[FM 13] The two manager brothers story...

A day as everyone, this is the way it started my July 12. I went to the pitch quite early, at 8:30, one hour and a half before the start of the morning training session. I went into my office to organize some documents, dressed in the changing room, then entered the ground to prepare it for the session. At 9:45, few minutes before the beginning, Gaston Esmerado, my new assistant manager, entered the pitch gasping.

“Hey boss”, he said (I’m guessing why he is going on calling me like that, he can call me simply Stefano), “We have guests today… Important ones…”.
“Who are they, Gaston?”
“It’s better if you come and see…”

I followed him to the entrance of the training ground, and what I saw left me without any word!



Santi Cazorla and Juan Manuel Mata were there, dressed in an everyday style, talking to each others. I approached them and they immediately introduced themselves… Without any reason, I perfectly knew who they were!

“We came here to know you, sir. As you probably know, we have a past in the Real Oviedo’s youth team and some days ago we were speaking about the team, and we agreed of coming here to visit the man who has made this team coming back to its glorious past. And to meet the team, if you agree, of course…” Santi, the eldest one, said.

How I couldn’t agree! The guys would have been glad of seeing two players like them wandering around the court.


We entered the pitch. The guys were thrilled! The two were surrounded by my players: it’s incredible to see how first division players may behave like amateurs in front of world class players like those. They attended all the session, playing a bit with my guys.

Then, they had lunch with us. They sat at the table with Gaston, Diego and me, speaking about their love for Oviedo, that has pushed them to help the club some years ago, when it was going bankruptcy. But they also wander around to have some words with many players, in particular the youngers, to which they gave some advice.

They stayed till the beginning of the afternoon training session, unfortunately before that they had to leave to come back to London for the next day training session. Before leaving, we gave us a shirt per each, with number 10 and their names on it. And they signed another two similar ones to leave to us: they are going to be hanged in the hall of the Nuevo Carlos Tartiere, as a trophy. And, even more important, they promised to come back some times… Two old friends of Real Oviedo have come back to their origins… Another great achievement of this magic team…

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With the final whistle of the referee arrived few minutes ago, A.C. Milan won for the third time in a row the Italian Super Cup, defeating 2-1 Juventus in a tough final in San Siro.


Gagliardo lined-up his team with the new very offensive 4-2-4 tactics that he spoke about in the previous press conference, while Koeman decided for his usual 4-1-3-2. The match seemed to be in the hands of Gagliardo’s side after the first 27 minutes. Rossoneri dominated the first part of the match, creating chances in particular with an inspired Falcao. The Colombian striker himself opened the match after 14 mins with a powerful header following a hanging ball sent in the area from the corner by El Shaarawy. After another couple of chances, it was Stevan Jovetic the one that put the score on 2-0 with another header, this time following a cross from the left by Trabelsi. The first half ended with Milan controlling the game and the result fixed on 2-0.

In the second half Juventus seemed more aggressive from the very beginning, with Bianconeri creating chances from the very beginning first with Bonucci, then with Vucinic. The Montenegrin striker’s 50th goal for Juventus re-opened the match 8 minutes before the 90’ scoring during a confused situation in Milan’s box. Four minutes later, Carlo Malizia saw his first goal with Rossoneri’s shirt being disallowed by the ref cause of an offside. A fantastic save by Forster when the clock was marking 92 minutes was the last thrilling situation of the match, that ended 2-1 and assigned to Gagliardo’s team the Super Cup trophy!


At the end of the match, Milan’s manager commented:
“It has been a thrilling match! We had it in our hands at the end of the first half, but Juventus was really good in coming back in the second part of the match. I am really glad for having won this trophy, for us and for the supporters, that were great as always.”


The losers’ manager, Ronald Koeman, said:
“I can’t say anything bad to my guys. They fought till the end of the match and were close to level a very difficult match, against the best team in Italy and one of the best in Europe. I think this match has shown that we are not far from them this season, and this is a good point for me.”

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The pre-season is ended, now we have to start to face matches that count! I cannot be nothing than happy for what we did in these 5 weeks. Trainings went well, with only some minor injuries, all gone. The friendlies we faced went wonderfully: 5 matches played, 5 victories, with 19 goals scored and no one conceded! I am particularly satisfied with the last two matches, the ones against Celta and Anderlecht, that were the most difficult ones. In particular, the Belgians have some international experience and a victory against them is a large boost of morale. Unfortunately, due to the many international duties of both the times, we had to cancel the friendly against Milan: together with my brother, we are planning to organize that for the Christmas break.


If I have to choose a man to mention, I think Adrian deserves that. The guy is growing up better and better and he is definitely one to count on for the upcoming season.


Another large boost of morale for the upcoming season is certainly given by our supporters: for the second time in a row, the season tickets went sold out! Since we have obtained the promotion in the Liga, they followed us even more than they did before and I think that we could even sold out a larger stadium…


But now, it’s time to think to true matches, the ones that give you points. In the next 15 days we are going to face the Spanish champions, Barcelona, 3 times! The first is going to be our debut match of the Liga season tomorrow, the other two are for the Super Cup final, a new adventure for my young team. Last year we could defeat them in the league match that took place at Nuevo Carlos Tartiere… Who knows what could happen this time… Apart from the matches against the Blaugrana, the whole month is going to be tough, with another two matches, both away, against two solid sides like Valencia and Sevilla. A very hard start for us, but useful to test if we are ready to face another Liga season…

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We are ready! Yeah, we are ready to fight for everything we are going to face this year! And we showed that against Juventus, winning the first trophy of the season in the Super Cup final!

The pre-season went all good, winning all the matches we faced. I am pretty sad I had to delay the friendly against Stefano’s side, but I had only 6 players available due to the international duties.


I am happy with what Lyes Chiha showed me in this pre-season. He is only 17yo, but I bet on him as Falcao’s backup for the season. I am pretty sure he can do great things for us…


There is still one week of training in which I am going to focus on the teamwork, then we will face the first match of the Serie A season against Palermo, and then Fiorentina before the end of the month. A pretty good start against two solid sides, but not too hard. I am really confident for this season… I want to win everything…