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.