AS Roma – the upbringing of a dynasty.
I’m Jamie Robinson, the date is 16th March 2018 and I am the current England manager. Suddenly I am offered a very interesting job, the AS Roma manager’s position had become free after the sacking of Vincenzo Montella and I was approached to give the team some fresh new ideas.
Before I jump into the story, I’ll give you some back-story on myself and the philosophy that I try and put across to the football teams I control – now I am very modest about my managerial skills so I always start unemployed when I begin a game on football manager and this time was no different.
My Backstory
I became the manager at Peterhead FC on the 22nd of June 2011 and in the two years that I was with the club; I managed to promote them to the Scottish first division following two straight back-to-back promotions.
After this I realised I had done all I could with the team and moved to the Norwegian club FC Sogndal, unfortunately this didn’t have the best of beginnings as they stated I had full control of the team but they immediately sold my best player….so I resigned after a week in charge.
Following this I headed over to America and I was appointed the manager at Colorado Rapids and was given the duty of guiding them away from the bottom of the table, with only 12 games left of the season I managed to guide them to five places above the ‘wooden spoon’ position and gained the respect from my chairmen, the fans and most importantly the players. Now this is where a bizarre story comes into play, obviously the Rapids only finished in the bottom half of the table and didn’t manage to qualify for the playoffs, although now the finals of the MLS was set….Houston Dynamo vs. San Jose – yet there was one problem, the Dynamo manager suddenly left the club and signed up to the New York Red Bulls. I applied for the job and secured it….along with the win and the MLS title!
This would then follow with the second successive MLS Title, the US Cup and the North American Champions League…all in one season. I managed Houston for 18 months when my reign came to an end (once again due to the board not giving me full control) so I decided to leave the job after the clubs most successful period in their history.
I took 2 months out of the game, waiting for a job to open up which I was comfortable about and thought I deserved maybe even an international managerial job. After the 2016 European Championships had concluded there were 13 international managerial spaces open and I applied for every single one….and got acceptance for 11 of them (DAMN YOU SPAIN AND ITALY!!!) yet the one that stood out for me would be the managerial space for the English National Team. Being 100% English it would always be a dream to be involved with the English camp but gaining the job within the first 5 years of management was a dream come true!
I entered the camp with winning credentials and a confident win success from wherever I had been, I looked at the squad and saw that it was full of the ‘golden generation’ (Wayne Rooney had just retired) so I decided to get rid of Gerrard, Lampard and Terry and I made Ryan Shawcross the fulltime England captain. I began to add in young blood in the way of Connor Wickham, Kyle Walker and Raheem Sterling. This proved a success as we only lost 3 fixtures in 21 games on the way to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Garry Boyce and Tom Pegler (both regans) had become vital players in the center of my midfield, as they were both perceived as wonderkids and very capable of working together. We defeated Chile and Australia in the group and also drew with Ukraine which would lead us to a penalty shootout victory over Ghana and a 3-0 victory over Nigeria in the second round and quarter finals respectively. We would come up against a very strong Italian side in the semi-finals and beat them 1-0 with a Leighton Baines spot kick and we were then booked in the final to face France.
Unfortunately we lost 1-0 to France in the final (Leighton Baines would ironically miss his penalty in injury of the second half) and I resigned from my post after the game. I have stated I will one day return to England but I don’t believe it is my time to lead them to glory.
Also during my time with England I became the caretaker manager for West Bromwich Albion and guided them from 19th to 12th with just 14 games left in the season.
I officially became the AS Roma manager just before the World Cup began (in March 2018 like stated at the beginning) yet I placed myself “on holiday” until the start of the following season so I could focus on England duty but still hold the position of the AS Roma manager.
My Philosophy
With every manager comes a different style of play, they will obvious try and adapt their style of play to the players they are dealing with. I try and stick to my style of play and prefer to adapt my players to that specific way of tactic, I see myself as being quite traditional with either a 4-4-2 or focusing on wing play in either a 4-5-1 or 4-1-2-2-1. I attempt to play quick football in order to move the play up and down the pitch to tire my opponents out and I will play the ball in short directions in order to replicate a ‘Barcelona’ style of play. I will only play counter attack if the fixture is important and I will need a vital goal, otherwise I chose to decline this option as it can cost me dearly. I much prefer my wingers to take the ball to the by-line and then whip it into the six yard box, but if they’re equipped enough to come on the inside then they have my blessing.
I will always try and play with a ball winning midfielder in the center as I see it being important that we regain possession just incase we somehow lose the ball when going forward, I also play with freely moving full back to make them capable of getting forward whenever possible.
AS Roma
When I joined them they had just finished in a record breaking low league position of 15th and just narrowly avoided the relegation zone. After actually visiting the city of Rome in real life I knew how highly the team was rated and how loyal their supporters were. They have had world-class players in their team in the past and had some huge success.
When I was introduced to the team I noticed one thing, about 50% of the players in the starting squad were Italian, in such a traditional club with a rich history – I was astounded with the lack of Italian players that they had in their squad. Luckily they had a captain (Daniele De Rossi, now 34 and aging quickly) and vice captain (Andrea Bertolacci, a very good ball player midfield who is able to prowl the field in a trustworthy manner) who were both Italian and seemed very loyal to the club.
All the staff at the club were world class so I wont be having any trouble with the backroom side of things, the youth coaches were the worlds best and I noticed that the chairmen was happy to stay and happy to provide me with vast amounts of cash to make the club famous once more.
There was one thing I noticed when examining the club as a whole, they had some exceedingly talents youth players in the under 20’s who in the future were rated to become world-class footballers.
After I noticed this I made myself a couple of aims & objectives for the AS Roma side and I would attempt to turn the club upside down and bring glory to the streets of Rome once again.
So as I said I would do, I got rid of the old garbage that was clogging up the wage bill and they were taking spaces in the team that should have been held by players of a much higher standard. Stefano Okaka, Loic Negro, Aurelien Chedjiou, Pablo Zabaleta, Shinki Kagawa, Daniel Osvaldo and Mohammed Al-Kaltham (regan) were all sold on to other clubs as well as releasing up to 13 players who weren’t going to be in my future plans.
I prefer to have a backbone in my team and that started with veteran goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, this would be followed by the upcoming Maurizio Celi (Regan and Roma youth academy product) at the heart of defense, Andrea Bertolacci in the center of midfield and then I would be recruiting a world class striker for the new term.
Davide Santon was my first signing; on loan from PSG to help with the left back position and also stick with my theme at attempting to keep it Italian, along with highly rated 21 year old Greek left winger Takis Kurdi who had just earned the ‘Player of the Tournament’ trophy at the 2018 World Cup. With extra cash I had, I purchased powerful 20-year-old striker from Nigeria (regan) Dele Emuejeraye. I also signed a young midfielder from Empoli named Giacomo Fico who would provide cover for Bertolacci in the future.
I’m Jamie Robinson, the date is 16th March 2018 and I am the current England manager. Suddenly I am offered a very interesting job, the AS Roma manager’s position had become free after the sacking of Vincenzo Montella and I was approached to give the team some fresh new ideas.
Before I jump into the story, I’ll give you some back-story on myself and the philosophy that I try and put across to the football teams I control – now I am very modest about my managerial skills so I always start unemployed when I begin a game on football manager and this time was no different.
My Backstory
I became the manager at Peterhead FC on the 22nd of June 2011 and in the two years that I was with the club; I managed to promote them to the Scottish first division following two straight back-to-back promotions.
After this I realised I had done all I could with the team and moved to the Norwegian club FC Sogndal, unfortunately this didn’t have the best of beginnings as they stated I had full control of the team but they immediately sold my best player….so I resigned after a week in charge.
Following this I headed over to America and I was appointed the manager at Colorado Rapids and was given the duty of guiding them away from the bottom of the table, with only 12 games left of the season I managed to guide them to five places above the ‘wooden spoon’ position and gained the respect from my chairmen, the fans and most importantly the players. Now this is where a bizarre story comes into play, obviously the Rapids only finished in the bottom half of the table and didn’t manage to qualify for the playoffs, although now the finals of the MLS was set….Houston Dynamo vs. San Jose – yet there was one problem, the Dynamo manager suddenly left the club and signed up to the New York Red Bulls. I applied for the job and secured it….along with the win and the MLS title!
This would then follow with the second successive MLS Title, the US Cup and the North American Champions League…all in one season. I managed Houston for 18 months when my reign came to an end (once again due to the board not giving me full control) so I decided to leave the job after the clubs most successful period in their history.
I took 2 months out of the game, waiting for a job to open up which I was comfortable about and thought I deserved maybe even an international managerial job. After the 2016 European Championships had concluded there were 13 international managerial spaces open and I applied for every single one….and got acceptance for 11 of them (DAMN YOU SPAIN AND ITALY!!!) yet the one that stood out for me would be the managerial space for the English National Team. Being 100% English it would always be a dream to be involved with the English camp but gaining the job within the first 5 years of management was a dream come true!
I entered the camp with winning credentials and a confident win success from wherever I had been, I looked at the squad and saw that it was full of the ‘golden generation’ (Wayne Rooney had just retired) so I decided to get rid of Gerrard, Lampard and Terry and I made Ryan Shawcross the fulltime England captain. I began to add in young blood in the way of Connor Wickham, Kyle Walker and Raheem Sterling. This proved a success as we only lost 3 fixtures in 21 games on the way to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Garry Boyce and Tom Pegler (both regans) had become vital players in the center of my midfield, as they were both perceived as wonderkids and very capable of working together. We defeated Chile and Australia in the group and also drew with Ukraine which would lead us to a penalty shootout victory over Ghana and a 3-0 victory over Nigeria in the second round and quarter finals respectively. We would come up against a very strong Italian side in the semi-finals and beat them 1-0 with a Leighton Baines spot kick and we were then booked in the final to face France.
Unfortunately we lost 1-0 to France in the final (Leighton Baines would ironically miss his penalty in injury of the second half) and I resigned from my post after the game. I have stated I will one day return to England but I don’t believe it is my time to lead them to glory.
Also during my time with England I became the caretaker manager for West Bromwich Albion and guided them from 19th to 12th with just 14 games left in the season.
I officially became the AS Roma manager just before the World Cup began (in March 2018 like stated at the beginning) yet I placed myself “on holiday” until the start of the following season so I could focus on England duty but still hold the position of the AS Roma manager.
My Philosophy
With every manager comes a different style of play, they will obvious try and adapt their style of play to the players they are dealing with. I try and stick to my style of play and prefer to adapt my players to that specific way of tactic, I see myself as being quite traditional with either a 4-4-2 or focusing on wing play in either a 4-5-1 or 4-1-2-2-1. I attempt to play quick football in order to move the play up and down the pitch to tire my opponents out and I will play the ball in short directions in order to replicate a ‘Barcelona’ style of play. I will only play counter attack if the fixture is important and I will need a vital goal, otherwise I chose to decline this option as it can cost me dearly. I much prefer my wingers to take the ball to the by-line and then whip it into the six yard box, but if they’re equipped enough to come on the inside then they have my blessing.
I will always try and play with a ball winning midfielder in the center as I see it being important that we regain possession just incase we somehow lose the ball when going forward, I also play with freely moving full back to make them capable of getting forward whenever possible.
AS Roma
When I joined them they had just finished in a record breaking low league position of 15th and just narrowly avoided the relegation zone. After actually visiting the city of Rome in real life I knew how highly the team was rated and how loyal their supporters were. They have had world-class players in their team in the past and had some huge success.
When I was introduced to the team I noticed one thing, about 50% of the players in the starting squad were Italian, in such a traditional club with a rich history – I was astounded with the lack of Italian players that they had in their squad. Luckily they had a captain (Daniele De Rossi, now 34 and aging quickly) and vice captain (Andrea Bertolacci, a very good ball player midfield who is able to prowl the field in a trustworthy manner) who were both Italian and seemed very loyal to the club.
All the staff at the club were world class so I wont be having any trouble with the backroom side of things, the youth coaches were the worlds best and I noticed that the chairmen was happy to stay and happy to provide me with vast amounts of cash to make the club famous once more.
There was one thing I noticed when examining the club as a whole, they had some exceedingly talents youth players in the under 20’s who in the future were rated to become world-class footballers.
After I noticed this I made myself a couple of aims & objectives for the AS Roma side and I would attempt to turn the club upside down and bring glory to the streets of Rome once again.
So as I said I would do, I got rid of the old garbage that was clogging up the wage bill and they were taking spaces in the team that should have been held by players of a much higher standard. Stefano Okaka, Loic Negro, Aurelien Chedjiou, Pablo Zabaleta, Shinki Kagawa, Daniel Osvaldo and Mohammed Al-Kaltham (regan) were all sold on to other clubs as well as releasing up to 13 players who weren’t going to be in my future plans.
I prefer to have a backbone in my team and that started with veteran goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, this would be followed by the upcoming Maurizio Celi (Regan and Roma youth academy product) at the heart of defense, Andrea Bertolacci in the center of midfield and then I would be recruiting a world class striker for the new term.
Davide Santon was my first signing; on loan from PSG to help with the left back position and also stick with my theme at attempting to keep it Italian, along with highly rated 21 year old Greek left winger Takis Kurdi who had just earned the ‘Player of the Tournament’ trophy at the 2018 World Cup. With extra cash I had, I purchased powerful 20-year-old striker from Nigeria (regan) Dele Emuejeraye. I also signed a young midfielder from Empoli named Giacomo Fico who would provide cover for Bertolacci in the future.
