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We were already ahead 2-0 when Como keeper Alex Brunner earned a redcard for clipping Marco Negri's feet. Negri converted the penalty kick for his 2nd goal of the match and we were well on our way to a 5-1 win. Negrci completed his hat-trick in the match and we also received goals from Riccardo Tadei and Gianmarco Agostinelli.

Chairman Rossini told me flatly that he disagreed with me chiming on the praise for Marco Negri. He thought it would make him over confident. He wasn't willing to listen as I tried to explain even though Marco is on the transfer list at his request- he is still the club leader, the club captain- and I wasn't about to undermine him in those roles. My doubts about staying on are growing.

Another gritty defensive effort was the difference as we scored on 3 of the 5 shots we managed at Reggiana. Negri, Antonio Morello and Francesco Pulidori were the goal scorers for us as we helped Pomini to earn a clean sheet bonus in the 3-0 win.

Our match against Pisa was a difficult one. We weren't as sharp defensively, but after they took the early lead we fought back with three straight goals from Morello, Negri and Giovanni Piacentini. They clawed one back to start the second half and it was a tooth-n-nail battle, but we held on for the tough 3-2 win.

Padova ended our winning ways as they tromped on us for a 3-1 win. It was slightly upsetting to see Simone Viroli turn in a class performance against us as he keyed them to the win with a goal and two assists. Our only goal was from Antonio Donati- but both Donati and Negri missed numerous chances to score and get us back into the match.

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After a short break we started 2003 hosting Cremonese. Our execution was good, despite being off for awhile, but we were having problems with how well Gianluca Marchesini was playing in net for them. Giovanni Piacentini was the difference in the match. The 33 yr old veteran proved to be in the right place, right time as he deflected a Fabio Bonadei corner past Marchesini for the lone goal in our 1-0 win.

We played just as well when hosting Lucchese, but similarly ran into another keeper who was very hot. Massimo Gazzoli was making their early first half goal stand up nicely until Marco De Santis- who had just subbed on for Francesco Pulidori- drove a rebound past him to salvage a 1-1 draw for us.

In our visit to Triestina, we finally remembered how to score- but we forgot how to play good defense. It resulted in a wild 4-4 draw, with both sides scoring 2 goals in each half. The fans were entertained, but it wasn't my idea of how to play good football to win on the road. Antonio Donati scored 2 goals for us, Antonio Morello chipped in one and Enrico Pento scored after subbing on for a tiring Gianmarco Agostinelli. The backline, without injured leader Ciro Ferrara, played poorly in the match.

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I was surprised when the transfer deadline passed and no clubs had come in on Marco Negri. I think he was surprised too, but maybe a little relieved. He sure played well in his next match out. We faced off with Monza for the top spot in Serie C1A at Monza to begin February 2003. It was great to see us hit on all cylinders after the sputtering January we had. Neither Monza nor their fans enjoyed it much as we scored 4 first half goals enroute to a crushing 5-1 road win over them. Negri had a hat-trick in the match and we received single markers from Gianmarco Agostinelli and Antonio Donati. The win moved us three points ahead of them atop the table.

Negri continued on a roll when he gave us the lead at Olimpico against Carrarese. It was a tough, physical first half that saw both sides with good chances. We were fortunate to be leading 1-0 thanks to Alberto Pomini's work in the net. We exploded for two goals in the opening moments of the second half- as Francesco Pulidori and Riccardo Tadei scored in a 2 minute span. With the 3-0 lead, we worked hard on shutting down the visitors and helped Pomini keep the sheet clean.

Our roll continued when we visited Lecco. They took the early lead on a penalty, but Antonio Donati sent us to halftime even with them at 1-1. The complexion of the match changed when their defender Nicola Colabro was redcarded in the opening moments of the second half for kicking Marco Negri. We took full advantage of their resulting confusion and Agostinelli, Ciro Ferrara (just back from injury) and Negri all scored as we sent their fans home unhappy with our 4-1 win.

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We opened March 2003 on a good note as we hosted Spezia at Olimpico. Two first half goals from Marco Negri were enough to power us to a 2-1 win that featured great work in net by Crescenzo De Vito. We staved off their last minute rally to earn the close win.

It was a gritty performance that carried us to a 2-1 win over Cesena. Luca Pastine did all that was humanly possible in net to get a positive result for Cesena- and came very close to pulling it off. Gianmarco Agostinelli was feeling very unlucky, as he managed six good shots- all stopped by Pastine. Pastine didn't stop Antonio Donati in the first half and Negri in the second half- and those two goals were enough to allow us to edge the home side. When we lost Raffaele Merzek to injury in the match- it meant that all 4 of our midfielders that play the holder role were injured at the same time. Riccardo Tadei filled in admirably in the match to help us to the win.

The good string of play continued as we hosted struggling Modena at Olimpico. Francesco Pulidori keyed our 4-0 win over them by scoring two goals in the first half. Antonio Morello chipped in with a goal and Negri added another goal as we easily saw off our visitors in the convincing win.

Chairman Rossini and I had another 'discussion' this morning. He accused me of trying to boost Gianmarco Agostinelli so that he would be snapped up by one of the big clubs. He basically accused me of working with Agostinelli and his agent to orchestrate the increase in press coverage that he had received. Rossini warned me that he would not be reworking Agostinelli's contract because of this pressure. I was slightly aghast at the accusations- all I had done was offer my comment that, "I thought Gianmarco would be able to succeed at any level of play in Italy." The Chairman's overreaction to this seems another indication that I am close to overstaying my welcome here. I don't know if he feels embarassed that the manager he more or less picked out of the hat is having success where all the 'selected' managers hadn't in the past or if there is something outside my understanding going on- but whatever it is- is causing friction between us and leaving me wondering if I should stay.

Alberto Pomini was the big story in our 1-0 win over Pavia. He shone as he made several spectacular saves to backstop the close win. The lone goal came early in the first half when Antonio Morello blasted home a rebound. There was more dissension with the board following the match and my compliments in the press about Negri's leadership (despite wanting to leave).

We struggled badly in our first half against last place Vis Pesaro at Olimpico. So badly that there was a hint of booing as we left the pitch, down 1-0. We hadn't really even generated any chances- something that wasn't acceptable against so poor a side. We started the second half with more fire, but it took the substitution of Matteo Olivieri to invigorate the offense. Agostinelli got us back to even when his header on an Olivieri cross looped over Roberto De Julius. Negri then came up with another match winning goal as his booming 25 yard free kick curled past De Julius to put us ahead 2-1 midway through the second half. Vis Pesaro had little left to rally and we finished the close win out fairly quietly.

March ended with a trip to visit Varese and we played a tough match. The early lead was ours with goals from Negri and Donato, but Varese never quit attacking and Pomini had to be especially good to keep them off the board at halftime. They finally found a way to score on Pomini and we were right back in the soup- only leading 2-1. Good players step up in difficult times and Agostinelli made a terrific header to finally clinch the win for us. The 3-1 win clinched us a spot in the playoffs.

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April 2003 opened with an embarrassing loss at Olimpico to Arezzo as they handily defeated us 4-2. Alfredo Aglietti scored a hat-trick as he had Pomini's number the entire match. Our goals came from Negri and Matteo Longhi, but it was too little, much too late to help us in this one.

3rd place Como wanted this match badly, but we wanted it just as bad as they did. In the end, Pomini was better in net and Agostinelli solved their keeper Alessandro Quarta for the lone goal in the match. The 1-0 win leaves us just shy of clinching the Serie C1A title.

The celebration for clinching the Serie C 1A Championship after our 3-0 win over Reggiana was stupendous- magnificent- wonderful, words don't do it justice. Negri and Francesco Pulidori had scored to give us a commanding lead. We were playing well and I wasn't worried about them catching us, but Stefano Scaricamazza clinched it with his 1st goal of the season.

We must have celebrated too much, as Pisa easily beat us at Pisa 2-0. We had little offense in the match and it was a disappointing effort. Worse, Negri blew up in a post-match interview. His comments about his teammates were something I could not afford to take lightly. My comments back did little to calm the waters. The net result is that Negri was extremely unhappy with me and Rossini remained very unhappy with me for the entire situation occurring. A definite no-win situation at the time.

It was a strong effort as we won our last match of the season at Olimpico. Pulidori scored in the first half and Negri scored in the second half. The public got a taste of the brewing feud with Negri as he pointed right at me after he scored- the goal was also his 50th at San Marino. Pomini was very strong in the net and his clean sheet in the 2-0 win was well deserved.

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Cremonese dearly wanted a win in their final match- they needed it to possibly avoid the playout. They gave us an excellent battle, but when it was done we had wound up in a scoreless draw that sent them into the playout group.

The summer was going to be unsettled. I knew this because the rumor mill had already begun with the calls of Rossini to have a 'real' manager for the club- now that they were heading for Serie B. What was worse, was that many of the press and public agreed with him on the idea. Even some of the players- in the wake of the Negri situation- felt that way.

All of those feelings left me feeling poignant about the Serie C Super Cup against Siena. I couldn't know for sure- but I certainly felt this would be my final match as Manager of the club. I don't know if the players could sense that, but I do think they could sense this would be a last hurrah for the type of atmosphere that we had- things would change a lot moving to Serie B. The performance we put together was one that both I and the players could be proud of-- we stomped on Serie C1B Champion Siena 6-1. Negri had a hat-trick, Francesco Pulidori had two goals and Gianmarco Agostinelli had the other as we routed them and left our fans very happy.

I hadn't planned on any serious changes for the summer. We still didn't have more than minimal funds for transfers and I was happy enough with the club as it was. I was mostly trying to keep a low profile in the wake of more rumors being spread by Chairman Rossini about my fitness to manage the club. The break flew by, I wasn't even keeping up on football much until June. As we restarted training camp in late June- things came to a head quickly. Rossini was determined to have me out- and the press was now fully on his side, calling my managerial efforts a 'fluke'- and discussing that I wasn't up to the task of managing San Marino in Serie B.

What could I do? I quietly applied for the current open positions at Crotone, Lucchese-Libertas and Alzano- all Serie C1 sides. No, there weren't any higher level openings then- but with the destruction in the press I thought I would be lucky to get one of those jobs. The furor in the press kept rising while I waited to see- and Crotone offered me a job. They had been relegated from Serie B to Serie C1B and seemed a great place to go- a long ways away from San Marino in any case, a nice seaside city in the South seemed the perfect place to go.

On to the 2nd phase with Crotone...

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good luck with Crotone really enjoying the story so far :thup:

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Thanks Terk- glad to hear you are enjoying it

***

I didn't realize how much of a problem Crotone had with cash. There was none- to the tune of 4.5 Million in the red and one of the Board's mandates was to get that under control if at all possible- since the revenues would be less in Serie C1B. That was an eye opener. I did the only thing I thought I could do- offer the best players on the club for transfer. I hated to part with forward Cosimo Sarli- he looked like a very promising young forward- but Milan offered me 3.5 Million (his minimum fee release) for him and that was where he went. We also sent last season's player of the year- forward Luca Amoroso to Lecce for 2.5 Million- which not only wiped out our debt, but with the cash infusion the board gave me of 825K before the transfers went through- gave us a tidy little transfer fund.

Now, having that fund came in handy, because I knew how cash starved San Marino was when I left. I still wonder if that is why Rossini felt he needed a 'name' coach- to sell more tickets, or maybe to secure a loan. It is hard to tell what wheels are turning behind Italian football sometimes. New manager Gianfranco Zola wasn't all that enamored with my youth players, so it made perfect sense to raid San Marino for any who might be willing to come to Crotone. There were several, the most surprising of whom was Antonio Donati. Zola must have made him unhappy with the installation of a new attacking system- because he was willing to come to Crotone and San Marino accepted my 210K offer for him (well, they didn't have much choice- since it was his minimum release fee- but I was still gratified that he was willing to come to Crotone). Also coming over to Crotone from San Marino were Luigi Biaggi (18K), Federico Bracci (20K), Francesco Filanti (14K), Enrico Pento (30K), Eros Schiavon (24K) and Gianluca Ricci (12K). Shortly after that I also picked up Francesco Pulidori (20K) and scout Riccardo Cervellati from the San Marino swirl.

It was easy to see why the club was bleeding money. They were paying a heavy load of wages- close to low end Serie A weekly amounts- for many players on the club. Certainly I had a bit of money now- but the choice became do we keep those players and see our funds drain away quickly or do we chance that we can improve with less expensive players and try to find them new homes. There wasn't a lot of time to get this done before our couple of friendlies and the Serie C Cup action, so the process would wind up the same as when I started at San Marino.

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The press in Crotone was very kind to me actually. They had barely avoided being relegated from Serie B in 2001-02, but couldn't avoid it last season and the fans and press were happy for any kind of change. Despite all the hoopla caused by my leaving San Marino, they were willing to give me the benefit of the doubt and were just hoping for better things from their club.

We purchased Ciro Capuano from Pisa for his 60K non-promotion fee- I was hoping he would work out at leftback (a weakspot). I heard that one of the scouts had given Zola a copy of my shortlist- which didn't surprise me. Nor did it surprise me when he came calling for Filippo Dal Moro. Because of Dal Moro's high wages (5400 week) I was happy to let him go to San Marino for some cash and Francesco Nuti- a young DMC that I had signed while there and was high on. I was more disturbed when I heard Zola was making a run at Gabriele Paoletti- who I dearly wanted to sign on free as our number 1 keeper. Both San Marino and I submitted bids on Paoletti, but my offer of an immediate starting role won him over and he agreed to sign with us. Since Crotone didn't have any holder midfielders that I liked (other than Nuti), I also gave Zola a bid on Francesco Musumeci at San Marino. He had been a backup there- but had played well for me. We agreed on a price and Francesco agreed on a contract, so we added him to our midfield mix. I also managed to persuade San Marino to let me talk to Marco De Santis. We worked out a contract after I paid them a small transfer price. It certainly was looking like a lot of expatriates in Crotone with all the ex-San Marino players aboard.

I really liked Salvatore Aronica- one of the better defenders I have seen- but he wanted to move to a bigger club and already had a non-promotion release fee of 230K in effect, so I transfer listed him and was swamped with offers. Genoa won out on the bidding and landed him. He would have been a good player to keep- except that his salary of 4800 a week was bad news on our bottom line.

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In the middle of all the transfer discussion (almost half of Crotone roster was transfer listed), we began our Italian Cup Group competition by hosting Pisa. We offered a solid performance, but weren't able to score. Neither was Pisa able to score on Gabriele Paoletti and we wound up with an entertaining scoreless draw.

We disposed of more players following the draw. Dominico Giampa was one of Crotone's best midfielders the last two seasons, but was another very pricey player at his 4100 a week wage level. Pistoiese was willing to pay us 120K + appearence fees and he is now a member of their midfield. Also leaving (both on free transfer) were defender Nicola Oppido (to Internapoli) and midfielder Andrea Venezia (to Poggese). Another forward was arriving as we completed the transfer purchase of promising Gaetano Mancino from Castel Di Sangro for 90K.

Young defender Lorenzo Magnani was next to go- as Mestre paid 65K to purchase him. His sale put us over 2 Million in the black on our books, but I had to be careful dipping into that since there would be little revenue added to run the club this season.

We travelled to Serie A Udinese in our next Italian Cup Group match. We played well, given that we had several injuries keeping key players out, but they managed a late marker to edge us 2-1. Our goal came from Gaetano Mancino, who had a terrific debut. The loss meant we couldn't qualify from our Group- but I hadn't expected too and was working hard on trying to get the club to gel.

With six keepers on contract- I was trying to dispose of at least half of them and we finally completed the sale of Antonio Piazza to Carrarese for 35K.

Our biggest transfer purchase was what I thought was a steal. We purchased 23 yr old D/DML Thomas Manfredi from Udinese for 500K (he was rated at 975K). Manfredi agreed to come to us and I managed to negotiate a contract without a minimum fee release. Manfredi immediately becomes our highest value player and our starting leftback.

Though our last Italian Cup Group Match meant nothing to either side (Udinese had already clinched), I was very encouraged by our performance when visiting Vicenza. We outplayed them in the scoreless draw, but we didn't play our best match either. Our execution- especially finishing- left a lot to be desired, but we smothered their midfield and that leaves me feeling optimistic about our chances during the season.

We closed August with a pair of important signings. They are both gambles- to a certain extent- but both worthy of taking. The bigger gamble of purchasing Cristian Adami from Vicenza for 350K is not a gamble on the player- Adami and Manfredi are certainly our best defenders now- but on the contract I had to give him to sign with us. Adami's minimum fee release is only 375K, which means I get little more than I paid for him if a big club comes swooping. I will try to convince him on a newer contract after he has seen that he will be playing all the time. The littler gamble was to spend the 40K to buy out the non-promotion release clause on keeper Riccardo Morelli from Arezzo. My scouts raved over him, so even though I didn't need another keeper- I purchased him. I still have several keepers to find new homes for now.

Success! Well, partial success at least. I discussed increasing the minimum fee on Adami's contract and it cost me another 35K signing bonus, but now the min fee release is 725K. That at least gives me some room if big clubs come calling- or at least a decent return on investment if they do.