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Easily the most enjoyable season I have had with FM5.
The club doubled the wage budget for this season, but this would not even pay the weekly wage of some of the players my team would be facing!
A whopping transfer budget of under £2,000 to spend, which I supplemented by selling one player for £170K and selling co-ownerships on two of my hot prospects. 11 others went out on frees.
Brought in nine players for a total of £130K plus two loans. Scouts also found six youngsters and one of them, a 15 year-old striker, has the best stats I have seen at that age.
With everyone fearing the worst, expectations seemed to be confirmed with no wins and no goals in our first five games. Two away wins in three consecutive away games gave some hope but we could not buy a win at home. With three going down out of 22, we hover two or three places outside the relagation zone for much of the season, but are pretty comfortable being 14 points clear with 14 games to go. Then a terrible run sees us almost sucked in to the battle but a couple of tight wins towards the end keep us clear and finishing 17th.
P42 W9 D16 L17 F41 A55 PTS43
All in all a really satisfying season with a sense of a job well done keeping Sud Tirol punching above their weight.
And some real nail-biting games including a match at Siena where we went 0-2 down, pulled it back to 3-2 and then let 3 in the last 10 minutes to lose 3-5. Curiously, we only won 3 at home but managed 6 wins on our travels.
Serie B. Given a whopping (for this club anyway) £34K to spend, I splash out £18K on two players but release nine on frees to try and stabilize the wage budget.
With everyone expecting a struggle to avoid relegation, our usual cup form and a defeat in the first league match seems to confirm that a long hard season lays ahead. However we then win six and draw three to reach the lofty heights of 2nd.
Reality sets in and we gradually drift out of the top six play-off positions to lay in 10th place by the end of December. During the transfer window I am forced to sell one of my better players due to the minimum fee release clause being activated but am not too despondant as the buying club payed twice that amount (£1 million) to buy him. I immediately splash out a club record £300k on a replacement.
Patchy form in the second half of the season sees us finish in a respectable 13th place. The one pleasing aspect of the year is having the 3rd and 4th highest goalscorers in the division - one of them being that 15 year-old I mentioned a couple of seasons ago.
PL42 W13 D13 L16 F44 A46 PTS 52
I wish some other club would come in with a job offer as with only a 4,000 stadium capacity and no chance of increasing it, I think I have gone as far as I can with this club.
A major surprise as the board makes £750K available for transfers. I only use £150k of it bringing in 4 players, but release 10 including one for 500K.
Again, instead of struggling we hover in or around the play-off places, but for our form to dip a little in the New Year. I decide to use some of the transfer kitty and bring in 2 players for £270K, but let go 5 players who have not been getting games for £100k.
I think I can go no further with this team so apply for three vacancies, eventually being offered the job at Lecce, who have drifted down the leagues to languish 10th in Serie C1B.
Position when I leave Alto Adige on 10 March 2011 is:
PL30 W11 D9 L10 F42 A42 PTS42 POS.10th
Lecce when I take over are:
PL23 W8 D5 L10 F23 A25 PTS25
Looking at the squad, there are a few very good players surrounded by dross. Most of the good one wants are either going in the summer or want to go. There will be a big clearout when the season ends.
I am given a massive £5m to spend but as its March, this is not much use in immediately turning round the clubs fortunes. I do pick up an ageing DC (who had turned me down at Alto Adige) on a free to prop up shaky-looking defence.
By the end of season we are still in 10th place.
Lecce
P34 W12 D9 L13 F35 A33 PTS45
I have gone back to Alto Adige and picked up a GK and DMC for £1.75m. The striker that I had nurtured since he was 15 snubbed me, the ungrateful %@#*$%*^!
I have noticed that we have 8 unused non-EU places so my scouts are already out scouring the globe for young, hungry players.
Forgot to mention that Lecce won the Serie C Cup beating Ternana on away goals. Thanks must be given to the previous manager for getting them to the semis as I have never got past the preliminary group round in any cup competition!
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