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CHAPTER 1.10: ARE WE GONNA AIM FOR THE TITLE?

September was yet another crucial month for us. We had 5 matches to play for the Liga 1, and we were also playing in the Piala Indonesia's round of 32! The first match saw us playing against Arema Cronus, our fierce rival. Despite the rivalry everytime we face each other the game is never a real competition since one of the two of us is always far superior than the other. This time we handed them 4 goals without conceding a single shot towards our goal. PSIS Semarang was a very important match for myself because it was the first game for Johan Prasetyo against me. Johan was a memeber of my staff that was chosen to go manage in Semarang just a couple of weeks before our game, and since he got appointed (they were dead last) he is managing to keep them above the relegation zone! He is doing a great job and knows all of our tactics, so I can assure you I was ecstatic when we won that game. Sure, we had some difficulties but we still came out winning! The highlight of the month was the match against Persebaya Surabaya. We played a great first half but weren't able to replicate in the second period. They were perfect and reached a very deserved draw with only 10 miutes remaining. The referee was almost ready to blow the final wisthle when Al Ayyubi found the back of the net after a marvelous cross from Patrick. 

In the Piala Indonesia we did not sweat a lot. The round of 32 saw us facing PSPS Pekanbaru, a mediocre team of Divisi Utama, the second tier league of the Indonesian pyramid. After regulating them we had to face Barito Putera, another team from Divisi Utama. The more observant among you will remember Barito because is one of the three teams that got relegated last year. We had a little more trouble to play against them but won anyway and now we are up and ready to play the quarter finals!

The league table is really something to watch in awe. We are standing very firmly on top, with an impressive 13 points lead! We are being litteraly being carried by our 2 very prolific strikers: Patrick and Al Achya, that have a massive 35 goals loot together! It's impossible not to mention the professor emeritus in the art of defending Arthur. He's been massive, crucial and any other kind of adjective you can think of!!!

At the start of October, just before the game against Persib Bandung, Renzo came to me before the press conference, wich he was attending in my place. He asked “So Giacomino, should I make official our objective?” The answer in my eyes was clear, but I told him anyway “Yea, I think we have been in the shadows for enough time. Tell the world we are going to bring the title to Kediri!”

CHAPTER 1.10: HIGH-RANKING CLASH

August came, and we were still livign the dream, sitting comfortably on top of the table. But while the European World goes on holiday we were about to face our toughest challange yet. In the past months we played only against mid to lower tier clubs (exception made for the opening againsta Bhayangkara) so the media were all saying “Yea it's a fairy tale and all, but how will they do against the top teams in Indonesian football?”. We were about to find out. In a single month we were supposed to play against Pausamania Borneo (2nd), Persis Solo (5th) and Madura United (4th). Not the easiest schedule ahed of us. But before playing those match there was a pressing matter that had to be discussed: contract extensions for our top players. Many of the team contracts have a one season durations, so I had to make sure that our top boys would not leave us for free at the end of the year. Under this perspective we extended both Fisabillilah and Al-Achya for another season. One of our best defender and the league topscorer are not going away withouth an expensive fee!

Settled the matter it was time to travel to Samarinda, on the Borneo island, to face our closest rival: Pusamania Borneo! Luckily we had no injuries or suspensions, so we were able to put on the field our best possible formation. We started the match with great intensity, and after only 3 minutes we get the ball in the net thanks to the newly extended Al Achya. Unfortunately though our striker is caught offside on the pass from Ottaviano so the goal is disallowed. Just 2 minutes later we are on the offense again, and this thime is Saputra's shot to get caught from Borneo's keeper! When we are approaching the 15' minute we get struck by a bolt from the blue. Hariyadi has a free kick from about 25 meters from the goal, he shoots it directly towards the net and manage to score! We are down 1-0! We are just after the half an hour mark when Pradana serves Ottaviano with a through ball. The argentinan put it back towards the middle of the box where Patrick dash and kick. The ball flies into the back of the net! We equalised! The first half finishes without any other highlight.

At the 64' minute we are warded a corner kick. Wanggai goes to take charge of the ball. Big croos in the middle fo the box, Arthur bursts forward to head the ball into the net! We are up 1-2! We want one more goal, so Yagalo tries to serve Ottaviano who take a shot from outside the box, the ball hit the bar and the comes back to play, but it is an easy prey for Borneo's goalkeeper. At the 81' minute Adsit pushes Beckic in the box and the referee has no doubt: it's a penalty for the home team! Bekic goes to the ball shoot and beat Afafa, so Borneo managed to find a late equaliser! It's 2-2 now and there is not much time left! But we played very weel, muche better than our host, so there is no chance that we will settle for a draw! We are deep in injury time, Wanggai manages to win back a ball and serves Sugeng, the midfilder throws a through ball towards Patrick, the brazilian passes it in the middle of the box where Al Achya is ready to shoot! It's a missle, the goalkeeper could nothing against that shot! Kediri wins it at the very last second!!!!!

This win was crucial. We n ow had a fair margin on Pausamania Borneo and since we managed to go on and have a perfect month of all wins we were now sitting comfortably in the first place with a 6 points margin on the second. At the middle of the season the Kediri dream is still alive and sound!

But we also played in the Piala Indonesia round of 32! The opponent was Persiwa Wamena, that currently plays in Divisi Utama, the second tier of Indonesian football. We won only 2-1 but we played a great match, unfortunately for us their goalkeeper, Aziz Kurniawan, was in a state of bliss and saved 10 out of the 12 shots we made towards the goal!From now, with the round of 16, all rounds will be played in two legs.

And since we were on such a form we were able to attract better players to our team. August was the last month of the transfer window so our director fo footbal Gudelj bought us a gift: a new goalkeeper! Afafa and Setya Jaya were not bad, so it's not like we needed him, but Fitrul Dwi Rustapa is just better overall and will give us a much higher chance to win matches! We pay €26k to get him from Persipura Jayapura!

CHAPTER 1.9: A CONVERSATION WITH THE BOARD

July was a big month for me. The team debuted in the Piala Indonesia, the domestic cup. It was the first ever cup I lived as a manager since Kediri was already eliminated when I joined last year. The opening game, valid for the round of 64, saw us facing Celebest FC, a team from Divisi Utama (the indonesian's 2nd tier). We didn't even break a sweat and closed the game with a 5-0 win despite the heavy rotation we did.

Other than the cup we played 5 matches, winning 4 of them and drawing the other. It seemed our period of great form was meant to continue. The opponents we faced were all in the lower half of the table, so not the hardest possible schedule, but keep in mind that only 6 months ago we were grasping for air to sray in this division! We even set a new record for the team with our 11 loseless streak! 

Entering August we are still sitting at the top of the table, with a 3 points advantage on Pusamania Borneo whom we will face in the upcoming month. 

After the Persib match I was summoned by our owner Sunardi. When I reached his office he was waiting for me with Mr. Kurniawan standing on his left. “Please sit Giacomino, there is a matter that we, as the board, would like to discuss with you” and while saying this he nodded indicating the chair. When I sat Kurniawan begun speaking aswell: “Giacomino, it's been almost an year since we appointed a 28 year man from the other side of the globe, with no experience, as our manager. If you had told me, at that moment, that we would be here today, at the top of the Indonesian Super League, in an 11 game streak without losing, I would have not believed it. So, as a gesture of gratitude, we decided to pay for your national license B course and to offer you a renewal of the contract” He handed me a couple of documents. I took a look at it and then opened my mouth “I'm sorry Sir, but as of now I'm not ready to sign a contract extension. As of now I'm 100% focused on our mission to pursue a top half finish. At the end of the season, if you will still want me, we will discuss the renewal. I'll take the course now!” Sunardi was shocked, Kurniawan was rather pissed by my response. “I hope you will come to your senses by then” said the latter “because this salary is a very high one, I'm not sure if you will find anything higher with your experience”. 

CHAPTER 1.8: ARE YOU SCARED OF HEIGHTS?

May and June where brilliant. We had a just 5 matches in 60 days so there was a lot of pauses inbetween and I felt it was crucial for us to fix the chemistry of the team with all the new faces we had. Things with Renzo were going very well, I don't know why but we just clicked. He was doing everything Victor did but with much more investment in the team, he was breaking down every detail to me and clarified anything I needed to be clarified. He just understood the team and the team understood him, so we were thriving. We went on to dominate on the field, we handed 3 goals a game just like it was nothing, the defense was superb and the wings were flying on the sides of the pitch. We were so dominating that I even told Max to ease up on Renzo and to give him a whole week of freedom. I don't know what he did in those days, but I know for sure he had fun because he came back radiant, as who has seen Virgin Mary appear in front of him. 

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We were only 7 matches in and Al Achya had already reached the number of goals he scored the previous season (5), Ottaviano and Al Ayyubi had an overall of 7 assists and Arthur was playing just as prime Maldini. 

Since the brazilian was playing so good our director of football, Nebojsa Gudelj, offered him a new contract, giving him a rise of over 30% of his previous salary.

Yea ok, we are playing good and winning, but how is the table? You already know how it is do you? But before looking I should warn you: if you are afraid of heights, don't look down

CHAPTER 1.7: FAREWELL VICTOR

March was coming to an end, the season was about to start. I was having lunch with Eka, Michele and Victor at our favourite spot in Kediri, the Sate Siboen, when my assistant coach came with a huge news out of the blue: “Domneavostra, I have to tell you something: I will be leaving Indonesia next week to go back to Romania, I was offered to coach a team of the first division there and I accepted the job”. I spilled the longton I was eating “What did you say?” I stuttered, unlike Stanley from The Office. “Don't you worry Giacomino, I have everything under control” Michele came through the conversation “I handled the transfer of Mr. Naicu and in a couple of days you will have a new assistant manager, handipicked by Victor himself”. My PA was always good at anticipating situations, and although I didn't love the idea of restarting everything with a new assistant coach just a couple of the days before the start of the Superleague. “I will instruct him on everything that's needed to make your job as easy as possible” reassured me Victor “he's already very capable and you will barely feel my absence”. “ You have allowed me to enjoy this 6 months here in Kediri way more than I should have been allowed to. I doubt I won't feel your absence. Thank you for putting up with all of this, go and win something with your new team then” we hugged and walked to the training facility. Victor had to tell the team aswell, and I'm sure that the boys preferred him to me, so it would have not easy to start the season withouth our romenian Guardiola.

The new assistant manager was a fellow countryman. Renzo Rossi spent all of his carreer in Romania as either a coach or a director of football, but spent his non working life in Tivoli, Italy. He had his mother there, so why did he moved way around the globe to be our assistant manager? He has been out of contract since the covid pandemic started so he figuered he could use the extra money I was paying him, plus heard great things about indonesian brothels and wanted to have a taste of the forbidden fruit. From what I could see he always loved the good life, eating and drinking well in the company of beautiful girls, so I instisted thet he kept a professional facade at least during working hours. I even instruceted Max, one of my security guys, to keep an eye on him and to not let him off the hook. Hopefully we will come out of the season unhurt!

The first match of the season had in store the biggest match in Indonesia: we aere going to play an away game against Bhayangkara, the reining champions. We gave a lot of space to our new faces in the team and I have to admit I was satisfied with the performance. When we faced them last season we did not disfigure  and this year we wanted to do the impossible and come out with at least one ponit from the game. We faced off evenly with our host but in the end we came out defeted. We can be happy because it was very difficult for Bhayangkara to overcome us!

The second and last match of April saw us debut our season at Brawijaya, in front of our fans! The Persikmania executed a beautiful pruple coreography that made the whole stadium a wonderful eye.catcher. The opponent was the Persebaya Surabaya, a team of our level. We had to win to show how different this Persik is from the last season's one! The first 45 minutes where a bit dull, without big chances excluding the disallowed goal of Ottaviano. The second half although saw us roaring and rising to the occasion with a whopping 5 gol win. 

Now we have a 3 weeks pause, I would love to enjoy some time in Timor but I feel like my time would be better spent in creating a relationship with Renzo, so I will stay here in Kediri and try to somehow connect with my new assistant manager

CHAPTER 1.6: MEET THE TEAM

After the season ended I decided to spend the two months vacation in Indonesia and not to get back home in Italy. I had Michele handle all my holiday plan around Bali and Nusa Tenggara, before giving him the well deserved time off. I had the most spectacular experience in Tegalang parks and rice terrace, then I went snorkeling in Gili Air before moving to a full dive in unspoilt nature in Komodo National Park. It was an incredibly peaceful vacation that culminated with the Galungan celebration in Bali. It is one of the most important Balinese holidays which honor the creator of the universe; and its celebrations last for over a week. 

When I came back I was ready to focus on our new season. From mid Febraury to the beginning of March Michele, Eka and Victor all came back to Kediri to start the work with the team that our Director of Football, Nebojsa Gudelj, had managed to build. There were a lot of new different faces and a lot of the players that were in the club had left. I figured he did a great job when I saw that the odds predicted us to a comfortable 11th place finish, well above the 17th where we were predicted last season. We held an exclusive ceremony at our training field for our sponsors and most distinguished fans, where I was supposed to introduce all the player, say a couple of things about them and then show the kit for the new season. 

“Hello everyone, and welcome to the grand opening of Persik Kediri's 2022 season!” I have always been very comfortable on stage and to give impressive presentations was a great quality of mine. "So first of all let's all give a big thank you to Pond's for sponsoring our team this year and for the great kits they gave us! Two beautiful models came on the stage, built exclusively for this event, wearing the new home and away kits.

"Now, let's meet the team!" The plan was that everytime I did mention someone he was supposed to come to the stage weraing either his home or away kit and then stay there till the end of the opening. “Let's begin with our two Goalkeepers!: Dikri Afafa showed us last year what he's made of! He will be our starter, no doubt about that! Right after him there is Fajar Setya Jaya, he will be ready to step up in case we will need him to!

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Onto the defense! Arthur earned our hearts last year with a couple of crucial performance to get us to safety, and we cannot wait to see what he can do this season! Next to him you will be able to witness one of the best central defenders this lovely country has to offer: it's Syukur Fisabilillah! behind them there are Nurhidayat Haris and Andy Styo, both with great marking and tackling abilities will gave us a great solidity! O the right side of defense we will be able to admire Gavin Kwan Adsit, who we managed to get for free. His reserve will be Agil Munawar, who whill have his chances to shine. On the left side we still have, and will have for the whole season since he just signed a new contract, Vava Mario Yagalo. we also have a big couple of names in Dany Saputra and Abdul Rahman who will fight for a place on the pitch week in week out!

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Moving to midifield we have to begin eith our new team captain: Mattew Thompson. He's bringing a good amount of quality and an impressive amount of experience! That's why some of the younger guys jokingly started calling him kakek! His rolemate will be Immanuel Wanggai. To fight for a starting place we also have Bayu Pradana and Roni Sugeng. Everyone in the middle of midfield can contribute a lot to the Persik's cause and you can expect all of them to play an important role throughout the season! On the left side we will see a great duel for the starting position between both Octavianus Maniani and Fahmi Al-Ayyubi, while on the right you can all appriciate the niño Valentino Ottaviano and Antoni Putro Nugroho!

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And now let's see who is gonna score our goals! The biggest signing of this winter has been O Garoto Prodigio Patrick! With him will probably play Aldi Al Achya, who did not live the best time of his life last season with the Persita Tangerang but is looking forward to shift the tide with us! To close up the team we have confirmed both Satria Bagaskara and Muhammad Ridwan.

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"This clonclude our presentation, now everyone come close for the team picture!"

The next update of this carrer will come next week, see you soon!

CHAPTER 1.5: CAN WE AVOID RELEGATION?

December started with us in 14th place, with a 3 points margin from relegation. With only 4 matches to go it was a sound gap to have, but it was still not enough to truly believe we could manage to stay up. I remeber calling in a meeting for the whole team, staff included with the intention to lower the pressure on those upcoming matches. My words, translated by Eka, reached the team in the way I wished they would, and eased a couple of player that were begging to feel stressed. 

With less expectations on their shoulders, players played more freely, doing what they knew they could do. In the first match, against PSS Sleman we suffered a little bit, but never gave too much space to the opponents and were really good to capitalize our chances. We eon 4-0 and mage and enormous step towards safety. But the fight for the last places fully unraveled in the next game, where we played Persipura Jayapura away. We went up 2-0, then conceded but without losing focus we managed to go back to an impressive 4-1. Then, when the game was approching its end, we conceded twice and faced the risk of a draw. We compacted very firmly and succeded in going back home with a W in our pocket. Those 3 points gave us the mathemathical certanty mathematical certainty: we are not going anywhere next here! We will still be competing in the Indonesian Super League! 

Unfortunately, we didn't make the headlines with our achievement beacuse in the same matchday Bhanagkara clinched the title and were crowned champions. The last 2 matches weren't really important but we gave all ourselves nontheless, closing with 4 more points that projected us to the 12

“The team saw a massive improvement under your management” told me our chairman, Mr. Sunardi “I'm not only talking only about our final position on the table, but by the football expressed here in general. Our analyst brought to my attention the big difference between our stats from the beginning of the season and the stast from the ending months. You still have one year on your contract and I expect you to manage the team for a whole season next season, then we will discuss the possibility of a renwal” He concluded. “Fair enough, I'm really happy with the result we achieved today and I look forward to improve it next season” I responded. He then handed me the report from our Data hub and I was pleased to acknowledge the improvements. The results spoke for themself, but seeing the difference the tactic that Victor implemented for the team, did on the pitch was really satisfying. The merits of this were all of Michele that showed great recruitment capabilities.

CHAPTER 1.4: PERSIKMANIA

November is a crucial month for our race to safety, we have to play 6 matches. The first to weeks are the biggest for us because we will face both Persija Jakarta and Persita Tangerang, two direct opponents in the relegation battle. For the occasion I publicly asked for our fans to show all the supports they could give to the boys in purple. Persikmania, that's the name of our supporters, delivered two great performances on the stands to fire up our guys.

With all the chants in the stadium we knew we could not let our fans down. Against Persija Jakarta we played really well, showed initiative shooting a whooping 23 times but didn't managed to combine a worthy defensive performance. We finished the match 1-1, and since we are in front of them in the table we managed to keep the distance between us so we can see the glass half full. The next match saw probabily our best performace of the year, where we managed to completly outplay Persita Tangerang in every aspect of the game. 28 shots and a superb Sackie Doe allowed us to take 3 vital points. Although this victory was really well deserved and show us express a level of football that wasn't shown in Kediri in a long time, the real masterpiece came in the very next game. We traveld to Bandung to play against the 2nd team in the rankings: Persatuan Bandung. Despite the odds being heavily in their favor we managed to play the perfect game and not only win the match, but to outperform our hosts by scoring 4 goals!

But those were just the 3 matches of the month, and November had another 3 planned for us. Against Bhayangkara, the very top team in Indonesian football, we proudly held blows for the whole 90' but conceded twice in injury time wasting all the good work we had done till then. The other two matches were against historic rivals of Persik: Persela Lamongan and Arema Cronus. With great effort we managed to come out with 1 pontis from this 2 appointments. It wasn't easy but this month of November gave us great hopes for the relegation battle.

In front of us there are still 4 games to persue what seemed so unreachable only three months ago. We are currently standing in 14th place with only 3 points between us and the red zone.

CHAPTER 1.3: TWO WEEKS OUT

The month of October began with a difficult match on the road. We had to travel to Gianyar, in the island of Bali, to play against Bali United. The result was a difficult one to digest: we went down 3-0 but somehow managed to comeback to 3-3, before suffering a late goal that condemned us to another L. After that, the calendar gave us a pause of almost 3 weeks so I decided to let the team and my whole entourage, fly back to Kediri while I booked 2 weeks at one of my favorite places in Bali: Komaneka near the Keramas beach. 

It's really a paceful and romantic place and staying there helped me recharge the batteries and really dive into the culture of Indonesia and the real glamour of indonesian women. I experienced first hand the famous Nusa Dua Fiesta, a yearly celebration that occurs in mid October in a beach south of the Island. I think that is an experience everyone should have once in their lifetime.

While I was enjoying life I instructed Victor to guide the team in two friendlies against lower tier indonesian teams. I thought that it was important to somehow comeback to winning ways in order to let the team taste the flavour of victory again. When I came back the team looked different, they seemed ready to face everyone. I watched a training match that left me speechless: I'm sure that if instead of the reserves the starters had played against Real Madrid they would have won. 

That grit was starting to build up and helped to show the full potential of our team against both Madura United and Tira - Persikabo. We won, for only the second time this season, two consecutive games! 6 points that gave us air to breath and removed a lot of pressure from the team.

The last match of the month saw us facing Barito Putera, that we had just surpassed for the 16th place. We were on a good streak and could have even hit the 3 wins streak season's record. Unfortunately we were not good enough to hit that mark; but the point we conquered lifted us over into the safezone! With 10 matches to go we are currently in 15th place. But mind it, the very next match will see us play against Persjia Jakarta, meaning we could fall back down very rapidly!

We just came back from Banjarmasin, after an 16 hour ferryboat travel, when I recieved a text from the Director Of Football Mr Gudelji that notified me about the transfer of Dian Agus Prasetyo. He was our 3rd choice keeper, since I began coaching. It was not a very important news for the supporters but it was the very first transfer of my managerial career so it was important to me. 

And to close on a high note the month the president, Mr. Kurniawan made me a present. Because I was lifting the team out of the relegation zone he offered me the opportunity to take the course for my very first license as a football manager. I gladly accepted it.

CHAPTER 1.2: ALWAYS ON A PLANE

Well September started and with that the monsoon season is coming to an end. It still rains everyday but at least it's a very soft rainfall, similar to te ones I'm used to in Italy. But don't get it mixed with european rain: eventhough there is constant precipitation it is still very hot with temperatures still reaching 30°. All this humidty does really make less enjoyable the fact that I have to handle practice everyday in the open, but breathing this new air of change wins any discouragment the climate brings. 

One thing I did not really grasp when I signed here is how big Indonesia really is and how much a team has to travel. During Semptember we played 4 games, 3 of wich were away. Now, if my debut as a manager was played in Semarang, wich is also on the island of Java and is just 1 hour flight, the other 2 games were all played at least ONE THOUSAND kilometers from Kediri, and both times there wasn't any direct flight avaliable. To reach Samarinda, for the match agains Pusamania Borneo FC we had to take 3 different connections! At first I thought that I could grab one of my family jets and travel with it, but Victor suggested that it would have been beneficial for the team if we flew as a unity. So if we had an away game to play we could practice only 3 out of the 5 days avaliable because we would spend at least 2 full days somewhere up in the air. 

The games we played weren't easy but I think we performed well. Despite what you all might be thinkg we did played a good football and we went really close on getting some important points on the board, but luck was never really on our side. Against PSIS SEMARANG for example we played really well, we had an Xg of 1,92 and we had 2 goals already disallowed. What happens in the 88' minute? We concede a gol because of a brain fart of our goalkeeper Dikri Afafa. And what do you think has happened against the already mentioned Pusamania Borneo FC? We almost pulled off an incredible comeback with 10 men but we then let the opponent score twice in injury time. 

It's not all bad news though. We managed to win the only home game we played, against the only team that is below us in the league table. We convincingly won against Persiraja Banda Aceh with a very solid 3-0 performance.

Honestly 3 points in 4 games is not a bad loot, but Victor said that if we can get to an average higher than 1 point per game we will probabily avoid relegation. As of now we are 3 points behind in the race for safety, and we have just passed the halfway mark. I remain positive, results will come, we just have to trust Victor and the players.

CHAPTER 1.1: HE KNOWS FOOTBALL

It was around midnight when someone knocked at my door. I was not yet sleeping but I was already relaxing in bed. “Open up Giacomino! It's Michele I've got great news” my PA shouted. It was late but since the hotel was basically ours nobody complained about the noise. When I opened the door I confronted him “Man where have you been? I needed you today to fix a couple of problems I had. Just because we are thousands of kilometers from home don't think you can just ignore your duties!” “I know, and I'm sorry” he cut short “but I think I'm ahead and I've got you covered”. He then proceeded to come in. “Look I spent the day at the nearby Internet Cafè talking with agencies all over the worlds to find you a proper assistant coach who would come here to help you with the tactical side of your job. And I found just the perfect guy: his name is Victor Naciu, he was working in Romania as an u19 coach” he looked at me waiting for a reaction. “Well shit Michele I'm impressed, I was ready to lecture you about your job and you actually went far beyond. That's the reason I chose you to come with me after all” I was in fact impressed, I knew he was a good assistant, but he actually surprised me with this one. “Well great news Giacomino is that Victor will be here tomorrow afternoon as he's in flight right now! He accepted the contract of the club already, they are paying him about €4k a year. You are giving him a little bonus of a couple of dozens of thousands of euros from your own pockets in order to convince him to work for you. He will basically run trainings and study the tactic for you, and you will get all the credit. He also speak a bit of French and a bit of English, so that you will be able to communicate with him fairly easily”. “Well Michele, I'm truly appriciating what you did today, you really outdid yourself. Now go, I need to get well rested because tomorrow I will meet this Victor and the team”.

The next day I met Victor Naciu at a local restaurant, Sate Siboen. He seemd fairly competent and a good professional. He kept referring to me with a very formal domneavoastra that can be translated to something like lordship. But most importantly he seemed like a good fork and ate with much pleasure everything that he ordered, and that is something I always appriciate in a person.

After lunch we walked to the training facility and he told me what his intentions were with this team. He figured that we should have gone with a 4-4-2 with a Route One style. He used the long flight to watch videos and reports of our team so I trusted his inputs, he even thaught me what to say to the players about this tactical system. So when we finally reached the Brawijaya stadium and met all the players I knew what to do.

Eka was incredibily helpful and I think she even corrected some of the tactical inputs I was giving the team, after all I'm talking of something I don't know to people who don't understand my language. After my first day I was starting to get the first names right and the excitement for this challange was really growing on me. Victor helped me to identify the better players of the team, he told me that the absolute cornerstone of the squad is the central defender Arthur, although his countrymate Dionatan Restinga was not far from his level. The only downside is that Restinga has to play left midfield and that is not his natural position. 

As for the indonesian players the best is surely Vava Mario Yagalo who plays as left defender. The other crucial profile is the one of Andri Ibo, the team captain, who plays in defense aswell.

Well, in the next days I had the chance to meet everyone and get to know them better. The task in front of us is everything but easy and we will need a lot of work and a bit of luck to reverse the course of this team! Those are the results they had till now, and hopefully the losing days ends today!

Hi all,

I have a career on this Forum and I started unemployed. Now that I got hired I wanted to update the team and league I'm managing in but everytime I try to insert the team or the nation I'm managing in it just goes back to blank and doesn't let me add anything.

It's my first time posting a career so I'm sorry if the fault is mine. 

Thank you 

CHAPTER 1: KEDIRI

After 24 hours of flight to reach Jakarta, and another 12 hours of train I finally managed to arrive in Kediri. Since they told me that Indonesian football was sometimes associated with violent episodes and lowlife gambling I brought with me my entourage of security just to stay super cautious. I was here to experience a completely new culture and not to end up on the first page of crime news. Other than security there was my main man Michele, who basically did everything for me, and Eka, a girl from Bandung (West Java) that learned Italian and was hired by Michele as a translator. I do actually speak many languages, including English, Arab and Chinese and I feel like adding Indonesian to the list. Till then Eka will help with the communications. The hotel we were staying in was very small and could only accomodate me, Michele, Eka and 2 of my 6 security guys, so we had to arrange a different solution for the other 4. The suite I was promised was nothng but a small king sized bed bedroom with a small living area, but I was told that it was one of the best rooms Kediri had to offer. Fair enough, as I told many times, this is a completely different context for me to be in. 

The day after my arrival I went with Eka to meet the owner of the club, Mr Kurniawan who briefed me about the history of the club, the backroom situation and the season progress of the team. You can see everything he told me in the next few screens.

So after the lunch, as we were splitting the bill, I asked the fateful question “So, when do we start?”. Mr. Kurniawan seemed vexed as if he thought I already had to know that. He then replied “Your first match will be against PSIS Semarang on Sunday”. SUNDAY? AS IN “THIS SUNDAY” I thought panicking. It was only 6 days from now and I had no idea of what to do or what to say to the team, let alone make them play proper football. 

When I got back to the Hotel i tried to contact Michele to give him some instructions in order to find something to help me with, but he did not pick up his phone. As my nerves got thinner and thinner I approached my room and I noticed that on the doormat was a newspaper with my face on it. I could not understand the news but I figured from the photos in it that it was something about me getting appointed as manager. "Great" I thought “now where the hell is Michele?”

CHAPTER 0.1: THE WORLD IS FULL OF DESPERATE PEOPLE

It had been already a couple of weeks and we were approaching the end of August when my PA Michele reported to me that there were 2 Directors of Football interested in having me as their coach. I mean, why the hell would they be interested in having me for their coach position? Are they so much desperate that they don't even want to see my face or hear me talk about, i don't know, football in general? Is this a Ted Lasso like situation where they just want their club to miserably fail and burn to ashes? Well that's their problem though, because I'm actually on board with the idea of becoming a football manager. 

The first man i talked to was Des Williams, he was from Wrexham, Wales, and he was the president of Cefn Druids. He seemd really passionate about his club, which had just lost its manager and had a mediocre start of the season. He would have paid me 11k € a year and would have gave me a small house near the pitch. Mind that I do not care about how much I get paid, but it came as a schock that they would pay me that for a whole year, it's basically how much I would spend on a normal night out! Anyway I gotta admit I was driven by the passion around a football team that you can only find in Great Britain; I mean, it was the team of Cefn Mawr, a hole in the ground with six thousands people living in it, and yet all of those six thousands were willing to travel across the country for an away match. That's passion right there.

Later in the same day I had a call with Anang Kurniawan, a gentleman from all the way around the globe. He is the president of Persik Kediri, a football team based in Kediri Indonesia. They are currently mid season and are struggling against relegation and thought that my experience and strong personality could have helped them shift the tide of their year. Don't ask me what experience they are talking about, but I'm sure Michele overstated some of my qualities, everyone does it when applying for jobs. Their offer was a lot more lucrative than the one from the welsh and they were giving me a suite in the city's best resort. 

I took my time to decide, but the main factor I had in mind was that I could have worked a couple of minutes away from the idyllic beaches of Java and Bali or in a village with a single Tesco built on the old football stadium. So what do you think I ended up choosing?

Hi all, welcome to my newest and very first carreer here on sortitoutsi. I'll try to tell you the story of Giacomino Brullo, this fictional character I created just for this carreer.

CHAPTER 0: SOMETHING TO ESCAPE BOREDOM

Hey everyone, I'm Stefan--- hold on! As of today I'm officialy Giacomino Brullo. I'm the eldest son of one of Italy's richest man who shall remain nameless and, as I said, as of today I'm Giacomino Brullo, since I went to the register and legally changed my name to that. But why did i do that you may be asking? That's a totally legit question and the answer is really simple: pure boredom. Let me elaborate. Since I was a kid my father never saw me as an adequate heir to his empire, so he never treated me like one. No matter what I did, whatever I achieved, I was never good enough. So my days went on and the frustration became anger and the anger just faded into boredom. I had everything money could buy: watches that were worth as apartments, villas so expensive that could easily solve a small country debt, the hottest girls and the most impressive cars. But instead of being exciting it was all so… dull. 

I felt that the only way to escape this feeling was litteraly escape the ivory tower I was living in, detached from reality, and just leave to be around the world, to find somewhere I belong. So I entrusted my personal assistant, Michele Braccini, to find something that could make me travel the world with ease and that specifically required some knowledge that I did not have. And you know what that little f*ker did? He put my name in all the job offers for a football coach that were put on all around the globe. I'm never been in to sports, I played some tennis in my early days but i was never really drawn to it, so Michele probabily used this as an opportunity to play a joke on me. “It's an easy job, you will just have to give orders to everyone and they have to listen to you, so it's not much different from what you already do with me" He had the guts to say this to my actual face!

But you know what the real joke is? It's the fact that the idea of going on and do this leap in the dark was actually growing on me. As if anyone would make an offer for me anyway…

Oh! How sloppy of me! You don't even know what I look like! Anyway, it's a me, Giacomino! 

And for the most curious between you, under the spoiler you can find all the nations that Michele had in his mailing list (sorry the screenshot it's in italian, I think you can guess by the flags anyway 😉 )

Show Spoiler