Started from the bottom

That's a bitterly disappointing end to the season. When you look at those few draws, they really ought to have been wins. How are the finances looking, exactly?

2020-05-06 19:28#269974 ScottT : That's a bitterly disappointing end to the season. When you look at those few draws, they really ought to have been wins. How are the finances looking, exactly?

240k in the red ad by the end of next season we'll be close to half a million.

2020-05-06 20:21#269982 Treq90 :

2020-05-06 19:28#269974 ScottT : That's a bitterly disappointing end to the season. When you look at those few draws, they really ought to have been wins. How are the finances looking, exactly?

240k in the red ad by the end of next season we'll be close to half a million.

Not ideal...

Devastating to have not won promotion, but football can be a very cruel game sometimes. A off-season of playing friendlies against some big name opposition might be a way to rescue your financial situation? Keep up the good work mate, you can definitely secure promotion next season after the lessons you've learned this season!

Dimitris was driving to his place after the home game against Buccino. Devastated and confused. They were the favorites to go up but somehow they bottled it. Was it mainly his fault? His stubborness with the 4-3-3 narrow and refusal to adapt against tougher opposition and try a different formation?
Maybe it was the fact that players came and went very easily and they never really became a team. It was their individual talent that made the difference in winning matches.
The club was in deep financial trouble and they woud need to reach the Serie B in order for some serious profit to be made. This meant he had to decide whether to stick with Poseidon for the long run and try to take them all the way to the Serie A if such a thing was possible or jump ship and find a better club, even a stepping stone type of club asap.
Luckily at Poseidon he had managed to bag all three national coaching licenses and the Continental C License. In fact he had just started studying for the Continental B License. Surely, some club from the Serie D would be interested in his services. There was actually one in Northern Italy, in the region of Veneto, to which he had sent an application as a test.

Finally he arrived, parked the car and walked towards the front door. There was a letter on the doorstep. A letter from the town of Este in Veneto.


The local football club, a semi-professional club also called Este had finished 12th in the Serie D Gruppo C in which their highest ever position was 2nd place. Only the champion gets promoted once again but the club vision was to reach a top half position so one could say that it wasn't that demanding. Dimitris needed a second opinion.

- Babe, come here a sec. I want your opinion on something.
- Sure, what's the matter?
- You know how much I love Poseidon and how grateful I am of the chance I've been given to manage them. It's been a lifechanging experience.
- Of course I know, love. Where are you going with this?
- You also know we failed badly this year and you've probably noticed my calls with the owner regarding the finances. Poseidon's in trouble and there's another club up north that might be a better career opportunity.
- I'm packing right away!!
- What? I didn't say I'll accept their offer. I'm just considering it.
- Considering it? We can barely pay the rent, every day I hear of thieves breaking into houses in our neighborhood and I have to drive all the way to Naples in order to have my hair and nails properly done. You'd better accept the offer of this club or else...
- It's called Este, it's between Verona and Venezia
- ...Perfect! I love both cities, you can take me pictures for my instagram influencer account as well. What are we waiting for?
- Damn. I didn't expect that type of reaction. To Este then!

Looks like somebody was happy with the news

The drive from Capaccio to Este was long but when they got there they realised that it was like being in a different planet. It was nothing they hadn't seen before but they got so used to living in Capaccio that it seemed strange being in such a lovely town.

The trip



Typical Capaccio



Este (overedited photo but it was the best I could find online)




@J_ames
Sorry to disappoint, I just wasn't feeling like trying again. I'm also currently in the summer of 2024 so this is a recap until we gets to that point which means that I can't change my actions even if I wanted to. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoy the story!

Best of luck with your new job.

Good luck in the new role.

Replies

@ScottT, @TheLFCFan : Thank you guys!


Season 4 (2022/2023) , Italian Serie D Gruppo C

Este logo and info. Absolutely love our crest!



Our kits don't look bad either.



Once again, I was very active during the transfer window. We brought in 14 new players (5 of them loans) and let go of 4. Our key signing is this guy, Mario Giappone, a goalkeeper and the only player I recognised from saves with the standard database. We got him on a free transfer.




Preseason friedlies



I'm using the 4-3-3 narrow once again as this is my philosophy and I will be true to it until it fails miserably. We're looking good and with the signings we made, we're favorite to win the league although the initial prediciton was to finish in 7th place.

August and September



We've started strong and we're top of the league. Can we keep it up for the next two months as well or will we have a catastrophic November like last year?

October and November



We're undefeated and crushing opposition. Players like each other and there are so many links being formed. We're also progressing in the Serie D Cup which is nice to see even if it has no value at all.



December and January



There's not much to add regarding our form, is there? We remain unscathed from the transfer window as well which is a nice change.

February and March



Our first league defeat is a pretty bad one but I'm not too hard on the boys as it doesn't mean much at this point. They had a day off, it happens. We were also knocked out in the Serie D Cup but that's no big deal as well.

April, May and June



We finish strong and are crowned champions of the Serie D Gruppo C! We're promoted to the Serie C, Group A!



We were on a league of our own and nobody could come close. This was too easy and we broke some records on the way.

Este records



League's team records



League's player records



Our players' domination in the stats



Our key signing, Giappone, was solid with an average rating of 6.90 and 12 clean sheets in the league but it was these boys that were our protagonists.

The 3 midfielders. Di Giorno was the maestro, Fortunati the goal threat and Mazroui simple the best we had.








The 3 strikers. Lombardi was the star, Polloni was the surprise and Panzani the hero.








Finally, our right back Filippo Farinon was absolutely awesome.

Truly in a league of your own! The promotion will bring with it plenty of challenges but you’ve proven you can get the best out of anybody now. Next season will be exciting.

Easy. Your boys absolutely dominated the goalscoring, assist and average rating charts which come as no surprise after the success of this season. Serie C better be prepared!

Dominant for sure. Going to be tougher next year but after that season, confidence must be at an all time high!

Deja-vu

Do you ever get the feeling you've done something or lived something before even though you know for a fact you haven't? You can even recall details but how can that be?
That's the way Dimitris was feeling during the course of June of 2023 preparing for a season in the Serie C. Somehow it felt familiar.

It was late June, just a week before he'd return at the club's facilities to start planning for the new season and he was on a holiday in southern Poland, with his girlfriend of course. They were doing one day trips using their hotel in Krakow as a base and one day they passed from the city of Tychy. The city itself was nothing special in terms of history and monuments apart from a painful period during the Nazi occupation. It was a stop for some food and coffee before they went on their way again.

As they were having coffee in a cafe' in downtown Tychy, a man sitting a few tables away stopped reading his newspaper, stood up and walked towards them.

- You're Dimitris Tsili, aren't you?
- Indeed I am. Do I know you sir? Have we met before?
- No we haven't but I'd be glad to get to know you better. My name is Ryszard Komornicki and I am GKS Tychy's director of football. I've read all about you Mr. Tsili!
- Pleased to meet you although I have to say, I know absolutely nothing of Posish football and I can hardly remember half the players in your national team.
- If I remember correctly, you knew nothing of managing a football club 4 years ago but you've managed to win the league and gain promotion 3 times in those 4 years. I think you would adapt perfectly fine in Tychy and the Polish 2nd tier, the First Division as it's called.
- Look Mr. Komorini
- It's Komornicki!
- Yes, sorry, you have very difficult names to pronounce. I'm flattered and of course the Polish First Division is more reputable in comparison to the Serie C but some years ago I used to change lots of professions. Now that's I'm making a career in this profession I don't want to make it a habit changing jobs. You understand, right?
- How much money are they giving you in Este?
- It's really none of your business.
- What if I offered you double of what you're getting there? And I know that life in Northern Italy is 3 times as expensive as life in Poland.

Here we go again.


Replies

@Justice, @ScottT, @TheLFCFan : First of all thank you for the support. Since your comments are about the same, I'm really sorry to disappoint. I know you wanted me to try and do my best in the Serie C with Este since everything was great and I had a team where I wouldn't lose all my key players for free in a transfer window but I have done the Serie C to Serie A and win the league almost every year playing FM. It's my Vanarama to Premier League as I'm a big fan of Italian football.
We might return to Italy in the future but only if I land the Juventus job as I'm a fan of them in real life and I want to break their Champions League Final curse. Maybe even try surpass Real Madrid in CL wins.
Polish football is something new for me and I've loaded almost every country in Eastern Europe. Countries I've never managed in (only Ukraine and Russia). I think it will be interesting.

Absolutely brilliant! Great season with Este [Lombardi and Fortunati] look like absolute gems, would they be good enough for the Polish First Division?

Good work man, can't wait to see the next updates