[FM08] American Calcio

It's only getting started with the Italian press, I'm afraid ... meanwhile, Rob offers a tactical overview of his side so far...
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Friday, September 28
I met with my chairman today, who doesn’t spend a lot of time around the practice pitch.

Marcello Sestaro is a 42-year old businessman who is very much a self-made man. As is the case with men of wealth, his primary concern is for his club’s bottom line and avoiding having to sink any more of his own money into the club than is absolutely necessary.

He has said he will listen to offers for the club but I pay little attention to such stories. If the club is sold, it’s sold, and we move on from there. It happens in business all the time and football is most definitely a business.

I have a cursory meeting each month with the full board to go over the accounts, get their feedback on performance, and it’s very much for business. But Marcello wasn’t in my office to talk about business.

I was pleasantly surprised that he wasn’t in my office to tell me to stay away from Venice, either. He wanted to know if I needed any assistance with media.

“That is generous of you,” I said. “I think I have the situation under control but my concern is that everything I do reflects positively on this club.”

“I appreciate that,” he said. “Right now we are concerned with the club’s performance and of course the wage bill, but you have done quite well on both fronts and you need have no concern. We are encouraged. But as you are unfortunately aware after the events of yesterday, our paparazzi can be quite annoying at times.”

Sestaro, as a successful man, has a well-known face in addition to a well-known name. Football is a dalliance for him, along the same lines as say, Roman Abramovich without the billions. But Marcello’s goal is to get there someday and frankly I wouldn’t bet against him.

Media saw the two of us meeting in my office, and naturally my chairman had to dispel rumors of a “crisis confrontation” the media always seems to see when it’s inventing controversy. For him it was second nature to slap down a reporter. For me, on the other hand, it is quite different. I expect I’ll get used to it in time, though. More is the pity.

Patty is doing a little better today after getting over the shock yesterday’s unwanted foray into Andy Warhol’s ’15 minutes of fame’ brought. But if this keeps up, her words to me may well be tested. She doesn’t need the scrutiny, she doesn’t deserve the scrutiny and it’s just not fair.
I think I’m settling into the preferred XI I will utilize for most of our league matches. I obviously don’t have the luxury of a huge squad, but I do have choices and I’m making them as I go.

Muzzi and Varricchio are my first-choice strike pairing with Paponi and Di Nardo their understudies. Music has earned the left side of midfield by default and also by the quality of his play. The right side belongs to Baú and the holding position is Crovari’s, again by default.

The back four of choice is Gotti, Vasco Faísca, Sacchetti and Paz. My choice between he and Pablo Cotroneo was difficult and eventually Paz may slot into the holding role as often as not.

The area where I still have trouble is in the attacking midfielder role. Andrea Gentile has superb skills but is erratic in the finish, and that’s vitally important to making the 4-1-3-2 go. Rabito has the finishing skils but lacks in positional play and consistency, so each of these players has a potentially fatal flaw.

That means I haven’t yet seen my chosen formation played to the level I’d like to see it, and means the acquisition of a proven attacking central midfielder is top on my list of things to do in the close season. Good players who answer that description don’t tend to go anywhere in January as a rule, so it will likely be a thing I have to address after this season is over.

What the lack of that predator means is twofold: first, we aren’t going to score as many goals this season as I had hoped we would. Second, we have to be very good at the back because of it. That’s doubly important because my preference with this group of players is to play a direct, counter-attacking style.

Since we counter a lot, we don’t tend to hold possession for long periods of time. Obviously you must be strong at the back if you’re going to play that style and get away with it. I am seriously considering trying to play more of a possession game because it’s all about percentages.

We don’t, as a rule, take our chances to the extent I want. When my philosophy involves letting the other fellows have the ball, taking advantages of the chances we do get is absolutely vital. The balance for me is to find the right level of possession to take optimal advantage of our passing skills while at the same time generating enough chances to win.

We don’t, as a second rule, pass the ball particularly well either. We are very good at running with it and crossing it, but a short game doesn’t suit the players we have, even though that doesn’t matter to the purists. We won’t play long ball, though, of that I am certain.

So the early season has been all about finding balance. When we pass the ball accurately and take a reasonable percentage of our chances, we won’t lose often. When we don’t, we will be ordinary at best.

My current line of thinking has been to let teams beat their heads against our back four and Orlandoni, before countering them. It has worked fairly well every place except Sassuolo, who found the way to break through. That’s why we’re fifth instead of higher in the playoff places.

Gentile will get the nod in the center of midfield on Sunday. We’re at home and I think he will be able to utilize the energy whatever crowd we get will give us. Some players are more comfortable in front of the home fans and I think he is one of those players. I guess there is only one way to find out.

What a story! So much effort is put into each update obviously (by the amount of writing you have produced) and not only have you done this for this story, but for another too! Fantastic and well done!

That comment makes me feel good. I'm very happy to hear you and hopefully others appreciate the detail I'm putting into these pieces. Thanks so much!
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Saturday, September 29
A light day today. I spent my afternoon watching the English Premier League, which was a nice deviation from the norm.

And ironically enough, I watched Reading play Fulham and watched my old club score a 2-1 win that has them now in sixth place in the league. Steve Coppell has done a great job with the Royals and I saw the Madejski Stadium full to the rafters with happy supporters.

That’s something the town frankly deserves. Reading had never reached the top flight in forty years of existence until Coppell got them there last season through a record-setting season in the second division, the Coca-Cola Championship.

That they stayed up was a pleasant surprise to Royals supporters, but missing Europe by a single point last year was both a disappointment and a pleasant shock. Sixth place in the early going of course challenges for the European places this year too.

It is not a bad club to play for at all. The stadium is usually full, the supporters are loyal and Coppell is a very good manager. The ex-Manchester United player was even mentioned as an England candidate back when Steve McClaren was struggling in the job.

So the Royals have a lot going for them and I enjoyed watching them win today. Our match is of course tomorrow and Serie A’s big match day is traditionally Sunday as well, so we have a big weekend of football ahead.

It has been a long and trying week and after a quick walkthrough with the squad this morning I dismissed them to stay fresh for tomorrow’s match. There is no need for me to use a heavy hand with the players since the club is winning and I’m happy with their general play to this point.

So I let them go to enjoy their Saturday. Hopefully that will help the long-term outlook.

I’m concerned about that during a couple of different points on the schedule – we have an international break coming up soon where we don’t play for two weeks and another over Christmas, where the whole league shuts down for three weeks. We’re going to be taking some time off then, and I want the players to know that it isn’t all football at those times of the year.

The players know that if they perform I will reward them. I have no problem giving a complete day off after a win unless we’re also playing at midweek, and they show me how badly they want that day off by how well they play on the weekend.

Unfortunately for that philosophy, we’re playing a midweek match on Wednesday against a Pro Sesto side we should handle. They have won only one of their first six matches and are 15th in the 18-team table. We are traveling to Sesto San Giovanni, but really we ought to be fancied to win.

So after the match was over, I reviewed scouting reports on Pro Sesto. I spent my evening at the computer, writing out my notes to give to the players after tomorrow’s match. It was quiet, which I love, and the only thing I love more finally broke that solitude.

Patty’s voice on my speakerphone lifted me when I needed it most, and her constancy through the troubles of this week has been very helpful.

“Ready for tomorrow?” she asked.

“Ready as we’re gonna get,” I said. “I think we’re settling down nicely.”

“I thought I’d come to the match if that’s okay,” she said.

“It is,” I replied, starting an e-mail to the club secretary as she spoke. “But I’m e-mailing ahead to the club. I would like you out of view and out of the stands. I don’t want anyone approaching you or giving you a hard time. Ultras can be no fun to be around if you’re on the wrong side of them.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine….” she started to speak but for once I didn’t let her finish.

“Sure, nothing,” I said. “I insist. I want you out of the stands. I don’t want to have to worry for you at the same time I worry about the team. Let me be nice to you, and let yourself enjoy the match.”

“You’re the boss,” she said.

“At the ground, yes. I am the boss. Everywhere else, feel free to be as bossy as you like.” There was just enough lilt in my voice, even as I made my point, for Patty to understand that I meant what I said.

“Okay, honey,” she said. “Tell me what to do in the morning and I’ll be happy to do it as long as I can see you after the match.”

Sunday, September 30
Padova v Citadella – Serie C1A

September is ending on a positive note, and my hope is that Bosnia and Herzegovina manager Fuad Muruzovic was watching today.

Music had a tremendous match, scoring his first goal for the club, and we played very well after being reduced to ten men for the second time this season. That didn’t make me so happy, but the way we handled adversity in response was quite good.

We also had a decent crowd – our gathering of 4,149 at Euganeo was the largest of the season and we put on a highly competent display for them ahead of our visit to Pro Sesto at midweek.

But Music stole the show for us. We battled through a technical and scoreless first half until Vedin caught lightning in a bottle with one minute of regular time to play.

We had moved the ball to the top of Citadella’s penalty area and as sometimes happens at this level of football, things had degenerated into the kind of mad scrum you see in some youth league games. Players from both teams were battling for possession and we were in the process of losing our shape before the ball squirted to Music at the right edge of the box as keeper Giuliano DeSimone saw it.

Vedin brought the spinning ball to ground with a very good first touch and then did one of the hardest things to do in football – he scored with an outswinging shot using the outside of his off-foot. Vedin is left-footed and he struck the ball with the outside of his right boot, hitting a swerving shot that had about a ball’s width of room to sneak between DeSImone’s outstretched arm and his left post.

It was just a marvelous goal and as Music tore off toward the corner flag I gave him a round of applause, hands over head. That was perhaps the most appropriate way to honor a simply exquisite piece of skill. I was thrilled for Vedin and how his hard work had paid off.

He made sure to shake my hand as he headed back up the touchline – it was his first goal for the club and he was frankly thrilled about it – and we headed to the changing room at halftime on a real and deserved high.

I told the squad to maintain their focus above all. What I want is a club that will turn the screws on an opponent when they have them on the mat and to a large extent, that is what I saw in the second half.

Citadella had a hard time making headway against the center of our midfield, as Crovari and Gentile had their best game together in tandem. That was a real eye-opener for me and frankly I wish it happened more often so my choice in central midfield would be a little more clear.

Gentile also had a key role to play in the buildup to our second goal just after the hour mark. Paz made a terrific play to read the game at right back, intercepting an attempt to clear the Citadella lines. He headed the ball directly into the path of Gentile, who had also read the game well, and Andrea’s ball forward found Varrichio with his back to goal at the top of the 18.

Massimiliano moved outside, cut back inside and wrongfooted defender Geraldo Spirio immediately. He then gleefully fired home past DeSimone to make it 2-nil and really put us in the catbird seat.

It was his fifth goal, tying him with Baú for the club lead. Three of Eder’s goals have come from the penalty spot, so to have Varricchio’s five all coming from open play is a real boost.

Unfortunately, as well as things were going we were due for a reverse, and it came through a silly challenge by Gentile. Having already been carded for an equally silly challenge in the first half, he was already on thin ice. Luca Foti had no problem pulling the second yellow card out of his pocket, and I really had no complaints as the player trudged to the changing room with 23 minutes to play.

That gave us a chance to work on our counter game, and I am being kind in this assessment. I’d have preferred to stay active on Citadella, and to do it with eleven men on the pitch. Having learned about my attitude toward red cards after Crovari’s sending off, Gentile walked gingerly past me toward the showers.

I had to switch to one striker, taking off Muzzi in favor of Varricchio due to his having the hot streak, and we proceeded to counter Citadella right out of the match. Despite having to play with ten, we never really let them into a good scoring position, which provided a measure of consolation.

No manager likes to play with ten, but it is an unfortunate fact of life that sometimes it happens. You have to be ready for it, and we passed that test quite nicely. Foti finally blew for full time and we headed to the changing room a wining team for the fourth time in six starts.

Statistically, Citadella had the better of the match, with 12 attempts to seven for us and four on goal to three for us. But much of that came when we were playing with ten and they were also chasing the game, so it was to be expected. They also had a big possession edge, at 55-45, and again much of that came when they had an extra player.

So there’s reason to smile. There’s also room for improvement, and I mentioned that to Gentile when I took him aside after the match.

“I can’t play you now,” I said. “You had a nice match until you lost your cool.”

“I know,” he said. He knows he is locked in a battle with Rabito for playing time and he knows it’s important that he stays on the pitch. Crovari looked on and I made sure my captain saw I was giving Gentile the same treatment I had given him for getting sent off at Cavese. I want a culture of on-pitch discipline established here and people who keep getting sent off aren’t going to figure into my plans.

But otherwise, I wasn’t even terribly perturbed to speak to the media after the match, which was a bit of a surprise given how things had gone this week.

“I’m pleased,” I said. “We played well and even though we made some mistakes which cost us the chance to really put up a big score today, we played well and have a lot to take into the midweek match at Pro Sesto.”

I was asked about Varricchio and that was a more pleasant topic of conversation. “He didn’t figure in at the beginning of the season but he and Di Nardo have really stepped up when I have asked them to,” I said. “That is the kind of commitment I want to see and Massimiliano has really done a nice job for us. Five goals from open play in his first six matches is a very nice return and he’s doing a great job for us. “

And then about Music: “I really hope Fuad Muruzovic was watching today because if he wasn’t I’ll be happy to tell him about how well Vedin is playing. I thought his goal was wonderful and he has given us a great deal of energy, enthusiasm and just plain hard work on the left side of our midfield. It has taken me some time to sort things out at the beginning of my time here but we do have quality players who are able to step up and give us help at key positions on the pitch. I’m quite pleased with how things have gone and frankly I am delighted for Vedin Music.”

And with that, I turned to see Patty around the corner, out of sight of the media. I nodded very slightly to her so as not to draw attention and was quite pleased at her choice of attire. Our night together already promised quite a bit.

Padova 2-0 Citadella


The gathering of media broke up, I went into the changing room one more time to address the players, and left my girlfriend in the charge of the chief steward before returning back into the hallway leading to the car park.

It was then, and only then, that we were able to acknowledge each other’s presence.

“How’d you like the match?” I asked, hugging her and knowing I’d like the answer.

“Just fine,” she said, looking up at me with that wonderful little smile.

“That’s what I like to hear,” I answered, slipping my arm protectively around her waist. I noticed she was getting appreciative glances from media, who were now alerted to her presence, and from whose presence I wanted to remove her as soon as possible.

She noticed it too, and flashed a devastating smile to a local reporter who walked past in the opposite direction, turning his head as he did.

I found it more than a little ironic that those people who were so willing to compromise her personal life in print were also willing to flirt with her so outrageously, and in my presence, no less. But Patty handled it beautifully and I knew what she was up to. She was killing them with kindness.

She then proceeded to smite them by walking out with her arm very protectively and quite publicly around my waist in return, as we departed Euganeo for our evening together.


I opened the door to my apartment and we stepped inside. She smiled up at me. “I don’t like this being away from you,” she sighed. “It’s not fun and I miss you.”

“I missed you too,” I said, closing the door behind us. “I’m glad we can have these nights but leaving afterwards is hard knowing I won’t see you for a week. I wish we were closer together.”

“Can’t do much about it now,” she said. “I’d love to, but it’s a horrible commute and we aren’t married or anything like that.”

I felt a rush of blood to my brain when she said that and I replied in kind. “More is the pity,” I teased, and she playfully slapped my arm.

“I love you, but we’ve got a long way to go before that,” she said with just the right amount of realism. That brought me back down to earth and I guess I took it surprisingly hard.

She noticed the look on my face, though, and came to my arms. “But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love every minute of it,” she said, lifting my spirits to a point.

I smiled down at her. “And I do love you, Rob,” she reminded me. “Please, don’t forget that.”

I've missed the last few updates but they have been class

Thanks very much, Jer, I appreciate your kind comments as always!
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Monday, October 1
Pro Sesto is next for us on Wednesday so unfortunately, today was a workday even though we won 24 hours ago.

I was out the door at seven, to Euganeo to prepare for training.

We’re traveling to Milan for the matchup, which is about 140 miles to our west. For an evening match this means we can leave at midday without worry. That’s good, since we don’t have much time to prepare.

I showed up right on time this morning and my squad did too, ready to work. Winning tends to do that.

Having seen video of Pro Sesto already and armed with a scouting report from our advance team, we’ll prepare for a team we expect to play a standard 4-4-2 against us.

Right now the 4-1-3-2 we’ve been playing has done a fine job of helping throw our opponents off their stroke – hence the “junk formation” comments we’ve heard in the media – but that is not what will win us matches after everyone has seen it.

What will win is how we play that formation over the rest of the season, and we will learn to play it better than we are already doing. That will be the mark of our team and it will be the mark of my management.

So Wednesday’s match will be an indication of how well we’re doing. We’ll have a chance to let different players play in the same system against an opponent on the road, so it will be an excellent test for us. I’ll need to do a little squad rotation to rest tired legs, no matter how much I’d like to stick with a winning eleven.

“This will be an opportunity for those who would like to break into the first team to make their impressions,” I told the squad as we stretched before today’s training session. “You all want to play and the club is winning. If you want to make your move, now is the time.”

Players like Cotroneo, a decent player who has been displaced from his starting spot by the emergence of Pablo Paz, need to take notice. Pablo has been playing well but Paolo is in the XI for the trip to Milan and he knows it.

I want to create competition for places and players who have been with the club for some time need to understand that. Obviously they don’t like it, and I’m opening myself to charges of not being fair to fan favorites but my position is pretty clear.

I am not beholden to any of these players. The holdovers need to prove themselves and the players I’ve brought in need to show they can play. They’ll get every chance to do so, of course, due to their reputations and mine being on the line, but I won’t hesitate to pull any player on the senior squad if they don’t perform.

I don’t want to be draconian about it, but weeks like this one where we play Sunday/Wednesday/Sunday are important. We’re off to a decent start and completing this strong start this midweek is obviously of paramount importance.

So after a good technical workout I took the players into the training center for video work and made another point.

“I expect you to watch,” I said when I caught players doing other things. “And if I catch you on the bench not paying attention to the game I swear I’ll box your ears.”

That brought a few smiles from the players but smiles weren’t what I was after. What I wanted was simple obedience to my directions and until I got it, I wasn’t going to be moved.

“The choice is up to you,” I said. “You can be professionals about it or not, as you choose. I may not be here if that is the case but you’re going to be in Serie C for a long, long time. Up to you.”

The reminder seemed to work and that was all I wanted. How far it goes, remains to be seen.


On top of it all, I was not in an optimal mood this morning anyway. Leaving in such a rush this morning after such a wonderful moment last night is not what I have in mind.

In thinking about it as we went our separate ways last night, though, it was something closer to what I’m starting to have in mind for us every day.

Though I don’t like the idea of Patty coming over for an evening and leaving, at least I’m seeing her without messing things up. I haven’t had this feeling, or anything remotely like it, since Kate.

That means I’m changing. I’ve mentioned earlier that I am enjoying watching Patty blossom into what I am quite sure she was before she met McGuire. However, it’s now fair to say that she is making me blossom too, and I wasn’t sure that would ever happen again.

That may be hubris on my part, to think I could change someone else and not be changed in return, but it’s what I’ve felt. So I have to deal with that and even as I have an absolute right to my feelings, I also have the absolute right and obligation to evaluate them honestly.

So tonight, as I sat alone in front of the big screen watching video of Paganese, who visits Euganeo on Sunday, I thought about what has been happening to me and finally, I picked up the phone.

“Miss you,” I said upon her answering the phone.

“I miss you too,” she said sweetly. “I was hoping you’d call.”

“You thought I wouldn’t?”

“Football managers are busy men,” she said.

“Never, ever too busy for you,” I said. “What does the weekend look like for you?”

“Big event on Saturday and Sunday,” she said. “Won’t see you for awhile, I’m afraid.”

I don’t often get the brilliant flash but I did now.

“I have an idea,” I said. “I’m looking at the calendar coming up and we have the week after next off for international play. Serie C isn’t playing the weekend of the 13th. How about you and I run away together for a few days?”

“Oh, I love that idea,” she said, responding immediately to my thoughts. “I think it would be wonderful to go someplace where we can’t be found.”

We got the same idea at the same time.

“Rome,” we said in unison.

Tuesday, October 2
Such preparations as we can make are already done for Pro Sesto, and if your glass is half-full rather than half-empty, it’s possible to find consolation in the fact they’ve had only two days to prepare for us as well.

I’m generally not that way, though, which is why I’m a football manager. I’m not supposed to be optimistic by nature.

Pro Sesto will enter the match fifteenth in the eighteen team table. The players will put pressure on themselves for a result because they all read that table.

That’s a fairly simple thing to observe, and the punters have already established us as a solid favorite for the match, which is a second “strike” against us.

Most teams don’t like the idea of being favored on the road, in my experience. The home field advantage is enormous in this sport in most matches, with the larger stadia having well-deserved reputations for creating an aura which can destroy the will of visiting clubs.

Breda, the home pitch for our hosts on Saturday, doesn’t have the reputation of the Ali Sami Yen in Istanbul, or even the Madejski Stadium in Reading, for that matter. The crowd isn’t going to be very big. But it’s still a pitch far from home and whatever traveling support we bring surely won’t outnumber the home supporters from Milan.

That said, we do have a bit of an unfortunate equalizer in the form of some of our “ultras”, the self-styled super fans that follow some clubs across Europe.

So as a result the club is quite image-conscious. In today’s day and age it’s quite understandable.

I’m not as worried about that, though, as I am about keeping our momentum after the Sunday win over Citadella. I’d rather be trying to keep spirits up after a win, obviously, and having done that with a clean sheet makes things easier, but we still have to be ready physically. That might be a little more difficult.

Wednesday, October 3
Pro Sesto v Padova, Serie C1A

Sometimes I hate being right.

Offensively we were close to inept for much of today’s match and heavy legs had a lot to do with that. We wound up with a split in the points, which was a fair result.

Still, we had a chance to win the match and conceded late, which made it a long coach ride back home from Sesto San Giovanni.

We traveled early today and I think that had something to do with how we played as well. The match kicked off at 7:30 so we were able to have a reasonable morning as a squad before getting onto the coach for Milan.

I was frankly scared of letdown and told the squad the same thing I told the media – we can’t expect to just show up and get a win, no matter how well we played Sunday.

But once we got off the coach, we were nowhere near as good as we were against Citadella. It was just that simple. I made three changes to the XI for today – Paponi started the match in place of Muzzi, and I stayed with Varricchio’s hot hand up front despite his playing ninety minutes on Sunday.

Rabito took over from Gentile in central midfield and Giuseppe Anaclerio held down the holding midfield role as Crovari’s understudy. My captain hadn’t quite recovered from a knock he picked up late in the Citadella match.

That said, Music was the only impressive player I had out there and the 33-year old showed he might be evergreen after all. His inspired cross just before the half-hour found the rampaging Varricchio right where he needed to be. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak and his powerful header sailed over the bar to keep the match scoreless.

Massimiliano is easily the best header of the ball on the club and his positional sense has stood him in good stead to this point. He is also six feet tall and that means when he’s playing his power game well he is a match for anyone in this league in a one-on-one heading situation.

But this time he wasn’t on target, and frankly that was the only decent chance we had in the first half. Still, a scoreless draw on the road was sufficient for my team talk, at which I reminded the players that they had more than enough in the tank to win the match.

That seemed to lead to a bit brighter outlook to our play in general, and the second half started with us carving out a pair of good chances. However, Paponi had to come off after a hard challenge left him struggling, and Muzzi came on trying to find the spark we needed.

He found it just five minutes after coming on, taking a very nice entry ball from Baú straight to the goal. That left central defender Alessandro Lambrughi no choice but to grab on for the ride, which resulted in a penalty.

Muzzi wasted no time, grabbing the ball from Baú and putting it on the spot after a brief discussion with my loan forward. From what I could tell, the discussion was “I’m shooting this one”, and Roberto made no mistake on 59 minutes to put us into the lead.

That obviously changed things, and on a day when we weren’t so good in attack it meant I could shift us to a little more defensive outlook. Pro Sesto hardly looked like scoring for the last twenty minutes of the first half and with twenty minutes to go I removed Rabito, moved Paz to central midfield, and brought on Cotroneo. That gave us two holding midfielders in front of a pretty good back line for the last twenty minutes.

So on paper we were in great shape. Unfortunately, it took Pro Sesto less than five minutes after the substitution to put us in poor shape in reality. Our defending was frankly shocking and Marco Dalla Costa made us pay for it. With six defensive minded players on the pitch he still managed to find a seam and though Orlandoni stopped his first shot, he couldn’t hold it. My keeper spilled the ball right back to Dalla Costa, who had the simplest of finishes as we didn’t bother to get a body on him while the ball was loose.

Their smallish crowd of 1,789 showed its appreciation, and I headed to the bench for an aspirin. I guess I didn’t appreciate the beauty of the thing quite so much, especially since it came eleven minutes from time.

With my attacking central midfielder out of the game and out of substitutions, if we were to get three points it would have to come with players ill-suited for the purpose. That didn’t stop us from trying though, and twice in the last five minutes Muzzi got simply glorious chances to bring the three points back home with us.

However, Roberto missed the net on both occasions, and the end result was a frustrating day made doubly frustrating by the day’s other league results.

I had warned the squad about letdown but I really couldn’t complain about a whole lot today. I even told them that as a disappointed group of Biancoscudati sat for my post-match team talk.

If they were expecting a roasting they weren’t going to get it.

“Look, I’m not happy that we conceded late but let’s be honest,” I said. “We haven’t conceded a league goal in almost a month. I’m not going to fault you. If I expect you to play a man-marking style at times I have to accept mistakes. None of us like them, because today one mistake as a team cost us two points, but we did get a point out of here today. Let’s be positive. We have a home match on Sunday and we’ve got a chance to get right back out there. Let’s go home and get ready for the weekend.”

I told that to the media as well.

“It’s been just about a month since someone scored on us,” I said, and a check of the records showed I was correct. Rovigo’s Fabio Ceccarelli was the last player to score against us – on September 5.

The obvious negative – Pro Sesto has won only one of their seven matches so far, which is why they’re 15th and we’re not – but dropping points here today didn’t help considering the other results.

Novara, which has a powerful side that can score goals, won today, and we remain fifth in the table at 4-2-1 thanks to Venezia’s goalless draw at Verona. Novara leads us by four points, Cremonese is two up on us and Venezia and Sassuolo are a point ahead of us as well. It’s not a bad start, and we’re in the playoff places, but the perfectionist in me wants better.

“Do you feel this was a point gained or two points lost?” I was asked.

“We’re on the road. It’s a point gained,” I said firmly. “If we had played like this at home it might well have been two points dropped, but my hope is that we play better on Sunday against Paganese and make the whole conversation moot.”

“Do you feel you went defensive too early in this match?”

“I have to believe the ability of my players to keep a clean sheet,” I said, evading the question at first. “But they made a good play and got the equalizer. We had several chances to win and we didn’t take any of them, so I guess I reject the notion we were defensive at the end.”

I didn’t like my answer. Neither did the press.


Patty’s phone call on the coach trip home was a big help. It always is.

“You were missing your good luck charm,” she said. “But I suppose joking doesn’t help you.”

“I know what would help me,” I smiled. “But it’s going to be a few days yet.”

Pro Sesto 1-1 Padova

Thursday, October 4
Hellas Verona is rumored to be making a move for a player I would very much like to have in my colors and after a meeting today I am going to try to throw a wrench into their plans.

Juve Stabia’s captain, Massimiliano Caputo, is reportedly ready to leave his club. Verona wants him. I want the player more, and after meeting with Sestaro this afternoon, I’ve received permission to bid the asking price of €24,000 for a player who my scouts tell me is equally adept from both sides of midfield.

If the deal is accepted, he won’t be able to join us until January, but Verona forced our hand. I don’t want this player going to a regional rival.

Yet, a dual-sided player is frankly something I need. Baú has been a revelation but he’s a loan player and even if he helps get us promoted, I won’t be able to keep him next season. I need another player just like him whether or not we get promoted.

Caputo is a very good passer, crosser and finisher, and he’s also got a bit of an attitude streak that frankly I don’t mind. Every team needs one player who isn’t afraid to snarl when things aren’t going right and Caputo appears to be one of those players.

As long as he doesn’t snarl at me, I’m fine with that. That is, if we get the player.

Today’s training focused primarily on getting the legs back for players who worked the full ninety minutes yesterday. The shuttling of players will have to continue on Sunday when Paganese comes to town – Gentile will regain his place in central midfield in place of Rabito, who has frankly not shown me enough since his first-day strike at Venezia to keep a regular place in the XI.

I also had my daily briefing with the Padua newspapers and they had their first shot at me since the match yesterday to ask why things had gone so wrong against the 15th placed team in the table.

That’s their responsibility, I suppose, but that doesn’t make it any more pleasant for yours truly. There are places in the football world where you’re expected to win every single week and while Padova isn’t necessarily one of those places, when I don’t win I do hear about it.

I’m obviously desperate for a good start and to be in the playoff places at the moment is acceptable but not where some people think I ought to be. Caputo’s signing, if it happens, will be one way to appease those people.

I don’t want to manage this club for others. I don’t want to be placed in the position where I feel I need to make a panic signing. But if we get Caputo, it will help strengthen the club to the point where criticism, both of my players and myself, will be less strident. Or at least I hope so.

Friday, October 5
I’m feeling a bit like the cat that ate the canary today, as Caputo will join us in January after a surprisingly short negotiation.

We agreed a purchase price of €24,000 with Juve Stabia and before the afternoon training session was complete, Caputo had agreed terms with us.

I’m not sure what it says about Juve Stabia that they would sell their captain so quickly, but it has happened and Caputo will join us in the January window. It’s also quite likely that he will be my only purchase of that window, as the club’s finances aren’t going to take a whole lot of “sticker shock” from the manager.

I’m staying within budget – well under my transfer budget and I’m about €200,000 under my wage budget as well – yet attendance figures of about 3,000 per match mean the club is losing money at a rate that isn’t fun to look at. We have to ensure promotion, which will help the coffers, but if we go into administration doing it, that doesn’t help anyone.

It’s just one of the things we are concerned with at the club. My more immediate concern, though, is Paganese, which has lost only two of seven to start the year and sit three places below us in the table.

However, those three places translate into six points, and that makes me feel a little better. There is a group of teams already starting to break away from the pack in the early going so there is great pressure on us to stay with that group. I’m quite impressed with both Novara and Sassuolo, Venezia is better than they showed us in the Serie C Cup as much as it pains me to admit it, and Cremonese is pretty good too, though I don’t know if they have the stamina to last the pace.

It’s going to be a long haul and the teams lumped in with us are fairly decent for this level of football. No one said this was going to be easy.


For now, though, one of the players who will be most affected by Caputo’s arrival in January is still playing for me, and still playing well.

Music is going to get another run out on Sunday and frankly I’m hoping it helps him. He wants more than anything to get back into Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national setup and playing excellent football for his club is about the only way he can do that.

I don’t mind helping Vedin with his end goal of playing football at a national level, but so long as his ambition does not hinder his club, it’ll be easier for all of us. He knows he has to play for me to be able to play for Fuad Muruzovic, so what I’ve received from the player is complete commitment on the training ground even as he shoots for higher goals.

Today he trained like a man ten years younger and I actually thought about telling him to tone it down a bit. Then I remembered that doing such a thing would fly in the face of everything I have told my squad since the start of the season about training like you play. But with our recent fixture congestion, I’m hoping the resurgence of Vedin Music doesn’t hurt him – and us – on Sunday.

I sat alone this evening, trying to get a few pages read in my latest historical book, trying not to look past Sunday and look forward to the weekend before its time.

I haven’t had a real vacation in ages, and the thought of actually taking one with another person – especially Patty – has me nearly cackling with glee.

She called this evening and we spent about 45 minutes talking about our plans. I’ve been to Rome but she hasn’t, and even though I’m far from an expert, we definitely plan to do as the Romans do while we are there.

And on the way back, I hope to surprise her a bit. She is a football fan, after all, having spent so much time in England before coming here. I’ve arranged to visit the San Siro for Italy’s Euro 2008 qualifier against Georgia. It will be the first time I’ve ever watched a match with her, we can be out together in public without attracting too much attention, and it’s a match the home team ought to win.

So that seems to be a nice arrangement for me. Hopefully it will be for her as well. It’s not quite as bad as a husband buying his wife power tools for Mother’s Day in terms of selfishness, but my hope is that she’ll enjoy the experience. I’ll just enjoy being in her presence.

Saturday, October 6
I’ll have most of my best eleven for Paganese tomorrow.

Varricchio will return to the XI alongside Muzzi and at this point the main injury concern I have is still di Venanzio, who checked in with me after our light training today.

He is still 4-6 weeks away from being able to run hard, but the doctors tell me his torn ligaments are healing reasonably well. There was no rupture – which might have ended his career – but now it’s up to Fabio to determine the next phase of his career.

The papers are predicting a win for us at home tomorrow and that’s pressure I don’t really need. I don’t mind that pressure as much as I did a month ago, but I still want the players to meld together in as insulated atmosphere as I can give them. I know, I know, good luck with that.

The problem with winning is that I draw more media attention. Obviously I’d get that extra attention for losing as well, so if I had to choose I would choose what’s happening now. I’m not terribly fond of media in any event. In this regard I am hardly alone among managers.

They write what they want when they want, inflame tensions, speculate in matters not always appropriate, and of course since they put a huge amount of pressure on Patty without anyone asking for it, I’m a bit upset about that as well.

I’ve handled media throughout a long career, and even though I don’t like it, I know how to do it. She doesn’t handle aggressive media quite as well yet, and as much as I already love and care for her, I know I can’t get in the way to the point where it interferes with my job.

It isn’t easy to watch someone you care for having to go through problems not of their making. The best way to help is to be as cooperative as possible and as clean as a whistle. There really is no other way.

The saving grace is that we aren’t in a bigger league. If we were, there’s no telling how angry I’d be at the moment!

Sunday, October 7
Padova v Paganese – Serie C1A

Today we did a thoroughly professional job against a pretty good side – and now we have a little time away.

The crowd was bigger too – 4,132 came to see us play and while that isn’t near where we need it to be, it’s bigger than in the past. That is the growth we all need to see.

Frankly, I saw growth on a number of fronts today and am quite pleased with the performance of my players. After they reported to the changing room for our pre-match meeting, I gave them a message that was short and sweet.

“Give me ninety hard minutes today and then the worst is over,” I said. “You’ve performed pretty well for the last two weeks while playing mid-week as well and I’m proud of you for that. Right now, though, we can make a dent in the top of the table if you perform like I know you can. This match is winnable and I want you to take it for yourselves.”

Our mood was pretty good despite the draw at midweek. Certainly it helped to be playing at home in such a circumstance, and I knew full well as the teams lined up for kickoff that it was an important day for the clubs at the top of the table.

As we kicked off, Cremonese kicked off at Sassuolo, meaning two of the four clubs above us were meeting head to head. Novara was on the road at Monza and Venezia was hosting Pro Patria, just one step off the foot of the table. There was a fair amount at stake, even this early in the season.

Territorially, we started out quite strong indeed. Muzzi stung the hands of Paganese keeper Fernando Martinuzzi with a rising drive from just inside the area sixteen minutes into the match for our first good chance. Roberto’s industry was great to watch today and even though his scoring totals have fallen off considerably from what he did in our friendlies, his pace, his passing ability and above all, his veteran presence have meant a lot to us.

It is a good indication of how far we’ve come that we held a top-ten club without a shot on target for the first 45 minutes of the match and as the half wore on, we started to impose our will on the visiting team.

Gentile, preferred today to Rabito in central midfield, showed he was on a mission just after the half-hour with a weaving run through the center of the Paganese defense before powering a twenty-yard effort off the top of the crossbar.

I liked how things were going and as we approached half I even took the unusual step of pulling the defensive line up a bit. With the age we are showing in our back four I like to keep them back as a rule but Sacchetti and Vasco Faísca were more than capable of handling the visiting forwards so up they moved.

Just before halftime all our pressure paid off as Muzzi picked up a 50-50 ball about thirty yards out from the visitors goal. He angled to his right and then cut sharply to the middle, a half-step ahead of the defense. His angled drive was parried by the diving Martinuzzi, but he pushed the ball right in front of the onrushing Gentile, who walked it into the open goal on 37 minutes.

The noise from our band of supporters was heartening, Gentile showed his appreciation by heading off to the corner flag for a wave to the crowd, and I was already waving to Sacchetti to move back to our original defensive line so we didn’t concede again before half.

We held the line until the break, and I addressed a happy group of players at halftime in the way you might have expected when winning well at home. I knew from my Blackberry that things were going well – Cremonese and Sassuolo were scoreless at half and so was Novara at Monza. Even Venezia hadn’t broken through against Pro Patria, so I hoped we could hold our own and maybe gain a little ground.

The second half was more of the same – it was, for the most part, one-way traffic. An early period of moderate pressure was easily handled, and after that we started to play with a great deal of fluency. Varricchio barely missed with a piledriver of a header from Baú’s corner just after the hour mark and Martinuzzi had to go to full stretch to deny Crovari’s long range effort just three minutes later.

It seemed just a matter of time before we broke through again, but as the minutes wore on, the elusive second goal just never seemed to arrive.

I pulled Varricchio off in favor of Di Nardo on 75 minutes, and again the fourth-choice striker sent me a message five minutes after he stepped on the pitch. Again Muzzi made things happen, with a terrific heads-up play begun by Baú’s entry ball.

Roberto pulled the keeper over to his side and then simply squared for Di Nardo, who had slipped his marker and had no problem slotting past the diving Martinuzzi to put us home and dry. The awareness I saw from all three players was enough to make me smile from ear to ear.

With ten minutes left all that remained was to keep the clean sheet for Orlandoni, and this was done with considerable ease. Man of the match Muzzi accepted my handshake with a sloppy grin as we headed toward the changing room after a job very well done.


With the fixtures we’ve played over the last few weeks, it was no surprise to anyone that the players scattered after taking their plunge pools. Getting a real, honest-to-goodness week off didn’t hurt matters either, and I know the players were looking forward to a little time away.

I faced the media after the match and gave a frank assessment. “We deserved three points today and sometimes there is a bit of justice in this game so we got them,” I said. “No disrespect to Paganese intended but we were the better side today and I’m very pleased to note it.”

“Muzzi put in a great performance,” I was informed.

“Quite observant,” I replied, tweaking my questioner as I replied. “He doesn’t have to score to be effective for this club, though if he does put on his shooting boots I think we’re going to have one of the best players in our league right here to enjoy. His vision made both our goals today – to squeeze in a shot on the first goal and of course through that seeing-eye square ball to get Di Nardo on the scoresheet.”

“Di Nardo says he is going to make you notice him,” I said, and I took the reporter’s tone to indicate that my striker was more determined to win a place than threatening to me.

“That’s his job,” I replied. “Getting on the scoresheet is the best way to do that, of course. I think Muzzi and Varricchio play quite well together and it’s going to take a fair bit of convincing to make me think we have a better combination at the moment.”

“How about Paponi?” my questioner asked.

“He’s a terrific talent but I can only play two strikers, unless for some reason I am up to playing 4-3-3 with three center forwards,” I answered. “Daniele is learning that to play well professionally you have to bring your ‘A-game’ every day, not just when you want to play it. He’s going to be very good, though, and he is learning very quickly. It will be difficult to keep him out of the eleven for much longer.”

The day really had gone perfectly. Both Sassuolo and Cremonese had scored in the second half to finish 1-1; Novara finished in a goalless draw with Monza and Venezia was probably feeling like I had Wednesday after a goalless draw against 17th placed Pro Patria at Pierluigi Penzo.

We have leapfrogged into second place in the table on goal difference and passed both Cremonese and Sassuolo, the club that handed us our heads a few weeks back. Novara remains ahead of us but their lead is a single point. We are back on track and that will make this week much easier indeed.
Padova 2-0 Paganese

The sun was just starting to set as I finally made my way out of Euganeo for the start of my own time away. I rounded the last corner in the players’ tunnel underneath the stadium and as I had hoped, there she was.

Patty stood leaning against the wall, waiting most patiently for me. We shared a knowing glance and she walked to me for a happy embrace, slipping her hand into mine as we left for my car.

“Rome awaits,” she said. “My bags are at your apartment. I can’t wait to get started!”

After a brief pit stop at my place, we were back into the car and on the open road out of the city. A wonderful week ahead awaits.

On the way, we stopped for petrol and I was able to check my BlackBerry for the latest news and scores. It was there that I found that Music, despite another solid performance today, was again left out of the Bosnia team by Fuad Muruzovic for upcoming matches against Greece and Norway.

I frowned. I don’t know who’s ahead of him on the pecking order there but if Muruzovic was looking for an in-form player, he could have hardly found a better choice. Of course, since I had my BlackBerry in my hand, I could tell from a simple glance that he hadn’t contacted me to talk about the player. So he never seriously intended to select Vedin, and I have a week now to decide how I’m going to handle it if Music asks me.

The truth will be the best way, of course. And it is going to hurt.

Saturday, October 13
Milan

To say our week away has been wonderful would be an understatement.

Patty and I have had a simply fabulous time in Rome – seeing the sights, taking long walks all over one of the world’s most beautiful cities – and most importantly, just getting lost together.

For a whole week there has been no media, no prying eyes, and above all no unwanted publicity that might drive a wedge between us. She has been wonderful, we have been wonderful, and we have a wondefully enhanced relationship as a result.

Tonight, though, it was back to reality to an extent. We started back home tonight and had a very nice evening at the San Siro as Italy took on Georgia in a Euro 2008 qualifier.

It was almost like walking into a different world. As we took seats high in a corner of one of the auxiliary press boxes, the noise of the place seemed to engulf us.

Lately I have become accustomed to crowds of 4,000 at Euganeo and substantially less than that on the road. Tonight, 82,929 supporters filed into the grand old place and watched the Azzurri emerge 2-nil winners.

Italy is in a real scrap in its qualifying group. Scotland have shocked the football world by doing the double over France, and sit second in the group, one point ahead of Italy. The nations meet in the final group match at Glasgow’s Hampden Park in just over a month, with the hope here being that victory won’t be needed for qualification.

The Scots have shown no small amount of pluck in getting where they are in this tournament and despite it all, the general impression I’ve been able to glean here is that they’ll simply fold when the pressure is the highest.

Having played in Scotland, I have my doubts about this. Walter Smith, now at Rangers, helped the national team recover from the Berti Vogts era and when Smith left, Alex McLeish picked up where “Big Walter” left off. The national team believes in itself and will get an opportunity, on its home pitch, to prove it to everyone on November 17.

So as a result, there is no small amount of pressure on Italy to do the business to make the November 17 match matter. There was a fair amount of tension in the place tonight until Udinese’s Antonio DiNatale broke through on 35 minutes.

The place, as you might imagine, went nuts and DiNatale liked his reception so much he scored again nine minutes later. That was more than enough for the Azzurri, and that was a good thing because in the second half they went pretty much to lead maintenance.

From the point of view of a footballing purist, it was fun to watch. From the point of view of a neutral, the game had ten minutes of brilliance and eighty minutes of chess playing and clock management. Yet, at this level, that is often what’s required to get results.

It was a relaxing second half to watch and as I sat with Patty, we talked about our future even as we enjoyed the match.

Under our table, she reached for my hand and squeezed it tightly.

“I’ve heard we’re getting visitors on November 1 for the last couple of weeks of the Biennale,” she said. “It’s time you knew that, but it’s also time for you to know that after this last week, I hardly care about them and I hope you don’t care either.”

I looked at her and smiled. “They have their job to do and so do you,” I said. “There’s really no reason for you to spend time around them, is there?”

“Not really.”

“Then this might just be a simple thing after all,” I said.

Monday, October 15
Next up for us is Ternana, another team struggling out of the gate. But it’s a road match so once again we will have to mind our p’s and q’s to get the result we want.

We will focus our attention on striker Romano Tozzi Borsoi, who has scored five goals for them. However, they've only got two other goals in total, which is one reason why they have five losses and a draw in eight starts for 15th place.

The players reported in fine mettle for the coming week after a week away – with the exception of Baú. That worries me.

Loan players will sometimes have difficulty adjusting to new surroundings, but I wouldn’t have expected this sort of thing from Eder. He is a model professional and he has quite simply done everything I have asked of him – sometimes doing things before I ask them – and frankly I find him a joy to have around the side.

But this morning he reported for training down and depressed. It is quite possible that letting him go home for a week has disrupted his concentration, and I have to be careful how I handle him.

So today at training, I decided to bring him along slowly and try to build up his confidence again. You would think that a player with five goals in eight starts would overflow with confidence, but as I have mentioned many times already this season and will mention many times in the future, football can be a downright weird game sometimes.

Eder is probably the best technical player we have. So in that regard it’s a shame he isn’t under my contract. I love his work habits, his team-oriented style of play, and his attitude. So this is a player I need to have in focus and hopefully happy.

While I tried to figure out my loan midfielder’s mood, I enjoyed watching a very nice training session from another loanee, Gotti. There’s no way I can hope to keep the player past this season since he’s an Italy u-21 and there are bigger things ahead for him. I know when I have him in the XI, it’s as good as putting a lock on the other team’s right wing players.

Despite having a more gregarious personality than Baú, Massimo doesn’t have the same issues with morale. And frankly, I find that curious. Maybe it’s because he knows what is ahead for him – consistent progress will surely find him playing in Serie A in the not too distant future. That would do it for me, I know.

I never had the knowledge that I was going anywhere until Rangers purchased my contract during my playing days. Falkirk was a fun place to play, and I loved Scotland, but I didn’t know my career was going to include top-flight football until I went to Ibrox.

Once I left for Reading and the second division of the English game, I often thought back to playing in a top flight. It was a wonderful experience and if I were 20 years old again like Gotti I’d do everything in my power to keep that future as bright as I could make it. So he is playing very well and very steadily for us and when I get phone calls to talk about his progress I’m as honest as I can be.

If Gotti plays well it helps everyone, including me. So I don’t think about next season, when he won’t be here, and instead think about trying to lift a trophy over my head come the end of April.

And as I looked at my two key players, neither of which are contracted to me, I wondered how two skilled players could be so alike and so different at the same time.

Tuesday, October 16
Here’s a fun item. My old club is now second in the Premiership table.

Reading has had a wonderful start to its season and as I watched Sky Sports tonight I saw a very nice piece on the progress the club has made.

This weekend, the Royals will host Manchester United at the Madejski Stadium in the biggest regular season match Reading has ever played.

The whole town is fired up, mighty United have been struggling, and since my club plays on Sunday this week I plan to watch Saturday’s match on television.

I do think success for a club outside the “Big Four” in England would be the best thing that could happen to the game there, but there’s obviously a lot of season left before anyone could talk about a major upset in the table.

We had largely mid-table sides while I was there, and even though I played as hard as I could, I wasn’t able to make a huge difference in the club’s fortunes.

I’d have loved to say the opposite, obviously, but it took Steve Coppell’s guidance to set a Championship record for points in a season and get the club to the Premiership for the first time.

Then he missed Europe by a single point in Reading’s first season in the top flight, a staggering accomplishment in itself. Now the stadium is being remodeled, and at a capacity of just over 24,000 during the construction, it actually seats fewer people than my club’s stadium, Euganeo.

Funny game, football.


Wednesday, October 17
While we prepare for Sunday’s match at Terni’s Stadio Libero Liberati, I’m not looking forward to the period immediately following the match.

On Monday, Venezia is playing at Novara, and I plan to scout that match personally. That’s going to mean a fantastic amount of windshield time for me, as Novara is about thirty miles west of Milan.

On Saturday, we’ll make the 280-mile trip south and stay overnight. On Sunday, we coach home immediately following the game, and if I feel up to it, I’ll climb straight into the car and drive the 175 miles due west to Novara to crash there.

If I don’t, I’ll make the 350-mile round trip on Sunday for the match. I need to see Novara in person because we play them next month, they can score goals and they’re scary good when they can get the ball down and play it.

I also wouldn’t mind another look at our rivals from Venezia, who we still have to play twice in the league and maybe even again in the Serie C Cup if we both advance out of our group. They have some fine attacking talent as well and it’s going to be quite a dogfight between the top five or six teams in the league.

However, our matches with both clubs are too far out for the advance scouts to do this work for me. So if I want a report I have to write it myself. And I’ll pay for the petrol to get there. Again, that’s life in the lower leagues.

Not surprisingly, Patty was less than thrilled to learn this news when we talked tonight.

“I thought Monday could be our day,” she said sadly.

“I hoped so too, but I need to see these teams play and this is one of the few chances I’ll have,” I said. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“There’s an interesting thought,” she teased. “But I’d really rather be with you. I feel a little lonely on Mondays when you aren’t around.”

That was probably the worst thing she could have said and she knew it. But she also knows the standard to which I’m being held here, as an American manager in one of the most fiercely xenophobic footballing nations on Earth.

Here, dedication to club is everything and she knows full well that I can’t afford a repeat of the questions I was asked after the Sassuolo match. I also have avoided Venice like the plague.

“Honey, I’m sorry, but I have no option,” I said. “You have events with artists that I can’t attend and you know if I set foot in the city I’ve got problems.”

“I know. And it wasn’t fair of me to talk like that. But I want time with you. I’m spoiled after that trip.”

“Me too,” I grinned. “Life can be good that way, can’t it?”