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Giovanni De Luca: The Lost Prodigy

Started on 13 November 2022 by Jack
Latest Reply on 10 January 2023 by J_ames
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The conversation between the board and Giovanni (for me) is extremely disappointing. There's only so much that he can do as a manager, and the fact that the people in the boardroom aren't pulling their weight... it's just not good enough.

The big question is... will this push Gio into casting a glance at opportunities elsewhere? He's already shown his capabilities as a manager, and with his ability to manage on a strict budget: surely clubs would have him on their shortlist!?
8 massive games left of the regular season. Very reasonable chance of finishing as high as 5th but I think there’s a case for playing it safe so you don’t drop out of the playoff race completely. The 4 teams directly above you will slip up somewhere. Just need to make sure you don’t do it yourself.

Möller ends goal drought


Pro Sesto’s Nikolaj Möller ended his eight-match goal drought with a brace in his side’s 3-2 away win over SPAL.

Möller, 22, last scored against Juventus Next Gen in Pro Sesto’s 2-1 loss to the Italian giants’ B team.

It left Möller with 11 hours of football with no goals and as Pro Sesto’s bad March form continued, fans were becoming increasingly impatient with the Swedish U21 international.

His bad form even led to manager Giovanni De Luca dropping Möller in matches against Torino and Trento where they managed to pick up 4 points in total, with natural winger Óscar Ureña taking his spot as the lone striker instead.

However, Möller’s manager was delighted with him winning the game for Pro Sesto: “My main job is to win games in charge of this club and we’ve had to make unpopular decisions in that pursuit.

“I’m delighted that Nikolaj has been able to brush himself off and get back on the scoresheet and win us the game overall. It’s important to him and more importantly, it’s good for the club.”

Óscar Ureña got the first goal of the game with a finish inside the 1st minute of the match against SPAL. Möller quickly followed up with a 10-minute brace with his first goal in the 6th minute, following up to make it 3-0 in the 16th minute.

Simone Mazzochi pulled one back for SPAL before a late 88th minute goal from Alessandro Murgia put doubt into the heads of Pro Sesto, but they were able to close the final moments out.

The win moves Pro Sesto up to 6th place in Serie B after they confirmed their second win in a row following last week’s 1-0 win over Bari.

James: It's a huge copout towards a manager that has done so much with such little resources when compared to the rest of the division. We'll see how the attitude changes moving forward.

Pro Sesto to play Spezia in Play-Off


Pro Sesto confirmed their spot in the Serie B Play-Offs with their final day with their 2-0 win over Reggina.

Yago Santiago and Antonio Gala secured all 3 points for their team in the first-half, guaranteeing them 7th spot in the Serie B table on 60 points after the 38-game period.

Torino’s draw against Spezia, combined with Benevento’s emphatic 4-1 win over already promoted Bologna ensured that the 3rd Serie B team to be promoted alongside Cagliari and Bologna will be decided through the Play-Off route.

Had Torino finished more than 14 points ahead of 4th placed Benevento, Torino would have won automatic promotion.

Touted as relegation candidates before the season began, Giovanni De Luca has defied expectations by leading his side into a Serie A promotion hunt.

The Play-Off Preliminary Round has lined up Spezia to host Pro Sesto at Stadio Alberto Picco, meanwhile 5th placed Frosinone will welcome 9th placed Brescia to their home stadium after the latter qualified due to the rules restricting Juventus’ B Team from promotion into Serie A.

Justice: Well, we made those play-offs :P

Spezia win in Serie B Play-Offs


Pro Sesto will spend a second season in Serie B after being beaten 3-1 by Spezia in the Serie B Play-Off Preliminary Round.

Björn Hardley will be leaving to join Sassuolo in Serie A on a free transfer at the end of June despite trying his hardest to lead his current club into the same division.

It only took 4 minutes for Spezia to take the lead in the tie, with striker Frank Tsadjout leaping up to score a header which was initially ruled out by the referee, but overturned by the Video Assistant Referee.

Wing-back Domagoj Bradaric was able to double his team’s lead in the 20th minute with a placed shot from the edge of the box into the bottom corner of Martinez’s goal.

Nikolaj Möller managed to score his 19th goal of the season as he pulled back a goal for Pro Sesto to make it 2-1 just after the hour mark.

Things went from bad to worse on the 83rd minute for Pro Sesto as key midfielder Alessandro Sersanti was sent off after a second booking for a bad tackle on the first goalscorer Tsadjout.

However, fatigue seemed to set in for Alessandro Sala who let midfielder Sandi Lovric in on goal in the 88th minute to make it 3-1.

Spezia will now face Torino in the Play-Off Semi Final in a two-legged tie beginning at Stadio Alberto Picco on Friday 30th May.












Irrespective of the result to Spezia, it's been a great season for everyone involved with Pro Sesto, and Gio can be very proud of his squad. A big off-season is on the way again, which is a bit scary in a way, and I'll be shocked if you can get the playoffs again on an even cheaper squad... if that's the road you're forced to go down.

The main part of me wants you to stick around at the club, and lead them to the Serie A, but at the same time: there's a part of me that feels Gio deserves a chance at a more financially stable club too.

I look forward to seeing your off-season moves :D

Transfers


This summer was all about recouping money and making profits on our most prized assets in order to return the club back into the black on the balance sheet, as set out by the club board.

We did magnificently well on this front with not one cent being spent on new incoming players and we made over €4.75million in transfer fees for our players, who I feel we have adequately replaced with lower cost players.

Midfielder Alessandro Sersanti was the first to leave for cash, joining French side Metz for €250K, joining Felipe Melo’s retirement in becoming the first to leave the club.

Del Frate, Mbaye and Hardley were all offloaded on the wage bill as their contracts expired at the end of June.

Our first big-money sale was the €1.2M transfer of 17-year-old midfielder Jacopo Sotgiu to newly-promoted Torino, with 50% of any profits on his next transfer to be given to us signed into the deal. Shortly after, last season’s star striker Nikolaj Möller was transferred for the same fee size to his home nation as IFK Norrköping came in for the striker who scored 16 goals in 33 Serie B games for us last season.

First-teamers Jacopo Fazzini, Filippo Pellacani and Davide Di Molfetta were all loaned out to clubs to save money on their wages.

However, it took until deadline day to officially move Pro Sesto back into the black with the €2million transfer of Gorka Olaizola to Juventus, with 50% of any future transfer fee coming back to us. On top of this, Juventus offered to loan Olaizola back to us for the entire 2025/26 season with no charges on his wage, whereas we were paying €2,200 per week for him before. The deal was a no-brainer and sets us up well financially for the remainder of the season.


Coming in to replace these players included eight new loanees, including the returning Gorka Olaizola. Bologna gave us forward Antonio Raimondo and winger Maurizio Schettini on loan, meanwhile goalkeeper Pietro Perina, defender Simone Davi, midfielders Cas Odenthal and Luca Di Maggio along with 17-year-old right-winger Andrea Otelli all joined on full-season loans too.


Luca Maniero came in with intention of being this season’s back-up goalkeeper to replace Martinez and Del Frate and we later travelled to England to snap up Albanian winger Leon Dajaku from Sunderland on a free transfer.


Trio Francesco Deli, Benjika Caciel and Alberto Dossena all joined within a day of each other in a free transfer swoop, shortly followed by another trio of permanent arrivals with Nicolo Cudrig, Issouf Paro and Luca Coccolo all joining us on free transfers.


However, once the lucrative Gorka Olaizola deal had been completed, we completed two huge swoops from Croatia. Legendary Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modrić joined us following his release from Real Madrid after his 13th year at Santiago Bernabeu.


The 39-year-old star was then followed by the arrival of fellow countryman Antonio Čolak on a free transfer after the striker’s release from Scottish Premiership runners-up Rangers.



In goal this year, loanee Pietro Perina is set to fight it out with permanent arrival Luca Maniero for the starting spot in between the sticks.

Davi and Maurizii will also be competitive on the left side of the back four, with the latter having fended off competition successfully so far under De Luca’s reign as Pro Sesto manager.

On the right side of defence, Gorka Olaizola becomes a certain starter, followed up by Garattoni.

Antonsson is the only remaining player from last season’s centre-backs, with a new look of Dossena, Paro and Coccolo to compete against for the Iceland U21 international.

Odenthal looks set to assert his authority over Bovolon, who switched more into a defensive midfielder than a full-back throughout last season.

In the middle, Luka Modrić is the key player in the whole squad and will offer so much this season if he can remain fit at the age of 39. Thankfully, we have great options if he can’t keep as fit as we’d like, with Sala and Di Maggio set to be the first challengers in central midfield.

For another season, we have new-look flanks as Otelli and Schettini come in on loan as starters, with Dajaku and Caciel set to compete or become back-up options on the wings.

Antonio Čolak arrived on deadline day to provide great competition to the on-loan striker from Bologna Raimondo. The third choice is Nicolo Cudrig with Alessandro Adamo as a last resort as we try to move on the player either on loan or permanently.


This season, even despite the late signing of Modrić, we are still odds-on to be relegated this season once again. However, as the same as last season showed, we are much better than the bookmakers, having achieved a Play-Off spot last time around, defying projections every single year I have been in charge.

The relegated teams Salernitana and Sampdoria are the favourites to win the title and be promoted, but in my opinion they are less intimidating than last year’s line-up of Bologna, Cagliari and Torino who made their way into the top-flight. Palermo have also been relegated and are only predicted a mid-table finish by the bookmakers, further proving that the relegated sides seem much weaker than before.

Being promoted are the likes of Ternana, Cesena, Pordenone and Avellino 1912 who are all projected to have a tough first season in the second tier.

One significant change, however, is the lack of funding and quality handed to Juventus Next Gen from their senior management. From finishing in the Play-Off spots last season, their wage bill has more than halved and their squad depth has almost gone for the upcoming season, so it will be interesting to see how they end up this season with a lack of support from the management at Juventus.

James: Well considering the circumstance, I believe that we've put together a decent squad for the requests in cost-cutting made by the board. If last season we could make the play-offs, I see no reason why we couldn't do it all over again this time.
Fuck the odds. Modric in Serie B is ridiculous. Him and Colak will almost certainly help you to a higher points tally than what you got last season. As long as some of the other signings turn out okay - promotion is on the horizon.










James: It was unreal when I saw that he had not retired aged 39 AND was willing to come and join us, a great capture. Raimondo will fight it out with Colak so I'm looking forward to who performs the best and earns their spot.
Great work Jack. Lets hope he is still a great player. Fingers crossed
You've replied to me instead of Justice [ ;) ], but I'm in complete agreement with what he said anyway! Modric can still be your starting CM in 10yrs time, and still be the best player at the club. The draw to Juventus Next Gen must've been a real kick in the teeth, but the character your team showed in the game against Pisa says to me that you're on the right track.

Once your team has gelled completely, you're going to be a scary proposition.

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