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Alessandro Del Piero: A Journeyman In Management

I, Alessandro, aim to conquer the world as a manager
Started on 22 June 2014 by Zed
Latest Reply on 30 June 2014 by Zed
  • POSTS45
  • VIEWS17106
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Zed's avatar Group Zed
10 yearsEdited


When I walked out of the players tunnel, onto the pitch of some Australian stadium, I knew this would be my last game. It was only halfway through the first half that I started feeling my legs, and I requested a substitute. All the fans, about 2.000 in the massive 30.000-seater stadium, cheered for me when I walked out of the field, for the last time ever. I realised this would be my last match as a professional football player, and I started crying on the pitch, I felt embarrassed, but I managed to get to the dug-out before anybody saw me. I gave all the players a handshake, and saluted the fans of my club on the stands before taking a shower. After the match I had to give an interview, I thanked every manager that I ever had at Juventus and in Australia. The journalists in the press room, from all over the world, put their hands together for me one last time.

A couple of weeks later, my old teammate Gianluigi Buffon told me that he had organised a farewell match for me in the Juventus Stadium, against FC Barcelona! I was thrilled and emotional at the same time, I thanked my good friend Gianluigi for this beautiful gesture. I walked onto the pitch, together with ex-teammates Gianluigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram, Giorgio Chiellini, Fabio Cannavaro, Paolo Maldini - Zinedine Zidane, Daniele De Rossi, Andrea Pirlo, Pavel Nedved – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and of course me: Alessandro Del Piero: I started off my career in the youth ranks of San Vendemiano. Quickly, Padova picked me up, for them I played my first competitive matches: 14 matches and only 1 goal. Then I joined the club that will always be deep in my heart, a club at which I have not only experienced the highs of being a professional footballer, but also the lows: think of our relegation in 2006, following a match-fixing scandal. It’s something I will never forget in my life, and I’m proud that there were so many players that stayed at the beautiful club to help us go to the top of Italy again. For Juventus, I played 646 competitive matches, in which I scored 277 goals. After my 19-year-long spell at Juventus, I made a very emotional decision, as I decided it was time to leave The Old Lady. I joined Sydney FC, an Australian team, where I wanted to enjoy life as a footballer, but not under enormous amounts of pressure to perform every single day. In Sydney, I scored another 19 goals in 34 games.

After this long career, I decided to stop playing as a professional footballer, with pain in my heart. I didn’t want to leave football for good, as it’s a sport very close to my heart, and it will always be. I decided to take up coaching: I studied for my UEFA Pro License, and I passed the exam easily. Everybody said I would get a good career as a coach, because they all thought I would make a great coach, so I applied for some jobs around the world. I already had a good reputation in the world of football, that made finding a club pretty easy, I thought. I applied at several clubs, such as Sampdoria, VfB Stuttgart and Genoa. But eventually, only Sydney FC, my old club, wanted me as their manager, so I decided to sign a contract there.

That’s where we are right now: in Sydney, just after I decided to make this decision. Unlike in my playing career, I don’t want to stay at this club for a long time, I will try to get the attention of European clubs, and hopefully in a season or two, I’ll be able to venture to Europe.

It was a week ago I played my last match, with my friends from Juventus and from the national team, but I still don’t feel quite fit, I think I made the right decision to stop my career.


Me, signing my contract at Sydney FC

As you can see. I’m writing this new story, a journeyman story, in the perspective of a legend: Alessandro Del Piero, hopefully you’ll like this new story, let me know! I’ve gone for Sydney FC, as nobody has used them for a story before, and I have never managed in Australia myself.

I don’t really have any goals, I’ll just accept job offers as I go, and see if Del Piero can be as successful as he was as a player!


Notes:
-I’m using pr0’s database update, so all the transfers, promotions/relegations are up to date.
-The updates will be about every half year, and sometimes there will be a bit of story.
Nice start buddy, good luck!
1
pompeyblue: Thanks! Hopefully I can keep this story going for longer than a season :p
Great start m8. Really nice presentation :)
AlexSonwild: Glad you're alreay enjoying it! I decided to write in 1st person, as I felt this needed some storyline.
Insults A-League, then signs deal to manage in the A-League...
Good luck!
Griffo: Do you mean in real life, or in the introduction? I don't follow the A-League, so I don't know anyting about him insulting the league.
AAN: Thanks! Hopefully we'll win the title!


An Introduction To Sydney FC
I’ve played one season for this club, so I know the squad, and I know this club’s history a bit. Still, I decided to write some facts down for my first press conference, it would be a bad first impression if I didn’t know the name of this club’s stadium.

I also decided to evaluate our squad, see who could really be a vital player in our title challenge, and see who I should try to sell. One of the players that I liked last season, when I played with him, is Nikola Petkovic, not only a nice guy, but a very solid left-back who never gives up:

Playing together with him in defence, is experienced centre-back Sasa Ognenovksi. Sometimes he’s a bit too aggressive on the pitch, but I’m sure we can make him more composed. Off the field he’s a bit weird, but also a nice guy to play with:

An then, playing upfront, is a striker that was signed just after I left the club as a player, Shane Smeltz. He’s a bit old, but you always need some experience in the team, I don’t know him, but he looks like a decent guy to work with:

All in all, I think we’ve got a squad that can challenge for the title this season, but I do think we might need some new players to challenge for the league title. Our first team is looking good, but not great at the moment:

Our youth facilities are poor, but we still have a decent youth squad. I might give Corey Gameiro some playing time in pre-season:

The media predicts us to finish 2nd, but I hope we can prove them wrong and win the title this season, just like we did in 2010.


Making Changes For The Better
Coaching Staff:
At Sydney FC, we only have 4 coaches at the moment. Most of these guys are not very good either, so I decided to bring in some new coaches to lighten the workload for others, and have increased specialisation.

The first coach I signed, was shooting coach Aaran Lines, because at that moment, our assistant manager was training three aspects, including shooting. Lines is a young coach, he’s 36 years old, and he’s from New Zealand. At the job interview, he made a good impression on me, he looked eager to take up his first non-playing role ever, and teach others how to really shoot a ball perfectly. He didn’t have a very successful playing career, but that doesn’t matter to me, as long as he’s a good coach.

Carlos Alberto Santos, a 52-year-old Brazilian, was my second and final addition to the coaching staff at this club. Although in the job interview, he said he wanted to be our tactical coach, I decided to make him our defence coach, as we already have Vidosic as a defence coach. Santos has been a coach in Japan since he stopped playing in 2005. Before that, he played in Brazil and after that in Japan.

Players In:
After evaluating our squad, I decided to go with a 4-1-2-1-2 Narrow formation. I decided to choose this formation, because of our lack of wingers. We did have two wingers: Mitchell Mallia and Ali Abbas. Both of these, I put on the transfer list for free. Nobody wanted these guys, not even for free. They didn’t have high wages, so I just relegated them to our youth squad and waited for their contracts to run out.

Because of our new formation, we needed a defensive midfielder, as we only had a one in our squad, and he wasn’t very good at all. After scouting a few players, I made some offers, but I came to the conclusion that we didn’t have enough money to sign anybody. But thankfully, I got offered a young free agent with wages of 700 Euros per week. His name was Tim Payne, and the New Zealander played for Blackburn the past two seasons. I decided to take the gamble and sign him, and he made a good impression on me during his training sessions, I feel he can potentially become a very good player for the club.


I also wanted to sign a new goalkeeper, as we’ve got only two keepers at the moment, and they’re both awful. Tom Mickel, Greuther Fürth’s second goalie, was my target. We managed to sign the German for 425k, and on a deal until the summer of 2016. His wages are fairly low too, only 3.5k a week. It will be a bit of a struggle for him to learn the language here, but luckily his English isn’t too bad

We don’t have a lot of players in our first team, and we also don’t have a lot of cash to work with, so I decided to just put some youth players in the senior squad.

Players Out:
We haven’t sold a single player this season. Because our squad is pretty narrow, I didn’t see any reason why we should sell anybody at the moment. We also haven’t loaned anybody out as of yet. We’ve got more than a month to go in the transfer window, but I don’t see us buying or selling any players.
you have a solid squad mate!


Our Pre-Season
We had a pretty easy pre-season, not a single hard match against A-League clubs or anything. So I decided to use some youth players and just get the general fitness up. As expected, we did very well in the pre-season, and the morale in the group is very high. Everybody respects me as a manager, they already did that as a player, but now even more. It’s probably because of my playing history and experiences as a player.

The Results:


I think we’re in a great form to start the league right now. We’ve picked up good results in almost every game, and with a couple of goals as well. I feel my Italian tactics have worked well: defend and then counter. We’ve been dominating shots, but not possession, that’s how I like to see football played: no useless passing around in the back, get the ball forward!

The player that impressed me the most this pre-season, was Shane Smeltz, our new marquee player. Shane scored 5 goals for us, in 5 games. Not only did I enjoy him scoring, but I also saw him play as a good playmaker: good passes and dribbles. Shane has a good personality, and I think he can be a good father figure on the pitch, just like I was last season for the players.

Next Month, Start Of The League:


Next month marks the start of my managerial career, hopefully we van please the fans with good football and good results.
__________________________________________________________________
AAN: I think we can challenge for the title this season!
I like the layout!
Griffo: Thanks! For the season, I'll probably have 3-seasonly updates or maybe 4-seasonly. And sometomes I'll put in some story, like with the next update which'll be around the first match of the season.
a very good pre-season mate!

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