Giovanni De Luca: The Lost Prodigy

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Pro Sesto have been knocked out of the Serie C Play-Offs in the Semi-Final following a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Monterosi.

After an edgy encounter on Tuesday at Ettore Mannucci ending in a goalless draw, the onus was on Pro Sesto to achieve another famous victory at their home stadium.

However, with Riccardo Capogna pushing his fitness to the brink once again, Pro Sesto finally met their match.

Defender Emmanuel Mbende got his side off to a great start just 7 minutes in with a header from a corner.

They stuck the knife into Biancocelesti’s hopes in the 58th minute through a slip by Amadou Diambo allowing striker Alessandro Rossi to go clean through on goal for the second goal.

“We have had a fantastic season here. Everyone was against our chances of even surviving relegation and we have achieved so much.” said manager Giovanni De Luca.

“None of these players are at fault, I got it wrong and we probably took too many risks for a game of this particular nature. I wish all the best for Monterosi in the Final and I hope they can reach a new height in Serie B next season.”

Only nine players in Pro Sesto’s squad are contracted beyond this summer, leaving De Luca with a dilemma of how he approaches the new season following this season of glowing overachievement. Among the expirations is top scorer Riccardo Capogna who could prove tough to replace immediately.

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Seb: Sometimes you have to take a gamble when nothing is going your way and Adamo as well as Chio really proved a point that night. As for Moreo... don't even

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Great work mate. The amount of details in your storys. It blows my mind

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Pro Sesto have released 20 players from their 2022/23 squad, including 12 first-team players.

Giovanni De Luca has left himself with a summer focused on recruitment as a high priority with a squad consisting of only 9 first-team players after the release of 20 players.

Included in the expirations is last season’s top scorer Riccardo Capogna - who scored 34 league goals in 37 matches - and centre-back and club captain Emanuele Suagher.

Goalkeeper Federico Del Frate and midfielders Tommaso Gattoni and Alessandro Sala all agreed extended stays at Stade Breda, with all three deemed as potentially important for the new upcoming season.

To make the hill even steeper for De Luca, his 43-year-old Director of Football in charge of scouring the market for new players announced his departure from the club to move to Serie B outfit Ternana.

The reported strategy for the upcoming window is youthful, high potential players to replace what was becoming an ageing squad with an average age of around 27 years.

Find the full list of players released below:
Filippo Beretta
Federico Bertoli
Nicolò Bruschi
Alessandro Capelli
Riccardo Capogna
Alessandro Ciarmoli
Mattia Corradi
Fabio Della Giovanna
Matteo Dipalma
Matteo Ferrero
Simone Formosa
Ionut Macovei
Manuel Marzupio
Riccardo Moreo
Alberto Panzani
Nicolò Radaelli
Lorenzo Santarelli
Tommaso Silanos
Emanuele Suagher
Dario Toninelli

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Redvee: Thanks mate! Means a lot, particularly when you put a good amount of effort into it

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This season saw us bring in 15 new players after the departure of 13 first-team players in the off-season.

Among those were five players loaned in due to the free agents market not providing us with good enough options in certain areas, or players simply too far on the other end of the scale that were too good to be interested without a significant wage rise.

Lukas Jutkiewicz would be the the most noticeable name on the arrivals list, joining us for €16,000 and ending his seven year spell with Birmingham City in the Championship where he made 284 appearances, scoring 60 goals in all competitions.

He and Nicolo Buso join to replace the likes of Riccardo Capogna, Riccardo Moreo and Nicolo Bruschi up-front, with Alessandro Adamo likely to play a slightly more prominent back-up role in the first-team.

There is a mixture of experience from overseas divisions with arrivals such as Yago Santiago and Björn Hardley arriving from England and the rest are mainly Italian recruits from our own division or slightly above in Serie B, plus some youngsters joining following release from Serie A clubs.

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The transfers give us a new-look squad, keeping the same formation as 22/23.

We have kept the two goalkeepers in Del Frate and Botti to cover the goals, keeping some consistency within the squad in that area. Federico Del Frate made 45 appearances last season, keeping 9 clean sheets in the process as we finished 3rd.

We have three new full-backs with Del Prete and Floriani at right-back and Hardley likely to challenge Emanuele Maurizii at left-back.

We had to make some veteran recruits at centre-back, bringing in 38-year-old Matias Silvestre from fellow Serie C side Virtus Entella and Elia Legati from last season’s relegated FeralpiSalo. Caverzasi and Giubilato remain from last season to fight for their spots.

Tommaso Gattoni is likely to keep his starting spot over Malick Mbaye in defensive midfield.

Amadou Diambo is also likely to keep his starting spot in the squad in midfield with his impressive performances last season. Alessandro Sala may have to fight it out with new signing from Juventus Alessandro Sersanti after 26 appearances for Juventus Next Gen before gaining a start in Serie A with the first-team before his release.

We have some all-new wingers on either side with four loanees coming in from various clubs with Antonio Gala set to battle Filippo Palazzino for the right-wing spot and Cassano and Delle Monache set to do the same on the left.

Lukas Jutkiewicz has some competition with his younger counterpart Nicolo Buso. The 34-year-old could provide some great mentorship to both Buso and younger back-up striker Alessandro Adamo.

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Juventus’ B Team is set to be a favourite towards the top end of the table, but they depend on good quality not being picked off for usage in the first-team by Massimiliano Allegri. Pordenone and recently relegated Como are the next favourites.

We have rapidly increased our expectations from one of the relegation favourites to become a mid-table side in the eyes of the bookmakers, perhaps down to our performance last season. We have managed to do this whilst also reducing our annual wage budget by over €100,000 from last season, showing that our recruitment has been good in the eyes of onlookers.

However, as predicted, the four newly promoted sides have all been touted to go back down with both Legnano and our fierce rivals Seregno making their way into Serie C/A for the 23/24 campaign.

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Um, NO! NO! NO! How could you let Capogna go!?!? And... for Jutkiewicz!? Brb, time to get #SackGio and #GioOUT trending.

In all seriousness, Gio has (definitely) invited pressure on himself, and the squad is now 'his' so to speak. He'll be living and dying by the results now, though the board will be ecstatic that he's saving them €100k/yr along the way. I like the signing of Hardley too, he was very good for me on FM21 and FM22.

I'm really unsure how I'm supposed to feel atm!

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James: Look, I'm aware it's not the brightest decision. However, when you have a striker that can't turn up for the biggest games of the season as his body is worn out, you have to be cutthroat! I think we've done well in the window and looking forward to seeing the likes of Hardley as well, he's one of my top picks.

I look forward to the real reason Capogna was unavailable being due to Paolo being sneaky The fan protests are on hold... for now. It's been a solid enough start to the season for the club, and considering you've rebuilt the squad on less money: I'm impressed.

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James: We've got Buso now, they'll never get to him even if your myth is reality! The fan protests never started, how can they be on hold?! It's going along just fine right now, couldn't be happier with the guys.

Plenty of goals in your games, the team has found its rhythm, and the fans seem to have a new hero in the form of Buso. The loss to Piacenza must've stung, but sometimes a loss like that is the kick in the teeth a teams needs in order to get back on track.

Compared to last season, the Juventus Next Gen team is doing extremely well, and I'm not a fan of it in the slightest!

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Pro Sesto reached their first-ever Coppa Italia Lega Pro Final yesterday with a 2-1 (5-2 agg.) win against Cesena.

Currently sat in 4th place in Serie C/A, Giovanni De Luca’s men took a 3-1 lead back to the San Giovanni suburbs thanks to a Filippo Palazzino hat-trick in the first-leg.

With two league home games in between the two legs against Padova and Vicenza, they booked their spot for the two-legged final in March with a Nicolo Buso opener, shortly followed
up by a Matías Silvestre header to confirm the victory.

Cesena’s Tomas Lepri tried bringing his side back into the tie at Stade Breda but it was no match for the effort that Pro Sesto had shown over the two legs.

Pro Sesto will now face Reggina Calcio over two legs in March and April to determine who will take the trophy out of Juve Stabia’s hands from their win last year.

Reggina were able to claim victory over Lucchese Libertas at Porta Elisa with a 1-0 away win, making it 2-1 on aggregate.

Pro Sesto have beaten Pergolettese, Monopoli, Potenza and Juventus Next Gen up until the most recent Cesena win.

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James: Buso has been a great replacement for the goals Capogna gave us. Juventus Next Gen seems to have developed their youngsters so well to a point where they are now able to trounce whoever steps in their path!

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Loving your story mate. Hope you get a promotion to the big time soon

Quite tight from 2nd-8th, and a couple of losses could spell disaster for Gio and his squad. You're scoring a stupendous amount of goals atm, which is wonderful to see, and quite welcomed with your defence being a bit more leaky than the teams around you (Pordenone aside).

Btw, what cup was the games against Cesena in?

Doing well atm, and best of luck in surging up the table

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Pro Sesto have defeated Reggina Calcio 4-3 on aggregate to win the Coppa Italia Lega Pro.

After a cagey first leg at Oreste Granillo last month which ended 2-2 as Reggina pushed for a comeback from 2-0 down, loanee Marco Delle Monache scored a brace as his side lifted the club’s first-ever Coppa Italia Lega Pro.

The 19-year-old Sampdoria winger opened the scoring just 14 minutes into the final’s second leg at Stade Breda, with a placed finish into the bottom left corner past Simone Colombi.

However, young Internazionale loanee striker Sebastiano Esposito was able to equalise with a shot from close range in the 28th minute, bringing the scores level into half-time.

Pro Sesto were able to grab the win just after half-time as Delle Monache latched onto a Federico Giraudo mistake to blast the ball past Reggina’s goalkeeper in the 53rd minute of the game.

Giovanni De Luca told his side to sit back after Delle Monache’s second, earning him his first trophy as Pro Sesto manager.

After the game, De Luca spoke to the press as players celebrated on the field: “It’s a hugely proud moment for me. We played extremely well throughout the tournament and even throughout the entire season. We have only lost one game in the past 24 and this team as a unit is very special.

“I am so happy for Marco [Delle Monache] as he’s just a young guy and this is a special moment for him, he has made history at a club already. With the cup over, we want the best finish to a season possible and look for promotion in the play-offs now.”

Pro Sesto have qualified for the promotion play-offs in Serie C and have Sangiuliano City, Mantova and the Serie C/A champions Juventus Next Gen to play as they end their season. Depending on which position they finish the season in, they may qualify for a later round in the play-offs.

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Redvee: Cheers mate, glad you're enjoying
James: It's going very good! The cup is the one we have just won - the Coppa Italia Lega Pro (Serie C's answer to the Coppa Italia)