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FM08
Took control of Pescina Valle del Giovenco or just plain Valle del Giovenco. Eye-melting colour scheme, 1000 capacity all-stander that they don't really play at any more and predicted last, due - no doubt - to their two consecutive promotions to C2, what's not to like?
Season 1: Valle del Giovenco, Italy, Serie C2/C.
Sent my scouts out (started with one, got another through a quick advert) and made 7 quick signings - plus 4 loanees from my parent clubs - before the window shut, offloading five of my more expendable-looking players in the process. By the time February came around, I'd got rid of one of my signings (a 38-yr old who could never get fit) and five other useless sods and gained another loanee and two more signings.
Serie C2/C: Our early form was forgettable, probably down to the number of new signings I was shoehorning into the side. By the time the January transfer window had brought a solid goalkeeper into the team, though, the 'new' players had settled down, playing some very respectable football. There was more than a hint of aquaplaning in the run that let us fly up the table - complete with inexplicable losses to really bad teams - but ho hum. In the end, if our Away form (12-0-5) was the best in the league by some distance, it was our Home form (7-6-4) that scuppered any automatic promotion chance; but the Playoffs were comfortably reached anyway.
We played Sangiuseppese in the Semis. The away leg was tight and we went into the 2nd leg 2-1 down. 90 fairly even minutes later we walked away 6-3 aggregate winners. The first (Home) leg of the Final saw three hotly-contested penalty decisions; two in our favour and one against. They helped us take a 4-1 lead into the second leg. The first half was one-way traffic but we kept it down to 1-0 until Cisco Roma had a player sent off. Soon after, a half-time sub slid the ball through for Swissman to get his 30th of the season and when yet another contentious penalty decision made it 3-1 on the day it was all over. Final Position: P:34 W:19 D:6 L:9 GD:+32 Pts:63 Pos:3rd. Promotion!
Serie C Cup: Why oh why oh why?
The season went far better than I (or anyone else - we were named Overachievers of the Season) had expected but with my scouts finding solid players I either signed or loaned we were a very strong team by the end of the season. Admittedly there were only a couple of members of the original squad still in the match 18 by the end of the season, but I do like signing players. My Swiss MR - who will be leaving in the close season - was very good and my DCs formed a very useful partnership. But it was the Swiss ST who was the absolute star; 30 goals in 30 games with Serie C2/C Top Goalscorer, Player Of The Season and Signing Of The Season awards to his name by the end. He, at least, will be staying. A big rebuilding job is needed all around, though.
Season 2: Valle del Giovenco, Italy, Serie C1/B.
The scouts went out, the triallists came in and by the time the transfer window closed we'd loaned 2, signed 15 and offloaded 13 players for a £50k total loss. But when £110k went on a Chilean ST my best coach (once I'd trialled him) thought was good enough for Serie B, that's immaterial.
Serie C1/B: It was always going to be a challenging season following the surprise promotion and so it was. Our solid early-season form was in start contrast to the horrid football on display in February and March. In the end, it was the limp opposition that did the bulk of our work for us, allowing us to clinch the title with 2 games remaining. Final Position: P:34 W:21 D:8 L:5 GD:+30 Pts:71 Pos:1st. Promotion!
Serie C Cup: As pointless as ever.
Serie C1 Super Cup: Lost to AlbinoLeffe, but who even cares?
A strange season, all told. Our main strikers were clearly streets ahead of the rest of our team (and possibly the league) but the bulk of the squad were a curious mix of inept and competent. Players inbound look better than the ones leaving, which is usually a good sign; here's hoping it's enough. Serie B can be tough.
Season 3: Valle del Giovenco, Italy, Serie B.
I only arranged 2 Bosmans as I was happy with the number of good players interested in joining - which was fine until they were all released and started holding out for Champions League teams to swoop. Which reduced me to scrabbling around with a tiny budget for any old crap. My non-EU signing went on an Iranian ST a scout spotted at the U20 World Cup.
Serie B: Our form was bad at first and then merely shoddy over the winter period. There was never any question of our defence being up to the task; they were, to a man, utterly hopeless. We didn't score enough to compensate for the goals we constantly leaked and it was only a two-win sequence that kept us involved up to the final day.
We were at home to Piacenza, who were 5th; Avellino - who were level on points with us - were away at Siena, who were 2nd. Pisa - one point ahead - were at home to Treviso, who were 12th. Two teams would stay up. Avellino's GK kept his first clean sheet of the season and our Ethiopian international missed a penalty to consign us to the disappointment of relegation. Final Position: P:42 W:10 D:10 L:22 GD:-24 Pts:40 Pos:20th. Relegated!
Italian Cup: Only one Serie B team was drawn away from home to a Serie A team. Us. We took Napoli to penalties, but that was it.
Our defense was so bad, I had to ask the midfield to help protect it. That wasn't overly successful and only resulted in us not scoring many goals. The lack of wage budget scuppered any chance of getting real quality into the team. We made £5.6m profit over the year but even that wasn't enough to put us back in the black. With no money, rubbish players and a teeny stadium, I suppose relegation was inevitable but it's still rather irritating.
The thing that makes me feel sorry for you the most, is not the relegation persay but the fact that you will have to compete in the Serie C Cup again next season.
Hmm. Posting at 3am while tipsy makes you miss things out. You'd have thought I'd have learned that by now...
The reason for our financial predicament was that the board spent £6m on a stadium upgrade but decided that putting it on the credit card was a better option than taking out a loan.
That put us horribly in the red and they spent the next 9 months bitching and whining about it.
Interesting update! Getting into Serie B, that's great. Sort of like Castel di Sangro IRL a few years ago!
I did some reading and discovered that Valle del Giovenco sounds like an Italian version of Milton Keynes They used to be in Pescina but have moved to Avezzano. I also noticed that the owner is apparently also the owner of Serie A club Siena (Giovanni Lombardi Stronati). Any dodgy issues with Siena pop up in your game? Maybe the boss is secretly using your success to prop up the other club
Yeah, the club seems to be a bit weird. I spent about 20 minutes trying to find the football pitch on GoogleMaps before I Wikipedia-d it.
The Chairman is indeed the owner of Siena. That doesn't seem to make much difference aside from their being a parent-feeder link at the start.
Strangest of all is that even with all the shenanigans, they're actually doing really well in Serie C2.
Another pre-season, another stadium expansion. Not a huge one this time, just an extra 2500 or so. At least this one didn't put us in the red.
Season 4: Valle del Giovenco, Italy, Serie C1/B.
Following last season's debacle, I opted to be aggressive with my Bosman-ing and general transfer activity. The Iranian was allowed to leave for a small amount (he was rubbish anyway) but the other trash was largely disposed of for free. My non-EU signing was originally going to be a DL from ASEC, but the option to sign one of Tunisia's first-choice STs for free came up and I couldn't say no to that.
Serie C1/B: Our team took time to settle - even the handful of established players took their sweet time about it - and our early-season results were subsequently up and down. The winter blues hit us hard again, though, and a combination of good performances not being rewarded, poor performances getting punished and some frankly atrocious refereeing decisions (we conceded 3 offside goals in the same match) hit us where it hurt: our league position.
Serie C Cup: A second string team got thrashed 4-0 in the first leg of the knockouts and the dream ( ) was over.
I started off as 'Very Insecure' and that never changed during the season. I half-expected to be fired during the summer, then when we weren't flying high by the winter break I thought they'd sack me before the January sales. The team was really quite good, but failed to gel. I was eventually sacked on April 6th, following a second heavy defeat (and third horrible refereeing display) in three games. My fitness coach was nice enough to quit in sympathy.
A valley full of bull 
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