Work my way up, from the bottom

I started unemployed with a range of random nations to choose from. I applied for 3 or 4 interesting looking vacancies in lower leagues, in Bulgaria, Hungary, England and Portugal. I was offered 3 if the jobs but decided to accept Spartak 1918 Varna in the Bulgarian Second League. They are so poor, financially, with no budget or spare wage budget. Quality is pretty low, but I took time to organise training and tactics, and sift a few youth players from B team into the main squad. After a poor start (I had tried a strange version of 5-3-2 which really didn’t work at all)  I have settled in. Top of the league by 18points with 20 games played. 
 

Starting to think about next season, even if I win promotion I can’t see there being much I can do regarding transfers. Also a number of key players are considering their options at the the end of this season and I just don’t see how I’ll be able to replace them with players suitable of playing at 1st league level with the wage and transfer budget restrictions. 

So I’m starting to keep an eye open at Italian Serie C teams, looks like vacancies pop up regularly, so might make the move over to Italy for 24/25, try to build a team and climb the Italian ladder.

So I reached the end of the 23/24 season, winning Bulgarian Second League by a landslide. The board rewarded me with a princely transfer budget of £750, which sealed my decision to move to Italy for 24/25.

I waited until playoffs were all done in Serie B and C to see who got the sack and what vacancies would emerge. I applied for Venezia and Ascoli (who turned me down), both newly relegated to Serie C, but then I noticed Hellas Verona had been relegated from Serie A and had sacked their manager, so applied there too. Given the lack of experience I didn’t expect to get a look in but they offered me the job and I accepted. 

I’m now in the process of recruiting staff and assessing the squad before pre-season, but already it’s clear that Verona are a galaxy away from the level in the Bulga Second League.

Incidentally, I took some time to download the DF11 Megapack for player images, including all the updates. I must say it was worth the effort. I was always put off as it seemed quite a faff, but I found it quite easy once I read through the download instructions. I haven’t been brave enough to download the newgen skin generator but I’m sure I’ll come back to it at some point. 
 

Now let’s see if I can get Hellas Verona promoted straight back to Serie A or not.

So I finally got round to finishing the season. I am chuffed to have got Verona promoted back to Serie A as champions, with 2 games to spare. It was a fairly poor show in the cup but we are a way off the top Serie A teams and we were never going to compete with Juve and Milan (eventual finalists). 
 

I relied mostly on loans and bargains. Top scorer was Justin Diehl, on loan from Milan, with just 10 goals. Budget for next season is just over £5million, I am expecting to have to rely on loans again, but that’s fine. Have already sealed the transfers of Filip Stankovic from Inter and Facundo Pellistri from Man Utd. 
 

The club was taken over near the end of the season but so far there hasn’t been much impact but the season has barely finished, so I’ll have to wait and see. Fingers crossed they don’t mix things up too much as I’m quite looking forward to next season with Verona in Serie A!

Quick update, 3 games into Verona’s return to Serie A, so far so good - a win and 2 draws. Quite excited about transfer deadline day as I managed to sign 2 top young players on loan at the last minute, including Carvalho from Liverpool. He would normally be totally out of our league and budget, but in the closing hours of the window I was able to barter with the club for no loan fee and only paying 20% of his wages! Totally worth leaving it last minute and being cheeky!

Season is going well, had a tough run of games against the big teams but have won most the games against smaller teams and find myself 5th in Serie A with 12 games played. All is good, I‘m even contemplating what European football might be like next year if this continues, but out the blue I have been offered the Austrian national team job!?! Really not sure what to do…

…I didn’t take the international job, stuck to my plan of finishing my the season with Verona. And what a season it turned out to be, we managed a 5th place finish, only missing out on 4th on the last day. I’m currently sorting a clear out of dead wood and have appointed a new director of football. Starting to contemplate europa league football in my 3rd season with the club, 4th season of the save. Dead chuffed and look forward to it.

So, I’m almost half way through the 26/27 season and things are going well. Results have been mixed, as always we find it impossible to get a result against Juve, Milan, Inter, Napoli etc. Currently sitting 4th in Serie A, if we can hold on to a champions league spot (improving on last year’s 5th place finish) then I’ll be very happy indeed. Life in the europa league is tougher that I expected. We are 13th in the table with 2 games to play, but one of those games is against Chelsea, which we are guaranteed to lose. 
 

I recently freshened up my first choice tactic to try and break a bad run of form, moving one of my midfield 3 forwards into a more attacking role. I also slowed down the pace and shortened up our passing, to try and retain more possession. This has worked a treat, with 2 wins on the voice, albeit against weak opposition. I will stick with it for a while, mostly to accommodate a couple of big injuries we’ve had, the worst one being my first choice striker, Justin Diehl. 
 

Since the start of the season I’ve been approached by the Poland national team and most recently by Lazio. I wasn’t particularly interested in the national team job, but I confess the Lazio job got me intwrested. I eventually turned it down because it wouldn’t be a step up, and I’ve put a lot of effort in at Verona and I’d regret missing out on seeing us progress further. I’m really excited about the young players I’ve signed on free transfers over the past 18months, nearly all out on loan this season and nearly all worth £10m plus. With a half decent wage budget I’ve managed to sign some amazing prospects for no transfer cost, and I’m desperate to start integrating them into the team next season. 
 

Saying that, if a top team approached me I’d have a hard time staying. But it would have to be an established champions league team to tempt me away, obviously madrid, Barca, Liverpool etc. but perhaps the Milans or even Juve. For now though I’m still enjoying the building process at Hellas Verona. Top 4 here we come!

nice

Ok, so I mentioned previously that I reworked my tactics… the good results did not last. You know when you’ve been using one tactic for a while, but little changes here and there mean that it’s completely evolved into a different tactic that what you started with? I got frustrated with it and so I started reading the tactics blogs here on sortitoutsi. I was mesmerised by a ‘Klopp style’ 433 gegenpress. I created a new tactic with my Verona team, based on this, but with a few tweaks to account for the players I have. Wow! What a difference! I haven’t won every single game, but I’m about to break my unbeaten run record and am challenging for the Serie A title! Also, against my own expectations I’m through to the semi final of the europa league and an 5-3 up after the first leg of the copa italia semi final against Napoli. Injuries have been a problem for us, but careful squad rotation has allowed me to stay competitive. With about 6 league games to go I’m daring to dream of the title, and perhaps even winning the lot. 

Scrap what I said about big teams being too tempting to turn down, I’m ‘this close’ to getting a Hellas Verona tattoo 🙂 

What an end to the season!!! Down to the wire, we were 2 points ahead at the top of the league, last game of the season, we had to win to guarantee the scudetto. Hellas Verona 3 - Napoli 1. I’ve never screamed at my laptop screen so much. So chuffed! I thought I had high hopes by aiming for a top 4 finish!

The trophies didn’t stop there, as we were the unlikely winners in a 2-1 victory against Man Utd in the Europa League final!! So pleased.

The only dent in our amazing end to the season was losing 2-1 to Inter in the Coppa Italia final, but I was pleased just to have made it that far. Given our success in the other competitions, I am determined to do one better next season. 
 

Now I start the process of analysing the young players I signed last year who have been out on loan all season. I think there are at least 5 who can come in to challenge the first team, and a handful of others who I can sell for a tidy profit. 
 

Budget for 27/28 has been set at £9.5m, I‘m not complaining but it certainly won’t be enough to launch us into the later stages of the champions league next year, so I’ve some work to do.

I do love this game.

Oh my goodness, this season feels like it’s gone on forever! After a strong start to the season where we won the European Super Cup and the Euro/South American Cup, we had a few ups and down in the league. We were knocked out of the cup by Mourinho’s Roma at the Quarter Final stage, and Milan kicked our ass in the Italian Super Cup. I got through the group stage in the Champions League but was kicked out at the first knock out stage by Nice. Managed to get back on top of the league after Christmas and were eventually recrowned as champions with a game to spare. I’m quite chuffed at how many youth players are now first teamers, and when I analyse how many of my best and up and coming players were signed for free it’s really impressive. As the season winds to a close I find myself considering what to do next. I think a real push in the Champions League next season will keep me hooked, but I am unsure how my resolve will hold if a big team showed interest. I’m looking forward to a bit of a clear out over the summer, and promote a few more young players to the first team.

I’ve also been pleased to see our finances improve over the last 4 seasons. We are now apparently ’rich’, mostly because I’ve yet to spend more than £9million on a player, and even then only twice (a new gen wonderkid winger called Jofre, and Joe Gomes). Also wages have been kept reasonable, only in the back half of this season have I given in to paying a player over £100k per week - Jofre insisted and he’s one of my best so I paid up.

Maybe I’ll spend some cash this summer, or perhaps I could try and get the stadium expanded. Either way, I think I need something new to occupy my interest for another season before getting itchy feet. 
 

I had a strange urge to manage Bordeaux in French Ligue 1, think it’s because of the recent (real life) i terest in the club from Liverpool’s owners. It’s a possibility but would be a bit of a step backwards after building Hellas Verona up to be the Italian giants they now are.

Let’s see what the summer brings!