One More Step Towards The Dream: Serie B

(Since my last post I have finished one more season with Pontedera and played almost the half of yet another season. This post here is a build-up to let you connect the “then” to the “now”.  Therefore do not expect any detailed tactical analysis on this one. It will be present in my next posts though. So just read through this Serie B season to get an idea as to how Pontedera finished Serie B and starts Serie A.)

Last time I wrote about Pontedera and our Promotion to Serie B in Italy, I told you about how we found decent transfers for our level of football with limited resources. Then we talked about how to look for solid data in order to understand the level of the league we are in and compare our squad to that level.

I had my concerns about the season ahead of us since Serie B has many of those “elevator” teams that go up and down on the Serie A-B line constantly. This means they are not just above the level we have played in, but there is a big chance that they may be above the average Serie B level as well. With Pontedera’s limited transfer budget and overall player quality it would be quite a success to spend 2 consecutive seasons in Serie B.

Having analysed our previous season and seeing that there was not much money to spend I was not planning to change our system drastically. I wanted to stick to the tactics we have already mastered as a team, maybe with a couple of small changes here and there… Nothing big. (For explanations on these tactics, check the previous post please)

If you are managing a low budget, low profile, low popularity side like Pontedera, you have to look at the guys who need to go, before you can start bringing in new players. If you don’t… Well you will feel the slam of the wage budget wall on your face soon enough. So we made sure that we parted ways with personnel who would not be proving vital at a higher level… One of those players was our vice captain Andrea Caponi whose -relatively high salary (+ £ 1k pw) contract was ending. We did not use him that much anyway, especially after Carlsen’s amazing performance in the Anchorman role.

We have said goodbye to most of the players whose contracts were ending… That did not give us a significant extra room in the wage budget but we had to start somewhere…  Then, an offer was received, suddenly, out of nowhere for our most promising player Di Noia… Verona wanted to have my young (19 years old) left winger who played in 23 games last season and scored 4 goals along with 4 assists. I was reluctant to sell him because he was literally the only U-20 player in the squad worth something, but the £ 500k offer was very attractive… Very very attractive indeed.  So I talked to Giovanni, wished him all the success, thanked him for his efforts last year and said goodbye…

That’s + £ 500k to our transfer budget which would probably be converted into wage budget later on since we don’t have the luxury to pay high transfer fees to any clubs AND pay relatively high wages at the same time… We want good players. And there are lots of them in the free market… Or you can always loan somebody in, right? Like Lionel Zouma for example… We need a centerback, a strong guy with aerial power… OK bring in Zouma, 19 years old guy from Sochaux.   We need a striker, fast, agile guy who can drop behind the opposition defensive line… Loan that young guy, Bard Finne, in and everything will be alright.

Apart from these two quite successful loan deals we have transferred:

Gaston Cellerino, Striker (Target Man), Free,  30 Games, 15 goals, 9 Assists, 7,20 AVR

Damjan Bohar, MR – AMR,  For £ 350 K (later on sold his 50% to Atalanta for £ 575K and bought that back for free again), 38 games, 8 goals, 14 Asssists, 7,09 AVR

Remy Vasseur, Right Back, £ 165 K, 16 Games, 1 goals, 3 assists, 6,77 AVR

Nacer Barazite, Attacking Midfielder (Left or Central), Free, 28 Games, 2 goals, 3 assists, 6,80 AVR

Camillo Ciano, Attacking Midfielder / Striker, Free, 37 Games, 10 goals, 8 Assists, 7,10 AVR

Guillermo, Midfielder (Playmaker) Free, 30 Games, 7 goals, 4 assists, 7,10 AVR

Marco Armellino, Box-to-Box Midfielder, Free, 40 Games, 3 goals, 5 assits, 6,95 AVR

Flippo Carini, Central Defender, Free, 28 Games, 6,96 AVR

Denys Pryschynenko, Central Defender, Free, 25 Games, 1 goal 6,90 AVR

Abdelhakim Omrani, Midfield Playmaker, Free (sold to Juve Stabia for £ 100 k), 10 Games, 1 assist, 6,78 AVR

Luca Lezzerini, Goalkeeper, Loaned in from Fiorentina, 40 Games, 47 goals conceded, 11 clean sheets, 7,07 AVR

Casper Hojer,  Left Back, Left Midfielder, Loaned in from FC Kobenhavn, 39 Games, 3 goals, 16 assists 7,27 AVR

And during the winter transfer window:

Ramon Arcas, DMC, – MC, Free, 18 games, 2 goals, 1 assist, 6,99 AVR

Sam Vanaken, DC – DMC (Ball Playing Defender), £ 50k, 13 Games, 1 goal, 3 assists, 6,95 AVR

Jonas Ivens, DC, Free, 12 goals, 2 goals, 6,85 AVR

All these players were present in our scout team reports and were chosen because their attributes would help our squad to improve certain aspects of the game, where they were inferior compared to other squads in the league. (Team Comparison)

For example: Cellerno was brought in because our forwards had no aerial presence whatsoever (16th in the league).

Vanaken was bought because the general positioning rating of the squad was very low compared to the league average. (14th)

Keeping our tactics from previous season was a good choice but bringing in so many new guys disturbed the team unity and we had to play a lot of friendlies to establish a proper tactical knowledge and team cohesion. Once that was settled, the extra quality brought in helped Pontedera yet to another surprise League Championship, this time in Serie B. It was quite unbelievable, since we were seen as a relegation candidate at the start of the season,

Captain Arrighini’s 24 goals, 9 assists performance in 36 games was, again, the main factor in creating this unexpected result.  Angelo Lippi, the Pontedera legend, couldn’t stop talking about him the whole season.

Just like the last year, I had no idea how we were going to cope with the likes of Inter, Juventus, A.C Milan with a relatively low quality squad and no budget…  Getting promotion to the big league is always a plus in terms of match day income. The merchandise income increases, the gate receipts increase because the stadium is filled in to its maximum. These two main income items were not present for Pontedera though… Not with a stadium of 5000 people maximum.

Again, I was more than ready to receive a good offer from another big league club… But it didn’t come… So, off to Serie A then… Hopefully to stay up there for a couple of years or manage to escape the club completely, if relegation is cannot be avoided…

Yes, I am a selfish bastard when it comes to football management. 🙂

Here is how the season ended…

Coming Up Next:
Greed Is a Manager’s Worst Enemy