6 minutes ago, dllu said:

FC Andorra in the Second Division without a human manager? Impressive!

Yeah this fella is just banging in goals all over the place for them this season but they are in trouble this season in the relegation places.

Ex-Barcelona player Gabri is their manager and got them promoted last season.

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - January 2022

Fixtures

We are just about hanging on in there, we started the month off away to struggling Cadiz and got a 1-1 draw. With such little time between the Cadiz and Zaragoza cup game, we decided not to return to Ibiza and head straight for Zaragoza and train there, well it seemed to work as we got a 3-2 win to advance to the next round of the Cup. Then we were away again to Santander. This time we returned back to Ibiza and travelled from there for the game and we picked up another 1-1 draw. The Copa del Rey 3rd Round drew us against fellow Liga 2 side Albacete for our fourth away game in a row, this time we decided to return to Ibiza for about 18 hours before making the trip, and that probably was not the right choice as we lose 1-0. A few days later we hosted Alaves and went with the system that had beaten them away in the second game of the season, the 4-2-3-1, but we came unstuck and lost 1-0. I am beginning to lose faith in this formation for this level and am looking to replace it in our set of practiced formations. It's probably something I will pick up in the off-season. Next up we hosted Almeria and got another 1-1 draw. We are difficult to beat, but we had not won in the league since beating Marbella 4-2 back on the 14th November, last year. Finally we got our win as we went with the 4-1-4-1 away to FC Andorra and got a nice 3-1 win to just ease the pressure on us and the club considerably.

League Table & Survival Chances

We sit in 12th place, again it is only 6 points to the playoffs and 7 points to the relegation places, we are in La Liga 2 limbo at the moment, where we can go either way at the moment. I am focussing on the most likely thing and that is a relegation battle. Looking at last year 41 points was enough to stay up so that would be another 10 points from our remaining fixtures, we probably need around 15 points to be absolutely sure.

Top Players

Still the same faces in the top players. Gerard Fernandez has now equalled Simon of FC Andorra as top goalscorer. Collado is still the best player in the league. Dani Villa has crept back into the top three for most yellow cards.

Transfer Window

The transfer window has closed and we did no business, we don't really have the budget to do much. Abe has left the league and gone to Fiorentina from Barcelona B as has Carles Perez who leaves to Stoke City from Barcelona. Jonas Ramalho moves from Girona to Levante. These were probably the biggest moves of the winter window.

In La Liga Atletico spent a fair bit of money in the window.

Travels This Month

Just over 6,000 km this month around Spain as we were in the very south and the very north and in Andorra for games.

Division de Honor Juvenil Update

We got an update on how the Under 19s were doing, at the start of the month and they having a good campaign. Obviously the big academies are at the top of the league, but 6th place is pretty creditable for our first season with the big boys

Team Statistics

I thought we would look at some of the statistics for the division and how we compare. We have the smallest wage budget in the league at just £1m a year. We have by far the smallest attendance of any side with under 600 per game. We are third this season for putting our shots on target, and we are 7th for percentage of our shots on target. However we are 16th for conversion of shots to goals with just 9%. Our biggest issue is probably our low pass completion percentage at just 75% and 20th in the league. Clearly resources-wise we are miles behind in the league, we need major investment to compete properly at this level. We are doing well in terms of getting into goal scoring opportunities but we are not scoring enough with our shots. The big problem is we are losing the ball with every fourth pass, and for a team that is trying to play the ball on the ground and short, that is a problem for us.

Finances Update

The bank balance keeps rising, we almost have £2m in the bank. We still have insecure finances on account of the big loan that was taken out last season.

You can see that the only thing that is keeping us afloat is the TV money that we are receiving, we make barely any money from anything else, so it is imperative that we keep Ibiza in this division.

Squad Overview

Not too much to pick out this month. Rodado is up to 14 goals this season, the next top goalscorer is Javi Perez on 5 goals. I think a lack of goals this season is hurting us. We have been good defensively, just not finding the net often enough for my liking.

Manager Update

There were no job offers or interviews this month. I spoke to my agent and he told me that it was normal that January was a quiet month, most teams that would be in the market have replaced their managers in December and given them the transfer window to bring in players. There has been no sign of a contract offer from Ibiza. My agent did manage to speak to the chairman about it, and he was very much told that it would be something that would be looked at the end of the season. 

On the personal front, a quiet month, we had a lot of travelling to do, so only saw Erica once for coffee, when I could get away from the training pitch. The pressure and stress of the season is getting to me, at least I am saving money I guess. I eat at the ground most afternoons, and only go home to sleep half the time. When we are not travelling to games we take training sessions, something I have taken a more active role in this month and actually something I enjoy a lot, seeing the players get better with my input. Young Jeroni Aneas for example has only played 160 minutes of football for us this year, but he coming along nicely. He is a good lad to boot.

Anyway February promises to be a make or break month, as to whether we are looking at relegation or promotion for the end of the season, and I hope it is the latter.

Manager Assets:-

Fiat 500 (1.2L) (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 26/01/2022

£21,770.81

 

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - February 2022

Fixtures

I said that February would be a very important month for us, and it was. We started off with our only away match of the month as we headed to Madrid to play Real Madrid Castilla, and in all honesty we were thumped, we were second to every ball and they gave us a right schlacking. Fortunately we then had 3 home games back to back. First up was a struggling Numancia side and we used the 4-2-3-1 that has suffered this season and we won very convincingly 3-0. Next up at home was welcoming runaway leaders Barcelona B, and we went with the 4-1-5, and to be honest we were dominated from start to finish, a 1-0 loss probably would of flattered us if we had not defended so well. The final game of the month saw us welcome Tenerife and we went back to the 4-2-3-1 and got another win, to give us 6 points from 4 games which I will very much take.

League Table

We edge to 13th place and now sit on 37 points and 7 points outside the playoff places. We have increased our margin on the relegation places to 12 points, which is beginning to look like it might be plenty at this stage.

Top Players

Alex Collado has left this league as he has been sold from Barcelona to Atletico Madrid for £14.5m, so his stats won't improve, nor do they need to. Monchu is now the top player in the league with a rating approaching that of Collado. Gerard Fernandez is now the top goalscorer in the division with 20 strikes this season. Jorge Devesa is our only player in the top players list and thats for the wrong reason with 10 yellow cards collected this season.

Press

One major press incident. Pedro Alfaro currently at Villarreal B, but previously at the club tried to tell us that we would get relegated because of our tactics. I put him back in his box, by letting him know he is the last person who should be talking about tactics. Don't know why this guy decided to come out and say this...his card is marked.

Takeover Rumours

There have been a few reports in the local press on the island that the current chairman may be looking to move on but he came out in the press and rubbished the claims. Not sure I care too much whether he stays or goes.

Travels This Month

It has been a very light month, just over 1,000 km this month, helped by 3 home games. Only the solitary trip to Madrid and back accounting for our travel.

Manager Updates and Job Interviews

We had two interviews this month with Segunda B side Lleida and Italian Lega B side Casertana, well we didn't get either job and it has prompted a discussion with my agent. He feels that at the moment since we don't know what is going on with our contract, we need to start putting more pressure on the board to offer us a contract and it would help to negotiate our rate up, even if it turns out better to remain at Ibiza. However he said that we would need to submit applications for the roles ourselves instead of being headhunted. He said it would look good and committed to the particular job we were applying to. So we have made a few, well our agent has done that on our behalf. The disadvantage is that obviously the board will hear that we are touting ourselves about and may not like it, but then it is their fault.

With plenty of time on the island this month, I had another couple of meals with Erica this month, nothing too expensive and she wants to go on holiday with me this summer once the season finished which I agreed to. She is going to pick out the place she wants to go. As previously stated because our contract situation is unknown we are continuing in the rented flat in Ibiza Town, although we could probably afford now to buy a place somewhere on the island as we probably have a sufficient deposit and we could probably convince a bank to give us a mortgage.

Manager Assets:

Fiat 500 1.2L (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 23/02/2022

£23,269.99

 

[TerminalPortugal]

U.D. Ibiza - March 2022

New Contract At Ibiza

Frustrated with the board, with club defying expectation and not far away from a promotion push, certainly seemingly not about to be relegated this season and with the club now having over £2m in the bank. I called a meeting with the board, an ultimatum of sorts. Give me a new contract or I will find another club. Amadeo Salvo and Director of Football Fernando Soriano put in no uncertain terms, they deemed the financial position at the club to still be precarious since mathematically we could still be relegated and we would not be offered a new contract until the end of the season, should we survive. That was all I needed to know, I called my agent and told him to push hard and find me a new club I was done here at Ibiza.

Now I am not an idiot, they were not about to sack me, probably thought they had called me bluff and would sit down with me, when they were in the driver's seat and could low ball me, and I still needed their money.

Potential Moves

Very quickly things picked up as my agent looked to find me a new club.

The first offer came from Pisa for an interview

Then top division Osasuna.

The Osasuna job had quite a lot of hype along with it. We went along in person for the interview and I was treated very well. Within hours there were reports eminating from the Pamplona papers that the board had been impressed with us, and that we might now be about to get the Osasuna job. They also described as a potential risk for the club.

We were asked about it and we told the press what they wanted to here, that we were very much interested in the job and that we had met with the board to discuss the opportunity of being their new head coach.

The next morning perhaps because news from Spain had reached Tuscan shores, my agent had informed me that a meeting was called for 9am, to discuss my terms, and that Pisa wanted me as their new head coach.

They had some requirements and expectations, and opened up with a huge increase in salary for us, up to £5,000 per week from our current £1,500 per week. We tried to negotiate a bit but they said this was their offer. When my agent sensed that there were going to pull out we accepted and an hour later I was about to get a plane from Ibiza to Barcelona and another to Florence, to sign our contract. After signing the contract in front the obligatory photographer we held up the club scarf as if we were part of the furniture at the place. In some ways it was good to be back in Italy, in other ways it was sad to leave Ibiza.

Fixtures

Although it doesn't mean much now, we actually had a good month, with a win against Huesca away and two draws to Albacete and Extremadura respectively.

League Table

We were in 12th place as we leave, with our survival already more or less assured it would take something strange for us to get relegated at this stage, and with an outside chance of a push to a playoff place still on the cards.

Squad Overview

These were the final squad stats before we left the club, in the end they are the stats of a mid table team that was struggling for goals, although Rodado had bagged 14 goals and Perez 9, there was not a huge amount beyond that across the squad.

Data Analysis

The day before the whole episode with Pisa and everything else, we had a good meeting with the Chief Data Analyst specifically on the subject of whether our formations were working, and the results spoke volumes. All three formations were creating more clear cut chances than we were conceding however it was clear we were just not clinical in putting away these chances and that was costing us.

Career Stats

Manager Update

Well things happened quickly, we are still in March, but the move meant we needed to provided an update on what was going on. At the moment we are in Pisa, the chairman was gracious enough acknowledging our need to be straight on the ball with the club, that the club would finance at the Grand Hotel Duomo in Pisa, for a month. He said they had a special deal anyway and that he knew that it would be difficult to sort myself out straight away so that will be paid for. The most important thing was to get results in Serie B, until the end of the season, with the club currently in a precarious position.

One thing I had completely forgotten to do was let Erica know of what had happened. It's going to be a difficult conversation, hey you never know maybe she will be happy for me.

Manager Assets:-

Fiat 500 (1.2L) 2018 (Currently in Ibiza)

Manager Bank Balance as of 23/04/2022

£24,910.12

[TerminalPortugal]

Pisa Calcio - March 2022

The City of Pisa

The city of Pisa rises above the banks of Arno, just before the mouth of the river at Marina of Pisa. It is one of the most important cities in Tuscany and it is extremely well-known in the world, because of its famous symbol: "the Leaning Tower".
Pisa is both an ancient and modern city. On the one hand, it is proud of its past , when it was a Maritime Republic and became a world power during the Middle Ages. On the other hand, now is famous for having three of the most important universities in Italy: The Scuola Normale Superiore, the Sant' Anna school of Advanced Studies and the University of Pisa.

It's just under 1,600 km from Ibiza to Pisa, so quite the trek but manageable in about a day.

Club Overview

The club have spent their time between Serie C and Serie B over the past few years. The board are expecting a mid-table finish this season and then top half finishes for the coming seasons.

Finances

The club have a pretty bad financial position at the moment almost £4m in the red. However we do have a healthy wage budget and transfer budget to work with. Most of the money the club generates comes through a variety of sponsorship deals that were set up.

Our Contract

Our contract is £5,000 per week or after tax £2,700 per week a big increase on the £900 after tax we used to get at Ibiza. We have no real additional clauses beyond a relegation wage drop, so we want to avoid that.

Managerial Predecessors

The club don't give managers very long, there is a long list of sacked managers before me.

Current Performance

The club are in 15th position, but looking pretty safe this season with an 8 point advantage over Spezia in 18th. The results have not been great and the only player that makes into the lists is Stefano Gori, our goalkeeper. If your goalkeeper is consistently man of the match that is not normally a good thing.

Stadium

The club play at the Arena Garibaldi in Pisa, which takes just under 10,000 for most of our matches although it can seat 17,000 spectators.

Club Staff

Not much in the way of staff, presume they left with the last manager when he was sacked so we need to work on that.

Squad Overview

We have an absolutely huge squad, training must be a nightmare, probably takes an hour to get through a simple passing exercise with this many players on the books. The club have an Under 20 and Under 18 team, so I presume this is the reason why we have so many players in the first team. I think the off season will see us try and get rid of a good portion of them.

Key Players

These guys look like at first glance the key players that we have at the club at the moment. Once we have seen them in action obviously others may come to light.

Tactical Overview

A minor change in the tactics, we are going to bring our new formation to replace the 4-2-3-1 and it now becomes a 4-1-1-3-1, with a box to box midfielder and an attacking playmaker.

Manager Update

Over the last week, we paid a guy to drive our car from Ibiza to Pisa, which cost us £400. We also managed to call Erica and let's put it like this, she did not take the news too well. I am not sure she understand what the job of a manager of a football club involves. At the moment I am not sure she wants to speak to us, in fact she told us as much, whether she will come round we will see.

My brother does not live too far away in Verona and I have arranged to go and see him next month. At the moment we are living out of the hotel that was provided by the club and we focusing on getting to grips with the club. Fortunately there have not been any fixtures from when we joined to the end of the month which gives us time to work on things with the boys. Italy is a bit more expensive than Spain, or specifically Pisa is more expensive than the Balearic Islands in terms of food etc, so I imagine our costs will go up a bit but we have our nice new salary to pay for things now.

Manager Assets:-

Fiat 500 (1.2L) (2018)

Manager Bank Balance as of 23/03/2022

£25,307.84