Resurrecting Il Grifone

So after several unsuccessful attempts to ‘get in to’ Football Manager 17 following years of being a Football Manager 10 addict, the time came to change tact – to move away from stalwart team selections such as Peterborough (my local team), Newcastle (the team I supported as a boy), Roma (a Championship Manager 00/01 throw back), Ajax and Borussia Dortmund (both FM10 favourites of mine).

It was time to try someone new. It was time for a fresh challenge.

Not unlike previous saves on old versions – such as Dortmund on FM10 – the idea of taking charge of a club which has tasted success in years past but had fallen on ‘hard times’ appealed to me. It always does. The ‘hero’ who resurrected X Club and rekindled the glory days yadda, yadda, yadda.

Likewise – and I know I’m not alone here when it comes to Football Manager players, as dorky as it undoubtedly sounds – location matters.

Would I actually want to live there? Like, in real life. Yes, incredibly dorky to consider such things in a game but it helps whittle down potential candidates and invariably leads me to coastal clubs or ones situated in areas of great beauty (Freud would probably say this indicates my need to escape my home town. Freud would be correct).

Equally, as fun as it is having millions of pounds at ones disposal from the off, it does wear thin quickly when you feel you can just throw money at a situation and so I opted for a team of modest finances but with significant potential (at least, I hope&hellip.

So here I am, the new manager of Genoa Cricket and Football Club (or Genoa C.F.C, or just Genoa) in Italy’s Serie A.

Genoa are still classed as one of the most successful teams in Italian football, with no less than nine championships to their name – however the last of these came in 1924 and the only things of note Genoa have won in my life time are the 1988/89 Serie B title and the 1996 Anglo-Italian Cup…

Even European football has been lacking for I Rossoblu (The Red and Blues), with just one Uefa Cup and one Europa League appearance in their 119 year history*

* Granted European competitions were not what they were today when Genoa won the 1898 Campionato Italiano Finali, and they should have secured a Europa League place in 2014/15 but due to an administrative error and not meeting UEFA’s stadium requirements the place was passed to Sampdoria….who share a ground with Genoa…go figure…

Part of the challenge here is that, despite it’s scenic location, I know very little about today’s Genoa team. Captain Nicolas Burdisso and forward Goran Pandev are names I recognise, but otherwise I am learning everything about the team as I go.

Thankfully my assistant manager’s report has already taught me we lack leadership among the squad, as well being lazy and unable to jump very high…

The first weeks of the preseason will undoubtedly be rife with flicking through scout reports and sorting out my staff – to ‘add to the realism’, new staff can only be found via the Job Centre whilst player searches will rely on my own scouting and that of my, err, scouts.

No fiddling the filters to only show players with high stats in certain categories. If I’m going to go all in, then I might as well do it properly.

I expect things at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris to start slowly as a result of a) my own ignorance and b) a squad which in real life is only marginally above the relegation zone – but at least we have a cool nickname: Il Grifone

Move over the phoenix – The Griffin shall rise again!

The St George flag on their badge makes it a good choice too.

Best of luck!

Thought I'd better update this story:

Preseason Problems and Positives

After taking up the reigns at Genoa C.F.C, it was time to set about moulding this once mighty club back in to a powerhouse of Italian football.

Very quickly it became clear this would not be easy – but equally not without hope.

Per the introductory post in this particular Football Manager tale, Genoa are a little light on stars.

Captain Nicolas Burdisso has been around the block, whilst striker Giovanni Simeone, goalkeeper Mattia Perin 23-year-old winger Diego Laxalt head up a small group of younger players with potential – but we’re not exactly bursting at the seams with talent right now.

Teenagers Gabriele Gibilterra and Flavio Junior Bianchi both show promise, which is going to be important giving the startling lack of first team quality players trained at the club right now – something which proved problematic when submitting my squad list for the season, with four club trained and eight nationally trained players required among the 25.

The addition of 16-year-old Brescia centre midfielded Mattia Viviani for £220,000 will also, hopefully, pay dividends down the line.

In an attempt to boost my fortunes in the short term I also opted to forgo any further spending and instead divert funds in to wages; signing former Inter, Manchester City and Roma wing back Maicon and 2005 Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldinho.

Whilst my Genoa team still lacks real star power, it at least looks like a team that can compete in Serie A, and with the board only requiring that I avoid relegation, and qualify for the First Round ‘proper’ of the Coppa Italia, I felt reasonably confident I had the squad to allow me to get my feet under the table.

Finding a formation and tactics that worked proved tricky however, and led to four straight defeats during the preseason as I tinkered with various combinations in a bid to find something that worked.

Ultimately things have settled with back three – with Armando Izzo currently playing in the middle of the trio in a ‘cover’ role whilst first choice Ezequiel Muñoz continues to recover from injury – and wing backs whilst I operate a 2-1-2 style formation to complete the look.

Defensively it has smoothed things out for me, with Maicon and loanee Edenílson (playing out of position down the left) both making solid starts to the campaign proper.

Where things have stumbled is in the final 25-ish yards of the field.

In our first competitive game, a Cup game against Bari, Mauricio Pinilla found the back of the net but we still required penalties to dispense with the Serie B side – not helped by Izzo being sent off in extra time for a second bookable offence…

Likewise the first Serie A game saw some nice build up play, but few chances as we were out shot 17-3 and had a man sent off (Luca Rigoni) on the stroke of half time; though a late header from Burdisso did salvage a point at the Olimpico.

The tinkering does mean my squad aren’t more than around 50% familiar with our tactics right now though, providing some hope that when Ronaldinho regains match sharpness and Simeone finds some form we will be alright.

The return of Miguel Veloso, who broke his leg in the preseasons, should provide a timely boost in around January time – at least that’s the theory.

Oscar Hiljemark has also been solid coming off the bench in both games, so it’ll be interesting to see what he can do in the next game with Rigoni suspended. At 24, and with a full transfer to Genoa already agreed for next season when I started the game, Hiljemark could be an important player for me over the coming seasons.

Right now I see the pros and cons as follows…

PRO: Some good players under 25, some good build up play, ability to play in an ‘attacking’ style. All in all it adds up to hope for the future.

CONS: Squad depth is still an issue, especially in some positions (left wing back for example). Lack of scoring chances is also a concern, though hopefully a temporary one.

Next up – Cagliari.

Thanks SS! There is a theory (or 'common belief' perhaps) that Richard the Lionheart adopted the flag (and St. George) from Genoa's original - though there doesn't seem to be any specific proof to back this up (perhaps unsurprisingly given how long ago it was etc etc)

Have had a rough run following yesterday's update - will provide a proper update soon