Macclesfield Challenge: Mediocre Start of Season

Hello folks! I'm proud to give you the first "real" update on my Football Manager 2010 challenge: the Macclesfield Challenge!

As you can see in the table screenshot below, the start of the season for the Silkmen was mediocre and completely unspectacular: 4 wins and 4 loses in the league, out of eight matches, with 10 goals scored for and 10 goals scored against my team. But it could've been worse and overall I must admit that I am pleased with how the team is doing.

Most notable win was, as you can see below, my 2-1 victory over Notts Co, probably the best team in the league. Of course, our latest win against Barnet 4-0 at home was also a joy to be watched, even though Barnet are the last placed team so they definitely lack quality.

I also got kicked out of the League Cup, losing against the better Blackpool 2-0 in a match in which we had no chances on goal and defended for the whole 90 minutes, but the boys managed to turn around the odds and defeat a superior Carlisle team in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy first round, which is really great, even though I also had to defend for almost the entire match.

The worst and most annoying defeat was at the hands of Morecambe, after leading the first half 1-0. I have made the mistake of saying to my squad that I was pleased with the result at half time and they lost all their motivation. As you can see, Morecambe scored against Macclesfield four goals in 14 minutes... something that's not really pleasant to watch. But at least I've learned my lesson and won't celebrate until the final whistle is blown.

The Silkmen's Senegalese striker Ibrahima Thiam also managed to enter the records book, scoring the fastest ever goal against Barnet, just 20 seconds after the kick off. Hopefully Thiam will continue playing as good as he does now, for the moment he is one of my best players!

Macclesfield Challenge: Last Transfer in the Window

After taking a better look at my Macclesfield squad after the first batch of players brought in, I have decided to bring in another Central Defender, this season hoping to battle against relegation with a good defense. Otherwise I would've brought in a winger since the ones I have now are of really poor quality.

Either way, I managed to bring in a really great player, 29 years old Senegalese central defender Mamadou Seck, a tall player that is great in the air and also has some really good defending stats, as you can see in the image below. Actually, Seck just became my best central defender and I truly hope he will manage to remain injury-free for most of the season.

On the minus side, Seck is a really slow player, but hopefully his other stats will make up for that.

Now I can say for sure that Mamadou Seck is the last transfer for Macclesfield this season since we have no more money (nor for wages, nor for buying players). I don't really like the fact that some of my best players are really slow (Seck, Thiam, Balasko) but since my main goal is to stay clear of relegation this season and build up the squad for the future, I hope that I won't lose the bet for better but slower players...

We'll see for sure in my future Macclesfield Challenge updates...

Macclesfield Challenge: First Transfers

After checking out the Macclesfield Town squad I decided to sell most of them due to poor quality and sign as many better players as possible - probably something any manager would do. I thought I stroke lucky when Notts Co, a team in the same division as The Silkmen, offered me an amazing deal of 100,000 Euros plus almost 250,000 more in two years for Paul Morgan, one player I wasn't even sure I was going to keep! An amazing deal and it was simple luck or a bug in the system because after selling this player, I didn't manage to sell any other.

So with a transfer budget of ZERO and just a couple thousand Euros to spare per week for new signings, I can say that I find myself in a bit of trouble. However, I did manage to sign a few good players (at least good for the level I'm playing at and the level of my team) and I'm listing them below:

As you can see, all of them were Free Signings and a few are real gems. Here are the player profile pictures of the best new Macclesfield Town players in my Football Manager 2010 challenge:

1. Fabio Ferreira - Attacking midfielder Right/Left

For some reason, Ferreira became the most valued player in my squad, even though I can't say I'm completely blown away by his skills. The scout highly recommended him to me and I signed him especially because he can play on two different positions, a must for low league clubs. Except for that, he's fast and... that's about it!

2. Ivan Balasko - Midfielder/Attacking midfielder Centre

I really liked this Hungarian attacking midfielder who became the best midfielder in my squad. His physical stats are not great, but I hope that while he plays, he does a great job for the team.

3. Ibrahima Thiam - Striker, Centre

Now this is a real gem, I am really happy he accepted to sign with Macclesfield. This Senegalese striker (with 12 caps at the national team) is really tall, making him a great Target Man and a real danger from corners. He is also a decent shooter and I certainly hope he'll become a legend for my little club.


4. Cosmin Marginean - Defensive Midfielder, Centre

A ripe Romanian midfielder, Marginean will hopefully become the ball winning midfielder I need and he will stop most of the attacks from the opposition. He won't count too much on the offensive end, but if he does a great job in defense, I sure hope for a great season!

So, with 10 new players in and six out (with several more on the transfer list), it's clearly going to be "revolurion" at Macclesfield during my Football Manager 2010 challenge. I am expecting a really difficult season - after checking out a few other squads in the divisions I noticed that my players are amongst the poorest, but I do hope that I will manage to add some extra reputation to my club and hopefully some money, too so that next year I'll make a few really big signings... but until then, we have a really difficult season ahead. Wish me luck!

Football Manager 2010 Challenge: Macclesfield Town

As I was telling you yesterday, I have started my first Football Manager 2010 challenge with Macclesfield Town, a Coca Cola League 2 team heavily dubbed for relegation: pre-season reports from the media say that the team will finish at 23, while according to the promotion odds, we have 40-1 chances, which mean that "relegation is a real possibility". Well, that's why it's called a challenge, right?

What does this Football Manager 2010 challenge consist in, then? Well, it's pretty simple: I am starting to manage Macclesfield Town and my goal is to promote to the Barclays Premier League as soon as possible (hopefully around six seasons), stay there and become a main football force in Europe with the goal of winning the Champions League. Pretty cool plans, right? I'm sure it's going to be a bumpy road and a very difficult team for myself and the Macclesfield players, but I'm surely going to do my best to succeed in style:

I knew very little of Macclesfield before starting to manage it, but after reading a few information about the Silkmen on Wikipedia and checking out the team's official website, I managed to become quite attached to it and I will surely do my best to succeed. And who knows, maybe I will bring them good luck, as it happened with Burton Albion - the team I managed to get them promoted in my quick FM2008 challenge, and they also gained promotion in real life! Now here's a few background information about the team which exists from all the way back in 1874!

And here are the promotion odd from Macclesfield aka The Silkmen, proving you that it will indeed be a fun Football Manager 2010 challenge - both for me, as well as you. Hopefully we'll have a lot of fun and lots to learn!

Andria Challenge: Incredible Series of Results

My Andria team certainly finished their first season in the Italian Serie B in style, with 5 HUGE victories in the last 6 matches (and no, I won't tell you just yet if we're still in the Serie B or not :P)

But please enjoy, together with me, the success of our last games: an incredible and anthologized win against Chievo (5-1), the same score recorded in my win against Cagliari and one goal more than the victory against Rimini. Simply awesome results, let me tell you that. I am pleased like I never was until now. Well done, Andria!

Andria Challenge: Season 5, Middle Season Update

As I have promised, I'm updating you again on my ultimate Football Manager 2009 challenge with Andria Bat, the team I managed to bring from the Serie C2/B to the Serie B in the Italian football competition in four seasons (which, to be honest, I consider quite a performance).

Unfortunately, following a great form shown by my players during the previous season, due to new signings (probably) and less overal value, we were not too competitive in our first season in the Serie B. However, we still did much better than anybody anticipated (like the memorable victory against Frosinone, the biggest thus far) and we are now in a somewhat safe position at 17th, but just 5 points away from relegation.As you can see in the table above, we have only managed to win 6 games and lost 9 (out of 20), and only scored 16 goals - which is less than 1 goal per match - and if we think that 6 of the goals were scored in just one game... well... things are not looking THAT great. However, even though I had hoped for a pleasant surprise for the entire world, not relegating can also be considered a good result :)
My best player during this first half, just as suggested by a previous post, was Jacinto Navarro, the Spanish midfielder playing absolutely great football. So did Bostjan Rozman, who took on the helm as the best Andria striker and finally proved his value: scored 10, which is impressive. Except for that, everything works as planned. Hopefully the end of the season will see us still in the Serie B. Wish me luck! Heh.

Andria Challenge: Serie B Is Piece of Cake

Of course I'm kidding, it's not actually too easy for my Andria team in the Serie B (for the first time so high since the game started), but at least we are not being beaten by every team in the division, on the contrary.

I was recently surprised to see my guys simply blow away opposing Frosinone and record the biggest victory since I started managing the club! 6-0 for a team which is for the first time in the Serie B is indeed an award by itself. Hopefully more things like this one will happen in the club's future and hopefully my Andria will keep it going and remain in the Serie B for the next season, too. Now, let's start bragging with the "summary" of the result which proves that in Football Manager 2009 for me Serie B is a piece of cake (of course, I'm just joking :P)

Andria Challenge: Transfers for Serie B

As promised, I am showing you today the players I have signed to help us avoid relegation from the Serie B this season. I wasn't able to spend too much - actually I wasn't able to spend anything, since Andria is completely broke, but I did manage to snap up a few player - great ones, given the circumstances.

Players IN
I am most excited by this Uruguayan central midfielder Manuel Sanchez, who will probably take the place of my best player three seasons ago, the great Yann Schneider. But since his skills are lower, he might have to become a substitute. Hopefully he will do well, he has great passing skills and creativity and even though his mental skills are not good, he's one of the best players in the squad now.Second, I am impressed and have high hopes in Younes Gimenez, another regen, this time French, specially build as a central defender. His only problem is Marking (just 8), and I do employ a man marking system, but I hope that his other incredible skills will compensate for that. Anyway, he's the best defender in the squad!
I needed badly a right defender, since Antonio Carnevali can't rise up to the challenge anymore, so I signed Dutch winger Nigel Van Dijk, who will probably become a first team instead of the older (and skill-less) Algerian DR, Karim Azizou.
Finally, since I was disappointed by my wingers this season - especially the left wingers Sorin Ciobanu, Mario Rebecchi and Ousmane Sy - none of which played well, I had to sign new players there. For the left side I signed Vittorio Triarico with great teamwork and work rate, but still not looking like the player I need. However, I do hope he will do a better job than the others...
And finally, the last transfer in is Andrea Verdenelli, basically planned to take Sorin Ciobanu's place as the back-up right midfielder. He's again a good team player and crosser, but he's slow and has pretty poor mental attributes. He should do well as a backup, though.

Players Out
I plan to let go quite a few of my players, who are not ready for Serie B. The awful strikers Eugen Nita and Sami will be simply thrown away since they were absolutely rubbish, Mario Rebbecchi and probably Stanescu will also leave. Also, I would like to get a new goalkeeper, a better one than the Romanian one Gabriel Ignat, and if I do, then I will have to sell Sebastien Scherer, Luxembourg's national keeper. Lets hope for the best!

Andria Challenge: Season 4 Final Update

Wow! That's everything I can say about my fourth season with Andria in Football Manager 2009. I am impressed, amazed and blown away by the progress we have managed to obtain: dubbed for a mediocre season, my Andria Bat challenge went extraordinarily and we've managed to promote to the Serie B! Yes, that's right, we are now part of the real football - impressive, having in mind that four seasons ago, when the computer was randomly placing me at the helm of Andria, the team was dubbed for relegation from the Serie C1/C.

I must admit that I was completely impressed by how the players played. I never expected to obtain promotion and I was only hoping for them to gel and build up for the next season when I was planning to attack the promotion to the Serie B. However, thanks to Rozman and the company, we are up and ready for the real challenge: Serie B, a division in which I'll most certainly have trouble staying in.

As you can see, we've placed six and won incredible battles (incredibly easy also) in the playoffs. There was a point in the final when I thought about losing the game with intention, since there's no way my team is ready (or has the financial power) to go one division up, but then thought that if the players want it so much, maybe we'll be able to do something next year, too. Congrats to the lads, they were impressive!
As you can see from the standings below (and above), Andria's main strength was the defense. We never lost hard, and we battled bravely for every result. We're not yet a scoring, powerful team, but we do have strength back there and, even though the games are not always a joy to watch, we're still doing a great job getting the results. First we'll get the results, next we'll focus on making a real show for the fans.
From the players, I must signal out, once again, Bostjan Rozman, the young striker which might turn into a legend if he keeps playing like that (a legend for the club, and at least until we get to Serie A :P) - he scored 9 goals and was impressive always, creating goals and playing well. Also, I was surprised by the strength proven by Johnny Giansante, a striker Roma (my parent club) sent to me and who managed to score an impressive 8 goals, despite I didn't have any plans to play him. But due to bad performances from Sami (gambling on a striker without pace was not worth it) and Marco Di Matteo (who simply can't gel with the squad), he proved a great loan.
Also, Ivan Vellucci was considered the second best signing of the season, so I must say I am impressed with him as well. Hopefully we'll build on this incredible, unbelievable feat next season and manage to stay in the Serie B. I do hope we'll finally get over the financial crysis we have in the team and I will finally be able to purchase some players and not be forced to keep my eye on expiring contracts. But about transfers and plans for the future, in another post!

Side-challenge for Andria: Armando Carnevali Youngster

If you do remember, I have launched a little while ago a small so-called side-challenge for my Football Manager 2009 game, basically taking the youngster which is described as "the best to come" and offering it a contract, first team chances and so on, just too see how well he develops.

My first and only player until now was Armando Carnevali, a rather poor central defender (but good for the Serie C1/C I was in back then). Although he doesn't have the necessary skills, I also trained him to play as a right back, just to get even more playing chances. He does play well, but unfortunately, he won't be a name to add to my wonderkids list. Check him for yourself. With coaches twice as better and with two more years in his back, he still didn't improve much at all!

Andria Challenge: Season 4 Middleseason Update

Hello everybody and welcome to a new update on my Ultimate Football Manager 2009 Challenge: Andria Challenge. I'm already in my fourth season during the fantastic spell at Italian club Andria Bat and I must admit I'm really pleased with what I accomplished thus far, even though I did not win any awards: however, I am constantly improving the squad and I am satisfied with the tactic I found, even though it's not a spectacular one at all and we don't score too many goals.

However, we do pretty well on the football field since my players have shown great attitude and an incredible desire to beat the odds once more and maybe gain promotion. To the Italian Serie B in four seasons, with a team dubbed for relegation from the fourth division - that's something I'm really not expecting to happen but with a bit luck it might come true! Incredible!
However, it's still a long way to go as we're only in mid-season right now, but things are looking impressive. As you can see, Andria is at number 4 in the charts, which means we're promotion candidates! However, the battle is very tight and if my team gets complacent or something bad happens, I might be quickly down the table. Which might not be necessary a bad thing, since the Andria squad is not 100% ready for the much better and intense Serie B.

Although I don't have any specific players to not now at mid season - we're doing well as a team and there are no particular highlits - I must admit that I am absolutely unhappy with the lack of lack I had with one of the best signings during the pre-season, young and promising Spanish midfielder Jacinto Navarro: as you can see from the screenshot below, he only managed to play three games (all as a substitute) because he was plagued by injuries. Actually, every time he recovered from an injury, he got a new one - which is driving me mad. Unfortunately this means that he's very prone to injuries and I can't do anything with such a player which can't play. I will be very sad to see him go, since I had high hopes invested in him... but that's football.
Now I don't want to go over excited with Andria's placement in the Serie C1/B, but I do wonder - if my Football Manager 2009 challenge takes me to a point where I will be promoted together with the team in the Serie B - would that be a good thing? I have lots of players which would be sub-standard for the Serie B competition. Time will tell for sure and I will certainly keep you updated!

Andria Challenge: End of Season 3 Update

The third season with Andria has ended and, unlike what media and board were expecting, Andria Bat managed to stay in the Serie C1/B. I could say that we even managed to grab a great position, ending the season in the Top 10 :) Also, I am happy we only lost 11 matches, which means that my Andria Challenge is going on great and I hope we'll be able to build on this for the next season!
As you can see from the charts, our defense was not a great one, scoring one goal less than those received, but compared to other mid-table teams, we did well. It's worth noting that Gela, the team that won the Serie C2/B last season and who promoted together with me continued its series of incredible results and won the division. From Serie C1 to Serie B in two seasons, that's something I would've loved for my Andria team, too!

My recent signing Vincent Beduer topped the performers chart - actually, in my Top 5 best performers, it's just winger Ciobanu who's an offensive player, which means that our defense was really great and indeed it was, helping Andria a lot. The strikers were good too but you all know that Football Manager 2009 tends to offer very low scores to strikers... I was pleased with Marco Di Matteo, though, who scored 10 goals and even though he's still trying hard to blend in, I hope he'll do OK. My own wonderkid (for the C1 level) Bostjan Rozman didn't score as much, but I am pleased with the players' performance.
Exceptions are Otman Djelliahine, an AMC in which I invested lots of hope, but who was simply unable to cope with the Andria squad, and Eugen Nita, the striker which scored just 3 goals in 26 matches...

TRANSFERS IN

Next season will see a stronger Andria squad (I hope), with a couple of transfers making me really happy. I do hope they perform well and manage to blend in and won't prove to be poor signings like Djelliahine. First of all, I'm most excited by the prospect of Jacinto Navarro, a young defensive midfielder with incredible stats, who can also play as central defender. If everything works fine, I think I'll be seeing a lot of Navarro in the future :)
I have also signed a very skilled Striker, 22 years-old Guinea-Bissau born Sami. His technical attributes are simply impressive and hopefully the very poor physical ones (especially a very low speed) will not hurt his performances too much. I consider him a good prospect, and hopefully a pleasant surprise for next year.
I have also signed in Ivan Vellucci, basically back-up for Sorin Ciobanu (but with potential to become the first choice is he plays well) and Daniel Popescu, a decent left back who will replace the old Luigi Di Simone as Beduer's backup. The two players are below.
PLANS FOR SEASON 4

Hopefully I will manage to sell a few of the dead weight players and hopefully the club will start making a profit. Ever since I started we've been struggling financially, and I don't have anything to do to help - I have a lower wage total than permitted and I rarely spend money. Still, we've recorded losses every season - less than 10k overall, but it's not a progress and it doesn't help. And since I need quality players to obtain promotion, this should be fixed. I'll do my best.

Therefore, the plans for the fourth season of my Andria Challenge in Football Manager 2009 are to keep a steady growth of the team (maybe finish close to the promotion battle) and prepare the team for a hopefully promotion in two seasons. Serie B, here I come!

Andria Challenge: Season 3 Middleseason Update

This weekend I was at home and spent a lot of time playing Football Manager 2009 and doing my best for my Andria team, recently promoted to the Italian C1/B division.

With a glourious media prediction of "last placed" and finances going down instead of up, I can say that I did the best I could with my team which is performing above all expectations and now, at half-season, we are comfortably standing away of the relegation zone, at number 12.Actually the season started even better for Andria who was well motivated by increased bonuses and the two new signings: we recorded two draws and 2 wins in the first four matches, but then an incredible six games without a win followed.The team managed to get back on track after I made a few changes to the lineup and small tweaks to the tactic (the winning FM 2009 tactic I presented you), mainly turning it into a bit more defensive one. Also, my new signings started to make an impact, with Vincent Beduer - the wingback I presented in the previous post starting to make my defense more solid, while on the other end Marco Di Matteo started to score goals. However, both have to blend into the squad...Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about Oscar Djellilahine, the attacking midfielder I had purchased as a wondermaker - he proved to be unfit for my tactics and with his low ratings is the biggest disappointment I had since starting playing Football Manager 2009. Unfortunatelly, things are not looking too good for my last season's second top scorer Eugen Nita, who was plagued by injuries and played very poor, only scoring 1 goal in 16 matches...But my confidence is high and I do believe we have the strength to stay in the Italian Serie C1/B after the season's end. Wish me luck!

Andria Challenge: Transfers for a New Season

Continuing my Andria Challenge, I had to make a couple of changes to my squad. I clearly need a bunch of stronger players, but unfortunately finances for my C1/B team are not the strong point and there are few things I can do.

However, just as always, I'm keeping my eyes on the transfer market and this year, just like it happened in my previous season, I managed to grab a couple of players I'm really proud of.

First, I got myself a solid new striker, Marco Di Matteo, a 23 years old football player that should become a leading star in my Football Manager 2009 underdog team. Hopefully he will score a lot of goals this season and help me remain in the C1/B division.
The second player who comes to strengthen my defense this time is Vincent Beduer, an incredible leftback coming from France. He only agreed for a one-year contract with a Non-promotion clause, which means Andria will only have him for a season (unless we get promoted again, which I really doubt) but still he is a really good find and potentially a solid player.
I also had to offload some of the dead weight - player who were just eating up from the already low salary cap or ones who simply were not good enough for the C1/B division. I'm still searching for players to strengthen my midfield but I do believe that I have a pretty solid team right now and we'll stay in the new division. I'll keep you updated!

Side-challenge for Andria challenge launched

It's been a while since I last posted about my Football Manager challenge and I will try to make it up these days and update you with my progress. Until then, I must announce that I started a side-challenge for my Andria team in Football Manager 2009.

It's not about gaining anything, it's just for pure fun and progress watch: every time my assistant manager considers a promoted youth "one of the best which ever was promoted", I will keep an eye on him, help him progress, offer him first team chances and finally check him until he ends his career.

I consider this very fun because, most important of all, will allow us all to see just how acurrate are our assistant's predictions.

Therefore, I have already started with Armando Carnevali, a central defender which got promoted at the beginning of the second season with Andria. He does not look too bad, unfortunately he did not record a rise in stats because I have some very poor coaches (which I plan to change in my third season, since I am in a better division).
I have also instructed Carnevali to learn a new position and become a right fullback, even though he doesn't necessary have the required stats, but this will grant him even more first team chances.

So this is my FM2009 side-quest related to the main Andria challenge. I am really curious what will become of him...

Andria Challenge: Season 2 Over

It's been a great and impressive season for Andria this year, since we've managed to grab the promotion to a higher league and, hopefully, to real football - only if the team manages to keep up the great form of the season! But I will worry in the future, as I have to show you the great results of the second season!

As you can see in the screenshot below, Andria Bat managed to keep up with the great form presented in the previous update, and I am sure that naturally we would've been the winners, but Gela also had an amazing form and grabbed the first place. Fortunately, following the playoffs, I managed to lead the team to victory and we gained promotion - it was tough and unexpected, but I am incredibly happy.

French man Yann Schneider was impressive and he became the best player in my team and also the highest rated player in the division, while winger Aris Falzone - a kid with awful stats, managed to perform incredibly well in the matches. Probably he won't be here next season, but he looked great and I kind of got attached to it.

Also, as opposed to last year when my strikers were simply embarrassing, this year Andria made me proud of the Football Manager challenge and we had two forwards in the top - unfortunately no first place for us.

Finally, the Serie C2C stats: Andria was not considered overachiever (which seems strange to me) but Yann Schneider grabbed the signing of the season tag and, as I said, he also became the highest rated player in the division. He loves the club and I love him, so I hope I'll be able to keep him a little longer in the team :) Oh, and as a fun fact, Daniele Russo, the "worst signing of the season" is an ex-Adria player. It appears that I have done a good job selling him for an immense 10K!

More personal and detailed impressions about the second season in my Ultimate Football Manager Challenge are coming up in a future post, as well as an explanation of the tactic that got me so high in the charts. So stay tuned!

Andria Challenge: Second Season First Report

A new half a season has passed and the Andria Challege is finally starting to look promising for me - at least following the poor past season when I only managed to get Andria to the 10th position.

For the new season I have created a brand new tactic - went for a 442 diamond tactic playing with wingers and a direct passing style and, thanks to the new signings as well as some luck with the tactic which proved to be great, we find ourselves now on the 2nd place in the Italian Serie C2/C at mid-season, with high hopes for promotion.

Actually, as you have seen above, if it wouldn't had been for Gela and their amazingly great form, Andria would've been far above everybody else and heading to decisively win the league. Hopefully things will remain the same after the break.

Now, player-wise, I must admit that I am quite impressed with Yann Schneider, the French football player I was worried he could disrupt the good harmony in my squad. Not only that he did not, but he also managed a great first half of the season and he's a stone in my midfield and a player I'm extremely satisfied with.

Also, as you can see from the ratings above, 19 years old right winger Sorin Ciobanu and previous season's great player Luigi Di Simone performed quite well. I must admit I also liked how my forwards played this season, especially Eugen Nita, even though their ratings are low.

I have actually noticed that generally strikers are graded the worst in Football Manager 2009 and there are indeed games where they seem to not exist. However, I must admit that with this current tactic, they do appear in the game more often. At least compared to last year. :)

So, half season gone, my Andria Challenge looks pretty well and I must assure we'll win promotion - the club, even though I keep the wage budget in control, is still spending too much and we're starting to lose money. Which means that my budget for next season will be close to zero, so I will also have to sign free players. Hopefully for a better division!

Andria Challenge: Season 1 Over

The first season is over and things didn't go too well, nor too bad - with the media predicting the 16th place, Andria Bat managed to finish the season mid-table, at number 10.

We had a pretty nice season, it started incredibly well, but following some struggles with the tactics where nothing seemed to work, we went and recorder 9 losses in a row - I was fearing for the worse. Hopefully, after lots of tweaks and, to be honest, up to a point, random tactical decisions, I found a tactic that works partially at least and we started to go up again.
Andria's best player was Luigi Di Simone, as I had anticipated during my first look over the team, with Miguel Rebosio (a Peruan international defender I snapped out for free) proving to be a great signing. I was really disappointed by Salvatore Rizzi - he got the lowest rating, but has some really great stats. I'll try to push him up front next season, his main possition is Striker, not attacking midfielder.
I'm eagerly anticipating for my second season with Andria Bat to kick off, since I have made a few good transfers (or at least so I hope) with the highlights being this Slovenian Striker, Bostjan Rozman, who looks simply amazing for an 18 years-old playing in the fourth division :)
Also, the french Yann Schneider appears to be a good player (my assistant manager says he's the best player in the squad), but I'm afraid he might be an idiot and distrupt the harmony in the dressing room, since instantly after arrival he stated that I should rebuild the team around him. Hopefully he was not a bad call.
We'll see what happens in the second season of my Ultimate Football Manager 2009 challenge: my plans are to promote, but the media will probably have another opinion. Will I be able to find a good tactic and produce a surprise? Stay tuned with Everything Football Manager to find out!