Silver_blue just bit me!

[Donners]

Wrapping it up

First the big news – I did keep my job despite relegation. Indeed, the board were quite pleased with our “spirited performancesâ€, and though the fans were less happy, they are not exactly calling for my head. Yet. My reputation did drop from “good†to “okayâ€, though.

There were a few surprises early in the off-season, with two senior players announcing their retirements: goalkeeper Sergio Marcon and midfielder Giampero Maini. I’d expected both to play on, so this makes a bit of a mess of my plans. Three other Ancona players announced their retirements, but Paolo Poggi was the only one of them to have played senior games in my time at the club. Guess I’m stuck with Grabbi for another season…

I only added the one signing over this period, young English goalkeeper George Sealey, having already agreed terms with several players earlier in the season. Sealey has caps at schoolboy level, so hopefully he will turn into a decent player. Winger Badr El Kadouri was the only one of the Bosman signed players to arrive during the off-season.

I managed to sign both my players who were co-owned. Forward Daniel Degano (co-owned by Parma) and midfielder Patrick Kalambay (Milan) became fully owned by Ancona for £450K and £80K respectively. Annoyingly, the other sides bid nothing for them, so I could have got them for free. Indeed, every side that missed out on signing a player bid nothing, and since there were about 30 of them, that’s either one hell of a co-incidence or yet another bug to add to the list…

There was some media speculation over the future of right back Manuel Belleri, given that he’s unsettled at Ancona and there was some interest shown in him from Reggina. I said that I would be willing to sell him at the right price, but didn’t receive an offer.

I made a series of offers to staff members to fill my soon to be vacant Assistant Manager position (Antonio Vallongo’s contract ends this season, and like all the others last year he refuses to re-sign), but had no luck. This is getting ridiculous – at this rate, I’ll be left with no staff at all in a few seasons.

The only other news was that Freddie Adu made his full international debut for the USA at 16, after 17 goals in 14 Under-21 games.

Around the world: major awards and results

Ancona Supporters’ Player of the Year:

Christian Bucchi

World Player of the Year:

Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid)

World Footballer of the year:

Roberto Fabian Ayala (Valencia)

England:

Chelsea

Spain:

Real Sociedad

Champions Cup:

Juventus

UEFA Cup:

Chelsea

[Donners]

The Transfers

Transfers In

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Date | Person | From | Fee |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Cirkovic, Milivoje | Partizan | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Torrisi, Stefano | Reggina | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Belleri, Manuel | Empoli | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3.7.2004 | Pagliuca, Gianluca | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6.7.2004 | Chadwick, Luke | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.1.2005 | Vianello, Marco | Milan | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.1.2005 | Rungratsamee, Supat| Portsmouth | £210K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2.1.2005 | Carlos Henrique | Vitória | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 23.1.2005 | Berntsen, Michael | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9.3.2005 | Potenza, Alessandro| Inter | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 31.5.2005 | Sealey, George | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2.6.2005 | El Kadouri, Badr | Dinamo Kiev | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17.6.2005 | Degano, Daniele | Parma | £450K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17.6.2005 | Kalambay, Patrick | Milan | £80K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Total | | £750K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Transfers Out

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Date | Person | To | Fee |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 21.6.2004 | Scardamaglia, Benito | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2004 | Ganz, Maurizio | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2004 | Goretti, Roberto | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2004 | Luiso, Pasquale | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2004 | Berretta, Daniele | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2004 | Perovic, Marko | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Bolic, Drazen | Venezia | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Siroti, Paolo | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Ceniccola, Daniele | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11.7.2004 | Daino, Daniele | Perugia | £500K |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4.10.2004 | Cennini, Andrea | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 23.3.2005 | Flamini, Gianluca | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 25.3.2005 | Lenci, Fabricio | Free Transfer | Free |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Total | | £500K |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

Loans Out

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Date | Person | To | Fee |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12.7.2004 | Esposito, Gianluca | Carrarese | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.7.2004 | Donzelli, Elia | Vis Pesaro | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18.8.2004 | Del Vecchio, Angelo | Castel di Sangro | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20.8.2004 | Del Gaudio, Giovanni | Castel di Sangro | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 25.8.2004 | Baccin, Dario | Como | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 27.8.2004 | Gori, Pier Graziano | Spal | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 31.8.2004 | Orocini, Andrea | Lanciano | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 29.1.2005 | Triuzzi, Gianluca | Reggiana | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Total | | £0 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Staff In

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Date | Person | To | Fee |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12.7.2004 | Esposito, Gianluca | Carrarese | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.7.2004 | Donzelli, Elia | Vis Pesaro | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18.8.2004 | Del Vecchio, Angelo | Castel di Sangro | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20.8.2004 | Del Gaudio, Giovanni | Castel di Sangro | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 25.8.2004 | Baccin, Dario | Como | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 27.8.2004 | Gori, Pier Graziano | Spal | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 31.8.2004 | Orocini, Andrea | Lanciano | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 29.1.2005 | Triuzzi, Gianluca | Reggiana | Loan |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Total | | £0 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Staff Out

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Date | Person | To | Fee |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2004 | Mazzantini, Andrea | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Protti, Stefano | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Minciotti, Paolo | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Persico, Massimo | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Casale, Paolo | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Tebi, Carlo | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Pinazza, Aurelio | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Bozzi, Marco | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Rota, Antonio | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Minnozzi, Mauro | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Bernardini, Oscar Alberto | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Pozzo | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2004 | Basile, Erling André | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Total | | £0 |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Talk about a mixed season for transfers. On the positive side, Luke Chadwick was one of our very best players and Rungratsamee repaid most of his £210K fee with a hat-trick against Lazio. Manuel Belleri was also very solid at the back, helping cover for Sartor’s terrible form.

In the middle are the likes of Cirkovic and Vianello. Both showed signs of being very good players, but neither was able to perform regularly in the seniors. Add in a bunch of players who were supposed to be promising but didn’t show much, like Carlos Henrique and Alessandro Potenza.

The negatives are led by Pagliuca and Torrisi. At least Pagliuca is a good coach and captain, but as a goalkeeper he left a lot to be desired, constantly rating ‘5’ and letting through too many goals. I didn’t really appreciate Hedman until I had to cope without him. Torrisi did very little at the back, despite my lack of depth there. These two players had a large impact on our fate in a negative sense.

I hope that the future will prove these transfers to have benefited the club overall, with quite a few promising young players joining, but at the moment it looks like a below-average performance on the transfer market this season.

[glamdring]

Good luck in Serie B

[Donners]

Thanks.

Pre-Season 2004/2005

My board announced that they were going to install undersoil heading at the ground, and gave me a transfer budget of £2.9M (of a total of £9.3M). Unfortunately, they also dropped the age budget down to £85K. I’ve made £7M profit in two seasons, and have had my wage budget drop £15K. Sigh. Most interestingly, they only asked that I obtain a respectable league position. I was expecting something a lot tougher, but at least this should take a bit of pressure off. For what it’s worth, Ancona is now listed as “professional†rather than “semi-professionalâ€.

I signed Italian Under-21 defender Mattia Cassani on a free transfer after he left Juventus. My assistant, Antonio Vallongo (only a couple of days before leaving), suggested he would be a regular in the first team, but he only requested £190 per week. Hey, I’m not complaining…

The exodus of fringe senior players took place on June 30, with Paolo Poggi, Gianluca Esposito, Mauro Milanese, Dario Baccin and Salvatore Bruno all leaving. Half-a-dozen players were also cut by my assistant from the Under-20 side, before he left himself.

The senior spots were immediately filled by the arrival of players I signed last season – Andrea Rabito, Mirko Vucinic, Pedro Munitis (who apparently boosted shirt sales) and Federico Agliardi. All should be senior players, but unfortunately their arrival put my wage bill through the roof.

I eventually managed to replace Antonio Vallongo, promoting coach Giacomo Tafuro to his position. I signed Giannicola Pincotti as a coach to take over from Tafuro.

I glanced at many players available for loans or on free transfers, but with moderate expectations, reasonably weak opposition and many promising youngsters, I decided it was best to stick with what I had and see who in the current squad was able to cut it at senior level.

My attempts to unload players unlikely to have a place in the team (including good old Grabbi) failed miserably, with something like over 200 rejections. I initially thought the ability to offer players to other clubs would be great, but all it means is that instead of being ignored by everybody, I get rejected by them. Yay.

I did at least apparently manage to get rid of two players, with Stefano Torrisi’s contract finally expiring in late July and, better yet, Reggina coming in with a £100K bid for Luigi Sartor. At least, I thought I’d gotten rid of both of them – Sartor rejected Reggina’s contract offer. It’s hard enough to sell players as it is, so having them turn down offers

is particularly annoying.

There were offers of £170K for defender Manuel Belleri and £400K for midfielder Davide Carrus, but both deals fell through after I tried to negotiate the price up a bit.

My final signing of the pre-season was coach Udalrico Tretter, who seemed to be about the only staff member interested in joining the club. Surprisingly enough, midfielder Giampero Maini still hadn’t retired by the end of the pre-season despite announcing that he would at the same time as Sergio Marcon

For the first friendly game, in early August against Serie C1/B side Sambenedettese, I switched to a new formation. The problem with my good old 4-4-2 is that it only uses two forwards, and with so many good ones at the club, that seems to be a bit of a waste. Thus, I switched to something of a 3-5-2 formation, but with the midfielders in a diamond pattern – two wide wingers, a central midfielder, an attacking midfielder and a defensive midfielder. This should not only let Carrus and Montervino play in their preferred spot, it also lets me use a third forward in the attacking midfield spot. Disturbingly, we conceded the first goal, but good teamwork between strikers Supat Rungratsamee and Mirko Vucinic got us level early in the second half. Sambenedettese scored a second moments later, but we equalised again in the 74th. We finished with a pretty poor 2-2 draw, but at least young forwards Vucinic and Rungratsamee looked good with a goal and assist each.

Ancona’s second friendly match was against Serie C1/A side Ravenna. This time the formation worked out a bit better, with a goal to Marco Vianello in 30 seconds. Again we let through two goals (one by each senior keeper) but managed a late equaliser, this time through Bucchi. It’s only been two games, but this formation doesn’t seem to be working too well. We also lost young forward Goran Pandev to a torn groin muscle suffered during the match, putting him out for two months.

Just as it seemed the pre-season was drawing to a close, I was suddenly bombarded with bids for Davide Carrus, Manuel Belleri, Francesco Montervino and Goran Pandev. Pandev joined Palermo on loan, with £90K upfront and a £275K agreed fee. He looked reasonably promising, but I have enough promising young forwards already. Carrus went to Piacenza for £450K after mixed form over two season at Ancona. Belleri was signed by Livorno for £250K following a pretty good first season at Ancona last year. Francesco Montervino was the last to go in the pre-season, heading to Palermo for £325K. Four players gone for over £1M – not a bad end to the pre-season, though it does throw my plans for new tactics into disarray, with both defensive midfielders gone. I’ll have to go with 4-3-1-2 for at least the first few weeks now. The good news is that my wage budget has gone back up to £95K after these sales.

[Donners]

The Squad

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> 2nd in Italian Serie B

Squad Screen

| Pkd | Inf | Name | Squad Status | Basic Wage | Contract Expiry | Offer Options | Asking Price |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| GK | | Agliardi, F | First Team | £6,250 | 31.7.2007 | None | £250K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| FC | | Bucchi, C* | First Team | £3,600 | 31.7.2007 | None | £3.7M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MR | | Chadwick, L | First Team | £3,600 | 31.7.2007 | None | £900K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DR | | Cirkovic, M | First Team | £6,000 | 31.7.2006 | None | £525K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| AMC | | Munitis, P | First Team | £6,500 | 31.7.2008 | None | £1.1M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB7 | | Rabito, A | First Team | £3,400 | 31.7.2007 | None | £925K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | Vucinic, M | First Team | £4,000 | 31.7.2007 | None | £725K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DC | Unh | Bilica | Rotation | £625 | 30.6.2006 | None | £210K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DC | | Cassani, M | Rotation | £190 | 31.7.2008 | None | £200K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| ML | | El Kadouri, B | Rotation | £3,500 | 31.7.2007 | None | £650K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DL | Wnt | Esposito, M | Rotation | £425 | 30.6.2007 | None | £160K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB3 | | Maini, G* | Rotation | £700 | 30.4.2006 | None | £45K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB1 | | Pagliuca, G | Rotation | £650 | 31.7.2006 | None | £45K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB4 | | Rapaic, M | Rotation | £2,000 | 31.7.2006 | None | £50K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB5 | Wnt | Sartor, L | Rotation | £9,250 | 31.7.2006 | None | £160K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB6 | | Scarchilli, A | Rotation | £1,000 | 31.7.2006 | None | £60K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MC | Inj | Sommese, V* | Rotation | £3,700 | 30.6.2007 | None | £850K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | Zavagno, L | Rotation | £6,000 | 30.6.2007 | None | £110K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Loa | Grabbi, C | Backup | £16,000 | 30.6.2007 | None | £180K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| FC | | Rungratsamee, S | Backup | £375 | 31.7.2010 | None | £1.2M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Unh | Vianello, M | Backup | £750 | 31.7.2007 | None | £325K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Int | Adu, F | Hot Prospect | £600 | 31.8.2006 | None | N/A |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Unh | Degano, D | Hot Prospect | £675 | 30.6.2006 | None | £275K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB2 | | Potenza, A | Hot Prospect | £2,300 | 31.7.2007 | None | £170K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Wage Budget: £95,000

Total Weekly Wages at 21/8/05: £86,743

Goalkeepers

Federico Agliardi [22, GK, ITA – Capped at U21 level]

Probably the most important of my new signings, as Agliardi will take over our weakest position. At £6.25K per week, he’d damned well better do well. He played a full season as Brescia’s #1 keeper last year and did reasonably well, so he should be able to handle Serie B.

Gianluca Pagliuca [38, GK, ITA – 39/0] – 1, 32, 0

After a dismal season, Pagliuca will be relegated to backup duties this year – and only then because of Marcon’s abrupt retirement. He does work hard and is still an influential and very experienced player, but if he can’t stop goals, then he is of little use. I will try to sign him as a specialist coach at the end of the season.

Ancona Captain 04/05

Defenders

Bilica [26, Sw/D C, BRA] – 2, 74, 1

Now in his third and possibly final season at Ancona, Bilica has had something of a reprieve now that I’ll be playing with four rather than three defenders. We’re pretty weak at centre back, and a rotational role should be appropriate.

Mattia Cassani [21, D RC, ITA – 4 U21/0]

Still a current member of the Italian Under-21 side, Cassani comes over from Juventus on a free transfer. He has experience in Serie B, playing very well on loan to Verona in 03/04, and with Belleri gone, he should share right back with Cirkovic and Sartor. He is quite a small player, so centre back may not be the best spot for him.

Milivoje Cirkovic [28, D/DM R, SCG – 18/1] – 1, 36, 0

Though Cirkovic didn’t have quite as much impact on the side as I’d hoped, that was at least partly due to the fact that he spent most of the season playing on the right wing due to injuries and Belleri’s good form. Belleri may be gone, but Cassani should be a regular at right back while Sommese may spend some time on the right wing, so Cirkovic will have to fight for his place.

Marco Esposito [25, D LC, ITA] – 2, 28, 0

Though he has had two unremarkable seasons at Ancona, Esposito may be bound for a big role this season now that Mauro Milanese is gone. Left back is one of our weakest positions, and Esposito will probably have to rotate there with Zavagno.

Alessandro Potenza [21, D C, ITA – 8 U21/0] – 1, 4, 0

Having played just eight senior games before joining Ancona (with just that many Under-21 caps, curiously enough), it was probably a bit much to expect Potenza to do particularly well in Serie A. However, even with pretty mediocre expectations he was disappointing, and will need to do a lot more to earn a senior spot. He also needs to work on his strength before he is able to match it with the bigger forwards. A rotational role is likely.

Luigi Sartor [30, D RC, ITA – 2/0] – 2, 58, 2

Like Rapaic, he earned a new contract through an excellent first season then made me regret my decision with a terrible second one. I was disappointed he turned down a contract from Reggina, as he really doesn’t seem to have much of a spot at Ancona.

Luciano Zavagno [28, D L, ARG] – 2, 46, 1

Despite two poor seasons at Ancona, Zavagno looms as a likely regular in the side simply because I don’t really have many other options at left back.

Midfielders

Luke Chadwick [24, AM RL, ENG] – 1, 42, 2

After being probably our second-best player last season, Chadwick looks to have improved his game over the pre-season with better dribbling and passing skills. Add this to his already impressive pace, and we have a key player right here. I’m not quite sure which wing he will play on – both Sommese and Cirkovic will play occasionally on the right while El Kadouri, Scarchilli and Maini should do the same on the left – but he will be one of the first players chosen every week.

Badr El Kadouri [24, AM L, MAR – 4/0]

Newly signed from Dinamo Kiev’s second team, El Kadouri hasn’t played a senior game in two years but looks to have some ability. He’s the equal fastest player at the club, and opposition sides will have a lot of trouble containing a team with Chadwick, Esposito, Cirkovic and El Kadouri because of their sheer pace. He will likely be the first choice for the left wing, simply because that’s the only position he plays.

Giampero Maini [33, AM LC, ITA – 1/0] – 2, 63, 2

Though I thought he’d be retired by now, I’m not complaining that he hasn’t yet since even at 33 he put on a decent showing last season in the middle. He’s not a quick player, but we have plenty of those already. With several options for the left wing already available, centre midfield may be his best place.

Pedro Munitis [30, AM/F LC, ESP – 4/0]

An immediate choice for the new attacking midfield spot (though he may rotate into the centre midfield place as well), Munitis is just as fast as El Kadouri and adds in superior ball control and long-range shooting as well. He was one of Deportivo’s best players in 03/04, with 11 goals in 35 games, but was bizarrely dropped to Deportivo “B†the following season where he continued to dominate. I look forward to seeing how he goes at Ancona, though he may have trouble settling in since I don’t have any other Spanish players or staff.

Andrea Rabito [25, F RLC, ITA]

Yet another lightning fast new signing, Rabito was part of Milan’s squad but spent the last two seasons on loan in Serie B. He did quite well there, scoring 16 goals last season alone. Here he will likely rotate with Munitis for the attacking midfield spot as well as occasionally playing up forward.

Alessio Scarchilli [32, AM LC, ITA] – 2, 54, 2

After a season ruined by a series of injuries, Scarchilli now faces the difficult prospect of having to fight for a place in the side with left wing and central midfield already seemingly taken. He’s still the best passer and most creative player in the side, so he should have a role to play, but it won’t be as significant as in 03/04.

Vincenzo Sommese [29, AM RC, ITA] – 2, 68, 4

One of our most important players over the last two seasons, Sommese will play in central midfield with occasional games on the right wing. He adds to an already quick midfield and possesses strong ball control and crossing skills. Unfortunately, he missed the pre-season with a calf injury, and will likely have to play the first few games off the bench.

Forwards

Freddy Adu [16, AM/F C, USA – 3/0] – 2, 13, 0

Though he hasn’t had much impact in two seasons at Ancona, Adu’s best days are clearly ahead of him. I’ve just re-signed him on a new youth contract, which will keep him here until he’s 17. Once he reaches that age, I will sign him to a long-term contract as long as he is interested. He doesn’t really possess the skill to be a regular in the side just yet, especially considering the number of forwards we have, but will get another taste of first team action.

Christian Bucchi [28, S C, ITA] – 2, 89, 33

Our best player of the last two seasons, Bucchi looks to be in the best shape of his time at Ancona, which is a dangerous sign for other Serie B sides. He probably won’t be with his regular partner Rapaic much this season, but even quicker partners like Rungratsamee and Rabito could provide an even more dangerous combination.

Supporters’ Player of the Year 03/04, 04/05

Daniele Degano [22, F LC, ITA] – 2, 3, 0

Now fully owned by Ancona, Degano is a good target striker who should fill in for a couple of games to give Bucchi a bit of a rest. I probably got ripped off by paying £450K for him, but I really don’t have any other target strikers, so he will have to do.

Corrado Grabbi [30, S C, ITA] – 2, 21, 4

Still contracted for two more seasons, with an increasing wage.

Milan Rapaic [32, F LC, CRO – 40/7] – 2, 69, 17

A dismal form slump towards the end of last season saw him lose his first team spot, and the new signings will make it even harder for him to get back in.

Supat Rungratsamee [17, S C, THA – 3/1] – 1, 4, 4

A hat-trick against Lazio pretty much repaid his £210K fee, so any good performances this season will be a bonus. Not only is he incredibly quick and a great dribbler, he is fairly good in the air and particularly good at set pieces. A regular role even at his young age looms.

Marco Vianello [21, S C, ITA] – 1, 7, 0

Though he wants first team football, Vianello is likely to only play occasional games this season. He’s a bit too well-rounded – he’s useful in all aspects, but exceptional in none. He may fight Degano for the backup target striking spot, but even if he is the first choice there that only guarantees a few senior games. It is worth noting that he scored 17 goals in his last season in Serie B (with Avellino on loan), and it would be very welcome if he were to do something similar this season.

Mirko Vucinic [21, F C, SCG – 14 U21/11]

The last of the new signings, Vucinic suffers from the same problem as Vianello in that he is decent but not really exceptional in any area. He only played a handful of games with Lecce and didn’t look too good, and I’m not really sure why I signed him, especially on £4K per week. Hopefully he’ll show something good early to justify my signing him.

All Up…

I think this is a stronger side than last season, but then again I said that this time last year and look what happened.

There is no question that our midfield is exceptional, with a huge injection of pace and flair. I think even a second-string Ancona midfield would be able to do pretty well, and the first-choice one should tear apart Serie B sides. Scarchilli and Chadwick are the only really good passers, but the sheer pace of many of the others should create enough problems for oppositions.

The forwards aren’t bad at all, especially if Munitis and Rabito drop in to help out on occasion. Most of them are pretty much unproven, but show plenty of promise. With Bucchi there, regular scoring is pretty much assured.

The back half, like in previous seasons, is the problem. Left back is a huge weak spot and centre back isn’t that flash either with Cassani too small, Bilica and Sartor in mediocre form and Potenza unproven. This will be an area I will look to build up this year.

Goalkeeping is the most interesting spot. Pagliuca still looks talented and may be able to hold his own in Serie B, but Italian Under-21 international Agliardi deserves a chance.

Perhaps our biggest weakness is the lack of an obvious choice for captain. Pagliuca is the only really good leader, but he won’t be a regular in the side. Scarchilli, Esposito and Bucchi will likely rotate the role.

The Likely Side:

(Playing with a 4-3-1-2)

GK – Federico Agliardi

LB – Marco Esposito

CB – Bilica

CB – Mattia Cassani

RB – Milivoje Cirkovic

LM – Badr El Kadouri

CM – Vincenzo Sommese

RM – Luke Chadwick

AMC – Pedro Munitis

CF – Supat Rungratsamee

CF – Christian Bucchi

Sub – Giampero Maini

Sub – Milan Rapaic

Sub – Luigi Sartor

Sub – Alessio Scarchilli

Sub – Gianluca Pagliuca

Sub – Andrea Rabito

Sub – Alessandro Potenza

The Staff

Giacomo Tafuro (Assistant Manager)

Gilberto Vallesi (Coach)

Roberto Bocchino (Coach)

Gianluca Pagliuca (Coach)

Roberto Corti (Coach)

Udalrico Tretter (Coach)

Alberto Lugli (Physio)

Salvatore Gnisci (Physio)

Massimo D’Ambrosio (Physio)

David Jarrett (Scout)

Rob Campkin (Scout)

Julian Carrera (Scout)

[Terk]

just caught up with the last few updates, was very sorry to see you crash and burn out of serie a after such a promising first season you look to have made some good signings for the serie b campaign though i think munitis should do partiularly well. also hope that agliardi does better than pagliuca did last season (though admittedly he couldn't do much worse)

[Donners]

Thanks, Terk. The goalkeeping is indeed a concern - whatever happened to the days of Isaías Barroso and Arnold Rutten?

Looking Ahead

Though both the board and fans have pretty lukewarm expectations of a “respectable league positionâ€, I expect Ancona to be in the top-3 by the end of the season. A decent showing in the Italian Cup would also be welcome.

Our squad is stronger and the opposition is weaker, so I expect nothing less than domination against most sides. If not, my job may well be in serious jeopardy.

August, season 2005/2006

The season finally kicked off in August, with two Italian Cup games. The first was against Taranto, a Serie C1/B side. Sommese missed through injury, with Munitis taking over his central midfield place and Rabito playing as the attacking midfielder.

Rungratsamee scored his fifth goal in as many senior games with a 25-yard free kick while Federico Agliardi did a good job in goal, though Taranto had a few too may shots on goal for my liking. Both Rungratsamee and Bucchi missed sitters in the final minutes, which proved hugely costly when Taranto put one through in injury time. A dismal start to the season, with a 1-1 draw against a Serie C1/B side.

Our final friendly was against Spal, a Serie C1/A side. I went out with pretty much a B-team, since it was only two days after the Italian Cup game, and we were comprehensively outplayed in the first half. However, it wasn't until the second half that Spal finally scored, and when I brought on many of the main players, we quickly took the lead through goals to Vucinic and Munitis. Grabbi capped off a decent performance with a 90th minute penalty.

I finally offloaded Luigi Sartor to Sampdoria for £95K. The fans were not overly pleased with the sale of Sartor, but saving £9.75K from the wage bill is enough of a benefit to render their annoyance pretty much irrelevant. Taking his place in the senior squad will be Carlos Henrique.

Carlos Henrique [22, D LC, BRA – Capped at U21 level] – 1, 0, 0

Henrique finally arrived last season after my initial signing of him fell through, but did not look at all impressive in performances or attributes. He is particularly sluggish and not really big enough to be a centre back. Nonetheless, he has complained about not getting a first team shot for a few months, so here’s his chance.

The second game of the Italian Cup for Ancona was against non-league Cosenza. Carlos Henrique started on the bench, but disturbingly we were totally out-played in the first half, even conceding a goal just before the break. A great long header from Bucchi gave Pedro Munitis a simple finish for his first Ancona goal early in the second, while Vincenzo Sommese put us in the lead moments later after a Luke Chadwick shot was parried straight to him. After this we were again out-played, and only good keeping from Federico Agliardi kept us ahead. He was finally beaten in the 76th, just four minutes after Carlos Henrique made his debut at left back. We couldn’t come back from that, finishing with a 2-2 draw against a non-league side. Not exactly a promising start to the year.

My last minute bid to sign a defender, Vicenza’s Italian Under-21 international Simone Padoin, failed miserably. My £1M bid was rejected, and when I met his minimum fee release clause of £2.4M, he turned me down. Guess I’ll have to make do with what I’ve got…

[ads]

Inspired by your story i started a game with Ancona last night, got to about Christmas in 11th place but then after conceding 90th minute winner's and equalisers for 5 matches in a row after dominating them completely, i quit in disgust and in my rage forgot to save it...

[Donners]

Ancona's actually a pretty interesting team to play, but it sounds like some of my form from late last season rubbed off on you...

September, season 2005/2006

Our third match of the Italian Cup was against Como, who also happen to be our first opponents in the Serie B league season. We have no hope of qualifying, since Como are four points ahead of us, so this is just a training run. We lost Vincenzo Sommese to an injury after just a few minutes, with Alessio Scarchilli taking his place in the middle. Pedro Munitis missed a tap-in after a great cross from Supat Rungratsamee, but a great run from left-sided players Zavagno and Badr El Kadouri combined for the defender to put through our first. Como equalised a few minutes later, and though Bucchi seemed to put one through, it was ruled offside. He made amends in the 41st after gathering a parried Scarchilli shot to put Ancona 2-1 up at the break. Rungratsamee almost made it three in the second half, but it came back off the inside of the post without crossing the line. He finally got one in the 84th, and then capped off a great game by setting up one for substitute Daniele Degano four minutes later. A 4-1 win against Serie B opponents is much more promising than our previous two games. It came at a cost, though – Sommese turned out to have suffered a broken leg, putting him out for four months. That’s a pretty significant blow, considering his good performances over the last two years. In the “likely teamâ€, consider Munitis moved to central midfield with Andrea Rabito taking the attacking midfield spot. Patrick Kalambay made the situation worse by complaining about his omission from the first team. Though he’s a midfielder, he is not really ready to play in the first team, having not played a senior game since 00/01.

Rungratsamee, Zavagno and Chadwick missed the Serie B opener against Como, the side we defeated just three days earlier. Mirko Vucinic, Marco Esposito and Milivoje Cirkovic respectively replaced them. Como hit the lead after 30 minutes and held the lead at the break. We fired off a series of decent long-range shots in the second half, but all were saved or missed. Como then got a second in the 67th after a player ran right around the disappointing Federico Agliardi and scored. Bucchi hit back seven minutes later, giving us a shot at 1-2. I brought Luke Chadwick off the bench, but our biggest chance for a fightback came in the 78th when Como had a player sent off for a second yellow. Seconds later, Bucchi headed home a second after a great Vucinic cross for a dramatic comeback with two goals in four minutes to Ancona. In the 90th minute, defender Mattia Cassani threw the ball into substitute Chadwick. Mirko Vucinic was on the end of it, floating a beautiful header over the keeper’s head for a lead to Ancona in the final minute of regular time. But the game wasn’t over, not by a long shot. Just two minutes later, right back Cassani got on the end of a 40-yard pass from fellow defender Esposito in the middle. He ran down the right wing unopposed, eventually crossing it into the area. Neither of the strikers was able to receive it, but winger Luke Chadwick snuck in to volley his first goal, sealing the great win. In the fourth minute of extra time, Chadwick was again involved, taking the ball away from an opponent in the middle. He passed to midfield partner Alessio Scarchilli, who took the ball past a defender before returning it to the running Chadwick. He charged into the area and slotted in his second from a near-impossible angle to cap a magnificent 5-goal turnaround for Ancona. 5-2 in the end, after being 0-2 down in the 74th. Wow. Two assists and a goal to Vucinic made up a pretty impressive debut, while Agliardi picked up his game in the final 20 minutes.

Our second Serie B game was against last year’s Serie A opponents Fiorentina. Carlos Henrique played in defence, giving Bilica a rest. Bucchi got a goal on the board in the 15th, but it was all Vucinic – he sent in a shot from about 30 yards out right on the touchline which beat the keeper, hit the post and rebounded straight to Bucchi for the simple finish. Now I know why I signed him! Fiorentina put one through after a forward got beyond the defence in the 43rd, and they held the scores level for much of the game. In the final minute of regular time, there was a scramble for the ball in Ancona’s area. Maldini flicked in a shot from close range, which was parried straight to Bucchi, as so often happens. Ever the opportunist, he scored his fifth in as many games, leaving us a goal up with three minutes of injury time to go. We held up well, finishing with a nice 2-1 win. The season is already looking much better than it did a few weeks ago. I’ve sent Adu and Rungratsamee to the Under-20 side, since with Vucinic and Bucchi in great form and two of the backups (Vianello and Degano) unhappy at not playing, I’ll need to play those four ahead of the two younger guys.

Ancona’s last game of the month was against Reggiana. Pedro Munitis went off injured after only a few minutes and Reggiana scored the game’s opener in the 16th. A Cirkovic corner put Vucinic in perfect position for an equaliser seven minutes later, making it two goals and three assists in three games for the Serbia & Montenegro youngster. Bucchi came close to giving Ancona the lead with a nice volley a couple of minutes later, and then did so just before half-time with a 35-yard free kick. A magnificent angled strike from Vucinic made it 3-1 in the 64th, pretty much ensuring the win. Milan Rapaic came off the bench and moments later showed a bit of his old magic with a classic flick across the area for Bucchi to tap in. Another 4-goal effort from Ancona and another good win to leave us top of the table at the end of the month. Now this is more like it.

[Donners]

October, season 2005/2006

We kicked off October with an away game against bottom-placed Spezia. Pedro Munitis missed with a thigh strain from the last game, while Scarchilli, Rabito and El Kadouri had to be rested. Giampero Maini came into the middle with Rapaic playing as an attacking midfielder behind the in-form team of Bucchi and Vucinic. I also gave Gianluca Pagliuca a run in goal just to keep him match fit. It didn’t exactly work out well, with Spezia scoring in the first minute. We had our chances to come back, with five shots on goal from Bucchi alone, but couldn’t make them count. An 87th minute goal to Spezia put an end to the game with our first loss of the season.

El Kadouri was unavailable for the next game against Pisa due to international duty, but we regained Agliardi, Rabito and Munitis. Pisa scored in the 14th, with Munitis forced off with a knock at the same time. Zavagno equalised with a great long-range volley from a Cirkovic cross ten minutes later, but we were again outplayed. Pisa got a second past Agliardi a few minutes after the break, but again we managed an equaliser. This time it went to Rabito in the 69th, with his first goal for Ancona after a nice through pass from Vucinic. Just like in the game against Como, we suddenly exploded after that goal. Seven minutes later a perfect volleyed pass from Cassani into the area gave Rabito his second and moments after that Cirkovic headed in a Chadwick cross to make it 4-2. Unlike the Como game, however, Pisa fought back. They pulled back within a goal two minutes after our fourth and just as it looked like we’d held on for the win, a 92nd minute Pisa shot was deflected off Cassani into the net to level the scores at 4-4. Agliardi was the only player to under perform, and it made all the difference in the end. Pagliuca showed little in his chance at a senior game, which leaves me with no other options now that the transfer window has closed. The young players at the club are not coming along well at all and reserve keeper Pier Gori struggled in Serie C1/A. Even if I could sign players there don’t seem to be any good ones available, so this could be a long-term problem.

We had the chance to break our mini-form slump against Triestina, with Badr El Kadouri returning from international duty with Morocco. Sloppy keeping from Agliardi (turning away a shot he should have held) gave Triestina the opener in the 28th and we didn’t look like getting one back in the first half. The second, however, was a different story. Pedro Munitis went on a run a few minutes after the resumption of play, spinning around three defenders before charging right at the keeper. His shot hit the post, but rebounded onto the back of the keeper and fell into the net. He deserved a goal to his name for that run, but I’m not going to complain about an equaliser. El Kadouri hit a nice ball forward for Bucchi in the 61st, and he in turn found attacking midfielder Rabito with an equally good pass. Rabito went into the area and hit it straight in for an unlikely 2-1 lead. It only lasted nine minutes, with an opposing forward once again getting behind our defence to slip one past Agliardi. I was forced to replace both strikers in the final minutes; Bucchi (fatigued) and Vucinic (injured) with Daniele Degano and Marco Vianello respectively. A push on Potenza following a Cirkovic corner gave Zavagno the chance to regain Ancona’s lead from the spot in the 89th minute. Degano tapped in an El Kadouri cross three minutes into injury time for the sealer – a 4-2 win, but not an entirely convincing one. Unfortunately, Vucinic’s injury turned out to be a terrible one – a damaged spine putting him out for six months. With three goals and four assists in six games, this is a big blow. It was made even worse when Alessio Scarchilli joined Vucinic and Sommese on the injured list with a torn groin muscle. He is rather prone to these injuries, but at 33 there’s little point sending him away for surgery.

Our new look side took on Ascoli for the last game of October. Milan Rapaic returned to his old role of partnering Bucchi, while Giampero Maini took Scarchilli’s spot on the bench. The first half was unusually uneventful considering our recent scoring form, and the second didn’t look much better with a series of unsuccessful long-range shots the best we had to offer. We looked to finally have a great chance in the 70th with a cross from Bucchi volleyed at goal by Rapaic, but it was just barely parried. Luke Chadwick picked up the clearance, crossing it back in for Bucchi to do what he does best, putting it in with a powerful header. Brilliant saves kept Bucchi and Rapaic out in the following minutes, but we finally scored a second after El Kadouri volleyed in a Rapaic pass which lobbed over the defenders. 2-0, leaving us in third place despite the loss of several key players.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Holders - Genoa

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Palermo | | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 3 | +13 | 17 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Vicenza | | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 3 | +9 | 17 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Ancona | | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 12 | +9 | 16 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Cagliari | | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 6 | +9 | 15 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Ascoli | | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 9 | +2 | 12 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Albinoleffe | | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 8 | +4 | 11 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Avellino | | 7 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 10 | 6 | +4 | 11 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Modena | | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 11 | +3 | 11 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Ternana | | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 9 | +3 | 11 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Venezia | | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 8 | +3 | 11 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Livorno | | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 9 | +1 | 9 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Piacenza | | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 11 | -1 | 9 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Foggia | | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 12 | +2 | 8 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Pisa | | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 14 | -5 | 8 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Messina | | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 7 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Fiorentina | | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 10 | -3 | 7 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Como | | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 15 | -4 | 7 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Siena | | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 15 | -7 | 7 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | | Reggiana | | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 13 | 21 | -8 | 6 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | | Triestina | | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 16 | -7 | 5 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 21st | | Spezia | | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 25 | -17 | 3 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 22nd | | Empoli | | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 15 | -10 | 1 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[Donners]

November, season 2005/2006

Gianluca Pagliuca returned in goal against Modena due to Agliardi’s mixed form. El Kadouri and Bucchi worked together brilliantly down the left, but despite a few decent chances we could not get on the board in the first half. Modena put Pagliuca under little pressure, leaving the scores tied 0-0 at half time. The second half contained little of note until the 77th minute, when left back Luciano Zavagno crossed the ball into the area. Substitute forward Marco Vianello won a contest for the ball in the air, knocking it into the patch of Bucchi who finished the move with his ninth in eleven games. An incredible long-range curling drive from Andrea Rabito in the final moments missed by inches, but the one goal turned out to be enough for three points, taking us to the top of the table.

Vianello started alongside Bucchi for the next game against Empoli, while Pagliuca retained his spot. Rabito came very close with a lob in the 9th minute, but it drifted over both Bucchi and the goal. A neat move involving Bilica, Vianello and Bucchi gave our star striker yet another goal to add to his collection in the 34th, which left us a goal ahead at the break. Bucchi made it two with a header from an El Kadouri cross in the 64th, and those two goals were the difference in the end. Two more goals to Bucchi, a clean sheet to Pagliuca and another win to Ancona.

Bucchi, Vianello, Bilica and Mattia Cassani all took a break for the game four days later against Avellino. Rapaic had a header saved in the 18th while a magnificent run from Rabito two minutes later was wasted by a weak finish from Degano, which was easily saved. Pagliuca did a good job in goal, keeping the game scoreless at half time. Maini replaced the tired Chadwick at half time, and in the 58th received a nice ball from Degano about 25 yards out. He volleyed the ball with an incredible strike; the ball smacking into the post and bouncing in before the keeper could move. Lucky he didn’t retire… Avellino levelled the scores in the 73rd, squeezing one between Pagliuca and the post, and our second-string forwards could not respond in time. The 1-1 draw ended a 4-game winning streak and knocked us off the top spot.

There was some unfortunate news off the pitch following this game. I successfully re-signed Daniele Degano until 2008, but both Milivoje Cirkovic and Bilica rejected contract offers. Meanwhile, defender Carlos Henrique suffered a groin injury, putting him out for two months, while reserve goalkeeper Pier Gori complained about not getting a run in the first team. I did at least manage a new signing, Swedish midfielder Nordin Lennartsson.

Nordin Lennartsson [23, AM C, SWE]

Though it cost me more than four times what my assistant recommended I offer as wages, the Swedish midfielder has joined on a free transfer. He had a reasonable run with Djurgarden in the Swedish Premier Division, and should have a role to play at Ancona as well, particularly with Sommese and Scarchilli still injured. Lennartsson is very quick, like most of Ancona’s other midfielders, but is also a bit more creative and hard-working than them. Hopefully he can prove my assistant wrong and become a useful player.

Lennartsson debuted in the midfield against Livorno, giving Pedro Munitis a rest. Rapaic and Bucchi joined forces up forward again while Pagliuca played another game in goal. Great runs from Rabito and Lennartsson saw Ancona have a couple of shots on goal in the first ninety seconds, but both went over. It was another run in the 16th, this time from right back Mattia Cassani, that have Rabito another chance, and this time he hit a volley right into the net from 25 yards out. Bucchi hit the post moments after half time, but it bounced the wrong way, going out for a goal kick. Rabito was forced off with a minor injury, but Munitis came off the bench and continued his good work. Livorno never looked like coming back, leaving Ancona with a simple 1-0 win. Lennartsson looked okay on debut, but Rabito was the star.

For the game against Palermo, I brought Supat Rungratsamee in for his first senior game after outstanding form in the Under-20s (11 goals in the last 7 games). We had a close shave in the 33rd when Palermo hit the post and the ball trickled back into the area away from Pagliuca, but Alessandro Potenza was able to clear it. A wonderful run from Rungratsamee in the 41st took him from the midfield to the area, and he fired it straight past the keeper on an angle for a great opening goal. Palermo should have equalised in the 53rd, but a volley from the 6-yard box went over. The same player made amends with a lob ten minutes later, leaving us around 30 minutes to try and regain the lead. It only took half that time, with Munitis slipping into the area, sidestepping around the keeper and flicking the ball into the net.

The inability to re-sign Cirkovic and Bilica is annoying, but with Ancona sitting on top of the table at the end of November, I can’t have too many complaints. My biggest concern at the moment is Pedro Munitis, who has been playing well but wants to leave the club, as he feels he can’t settle in Italy.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Holders - Genoa

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Ancona | | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 28 | 14 | +14 | 29 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Vicenza | | 12 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 4 | +14 | 28 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Cagliari | | 12 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 26 | 10 | +16 | 25 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Palermo | | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 22 | 9 | +13 | 22 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Piacenza | | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 21 | 13 | +8 | 21 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Ternana | | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 21 | 14 | +7 | 21 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Venezia | | 12 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 17 | 14 | +3 | 19 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Messina | | 12 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 18 | 12 | +6 | 18 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Albinoleffe | | 12 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 15 | 10 | +5 | 18 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Avellino | | 12 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 15 | 10 | +5 | 17 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Reggiana | | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 30 | 29 | +1 | 16 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Como | | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 24 | 27 | -3 | 16 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Livorno | | 12 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 15 | 13 | +2 | 14 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Ascoli | | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 14 | -2 | 14 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Siena | | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 18 | 28 | -10 | 14 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Triestina | | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 19 | 22 | -3 | 13 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Pisa | | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 15 | 25 | -10 | 12 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Modena | | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 20 | 27 | -7 | 11 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | | Fiorentina | | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 21 | -7 | 11 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | | Foggia | | 12 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 15 | 24 | -9 | 9 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 21st | | Spezia | | 12 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 16 | 40 | -24 | 7 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 22nd | | Empoli | | 12 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 28 | -19 | 5 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Incidentally, if I were to receive an international management offer, should I accept it? If so, should I provide details of those games?

[Donners]

Or perhaps you just don't care... :\

December, season 2005/2006

Our first match of December was at home to Foggia. Federico Agliardi returned in goal, mostly just to keep him match fit, while Rungratsamee again partnered Christian Bucchi. The two combined well for our first in the 4th minute, with Rungratsamee carrying the ball for around 20 yards before flicking it into the area for Bucchi to knock in. Fourteen minutes later, Nordin Lennartsson hit a great pass to Bucchi. He nodded it to Luke Chadwick, who crossed it into the area. Badr El Kadouri found himself on the end of it, scoring our second with a simple finish from close range. A magnificent 25-yard shot from Rabito curled right around the keeper and into the net in the 34th, making it 3-0 at the end of a wonderful half for Ancona. Rabito’s goal would later be named the Serie A Goal of the Month. A free kick from Potenza was headed into the net from outside the area by Bucchi for a four-goal lead, and a similar move saw our fifth on the board in the 79th – this time the free kick was headed in from close range by El Kadouri for his second. Not just Ancona’s biggest win, 5-0, but a total domination in every aspect.

We had the chance to follow that up against Piacenza. The side was actually slightly stronger than the previous week, with Munitis replacing Lennartsson, but after five minutes we were 0-2 down. After 14 minutes it was 0-3, and we were being dominated just as we walked all over Foggia just a few days earlier. The goalkeeping wasn’t great, but too often forwards were getting through the defence. We couldn’t even get back with a 23rd minute penalty; Bucchi’s effort was easily saved. At least Ancona started to get a bit more off the ball after that, but even then the resulting chances were wasted. Not even great run straight down the middle from Rabito couldn’t get a goal on the board, with his shot going well over the bar. Piacenza held off our attacks and put through a fourth in the 72nd to rub it in. Lennartsson came off the bench and sent in a few shots from outside the area, but we still could not get one into the net, and finished 0-4 losers.

That result saw Agliardi return to the bench, with Pagliuca getting another go as goalkeeper against Albinoleffe. Carlos Henrique returned from injury, while midfielders Sommese and Scarchilli are still a few weeks away. Both sides came close to scoring in the opening 20 minutes, each hitting the side netting. A pass cannoned off Rungratsamee in the 28th and fortuitously went straight into the path of Bucchi who was running into the area. Another simple finish for Bucchi to give Ancona the lead. Munitis kept the Albinoleffe keeper busy with some good shots from distance, earning several corners. Lennartsson came on as a substitute in the final 20 minutes and had an immediate impact. He curled in a shot from about 30 yards out that cannoned off one post and just scraped past the other without crossing the goal line. He got a deserved goal in injury time after a Bucchi header was parried back to him – his first goal for the club. Henrique came off the bench and looked fairly good in his fifth senior game and first back from injury, while Pagliuca made it four clean sheets in seven senior games. He’s not keeping overly well, but is lucky enough to be in the side when our opponents don’t put up much of a fight.

Our next game, against Messina, was only four days later, but the players pulled up quite well. Only Rungratsamee was rested, replaced by Vianello. Messina should have scored in the 13th after a player got around Pagliuca, but the shot hit the outside of the post. Vianello had the chance to tap in a goal from inside the six-yard box, but he hit it straight at the keeper who tipped it aside. He made amends in a way moments later, earning a penalty from the resulting corner. Zavagno made no mistake from the spot, but Messina levelled the scores just before the break. A nice Bucchi header after a cross from El Kadouri was saved moments after play resumed, while in the 59th Munitis hit a shot from outside the area that came back off the crossbar. These wasted chances proved costly, with the game finishing 1-1.

I had little success signing or re-signing players over December. Cirkovic and Bilica continued to reject contract offers, and I’m not willing to meet their higher demands due to their mediocre performances. This would be less of a problem if I had replacements in line, but not only have I not managed to get a single player to agree terms, I can’t see any players I really want to sign who are actually interested in coming to Ancona. With no notable defenders in the youth system either, we could be in a lot of trouble should we get promoted to Serie A.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Holders - Genoa

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Vicenza | | 16 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 25 | 6 | +19 | 38 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Ancona | | 16 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 36 | 19 | +17 | 36 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Palermo | | 16 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 29 | 13 | +16 | 31 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Cagliari | | 16 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 31 | 19 | +12 | 29 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Piacenza | | 16 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 28 | 17 | +11 | 27 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Ternana | | 16 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 26 | 19 | +7 | 26 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Venezia | | 16 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 25 | 19 | +6 | 26 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Como | | 16 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 34 | 30 | +4 | 26 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Messina | | 16 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 22 | 17 | +5 | 23 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Albinoleffe | | 16 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 17 | 13 | +4 | 23 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Avellino | | 16 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 21 | 17 | +4 | 21 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Reggiana | | 16 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 39 | 38 | +1 | 21 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Triestina | | 16 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 26 | 26 | 0 | 20 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Siena | | 16 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 24 | 34 | -10 | 20 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Ascoli | | 16 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 17 | 19 | -2 | 18 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Modena | | 16 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 28 | 33 | -5 | 17 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Pisa | | 16 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 19 | 33 | -14 | 16 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Livorno | | 16 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 18 | 20 | -2 | 15 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | | Fiorentina | | 16 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 18 | 29 | -11 | 15 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | | Foggia | | 16 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 19 | 33 | -14 | 12 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 21st | | Empoli | | 16 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 21 | 39 | -18 | 12 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 22nd | | Spezia | | 16 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 19 | 49 | -30 | 8 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[ads]

What international job did you get offered?

[Donners]

'Tis only a theoretical question at this point in the story (though keep in mind I've written a fair way ahead of what I've posted, and don't want to give too much away). If I were to accept an international offer, it would probably be to manage Australia.

Mid-season thoughts

The best way to sum up the season so far is to say that it has been generally positive, with some worrying signs. I did expect to be in the top few places, despite what my board and fans thought, so while our league performance has been good, it hasn’t been surprisingly so to me. The worries are the same as they were at the start of the season – goalkeeping and defence. Agliardi has been very disappointing in goal and while Pagliuca has done a bit better than I would have expected taking his place, he’s still letting through too many goals. Zavagno and Cassani have been okay on either side of defence, but Esposito and Potenza have really struggled in the middle. Bilica has been okay, but refuses to sign a new contract. I will need to sign one, and possibly two or three defenders during the January transfer window. A goalkeeper would also be handy.

The forwards are going okay, but Bucchi is doing most of the work. Rungratsamee hasn’t had as much impact as last season and the loss of Vucinic while in great form really hurt. The midfield has held up pretty well despite the injuries, and will be stronger when Freddie Adu gets a go later in the season.

We look to be set for promotion at the end of the season, and while this would be a decent achievement, I’m not entirely certain it’s the best thing for the club (or, indeed, myself). Exceeding board expectations is good, but we could finish from 4th to 7th to do that. I’m not quite sure this side is ready for Serie A, and would prefer another year to build the squad. I’m not exactly going to throw games, but I won’t be at all upset if we just miss out on promotion.

[Terk]

i'd take the job if i were you

[Mario]

Excellent story. I've read it all the time when I enter this forum. Top notch, as your Rushden one.

I feel even closer to your plot on second division, now, because my last "good" CM (01/02) game was with Foggia, mainly in Serie B.

Good luck.

[Donners]

Thanks Mario. Terk, my dilemma is more to do with whether I should write about it than whether I should accept it (though that's certainly a concern as well). I'm just not sure if crushing a bunch of minnows in the World Cup qualifiers or the occasional irrelevant friendly is interesting from a reader's perspective.

January, season 2005/2006

I brought in three young goalkeepers – Australian Under-21 Jess Van Stratten, Luxemburg international Jimmy Gillander and Bosnian international Quoc Viet Smajlovic – on trials in an attempt to find another option in goal, but all were unanimously rejected by my coaches. Instead, I wound up letting a player go – defender Marco Esposito was purchased by Pisa for £110K and a fairly useless 20-year-old winger, Daniele Mazzocchitti. Zavagno’s good form at left back was the main reason for the move, but it also forces me to play Carlos Henrique a bit more, so I shall finally see if he is as good as I originally thought.

I continued to struggle in my attempts to sign players at the start of the month, with Cagliari’s Brazilian Under-21 midfielder Edemir choosing Triestina over us, German Under-21 keeper Michael Rensing signing with HSV and Nottingham Forest re-signing Irish international John Thompson. Instead, I sold reserve goalkeeper Pier Gori to Cesena for £55K. It’s amazing to think that I started with around 100 players, and in two and a half years have cut that down to 65. Amusingly, “youngster†[according to the news item – how many patches have we had again?] Corrado Grabbi complained to the media about his omission from the first team. The door’s that way, Corrado…

Our first game of the new year was at home to Siena. Alessio Scarchilli finally returned on the bench after his groin injury, with Bucchi and Rungratsamee forming the striking team. A wonderful run from Munitis saw an early shot on goal for Ancona, but it was parried and cleared. Rabito suffered the same fate moments later, but Siena had no such trouble with a 25th minute goal. Rungratsamee put a couple of shots over in the second half, but it was winger Luke Chadwick who levelled the scores in the 60th after a fine pass into the area from Nordin Lennartsson. The minutes ticked away as the game ended in a 1-1 draw. Or so it seemed. In the final minute of injury time, a Siena free kick into the area was volleyed straight at Pagliuca. He made an easy save, and it appeared the game was over, but apparently the referee spotted Bilica push an opponent in the area. The penalty was awarded and scored from, giving Siena the lead thirty seconds beyond the injury time indicated. The final whistle blew before we could even have a kick-off, leaving us with a cruel 1-2 loss.

Vincenzo Sommese joined midfield partner Scarchilli on the bench, also returning from injury, for the game against the side placed directly above us in 1st, Vicenza. Rungratsamee made it into the box with a great run in the 11th, and while he lost the ball after a tackle, it trickled over to Bucchi who tapped in his 15th of the season. Vicenza were quiet in the first half, but scored their first shortly after half time with a 20-yard free kick. Lennartsson looked to have regained the lead with a header over the keeper moments later, but he was ruled offside. Chadwick made a good run into the area in the 60th, but he wasted it with a shot straight to the keeper. Rungratsamee went for a run of his own three minutes later, somehow winding up as the only Ancona player in the forward half as he reached the area. Unfortunately, he was so outnumbered that he was forced to go very wide, and his shot from a very tight angle was easily saved. Chadwick won the ball in the middle and ran to the area in the 80th, but rather than passing to either of the strikers, he took the shot himself and put it way over. This proved very costly with Vicenza taking the lead following the resulting goal kick. We got lucky in the 86th, with a pass from Sommese ricocheting off an opponent and going into space for Rabito to run clear of the defence. He did so, gathering the ball and firing it past the keeper for a great (if lucky) equaliser. That was not the end, though, with Vicenza getting not one but two forwards through the defence four minutes later to dramatically regain the lead. Ancona had no way of coming back after that, finishing 2-3 losers. The fact that Pagliuca rated ‘8’ despite conceding three goals emphasises how weak our defence was. Retaining Marco Esposito would not have helped – what we need are better quality players, not more average ones.

Our next game was against Cagliari. It was pretty uneventful for the most part, apart from a nice save from Pagliuca in the 58th, but Cagliari scored with ten minutes to go after a forward got through our defence (yet again) and hit the ball straight past the keeper. Vianello missed a shot following the kick-off, as did his partner Bucchi moments later. Despite an impressive 6 minutes of injury time, we not only couldn’t score, but conceded a second in the 93rd minute. Wild passing from Bucchi and weak shooting from Vianello sealed our fate – the 0-2 loss our third defeat in a row. We are now seven points clear from the top, and must arrest this slide. I brought up Under-20 defender Marco Leonelli, but since he hasn’t played well there, I don’t like his chances of having much impact on the seniors.

I continued my form in the transfers, failing to sign Guatemalan goalkeeper Paulo Cesar Motta while losing Bilica to Bari on a Bosman at the end of the season and, more immediately, Milivoje Cirkovic to Palermo for £350K. Since I couldn’t re-sign him, that is a decent deal, but it leaves me even weaker than before at the back. The fans weren’t pleased, but they’ll get over it. Reserve midfielder Patrick Kalambay and forward Triuzzi are also set to leave on Bosmans. I cannot find any defender on the transfer list or with an expiring contract who is of interest, which is a huge worry. I had bids accepted for two defenders, Inter’s Giovanni Pasquale and Sheffield United’s Chris Morgan, but both had high wage demands that I wasn't prepared to meet. I did finally make one signing – coach Paulo Roberto Zanon.

We were missing Badr El Kadouri for the game against Ternana due to international duty, so Alessio Scarchilli took his place. Rabito and Munitis went through their usual routine of long runs with shots from distance early, but had little success. It took a deep cross from Munitis in the 20th to create a real chance, with Milan Rapaic on the end of it inside the six-yard box. His first shot was parried, but straight back to the veteran Croatian who put through his first of the season on the second attempt. We dominated most of the match, and a 66th minute run from Rabito took him into the box for a simple finish, giving Ancona a two goal lead. Ternana pulled one back late through a free kick, but it was too late for them to steal a point. The 2-1 win was much better than our recent performances, but we desperately need another defender. I swapped Freddie Adu and Supat Rungratsamee after the game, since the former is yet to play a senior game this season while the latter hasn’t had much of an impact in the last few.

Believe it or not, I finally signed a player before the transfer deadline. Four more players rejected a move to Ancona, but I managed to get Italian defender Alessandro Zamperini from River for £250K.

Alessandro Zamperini [23, D LC, ITA]

A very welcome signing after months of failed attempts to get defenders, Zamperini is contracted to Ancona until 2009 as an expected first team regular. He has been a top player in the Argentine Premier League for the last few years, and hopefully he will continue that form in Serie B. He’s not overly tall, but is quicker than most of the other defenders (which should hopefully cut down on the many forwards slipping through) and stays very close to his opponent.

Zamperini had the chance to make his debut immediately, with Zavagno suspended for the game against Venezia after picking up five yellow cards. El Kadouri was still off with the Moroccan side, so Scarchilli continued on the left wing. Freddie Adu started on the bench along with Sommese, who is not yet ready for a return to a full senior role. A great cross from Rapaic was volleyed in by Chadwick in the 16th for a very useful lead to Ancona. An attempt to replicate the move 10 minutes later, with Scarchilli taking Rapaic’s role, failed badly. Chadwick put the shot wide from just inside the area, wasting a chance to extend the lead. Munitis missed an equally good chance a few minutes later, and we were made to pay by Venezia with a forward walking straight through our defenders for an equaliser. Bilica and Potenza aren’t that slow, but forwards are making them look like it. Lennartsson put a 20-yard free kick way over the bar in the 70th and the introduction of Adu in the final minutes did nothing to avoid the 1-1 result. Getting one point wasn’t too bad, but with the chances we had it really should have been three. At least Zamperini was solid on debut.

[Terk]

as long as it's as well written as the rest of the story, i'd be quite interested in your ups and (maybe not so many) downs as an international manager

hope zamperini improves your defence btw

[Donners]

I certainly hope so too!

February, season 2005/2006

Wingers Luke Chadwick and Badr El Kadouri both missed February’s first game, with Ancona taking on Fiorentina. Sommese and Scarchilli both had a run in midfield in their place. It was the former who made an early impact, with a 25-yard shot hitting the post and going in after only 10 minutes (2nd in the Goal of the Month award). A great tackle from Mattia Cassani prevented what seemed to be a certain Fiorentina goal just before half time, keeping Ancona in front at the break. I lost both Pedro Munitis and goalkeeper Pagliuca to knocks in the first half, leaving us with a tough challenge in the second. Agliardi, Pagliuca’s replacement, was forced into three saves early in the second half, and though he was beaten in the 66th, it was ruled offside. There was nothing to rule out Fiorentina’s equaliser in the 75th, leaving Ancona 15 minutes to regain the lead. A nice move in the 83rd, set up by a 40-yard pass from Adu, saw Rabito receive a cross in the area, but his shot was straight at the keeper. The final minutes went back and forth, but neither side could score. The 1-1 draw was made even worse by the news that Pedro Munitis had suffered a groin strain, putting him out for two months.

Chadwick and El Kadouri made timely returns for the game against Reggina, replacing Munitis and giving Sommese a rest. Marco Vianello forced a parry early and Bucchi was able to hit the rebound in for a seventh minute lead to Ancona. Bucchi made it two after a cross from El Kadouri in the 29th – his 50th goal for the club. Reggina had a goal ruled offside six minutes later and an incredible 30-yard curling strike from Rabito made it 3-0 just before half time. The second half continued the Ancona onslaught, with Bucchi putting through his hat-trick in the 68th after a Vianello header was parried to him. Bilica, of all people, made it 5-0 in the 71st with a header, but our chance to make it a record win for Ancona disappeared with a late goal to Reggina. Young defender Marco Leonelli debuted in the final minutes, but did little in the 5-1 hammering. El Kadouri was particularly impressive in his return from international duty. Unfortunately, we suffered another loss to injury – Andrea Rabito suffered a torn groin muscle, sidelining him for two months, just like fellow midfielder Maldini. It’s annoying to lose both these players at pretty much the same time, as if one was injured, the other could cover him very well, but I don’t really have two players of their style to replace them both with. Sommese and Scarchilli will have to accelerate their return from injury to compensate for their loss.

I signed promising 19-year-old Brazilian midfielder Arthur after the game, only a few days after he was released by Sao Paulo. I also arranged another transfer – 16-year-old goalkeeper Daniel Ferrari will join from Carrarese at the end of the season for £130K compensation.

For the away match against Como, Scarchilli took central midfield with Nordin Lennartsson playing in the attacking midfield spot. I gave Daniele Degano the rare chance to start with fellow tall striker Bucchi, and the move paid off after only nine minutes. Mattia Cassani played the ball wide down the right, leaving Bucchi plenty of room to run to the corner of the pitch and gather the ball. He held it up long enough for Degano to run into the area and sent in a cross that was headed home by the youngster. Bucchi made it 2-0 twelve minutes later but Como pulled one back in the 28th. An incredible pass from Cassani just after the following kick-off sent El Kadouri into the area with the ball and the Moroccan drew a couple of defenders and then passed across to Bucchi for his second. Como made it 3-2 a few minutes later and then scored an equaliser just before half time. With six goals in the first half, the second should be fairly interesting. Unfortunately, an injury to Bilica gave the rather unsporting Como forwards a chance to run at Pagliuca unopposed, and they scored from the move (cheats!) to give Como the lead in the 73rd minute. Rapaic missed a 79th minute free kick by mere inches and Bucchi missed a gettable shot after getting one-on-one with the keeper (thanks to a brilliant pass from Lennartsson) four minutes later. Como sealed it with a 5th and 6th goal in the 89th minute, while Bucchi again missed a shot in injury time. 3-6 was not reflective of the balance of play, but it does nicely reflect the incredible weakness of our back half. Just imagine what’ll happen if we run up against the big Serie A sides next season…

I made a couple of transfer bids to Milan in an attempt to correct this – £2.9M for goalkeeper Christian Abbiati and £40K for Senegalese international defender Sarr, but neither player was interested in coming to Ancona. I don’t blame them – they’d have a heck of a lot of work to do here.

Agliardi took over from Pagliuca against Spezia after he let through six goals in the previous game. Bucchi missed a shot after only 22 seconds while Lennartsson put another two wide in the next six minutes. Spezia scored with their first attempt in the 13th, but Bucchi equalised five minutes later, heading in an El Kadouri corner. Bucchi missed yet another good chance in the 59th, then was forced off with an injury moments later. Degano, his replacement, intercepted a defensive pass and headed the ball to Rapaic to give the Croatian a crucial goal in the 83rd. A last-second Spezia free kick went wide and the three points were ours.

Lennartsson missed the next game against Pisa with a minor injury, further weakening my midfield stocks. With Chadwick, Scarchilli and Sommese starting in the middle and Rapaic and Bucchi up forward, it’s like being back in 04/05 again. Sommese made a fine run down the middle in the 11th, but he put both the resulting shot and another 20 minutes later well over the bar. It took a 25-yard strike from Scarchilli right on half time to give us the lead (3rd in the Goal of the Month award), with the veteran scoring his first of an injury-interrupted season. An incredible curling cross on the other side of the break from Rapaic put the ball right around a few defenders for Chadwick to knock in Ancona’s second.

El Kadouri, Rapaic and Sommese needed a break for the game against Triestina, so Giampero Maini, Degano and Adu joined the starting XI, with Lennartsson still unfit after his minor injury. Degano once again took advantage of his opportunity, heading in a corner after only nine minutes. Triestina had a player sent off after he kicked Bucchi [gasp – a straight red card in 4.1.4?], and with Ancona a goal and player ahead at half time, we looked pretty comfortable. The second half was uneventful, and Luke Chadwick picked up his third successive Man of the Match award in the 1-0 win.

I made a few signings towards the end of February, though not particularly significant ones. 18-year-old forward Jugurta Patterson, formerly of Arsenal, joined mostly to prevent my Under-20 side from getting too empty after my assistant released a few players, while I managed to set up a purchase of Perugia defender Guglielmo Stendardo for £325K at the end of the season. Two players, a goalkeeper and defender, were brought in on trial, but both were rejected by my coaches. We finished the month in third spot, despite mixed form, and should push for promotion in the following months.

[Donners]

March, season 2005/2006

March did not start well for Ancona, with Pedro Munitis placed on the transfer list at his request. I mentioned at the start of the season that he may struggle to settle in with no Spanish players or staff at the club, and it seems that is the case. He’s listed for £1.1M, with no interest shown as yet.

Several regulars returned for the March opener against Ascoli, but Daniele Degano, with four goals in seven senior games (four off the bench), retained his place alongside Bucchi. Chadwick went on a long and winding run early in the game that eventually ended with a cross into the area, but Bucchi’s header was straight to the keeper. Scarchilli put a rocket of a shot inches wide a few minutes later and despite dominating the first half (11 shots to 1), it finished scoreless. Nordin Lennartsson hit the side netting with a late free kick and substitute Rapaic missed a shot after being played through by El Kadouri, but he had an excuse – no less than seven defenders were chasing after him! Just as it looked like the game had ended in a scoreless draw, substitute Vincenzo Sommese scored out of nothing in injury time. It was no less than we deserved, but the goal itself was rather lucky.

Scarchilli gave us the lead against Modena in the 3rd minute after Degano passed on an El Kadouri throw-in. The first half and much of the second were pretty even, but Modena attacked in the final ten minutes. A late diving header from Modena went inches wide, but there was no missing an 81st minute penalty that levelled the scores. Our attempts at a response were cut off with a series of fouls, and we could not capitalise from the resulting free kicks. 1-1 was a disappointing result, but we retained third spot.

Cassani and Sommese missed the next match against Empoli with minor training injuries, but we attacked hard in the early minutes. Three times in the first 17 minutes, Degano passed the ball across the area to partner Bucchi. The first was saved, the second went wide but it was third time lucky for a lead to Ancona. El Kadouri hit the post from close range in the 34th, and despite a total dominance we were only one goal up at the break. Milan Rapaic replaced the tired Degano in the second half and somehow managed to hit the side netting twice. Again it was the third attempt that worked, with a 25-yard chip putting Ancona 2-0 up in the 61st. That was all the scoring for the day, with Empoli never even challenging Agliardi. Rungratsamee has been in exceptional form in the Under-20s and I’d love to bring him back, but unfortunately he has picked up two recent training injuries and is currently unable to play. I dropped young defender Marco Leonelli back to the Under-20s and brought up tall 28-year-old reserve defender Maurizio Peccarisi to the seniors.

The final dozen games of the season began with Ancona hosting Avellino. Agliardi saved a close-range header from a corner in the opening minutes, but a similar move in the 16th saw Avellino take the lead. We responded less than a minute later, with Luke Chadwick making a fine run and then passing off to Bucchi for a powerful strike from the edge of the area. They regained their lead in the 66th through a 25-yard rocket, and Bucchi wasted a chance to regain parity in the 75th, volleying a ball parried back to him by the keeper well wide. A 1-2 loss against a mid-table side is disappointing for a team on track for promotion, though the injuries to Rungratsamee, Sommese, Rabito and Munitis undoubtedly affected the result.

El Kadouri was ruled out of the next game against Livorno with a slight knee injury, while defender Alessandro Potenza was suspended after picking up five yellow cards. Former Ancona player Manuel Belleri made things worse early in the game, inflicting an injury on Rapaic which forced him to be substituted. Striking partner Bucchi got revenge a few minutes later with his 24th goal of the season and despite a bad miss from substitute Daniele Degano, we retained the lead at half time. The final minutes saw plenty of action at both ends, but while our attacks were constantly cut out by tackles from defenders, Agliardi finally put on a decent performance to hold Livorno out and get Ancona the three points. After the game, I was informed that while Rapaic was fine, both Scarchilli and Degano had picked up injuries that would put them out of the next game.

We again finished the month in 3rd spot, several points clear of falling out of the promotion zone.

I signed two more young players during March – 18-year-old defenders Morgan Nielsen, who played one season at Wolfsberg, and Héctor Alejandro Morgan, formerly of Arsenal.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Vicenza | | 32 | 20 | 10 | 2 | 53 | 21 | +32 | 70 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Palermo | | 32 | 20 | 6 | 6 | 73 | 33 | +40 | 66 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Ancona | | 32 | 19 | 6 | 7 | 62 | 40 | +22 | 63 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Piacenza | | 32 | 17 | 6 | 9 | 50 | 35 | +15 | 57 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Cagliari | | 32 | 14 | 12 | 6 | 52 | 35 | +17 | 54 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Como | | 32 | 16 | 3 | 13 | 65 | 54 | +11 | 51 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Venezia | | 32 | 13 | 11 | 8 | 47 | 38 | +9 | 50 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Ternana | | 32 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 45 | 35 | +10 | 49 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Reggiana | | 32 | 14 | 5 | 13 | 72 | 69 | +3 | 47 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Triestina | | 32 | 13 | 7 | 12 | 50 | 42 | +8 | 46 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Siena | | 32 | 13 | 7 | 12 | 46 | 52 | -6 | 46 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Albinoleffe | | 32 | 10 | 13 | 9 | 32 | 30 | +2 | 43 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Avellino | | 32 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 39 | 42 | -3 | 42 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Livorno | | 32 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 45 | 40 | +5 | 40 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Fiorentina | | 32 | 11 | 7 | 14 | 48 | 48 | 0 | 40 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Messina | | 32 | 8 | 13 | 11 | 36 | 46 | -10 | 37 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Modena | | 32 | 9 | 9 | 14 | 54 | 54 | 0 | 36 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Pisa | | 32 | 8 | 9 | 15 | 37 | 62 | -25 | 33 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | | Ascoli | | 32 | 6 | 13 | 13 | 31 | 41 | -10 | 31 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | | Foggia | | 32 | 6 | 9 | 17 | 39 | 63 | -24 | 27 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 21st | | Empoli | | 32 | 8 | 3 | 21 | 39 | 71 | -32 | 27 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 22nd | | Spezia | | 32 | 2 | 3 | 27 | 31 | 95 | -64 | 9 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[Donners]

April, season 2005/2006

I signed defender Manuel Cattani at the start of April.

Manuel Cattani [21, D RC, ITA]

Though he didn’t play a senior game in three seasons at Roma before being released a few months ago, our lack of defensive depth means Cattani will rotate through the seniors at Ancona. He’s not greatly talented, but is quicker than the other central defenders and can also cover at right back if needed (and best yet, is only on £675 per week). Maurizio Peccarisi returns to the reserves after only one senior game.

Cattani debuted at centre back in the first game of the month, against Palermo – the side directly above us on the table. Rapaic gave Ancona the lead in the 26th, tapping in an El Kadouri cross and two goals just before half time (a 25-yard drive from Scarchilli and a tap-in from Bucchi) made it 3-0. Palermo pulled one back in injury time, but never looked like grabbing a point. Cattani capped off a Man of the Match debut with a headed goal in the final moments of the 4-1 win.

We drew level with Palermo on points after that win, and had the chance to go ahead with our encounter against 20th placed Foggia. A wonderful powerful pass across the pitch from El Kadouri allowed Chadwick to squeeze one past the keeper in the 20th minute, but we lost Rapaic to injury moments later. Foggia came close with a few free kicks, but put both over the bar. They finally scored with a header from a corner with just 20 [that seems to be a popular number in this game] minutes to go in the game. Ancona went on the attack, but that only resulted in a second goal to Foggia three minutes later. Degano and Bucchi missed a few shots, but the biggest blow was an injury to Luke Chadwick with three minutes to go. The loss of Ancona’s most in-form player ensured we were unable to grab an equaliser, finishing 1-2 losers. The injuries were thankfully minor, but it’s frustrating to go from hammering the 2nd placed side to losing to a team in the relegation zone. Palermo also lost their game, so we wasted a chance to move to second spot.

A much tougher match (on paper, at least) followed with Ancona hosting 4th placed Piacenza. They beat us 0-4 earlier in the season, so there was an element of revenge in the minds of the Ancona players for this one. Chadwick missed with a twisted knee, but both Pedro Munitis and Andrea Rabito returned from injury to start on the bench. Agliardi pulled off a good save for a change in the 10th and Ancona took advantage with Rapaic heading in an El Kadouri corner twelve minutes later. The lead was still held at the break, and a great cross from Sommese saw Bucchi head in Ancona’s second in the 59th. Piacenza should have scored their first moments later, but the shot at an open goal was inches wide. It would prove to be their last real chance of the match. Agliardi actually finished with a Man of the Match award () in the 2-0 win which took us to second spot. I signed 18-year-olds Bozzetti (a German defender from Bochum) and Watts (an English midfielder from Bolton) after the game because I liked their names. One of these days I’m going to build a team of players with only one name.

Mattia Cassani missed the game against Albinoleffe with suspension after picking up five yellow cards while Pedro Munitis was rested after suffering a minor injury in the last match. Bucchi missed a great chance to score after the keeper fumbled a shot, with the ball just rolling straight past him. Lennartsson missed a pretty simple shot in the 29th and both Bucchi and Sommese missed sitters in the following minutes. We were dominating the play, but had nothing to show for it at half time. Sommese and Lennartsson missed a few more shots in the second half (the latter with a quite ridiculous tally of six shots with one on target) and as the game entered the final minutes it looked like our total dominance was about to go unrewarded. Finally, a goal was put through in the second minute of injury time. Disgracefully, it was one to Albinoleffe. With just two minutes to go, in a game in which we’d had 17 shots to 5, we were suddenly down by a goal. An all-out attack from Ancona was quickly repelled and we finished 0-1 losers.

Mirko Vucinic finally returned to the Ancona side for the final game of April after being sidelined with a spinal injury since late October. He joined Pedro Munitis on the bench against Messina, with Rabito starting up forward with Bucchi. A long-range shot from Scarchilli forced a parry from the keeper, and as always Bucchi was on hand to tap in the rebound. A superb curling cross from El Kadouri gave him his second simple finish ten minutes later, but he wasted what should have been his hat-trick after only 17 minutes with a wild shot from inside the area. Bilica headed in Ancona’s third from a corner just after half time but Messina pulled one back in the 59th. Rabito regained the three-goal lead with a great run and strike into the corner a few minutes later and the game finished with that 4-1 scoreline. Munitis and Vucinic got through a 20-minute run unscathed and should be useful players in our final matches. Unfortunately, we lost Giampero Maini after the match when his contract expired. He did a good job for somebody who was supposed to be retired [there is now no mention of him wanting to retire, so add another bug to the list], but it’s time to look to some of the younger players at the club. Supat Rungratsamee will take his spot in the senior side, having scored a goal a game in the Under-20s.

[Donners]

May, season 2005/2006

The final five games of the season (four in this month) began with Ancona hosting top-placed Vicenza. We lost a 2-3 thriller to them last time, so hopefully we can go all the way at home. Rungratsamee partnered Bucchi, with the returning from injury trio of Pedro Munitis, Mirko Vucinic and Andrea Rabito on the bench. Nordin Lennartsson missed an early shot as usual as the balance of play switched frequently during the opening minutes. Rungratsamee missed Scarchilli with a pass, but Bucchi was able to get the ball and pass it back to the Thai forward in the area. His two shots were blocked by the goalkeeper, but the second dribbled away from him and into the net. It was officially an own goal, but it was Rungratsamee’s persistence that earned it. We held the lead at the break, and in the 62nd minute El Kadouri intercepted a Vicenza throw-in from their forward half and whacked it ahead into ours. Rungratsamee easily won a race for the ball and ran into the area with Bucchi on the right of him. However, rather than going with the old Rapaic-style flick across the area for Bucchi to tap in, Rungratsamee went all the way himself, somehow squeezing it past the keeper from close range for a 2-0 lead. Vicenza had no answer to that; Ancona moved within two points of the league leaders while Federico Agliardi picked up his second Man of the Match award.

I went with the same side for the home game against Cagliari. Chadwick hit the opener in under two minutes, scoring at the near post after a quick series of passes. A push on El Kadouri in the area gave Ancona a second from a Zavagno penalty a few minutes before half time, leaving us comfortably ahead at the break. Lennartsson finally put a shot on target (a header from a corner) a few minutes later to increase the lead to three goals, and that’s the way it stayed. We moved within two points of the top, but lost El Kadouri to a broken jaw for three weeks – effectively ending his fine season.

Luke Chadwick moved to the left with Sommese starting on the right against Ternana. It took just 1 minute and 12 seconds for Ancona to get on the board, thanks to a free kick from Rungratsamee that just barely eluded the keeper. We defended quite well for most of the game, and still held the lead when I made three substitutions in the 74th minute. Unfortunately, Mirko Vucinic suffered an injury seconds after coming on, and I was unable to replace him. Ternana levelled the scores with an 86th minute penalty and we did not have a single chance in the final minutes. The 1-1 draw ensured our promotion, but with two games to go we are now four points clear of the league leaders, and thus have little chance of finishing the season as Serie B champions.

Our last game of the month, and second last of the season, came against Siena. Siena were the better side in the early minutes, but when a Bucchi header ricocheted off a defender and into the path of Rungratsamee in the 18th minute, Ancona took the lead. I was slightly worried that signing the unproven striker for five years as soon as he turned 17 would be a little dangerous, but now it seems like an excellent move. Siena levelled the scores just after the break [why are so many goals scored then?], and would have taken the lead in the 61st if not for a clearance off the line from Lennartsson. Rungratsamee found Munitis with a great pass with two minutes to go, but the Spanish midfielder took too long to turn and shoot, and the shot was saved. We missed a number of shots in the final minutes, finishing with a 1-1 draw. Not only did this end our chance of a Serie B win, we dropped to third place, one point behind Palermo.

[Donners]

June, season 2005/2006

With a finish of either second or third the only possible finishes to our season, there was not exactly much on the line against Venezia. El Kadouri returned just in time to start on the left, while Mirko Vucinic and Pedro Munitis also started on the pitch for the first time in many months due to their injuries. Despite eight shots to none in favour of Ancona in the first half, the scores remained locked together at half time. The second half was little better – we finished with 18 shots (6 on target) to just one, and still couldn’t get on the board. A frustrating end to the season, leaving us in third place.

[Donners]

The season in review

Summary

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Holders - Vicenza

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | C | Vicenza | | 42 | 26 | 11 | 5 | 67 | 31 | +36 | 89 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | P | Palermo | | 42 | 25 | 9 | 8 | 98 | 47 | +51 | 84 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | P | Ancona | | 42 | 24 | 9 | 9 | 80 | 47 | +33 | 81 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Como | | 42 | 23 | 5 | 14 | 92 | 67 | +25 | 74 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Piacenza | | 42 | 21 | 8 | 13 | 64 | 46 | +18 | 71 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Cagliari | | 42 | 18 | 13 | 11 | 68 | 54 | +14 | 67 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Triestina | | 42 | 19 | 9 | 14 | 65 | 53 | +12 | 66 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Venezia | | 42 | 16 | 16 | 10 | 56 | 48 | +8 | 64 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Avellino | | 42 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 58 | 49 | +9 | 62 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Ternana | | 42 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 55 | 47 | +8 | 60 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Siena | | 42 | 17 | 9 | 16 | 63 | 69 | -6 | 60 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Reggiana | | 42 | 16 | 9 | 17 | 82 | 84 | -2 | 57 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Fiorentina | | 42 | 16 | 8 | 18 | 69 | 63 | +6 | 56 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Albinoleffe | | 42 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 46 | 50 | -4 | 56 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Livorno | | 42 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 58 | 53 | +5 | 52 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Messina | | 42 | 12 | 15 | 15 | 52 | 63 | -11 | 51 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Modena | | 42 | 11 | 12 | 19 | 64 | 71 | -7 | 45 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Empoli | | 42 | 12 | 6 | 24 | 55 | 85 | -30 | 42 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | R | Ascoli | | 42 | 8 | 17 | 17 | 41 | 54 | -13 | 41 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | R | Pisa | | 42 | 9 | 12 | 21 | 49 | 86 | -37 | 39 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 21st | R | Foggia | | 42 | 8 | 11 | 23 | 51 | 84 | -33 | 35 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 22nd | R | Spezia | | 42 | 3 | 4 | 35 | 40 | 122 | -82 | 13 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">3rd in Italian Serie B

Squad Screen

| Pkd | Inf | Name | Apps | Gls | Asts | MoM | Pass | Tck | Drb | Sh Tar | Av R | Value|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| FC | | Bucchi, C* | 44 | 28 | 9 | 10 | 66 % | 0.92 | 0.92 | 65 % | 7.57 | £4.6M|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DC | Trn | Bilica | 39 (1) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 75 % | 2.86 | 0.21 | 100 % | 7.03 | £525K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| ML | | Chadwick, L* | 38 (4) | 7 | 9 | 6 | 69 % | 4.43 | 3.86 | 38 % | 7.40 | £3.7M|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DL | | Zavagno, L | 36 (1) | 5 | 1 | 1 | 71 % | 2.25 | 0.70 | 88 % | 7.00 | £300K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DR | | Cassani, M | 35 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 62 % | 2.66 | 1.05 | - | 6.63 | £200K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB6 | | El Kadouri, B | 35 | 3 | 18 | 1 | 73 % | 3.50 | 1.49 | 55 % | 7.43 | £2.3M|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| GK | | Agliardi, F | 29 (1) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 50 % | - | - | - | 6.53 | £350K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB2 | | Potenza, A | 27 (3) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 74 % | 2.04 | 0.15 | 100 % | 6.30 | £375K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB7 | | Rabito, A | 25 (5) | 9 | 1 | 3 | 77 % | 2.25 | 2.85 | 46 % | 7.40 | £3.6M|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| AMC | Req | Munitis, P | 22 (6) | 2 | 3 | 0 | 75 % | 2.70 | 2.35 | 43 % | 6.93 | £2.2M|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MC | Wnt | Scarchilli, A | 21 (11) | 3 | 6 | 0 | 78 % | 1.31 | 0.68 | 46 % | 6.91 | £75K |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB3 | | Lennartsson, N | 20 (5) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 75 % | 2.37 | 0.71 | 40 % | 7.12 | £1.1M|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB4 | | Pagliuca, G | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52 % | - | - | - | 6.31 | £12K |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | Rapaic, M | 15 (8) | 5 | 4 | 0 | 77 % | 1.00 | 1.36 | 58 % | 6.87 | £95K |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB5 | | Rungratsamee, S | 13 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 65 % | 0.51 | 3.86 | 48 % | 7.38 | £2.2M|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DC | | Zamperini, A | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 72 % | 2.27 | 0.27 | 100 % | 6.91 | £575K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MR | | Sommese, V* | 10 (11) | 3 | 3 | 1 | 64 % | 2.81 | 2.42 | 38 % | 6.90 | £2.7M|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Inj | Cattani, M | 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 73 % | 3.44 | 0.11 | 100 % | 6.67 | £425K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | Carlos Henrique | 7 (12) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 75 % | 1.56 | - | 100 % | 6.26 | £250K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| FC | | Vucinic, M | 7 (5) | 3 | 4 | 1 | 76 % | 1.49 | 0.62 | 60 % | 7.17 | £1.7M|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB1 | | Degano, D | 6 (8) | 4 | 4 | 0 | 88 % | 0.50 | 1.14 | 70 % | 6.93 | £725K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | Vianello, M | 4 (6) | 0 | 5 | 0 | 74 % | 1.26 | 1.05 | 45 % | 7.00 | £650K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Int | Adu, F | 1 (8) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 78 % | 0.41 | 2.05 | - | 6.56 | £0 |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Lst | Grabbi, C | 0 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 6.50 | £400K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Unh | Leonelli, M | 0 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 6.50 | £220K|

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | Peccarisi, M | 0 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 7.00 | £85K |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | | |

| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Like I said towards the start of the season, that’s more like it. A finish in the top couple of spots is no less than I expected, but despite the occasional slip-ups against weak opposition (including yet another early Italian Cup exit), we performed very well overall – on the pitch, in the transfer market and financially.

Once again the star was Christian Bucchi, but this time there was a lot more scoring support. Chadwick in particular put through quite a few from midfield and Degano, Rungratsamee and Vucinic made useful partners for the big man. El Kadouri had a great record of creating goals, and Chadwick was also strong in this area. The back half was again a worry, but Agliardi did look better in the latter part of the season, and the defenders I signed during the season held up pretty well.

Perhaps the biggest worry came from the series of injuries suffered by our players. Vucinic’s spinal injury was probably a fluke, but midfielders Munitis, Rabito, Scarchilli and Sommese missed significant portions of the season. Scarchilli will likely not be at the club next season, but the other three are a worry.

[Terk]

well done, donners great to see an immediate return to serie a (must admit i didn't expect it at the beginning of the campaign) bucchi and el kadouri seemed to be the stand-outs. let's just hope you don't go right back down at the first attempt

[Donners]

Cheers, Terk. Chadwick and Rabito were also excellent, so this side does have some potential.

Wrapping it up

I was quite busy over the off-season. Dealing with the internal matters first, I re-signed Gianluca Pagliuca solely as a coach until 2010 and signed Freddie Adu to a 5-year deal just after he turned 17. I decided not to re-sign Milan Rapaic and Alessio Scarchilli despite reasonable form in the seniors. Since both were well into their 30s, I decided that they would probably not be likely to perform as solidly in Serie A next season.

Moving on to the external matters, Bologna decided not to make a bid for our on-loan striker Goran Pandev. I missed out on several players, including very promising Greek striker Chatzis, but my focus was mostly on defenders. Latvian international defender Igors Stepanovs was my first signing. He’s not overly talented, but is big and strong enough to be a solid contributor.

I brought in two players on trials – Bosnian midfielder Félix Knezevic and Australian striker Tak Kin Simpson. Though both were popular with a number of clubs, my coaches unanimously rejected them, and thus they were released at the end of their trials. Come to think of it, my coaches don’t seem to like anybody much. They regard Bucchi as a “useful†player for goodness sake.

I actually made two purchases that I later withdrew for Parma’s Italian Under-21 [*snicker*] goalkeeper Alfonso De Lucia and defender Roberto Vitiello. The total cost of the transfers came to £850K, and I decided that would be a bit much to spend on unproven players, particularly when I was already bringing in players for their positions. I did, however, add the purchase of 15-year-old Novara defender Tse Lung Pappalardo for £110K compensation to the two signings that are already set to take place at the start of July (Guglielmo Stendardo and Daniel Ferrari).

After spending a heck of a lot of time trawling through the released youth players, I came across a couple of seemingly decent signings – 18-year-old midfielder Alessandro Fusco (who, curiously, played 10 senior games for Milan last season yet comes over for only £100 per week), 17-year-old English defender Shavkat Gregory (who played a senior game for Newcastle last year) and 17-year-old English goalkeeper Khairani Roberts, who played in Liverpool’s junior team last season. I probably shouldn’t be signing so many youth players, since nobody has come up from my youth academy yet, but these three looked like fairly decent prospects.

Another young player to join Ancona was 21-year-old Scottish midfielder Amor Reid. He only has two senior games to his name, both with Celtic last season, but he made a great impression in them. I’ve only got him on a 1-year contract on fairly small wages, so the move can’t hurt too much even if it does fail.

Around the world: major awards and results

Ancona Supporters’ Player of the Year:

Christian Bucchi

World Player of the Year:

Mikael Silvestre (Man Utd)

World Footballer of the year:

Hernan Crespo (Chelsea)

2006 FIFA World Cup

Senegal (!)

England:

Arsenal

Spain:

Real Sociedad

Champions Cup:

Liverpool

UEFA Cup:

Schalke 04

[Donners]

The Transfers

Transfers In

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> 3rd in Italian Serie B

Transfers

| Date | Person | From | Fee |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 24.6.2005 | Cassani, Mattia | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2005 | Rabito, Andrea | Milan | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2005 | Vucinic, Mirko | Lecce | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2005 | Munitis, Pedro | Deportivo | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2005 | Agliardi, Federico | Brescia | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 23.11.2005 | Lennartsson, Nordin | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6.1.2006 | Mazzocchitti, Daniele | Pisa | £0 - P/Ex |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 26.1.2006 | Zamperini, Alessandro | River | £250K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6.2.2006 | Arthur | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 24.2.2006 | Patterson, Jugurta | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5.3.2006 | Nielsen, Morgan | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19.3.2006 | Morgan, Héctor Alejandro | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3.4.2006 | Cattani, Manuel | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 21.4.2006 | Bozzetti | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 22.4.2006 | Watts | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10.6.2006 | Stepanovs, Igors | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 22.6.2006 | Fusco, Alessandro | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 23.6.2006 | Gregory, Shavkat | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 23.6.2006 | Roberts, Khairani | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Total | | £250K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Transfers Out

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">3rd in Italian Serie B

Transfers

| Date | Person | To | Fee |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20.6.2005 | Tomba, Alessandro | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20.6.2005 | Vescovi, Alessandro | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2005 | Poggi, Paolo | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2005 | Esposito, Gianluca | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2005 | Milanese, Mauro | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2005 | Baccin, Dario | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.6.2005 | Bruno, Salvatore | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2005 | Orocini, Andrea | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2005 | Vadacca, Massimiliano | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2005 | Castaldo, Luigi | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2005 | Gentili, Fabio | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2.7.2005 | Moscardi, Damiano | Livorno | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 31.7.2005 | Torrisi, Stefano | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19.8.2005 | Carrus, Davide | Piacenza | £450K |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 21.8.2005 | Belleri, Manuel | Livorno | £250K |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 21.8.2005 | Montervino, Francesco | Palermo | £325K |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 26.8.2005 | Sartor, Luigi | Sampdoria | £95K |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.9.2005 | Goracci, Giovanni | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6.1.2006 | Esposito, Marco | Pisa | £110K - P/Ex |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7.1.2006 | Gori, Pier Graziano | Cesena | £55K |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17.1.2006 | Cirkovic, Milivoje | Palermo | £350K |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 24.1.2006 | Maswi Sosthenes, Franklin | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2.2.2006 | Santinelli, Roberto | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6.2.2006 | Zuppardo, Liborio | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 30.4.2006 | Maini, Giampiero | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 28.5.2006 | Tedesco, Valter | Free Transfer | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17.6.2006 | Kalambay, Patrick | Como | Free |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Total | | £1.6M |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Loans Out

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Date | Person | To | Fee |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14.7.2005 | Donzelli, Elia | L'Aquila | Loan |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7.8.2005 | Minin, Enrico | Nocerina | Loan |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12.8.2005 | Rossi, Matteo | Tivoli | Loan |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18.8.2005 | Pandev, Goran | Bologna | Ln Fee £90K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Total | | £90K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

Staff In

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Date | Person | From | Fee |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6.7.2005 | Pinotti, Giannicola | Free Transfer | £0 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5.8.2005 | Tretter, Udalrico | Free Transfer | £0 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13.1.2006 | Zanon, Paulo Roberto | Free Transfer | £0 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Total | | £0 |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

Staff Out

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Date | Person | To | Fee |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1.7.2005 | Vallongo, Antonio | Free Transfer | Free |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Total | | £0 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

The 05/06 season was a better year for transfers than the last two. The new signings at the start of the season worked for the most part – Cassani, Rabito and Munitis in particular. Agliardi was pretty awful for much of the season, but showed some promise late. Vucinic had his season ruined by injury, but had a huge impact early.

The signings during the season were also pretty good. Lennartsson had a decent run in the seniors and did his job, as did Zamperini and Cattani at the back. Arthur and Nielson showed some promise in the Under-20s, but none of the other young signings did, which was disappointing.

We didn’t really miss many of the players who left, even though there were a number of senior players among them. Ancona looked a little weak defensively after the loss of Sartor, Cirkovic and the defensive midfielders, but their transfer fees came in handy and our final league positions suggests their loss had minimal impact.

[Dark_Soccer]

I just read this story from start till finish and i have to say its one of the top 5 stories on the board in my view.

Hope you can consolidate Ancona's place in Serie A next season!

KUTGW

[Donners]

Thanks. Consolidation is exactly what I'm looking for, but it's dangerous to make predictions in this game...

Pre-Season 2006/2007

The usual mixed news to kick off the season. I received £3.8M in TV rights, taking my total bank balance at the start of July to around £14.5M. My board informed me that I had a transfer budget of £5.75M, and to battle bravely against relegation. Amusingly, part of their reason for limiting my budget was my “extravagant spending†last season. Considering my signings that I arranged last season had not arrived when this message arrived, this is quite laughable. I spent the total of £250K in 05/06 from a budget of over £4M (all on Alessandro Zamperini) and brought in £1.6M in transfers, with a total profit of over £5.5M. The board also announced they would add 5,208 seats to the stadium.

Reserve players Maurizio Peccarisi, Giuseppe Vives and Giovanni Del Gaudio were the first players to leave, and they were followed by three Under-20s players with expired contracts. Patrick Kalambay, Bilica and Gianluca Triuzzi left on Bosmans to Como, Bari and Treviso respectively. Bilica is the only significant loss there.

The three players set to come in did so successfully: 17-year-old goalkeeper Daniel Ferrari joined from Carrarese for £130K, 15-year-old defender Tse Lung Pappalardo left Novara for £110K and Perugia’s 25-year-old centre back Guglielmo Stendardo came over for £350K.

Senegalese defender Sarr, formerly of Milan, was probably the biggest signing of the off-season, since he should slot into a regular first team role. I also arranged for 20-year-old Lecce defender Antonio Perrone to join on a free transfer in January. Vicenza twice offered me defender Simone Padoin, who I bid £2.4M in the past, but he continued to reject my contract offers and wound up joining Espanyol. With wage demands of over £20K despite not showing a great deal, it’s probably better that way.

Salernitana came in with an loan offer for defender Carlos Henrique, and since he showed very little last season, I happily let him go. Reggiana also made a loan bid, in this case for forward Daniele Degano. I was initially reluctant, since Degano showed good signs last season, but I eventually agreed. With so many forwards at the side, this was a good chance to give the others a bit more of the run. Several Under-20s players also left the club on loans.

Vicenza made a £100K bid for defender Mattia Cassani, but this was at best half of what I expected for him, so I turned it down. There was some transfer speculation over forward Andrea Rabito, but nothing came out of it. Alessio Scarchilli and Milan Rapaic left late in the pre-season to Pistoiese and Reggiana respectively.

I added in two staff members – coach Giuseppe Venturelli and scout Tim Davies, just in case there is another exodus looming.

Perhaps the best news of the pre-season is that midfielder Pedro Munitis finally decided he was able to settle in Italy, and was removed from the transfer list.

[Terk]

good to see munitis settled

[Dark_Soccer]

Yeh hope Muntis can help the club to a trophy or too someday!

[Donners]

He'll certainly have to improve a lot for that...

The Squad

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1st in Italian Serie A

Squad Screen

| Pkd | Inf | Name | Squad Status | Basic Wage | Contract Expiry | Offer Options | Asking Price |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| GK | Lmp | Agliardi, F | First Team | £7,000 | 31.7.2007 | None | £575K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| FC | Lmp | Bucchi, C* | First Team | £3,600 | 31.7.2007 | None | £4.6M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MR | Lmp | Chadwick, L* | First Team | £4,000 | 31.7.2007 | None | £4.1M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB2 | Lmp | Lennartsson, N | First Team | £4,600 | 31.7.2008 | None | £1.7M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MC | Lmp | Munitis, P | First Team | £6,500 | 31.7.2008 | None | £1.4M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| FC | Wnt | Rabito, A | First Team | £3,400 | 31.7.2007 | None | £3.6M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB7 | Lmp | Vucinic, M | First Team | £4,600 | 31.7.2007 | None | £2.7M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DL | Inj | Zamperini, A | First Team | £2,300 | 31.7.2009 | None | £925K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB4 | Wnt | Cassani, M | Rotation | £210 | 31.7.2008 | None | £200K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| ML | Lmp | El Kadouri, B | Rotation | £4,000 | 31.7.2007 | None | £3M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Lmp | Pandev, G | Rotation | £725 | 30.6.2007 | None | £950K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Lmp | Reid, A | Rotation | £950 | 31.7.2007 | None | £1M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DC | | Sarr | Rotation | £3,000 | 31.7.2009 | None | £1.4M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MC | Inj | Sommese, V* | Rotation | £3,700 | 30.6.2007 | None | £2.2M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Lmp | Stendardo, G | Rotation | £975 | 31.7.2009 | None | £1.1M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Lmp | Zavagno, L | Rotation | £6,000 | 30.6.2007 | None | £500K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DR | Lmp | Cattani, M | Backup | £675 | 31.7.2009 | None | £675K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB3 | Lmp | Rungratsamee, S | Backup | £475 | 31.7.2010 | None | £3.2M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB5 | Lmp | Stepanovs, I | Backup | £550 | 31.7.2008 | None | £400K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Lmp | Vianello, M | Backup | £850 | 31.7.2007 | None | £1M |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB6 | | Adu, F | Hot Prospect | £600 | 31.7.2011 | None | N/A |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB1 | Lmp | Ferrari, D | Hot Prospect | £425 | 31.7.2009 | None | £475K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DC | Lmp | Potenza, A | Hot Prospect | £2,600 | 31.7.2007 | None | £600K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Loa | Leonelli, M | Youngster | £130 | 31.7.2008 | None | £400K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Lst | Grabbi, C | Not Needed | £17,500 | 30.6.2007 | None | £600K |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | |

| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

Total Players: 67

Wage Budget: £150,000

Total Weekly Wages at 30/7/06: £83,680

Goalkeepers

Federico Agliardi [23, GK, ITA – Capped at U21 level] – 1, 30, 0

Like his predecessor, Pagliuca, Agliardi was signed as somebody who was supposed to walk into the first team role, but wound up struggling badly. His overall record was reasonably good in the end – 30 goals from as many games with 11 clean sheets – but most of his best work came in the last few months of the season. Hopefully he can continue that form this season, but he will undoubtedly come under plenty of pressure in Serie A.

Daniel Ferrari [17, GK, ITA]

Seemingly an excellent prospect, Ferrari jumps from one season at Serie C1/A side Carrarese to being the backup to an inconsistent keeper in Serie A. I don’t spend money freely, but I certainly felt the £130K compensation for him was justified. He’s not great in the air, but is very solid and works well with the defence.

Defenders

Mattia Cassani [22, D RC, ITA – Capped at U21 level] – 1, 35, 0

Fresh off a reasonably solid season in Serie B, Cassani now needs to step up to a higher level with two new players (Cattani and Sarr) fighting for his spot. Cassani is not highly rated and is probably the third best of those players, but the interest shown in him from Venezia suggests he isn’t totally out of place. An occasional role in the first team looms.

Manuel Cattani [21, D RC, ITA] – 1, 9, 1

One of our better signings from last season, Cattani had a spectacular debut but faded from there. He’s a bit bigger and quicker than Cassani, which should put him ahead of him at right back, but they will fight for the spot for most of the season.

Marco Leonelli [22, D C, ITA] – 3, 2, 0

With three years at the club and only two senior games, it’s hard to see Leonelli playing much of a role this year. However, he’s too old for the Under-20s, so I may as well try and get some use out of him. He’s quite tall, but far too slow for my liking.

Alessandro Potenza [22, D C, ITA – Capped at U21 level] – 2, 34, 0

Potenza has not had much impact in his time at Ancona, but with the lack of other centre back options he seems to be in the side by default. He’ll have to play a lot better than last season to prevent me starting a search for a replacement.

Sarr [22, D RC, SEN – 13/0]

Having played in the World Cup winning side, Sarr comes into Ancona on a high. He only played four senior games at Milan, but is strong in all the defensive aspects of the game. With few other options at centre back, he will have a large role to play.

Part of World Cup 2006 winners Senegal

Guglielmo Stendardo [25, D C, ITA]

Signed for £325K from Perugia, Stendardo is likely to play a rotational role this season. He is very big and strong, and also possesses decent pace for his size. Unfortunately, his record in Serie A is not good (averaging just over 6 from 27 games), but he will certainly get a chance to improve on that.

Igors Stepanovs [30, D C, LVA – 71/3]

One of those signings that can’t really fail due to the low wages (£550), Stepanovs is here mainly to add experience to a very young defence. He hasn’t had much of a go at Arsenal in the last few years, but is a very big man who can be counted on to keep out high balls. His pace (or lack of such) is a worry, so he will probably be paired up with a much faster centre back like Cattani or Zamperini.

Alessandro Zamperini [23, D LC, ITA] – 1,11,0

One of the better defenders at the side, Zamperini did a good job after coming over from River. He’s capable at both left back and centre back, and he should hold down the former ahead of Zavagno. In a weak defence, much depends on him.

Luciano Zavagno [28, D L, ARG] – 3, 82, 6

Though he had his best season at Ancona last year, Zavagno will have a much lesser role in 06/07 due to his poor record in Serie A and Zamperini’s impressive start. With his contract expiring at the end of this season, he certainly will want to fight for his spot, but it will take a significant improvement for him to take it back.

Midfielders

Freddy Adu [17, AM/F C, USA – 8/1] – 3, 22, 0

Now finally signed to Ancona for five seasons, it’s time for Adu to start performing on the pitch. He’s had his taste of senior football, and now with Maini and Scarchilli gone, it’s time for him to step up and take his place in the middle. There will be competition for the place, but he will certainly get a decent shot.

Luke Chadwick [25, AM RL, ENG] – 2, 84, 9

One of our best performers over the last two seasons, Chadwick was a regular contributor last season with a number of goals and assists. Another solid season is required here in Serie A.

Badr El Kadouri [25, AM L, MAR – 8/0] – 1, 35, 3

Ancona’s best new player last year, El Kadouri created many goals with his great runs down the left. He obviously won’t be given as much freedom this season, but he should continue to be a key part of our midfield.

Nordin Lennartsson [23, AM C, SWE] – 1, 25, 2

Signed last season after a spate of injuries, Lennartsson now has to fight against a number of other midfielders. He missed a few too many shots for my liking, but had some nice runs and performed quite well considering it was his first season in Italy. A rotational spot is likely.

Pedro Munitis [31, AM/F RLC, ESP – 21/2] – 1, 28, 2

Now settled in the country, Munitis has the chance to improve on a fairly disappointing first season at Ancona. He struggled to get back after a groin injury, but was not quite as dominant as I’d expected before it either. A better effort is required.

Goran Pandev [23, F RLC, MKD – 7/3] – 3, 8, 1

Returning from a loan spell at fellow Serie A side Bologna, Pandev has a lot of work to do to earn a first team spot. Though the fact that a Serie A side would loan him suggests he does have ability, he did not play particularly well for them and nor does he have a good record with Ancona. With the likes of Rabito, Munitis and Adu competing for midfield/forward spots, he will struggle to find a regular spot in the team.

Amor Reid [21, AM C, SCO – 3/0]

Signed after only two games and one season with Celtic, Reid is at Ancona on a one-year deal as more of an extended trial than anything else. He’s very quick, but will probably fall behind Lennartsson in the battle for a rotational midfield place. Though he’s much better with long-range shots, he lacks Lennartsson’s ball control. Still, he should get a few games both in the seniors and Under-20s, and may get offered an extended contract if he does well.

Vincenzo Sommese [30, AM RC, ITA] – 3, 91, 7

After missing most of last season with a series of leg injuries, Sommese suddenly finds himself with a lot more competition in the middle. Though his past strong performances ensure he will get first crack at a central midfield spot, he will have to produce similar efforts to retain it.

Forwards

Christian Bucchi [29, S C, ITA] – 3, 123, 61

The above record says it all. He’s in the final year of his contract, but I shall certainly have a go at re-signing him. Though former partner Rapaic is gone, he should work well with the likes of Vucinic, Rabito and Rungratsamee.

Supporters’ Player of the Year 03/04, 04/05, 05/06

Corrado Grabbi [31, S C, ITA] – 3, 23, 4

Counting down the days…

Andrea Rabito [26, F RLC, ITA] – 1, 30, 9

Rabito was the subject of transfer speculation over the pre-season, but as yet there has been no bid. With the midfield a bit stronger than last season, he should play more of a regular forward role. Though his long shots from the midfield were quite dangerous, a partnership with Bucchi could be even more deadly for opposition sides.

Supat Rungratsamee [18, S C, THA – 3/1] – 2, 17, 10

A slightly slow start to the season saw Rungratsamee sent to the Under-20s, but after dominating there he came back and scored several goals in the seniors. His shooting is already showing signs of improvement, and in a few years he will almost certainly be a key part of the side. As it is, he will likely play a rotational role this year.

Marco Vianello [22, S C, ITA] – 2, 17, 0

Limited impact over two seasons at Ancona suggests Vianello will struggle to get into the side with our strong forward depth. Unfortunately, this means he will be pretty much wasted since he’s too old for the Under-20s. This will likely be his last season at Ancona.

Mirko Vucinic [22, F C, SCG – Capped at U21 level] – 1, 12, 3

Quite a mixed season for the young forward, with an incredible start interrupted by a serious back injury. He made it back to the senior side late in the season, but didn’t have anywhere near as much impact. Vucinic will get a chance, but must prove himself quickly to retain his place in the team.

[Donners]

All Up…

Again this looks to be a stronger side than the previous season, but it will certainly have to be to compete in Serie A.

Goalkeeping is obviously the biggest weakness, with one inconsistent player and the other promising but inexperienced and unproven. Their performance will likely determine our fate this season.

The defence looks significantly stronger on paper. Though there are no stars there, there are more options and a bit more experience to replace that which has been lost from that area in the last few years. Unfortunately, most are unproven both at this level and at Ancona, so I don’t quite know what to expect.

Midfield is strong as usual, but it lacks a quality passing player in the absence of Scarchilli. There is plenty of pace there, but the lack of a playmaker could negatively affect our scoring. Then again, El Kadouri and Chadwick seemed to do well enough last season, creating nearly 30 goals between them, so perhaps it won’t be so bad. I’ve decided to go with a flat 4-4-2 this season rather than playing an attacking midfielder due to the increased threat of Serie A sides.

The forwards are also looking pretty good. I had expected to give Degano a regular role this season, but such is our strength there that I had no real problems with sending him on loan. This does leave me short a target striker, but Bucchi has never really had problems with injury or form, so this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Perhaps the most worrying sign is the number of players with contracts expiring at the end of the season, including Bucchi, Chadwick, Sommese and Rabito. It’s lucky I have a lot of room under my wage budget, as I can easily see some increased wage demands when it comes time to offer new contracts.

I also lack an obvious choice for captain, so Bucchi will probably have to take the role despite not really being known as an influential player.

The Likely Side:

(Playing with a 4-4-2)

GK – Federico Agliardi

LB – Alessandro Zamperini

CB – Alessandro Potenza

CB – Sarr

RB – Manuel Cattani

LM – Badr El Kadouri

CM – Vincenzo Sommese

CM – Pedro Munitis

RM – Luke Chadwick

CF – Andrea Rabito

CF – Christian Bucchi

Sub – Supat Rungratsamee

Sub – Igors Stepanovs

Sub – Mirko Vucinic

Sub – Nordin Lennartsson

Sub – Daniel Ferrari

Sub – Guglielmo Stendardo

Sub – Freddy Adu

The Staff

Giacomo Tafuro (Assistant Manager)

Gilberto Vallesi (Coach)

Roberto Bocchino (Coach)

Gianluca Pagliuca (Coach)

Roberto Corti (Coach)

Udalrico Tretter (Coach)

Giannicola Pinotti (Coach)

Paulo Roberto Zanon (Coach)

Giuseppe Venturelli (Coach)

Alberto Lugli (Physio)

Salvatore Gnisci (Physio)

Massimo D’Ambrosio (Physio)

David Jarrett (Scout)

Rob Campkin (Scout)

Julian Carrera (Scout)

Tim Davies (Scout)

Looking Ahead

I said around the middle of the season that I wasn’t sure if promotion would be the best thing for Ancona, and I’m still not decided on the matter. Nonetheless, we’re back in Serie A now, so we’ll just have to make do. The main issue is survival, and most of that depends on our back half. Unfortunately, our strength in this area is still unproven, so it’s difficult to make any predictions regarding our performance this year. I hope to survive (and perform well in the Italian Cup for a change), but it’s unclear how likely this is.

Transfer-wise, I don’t have any particular targets in mind. I’ve brought in many defenders recently, so I need to give them time to gel. I’ve also brought in plenty of young players, and it’s about time I let my youth academy do that job for me. The only way I can foresee any transfers for at least the first half of the season is if there is a remarkably attractive prospect available for a reasonable price.

[Mario]

Good luck in Serie A. Even if all goes bad, you'll still make some economical profit, due to your budget style.

[Donners]

Thanks, Mario. Interesting you should mention my "budget style". I think the primary reason for my long stays as manager is the fact that I hardly ever spend any money either on transfers or large wages, which boards certainly like. In a profitable competition like Serie A, the club's bank balance can really jump up. Imagine what would happen if I one day made it into the Champions Cup...

August, season 2006/2007

With two Italian Cup games in August, I arranged a friendly against Lecce early in the month. It finished in a scoreless draw, but we had much of the play and Amor Reid was quite good. A second friendly against the Ancona Under-20s was a bit more interesting, with two goals to Pedro Munitis and one to Bucchi in a simple win for the seniors.

Our Italian Cup draw was a fairly tough one, with three Serie B opponents. With a dismal record in this competition (we have gone out in our first round every time), I really wanted to do well this season. Livorno was the first in a game which saw two players debut on the pitch for Ancona (Amor Reid and Sarr). Reid had something of an early impact, floating in a free kick that saw Potenza shoved in the area while trying to head it. Bucchi slotted in the penalty for a lead to Ancona after only five minutes. A second to Rabito in the 31st was ruled offside, but the closest Livorno could come to an equaliser was a header which came back off the bar just after half time. Stendardo also made his debut late in the solid 1-0 win.

Second in the Italian Cup was a home game against Empoli. A nice forward pass in the 42nd from Rabito put Bucchi through on goal, and with a neat step around the keeper he put through the opening goal. Bucchi attempted to return the favour with a nice header across the box moments after half time, but Rabito put the resulting shot well over. Rabito showed him how to do it in the 49th, flicking the ball across the box for Bucchi to tap it in for Ancona’s second. A nice solid 2-0 win for Ancona, leaving us a good chance to progress in the competition for a change.

My odds for the title were given at 1000-1, but again I’m only concerned with survival.

[Mario]

That's what I've been thinking. I assume your stadium will be near 90-95% full, maybe more against the likes of Inter and Milan, and together with TV money you'll have an industriously rich year. If you qualify for a big tournament (Intertoto included), wow... I can't even imagine the sum.

KUTGW.

[Donners]

Actually, I have a capacity of around 27,000 and seats of 22,000, but generally only average 17-19K attendance, which is a bit disappointing. Perhaps it's time to ask for a stadium expansion...

September, season 2006/2007

The first game of September also happened to be our first game in Serie A for the season. We took the lead against Sampdoria after only seven minutes thanks to a classic run and close-range shot from Supat Rungratsamee. He had another go in the 25th minute, this time on the receiving end of a 55-yard pass from El Kadouri. The striker, generally known for his pace rather than skill in the air, rose above a defender to head home his second. A Sampdoria player broke through our defence to score their first in the 51st, and a second levelled the game nine minutes later after their players again outpaced the back four. Shots from Chadwick and Bucchi late in the game were saved, leaving us with a 2-2 draw in a game which we controlled. Hmm…strong attack with weak defence and goalkeeping. It’s only the first Serie A game, but it meets my expectations.

Sarr, Rungratsamee, Munitis, Zavagno and Stepanovs needed a break for the game against Chiveo, just three days later. Bucchi made it 1-0 with a 38th minute penalty, but a corner just after the break (I’m sick of saying that, but it happens so often) gave Chievo an equaliser. Bucchi regained the lead in the 58th after receiving a pass from Rungratsamee’s replacement Mirko Vucinic, but another goal from a corner brought Chievo level again in the 74th. One game we’re lacking pace at the back, and now we’re lacking height. I don’t like the early signs at all. Again the defence and goalkeeper wasted the good work of the attacks, finishing with another 2-2 draw.

Our third game of the Italian Cup was against Messina. Since we were three points and three goals clear on top, even a loss would likely see us through. Daniel Ferrari made his debut in goal. Munitis missed a series of long-range shots, and just when it looked like Marco Vianello had scored late in the first half, it was ruled offside. An incredible run around a series of defenders from Rabito only resulted in a parried shot which was cleared. Sommese and El Kadouri were forced off with injuries and Messina scored in the 85th minute to take the lead. Despite Ancona having a superior goal difference and being equal on points, this somehow took them ahead of us in the group table. There was no answer from the Ancona players, and yet again our Italian Cup “campaign†ended in our first round. Not knowing the rules, I hadn’t been expected to fall behind even with a 0-1 loss, which makes this even more frustrating, particularly as my team selection would have been different if I’d known. The loss and exit from the competition were made even worse by the news that Badr El Kadouri had suffered a groin strain, and would miss three weeks.

I had a go at re-signing key players like Chadwick, Bucchi and Rabito, and the results were not promising. They requested increases of over £10K each, which will take a huge chunk of my budget even if I am successful in signing them. My assistant recommended I only offer about a third of what they were demanding, but these offers were promptly rejected. Either I’m going to have to pay out a hell of a lot more money, or I’m going to have to find a lot of new players.

Our chance to get back on track after the disappointment in the last game came against Verona. There were many changes to the side, some missing through fatigue, some coming back after being rested in the Italian Cup. Nonetheless, it took just three minutes for Rungratsamee to score the first of the game from a trademark run and close-range finish. A parry from Agliardi left the ball loose in the Verona area with the goal open and our defenders were too slow to get to the ball, leaving Verona with a simple equaliser in the 12th. Bucchi missed a simple shot just before half time, which turned out to be costly in the 85th minute. A long Verona ball from beyond half-way went over Agliardi’s head and he didn’t even bother to chase it as it trickled towards the goal and went in off the post. A great long pass from Zamperini gave Rungratsamee a last-minute shot in the box, but he put it well over and Ancona finished 1-2 losers.

An even tougher game (on paper) against Roma, including new signing Ronaldo, followed that loss. Again we got a good start, this time scoring in the second minute after a Lennartsson free kick was parried to Sarr for the Senegalese international’s first goal for Ancona. Roma attacked hard, but the defence held up fairly well and a beautiful Bucchi header put Rungratsamee through on goal for Ancona’s second. A throw-in from Zamperini gave Rungratsamee his second, and the side’s third, just after the break through a shot from a seemingly impossible angle. 3-0, and we looked set for our first Serie A win of the season. Roma hit back with their first goal moments later, but just three minutes after that Lennartsson made it 4-1 with a great long-range shot that the keeper just got a hand to. A corner from Sommese to defender Stepanovs, and it was 5-1 in the 53rd minute. Wow. That’s the way it remained at the final whistle – a Man of the Match performance from Lennartsson, two goals to 18-year-old Supat Rungratsamee (making it five in three senior games) and a 5-1 win against a side including the likes of Totti, Seedorf, Ronaldo, Walter Samuel and Emerson. Possibly the best win of my time at Ancona, though I’d prefer consistent strong performances over our recent record of hammering some sides and then losing simpler games.

[Donners]

October, season 2006/2007

October’s first match for Ancona was by no means an easy one – away to Lazio. Having hammered Roma in the previous game though, we did go in with a fair amount of confidence. El Kadouri was still out, so Chadwick, Munitis, Rabito and Sommese made up the midfield with Rungratsamee and Bucchi (10 goals in 9 games between them) as the forwards. Lazio somehow got no less than four players past our defenders in the opening minute, but Agliardi did well to pull off a save. Rungratsamee had a 14th minute shot from close range saved, and the wasted chance proved costly with a Lazio goal three minutes later. Rabito made some good runs down the middle in the second half, but to no avail. A second to Lazio in the 57th minute and third ten minutes later ended the match as a contest. Goran Pandev came on for a rare run in the final minutes and looked quite good, forcing two saves. Lazio made it 0-4 in the final seconds for a quite ridiculous turnaround from the previous game.

Our chances of getting back on track after that big loss were not aided by an encounter with Inter. El Kadouri returned, but the opening minutes were dominated by Inter. It was only due to the crossbar, slightly over-powered chips and an offside ruling that the game was still scoreless at the break. Inter were clearly the better team, but we were hanging in there. The story was much the same in the second half, though Inter had fewer chances. We held on for the remaining 45 minutes and snuck away with a point from the scoreless draw.

The next match of our tough trio to start October was actually the hardest of all – top-placed Milan away. A defensive tackle knocked the ball straight into the path of a Milan forward for a goal just four minutes in, and we were lucky to avoid a second two minutes later thanks to an offside ruling. Nonetheless, they got their second in the 20th and added a third shortly after half time. A fourth and fifth in the last few minutes sealed our second huge loss of the month, 0-5 this time, even though I went to a 5-3-2 formation in the second half. Agliardi was pretty flat, but once again our defence was badly exposed for a lack of pace.

To cap off a pretty horrible month, we faced Juventus. That’s Roma, Lazio, Inter, Milan and now Juventus in five games. I dropped Munitis after several weeks of pretty poor form, replacing him with Lennartsson. Daniel Ferrari took over in goal, since Agliardi had let in 10 goals in three games this month. It was a big ask for such an inexperienced player, but he couldn’t do much worse than Agliardi had done lately. Thankfully, we got off to a good start with a goal to Rungratsamee after six minutes. It got even better with a second to the Thai striker seven minutes later. Juventus had a goal ruled offside in the 19th minute, leaving us with a 2-0 lead at half time. Bucchi had a strong shot saved seconds after the resumption of play and Juventus took advantage with a goal on the counter-attack. A few minutes later, and it was suddenly 2-2. With forty minutes to go, our lead was suddenly gone and Juventus had the momentum. A 58th minute goal to Juventus put them ahead and we showed no sign of coming back after that. 2-3 for our third loss of a dismal month. Not only do we have just one win for the season, leaving us in the relegation zone, we now have a significantly negative goal difference. Furthermore, Munitis and Agliardi are struggling, Ferrari doesn’t look ready for first-team football, Bucchi had a bad month and contract negotiations are going nowhere. This is not shaping up as a good season.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Holders - Juventus

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Milan | | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 1 | +17 | 22 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Inter | | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 4 | +7 | 19 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Juventus | | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 13 | 12 | +1 | 15 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Palermo | | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 11 | +6 | 14 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Udinese | | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 7 | +6 | 14 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Roma | | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 13 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Verona | | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 13 | -1 | 13 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Lazio | | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 6 | +5 | 12 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Lecce | | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 12 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Perugia | | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 8 | +1 | 11 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Brescia | | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 11 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Torino | | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 13 | -2 | 9 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Bologna | | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 13 | -5 | 9 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Chievo | | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 8 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Vicenza | | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 15 | -5 | 7 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Genoa | | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 12 | -7 | 7 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Atalanta | | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 14 | -4 | 6 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Sampdoria | | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 18 | -6 | 6 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | | Ancona | | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 19 | -7 | 6 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | | Napoli | | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 12 | -6 | 5 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[Terk]

munitis off form, agliardi off form, bucchi off form, the hardest month fixture wise ever seen in the history of football. does not bode well for the season

however, on a plus note, this does remain a must-read and one of my favourite stories on the board. hope you keep this up for many a season yet

[Donners]

Cheers, Terk. The good thing about such a terrible run of opponents is that the next few months should see Ancona face relatively easier opponents. Then again, we haven't exactly looked too strong against the weaker sides, either...

November, season 2006/2007

The most critical aspect of November was the issue of contract re-signings. With nearly half the first team squad having an expiring contract, this month would shape our future. My first act of the month was to offer all these players a new deal. Almost all were well below their asking price, but many were asking more than triple their current wages, which I was not willing to pay.

While waiting for responses, I also had to deal with the first game of the month, against Torino. Facing a mid-table side after the last five games was a welcome relief, as was a goal from Rungratsamee after no more than 11 seconds. A great chance for Torino in the early minutes was wasted badly, but after controlling the early part of the first half they suddenly scored two goals in as many minutes mid-way through it to leave us a goal down. Rungratsamee missed a shot just before the break, ensuring we remained behind at half time. Rungratsamee missed again in the 72nd, this time from a free kick, and it looked like it was all over. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Luciano Zavagno and Badr El Kadouri went off with injuries. Yet again, in the 87th minute, Rungratsamee missed an attempt at goal – this time a header. However, on this occasion the ball hit the bar and came back to him, and he simply stepped around the goalkeeper and scored his second. The final minutes went back and forth, but just when we were finally given a chance through the sending off of a Torino player, the final whistle blew to end the game 2-2. Rungratsamee now has 9 goals in 8 games, but Bucchi is really struggling alongside him.

The early responses to my contract offers saw El Kadouri sign until 2010 and Marco Vianello sign until 2009, but Chadwick, Sommese and Rabito rejected their deals. Zavagno and Agliardi decided to remain with the club for an additional season. Those who accepted requested and took deals that weren’t much better than their current wages, but all those with demands of significant increases rejected their offers. The next batch of responses saw Alessandro Potenza actually accept a pay cut to sign until 2010 (though I’m probably worse off under this, as he really doesn’t seem to be very good), but both Bucchi and Rabito (again) rejected their new offers. I was worried about losing Bucchi a few months ago, but with his recent form I’m now not so sure it would be that bad. Perhaps paying him the £16K he’s requesting (up from £3.6K) would be a bad move on my part. Three rejections from Rabito, Bucchi, Chadwick and Sommese forced me to withdraw from talks with them. They are now uttering the dangerous line about the club not having the resources to pay them, which is what my coaches said before the infamous exodus… With Chelsea, Juventus and Lazio after Rabito, I wish I’d signed him to a longer contract initially. Supat Rungratsamee made things even worse by demanding a new contract to “commit his future to the clubâ€. Being signed for four more seasons isn’t enough to do that. Well, naturally the deal he’s requesting is for £5K per week more. Sigh. With doubts over forwards Bucchi and Rabito re-signing with Ancona, I completed a deal to sign Colombian international Dwight Pezzarossi from . He’s a tall striker with a good scoring record, and will join in January.

At any rate, there was a game somewhere amid all this against Udinese. Bucchi started on the bench in a particularly rare event, with Rungratsamee partnered by Mirko Vucinic. Rabito is playing in the middle due to Munitis’ poor form, so I need a regular partner for Rungratsamee now that Bucchi is in terrible form. Rungratsamee, however, was having no such problems, scoring the game’s first in the 38th. A 60th minute Udinese penalty was saved by Agliardi in a rare positive moment, and a chip moments later gave Vucinic his first of the season. An incredible run and goal from a tight angle gave Rungratsamee his second in the final moments of the game, giving us win number two for the season. The expansion of my stadium, Del Conero, was completed after the match, expanding it by 5,208 seats to 27,105 (22,261 seated).

Next came Bologna. The first half was scoreless, which seemed very unusual after our last few games. The second half became much more challenging with the loss of Rungratsamee to injury only a few minutes in. Only a couple of minutes after he went off, however, a cross from Chadwick into the area saw Vucinic send in a ripping strike that beat the keeper. One minute after that, Bucchi (Rungratsamee’s replacement) made it 2-0 in a welcome return to the scoresheet. Bologna pulled one back late, but it wasn’t enough. Unfortunately, there was bad news after the game, with Rungratsamee out for a month with a broken arm. I countered this bad news with good news – I re-signed Rabito until 2009. It cost me £13.25K per week (about four times what he was getting), but with Chelsea, Lazio and Juventus interested, it could be worth it. Hell, if it doesn’t work out, he’s still earning much less than Grabbi!

Bucchi and Vucinic paired up against Vicenza with the incredibly in-form Rungratsamee out injured. Speaking of form, Nordin Lennartsson has done a great job in the middle – so great, in fact, that Munitis has not yet returned to the side since being dropped. Just seven minutes in, we had a move reminiscent of previous seasons – a cross from Chadwick tapped into the goal by Bucchi. Rabito looked to celebrate his new contract with a series of long-range curling shots, but he came closest with an angled strike from just outside the area that came back off the bar. We simply controlled the game in the first 20 minutes, and should have finished it more than one goal up. Rabito alone had seven shots in the first half, but after 45 minutes it was still only 1-0. Another classic play – Bucchi firing in a shot that was parried, then slotting in the rebound – took us to 2-0 in the 61st. Bucchi finished as the clear Man of the Match, and with three straight wins our season looks to be back on track.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Milan | | 12 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 24 | 3 | +21 | 30 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Inter | | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 6 | +13 | 29 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Palermo | | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 22 | 12 | +10 | 24 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Juventus | | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 18 | 16 | +2 | 24 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Lazio | | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 18 | 11 | +7 | 21 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Roma | | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 20 | 16 | +4 | 20 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Verona | | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 19 | 17 | +2 | 20 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Perugia | | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 11 | +3 | 16 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Udinese | | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 16 | 14 | +2 | 16 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Brescia | | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 17 | 16 | +1 | 16 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Ancona | | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 21 | 22 | -1 | 16 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Lecce | | 12 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 18 | -6 | 15 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Genoa | | 12 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 11 | 15 | -4 | 13 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Sampdoria | | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 20 | 26 | -6 | 12 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Chievo | | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 16 | 23 | -7 | 12 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Bologna | | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 19 | -7 | 12 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Torino | | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 23 | -9 | 10 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Atalanta | | 12 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 15 | 19 | -4 | 9 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | | Vicenza | | 12 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 22 | -9 | 9 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | | Napoli | | 12 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 22 | -12 | 6 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[Donners]

December, season 2006/2007

Our chance for a fourth straight win came against Palermo in the first match of December. Bucchi gave Ancona the lead in the 28th through a penalty after Lennartsson was shoved in the area. Bucchi went off just before half time with an injury, leaving Marco Vianello to partner Vucinic. Palermo hit back in the 60th, and despite a few attacks we could not regain the lead in the remaining minutes. Brazilian midfielder Arthur made his debut in the final minutes (having swapped with Adu from the Under-20 side), but there was bad news after the game – Bucchi suffered a groin strain, putting him out for two months.

With my two first choice strikers out, Rabito partnered Vucinic in the next game against Perugia. The new combination almost had an early success, but Vucinic’s 10th minute header from a Rabito cross was parried and cleared. A nice run around an opponent took Pedro Munitis through the middle of the pitch in the 26th minute, and he finished the move with an excellent shot from just outside the area which beat the keeper and went into the net. A rare highlight for the Spanish international, who has at least managed to get a first team spot back with Rabito pushed forward. Chadwick won the ball on the right wing in the 58th, bringing the ball forward for a pass to Vucinic on the edge of the area. He sent in a fairly sloppy cross to his partner, but Rabito had the pace and class to get onto it and slot the ball in from close range. Perugia pulled a goal back a few minutes later to make it 2-1, which is how it remained at the end of the game. After a pretty sluggish start, we now seem set for a mid-table spot at least.

With a streak of six games without a loss, we approached our game against 15th placed Atlanta with some confidence. Atlanta did get one in early, but it was ruled offside. A header from Sarr after a corner was blocked mid-way through the half and Atlanta scored on the counter-attack to take the lead. A few minutes later, and it was suddenly 0-2 in their favour. A brilliant long pass from Lennartsson just after the break allowed Marco Vianello to flick the ball across the area for Rabito to tap in, bringing the scores to 1-2. Lennartsson badly missed a free kick from the edge of the area in the 70th and a Rabito volley from similar range a few minutes later went wide. With just one minute remaining in extra time, a header from Sommese in the middle floated nicely over a defender’s head to put substitute Mirko Vucinic through on goal. He held the ball just long enough for El Kadouri to get into position, and then flicked a pass across the area just as the player he replaced did 45 minutes earlier. Again the target scored with a simple tap-in, levelling the scores with only injury time left. We held on for those three minutes, extending the streak to seven games, though not without some difficulty. I signed young defender Devis Nossa after the game.

Devis Nossa [21, D C, ITA]

Nossa joins on a free transfer after being released from Inter. He spent five seasons there, but only played the one senior game. However, he was very solid in their Under-20s, and is very powerful in the air while possessing reasonable pace. He’s only on £600 per week, but could play a regular role at the back. Nossa will start in the Under-20s.

The final match of 2006 was against Brescia. They took the lead after only seven minutes and added a second exactly seven minutes after half time. A third in the 58th made sure our seven game run without a loss was over and not even the return of Rungratsamee from injury in the final minutes could help. We had very few chances all game in the 0-3 loss – not a good way to end the year. I did at least manage to get Italian Under-21 defender Andrea Briotti to agree to join the club on a Bosman from Roma in May.

[Terk]

good to see form picking up, though the brescia game was a bit of an atni-climax. will be interesting to see how you cope for the remainder of bucchi's time out

[Donners]

Pezzarossi's signing is pretty good timing with regard to Bucchi's injury...

January, season 2006/2007

I snapped up three new signings at the beginning of 2007:

Olasunkanmi Akande Ajide [21, DM RC, NGA – 15 U21/1]

Ajide joins after several seasons with Roma. He has never played regular Serie A football (only seven games in total), but looked good in both the Under-20s and when on loan to lower sides. He possesses decent pace and is overall a solid but unremarkable player. He will take Amor Reid’s rotational spot in the senior side, with Reid going down to the Under-20s. In the long-term, I hope he can take over from Sommese on the right wing if he doesn’t re-sign with the club.

Vito Redavid [25, M LC, ITA – Capped at Schoolboy level]

A rare purchase (£75K), Redavid is a reasonably talented midfielder who has spent the past few seasons at Juventus. He never found a regular spot there, but showed good signs on loan to lower division sides. Like Ajide, he’s reasonably quick and well-rounded.

Dwight Pezzarossi [27, S C, GUA – 18/7]

Pretty much a direct replacement for Bucchi, Pezzarossi has scored at an exceptional rate in the Spanish lower leagues – 54 goals in 76 games. He’s tall, powerful and quite quick, with superb composure in front of goal. A rotational role is likely this season, but with Bucchi and Vucinic probably gone at the end of the season, he should take a more regular role next year.

Happily, I also managed to re-sign Supat Rungratsamee. He’s only contracted until 2011 (which is not much longer than he was contracted until before) and is now on £5.5K per week rather than under £1K, but is at least no longer unhappy.

Pezzarossi made his debut alongside Rabito in the first game of 2007 against Napoli, with Ajide starting on the bench. Napoli scored from a corner after only three minutes and the game did not get much better from there. Though our 20th placed opponents had few chances after that, all we could manage were a series of wild long-range shots from Munitis and Lennartsson which did nothing to regain parity. It wasn’t until the 81st minute that we finally got one in, with Rabito flicking in a wonderful pass from Badr El Kadouri. Unfortunately, the scores remained level for just four minutes, with a Napoli counter-attack resulting in their second. Pezzarossi had a simply dismal debut (rating ‘3’) in the 2-0 loss.

Rungratsamee, though not fully fit, replaced Pezzarossi as the partner for Rabito in the following game against Lecce. An odd sequence saw a 5th minute corner from Vincenzo Sommese twice headed back to him by Rungratsamee, but the Thai striker put Sommese’s third pass straight into the net for an early Ancona lead. Lennartsson made it 2-0 with a 51st minute free kick from just outside the area, sealing the win. Pezzarossi came on in the 67th, and twelve minutes later he was in the area when fellow substitute Marco Leonelli (in a very rare senior game) sent a wonderful pass from the midfield into the area. Sommese received it and tapped it across to Pezzarossi who fired in his first goal for Ancona. The 3-0 was soured by the loss of Supat Rungratsamee in the final moments to a calf strain, putting him out for three weeks.

Mirko Vucinic replaced Rungratsamee to partner Rabito against Genoa, with Pezzarossi still on the bench. He made me look good after only seven minutes, heading a weak clearance straight into the net. Genoa levelled the scores in the 26th and they remained that way at the break. A beautiful run and cross from left back Alessandro Zamperini saw Munitis slam home our second in the 71st, but just four minutes later Genoa again scored an equaliser. Chadwick took the ball in the 83rd and tried to repeat Zamperini’s move from earlier, charging down the left and crossing the ball to a spot just outside the 6-yard box. This time it was Vito Redavid on the end of it, having come on just ten minutes earlier for his debut, but he struck it in just as firmly as Munitis to snatch back the lead with a few minutes to go. We held onto the lead this time, and in fact were unlucky not to pick up a fourth when a long-range Vucinic shot beat the out-of-position keeper and went inches wide. Another solid win for Ancona, and a top-10 finish this season now looks likely.

Backup keeper Daniel Ferrari got to play his third senior game of the season against Sampdoria, just to give Agliardi a break. A good run from Rabito took him right into the 6-yard box in the 34th, and he managed to cap it off by squeezing the ball between the near post and the keeper to make it four goals in seven games, after not scoring in his first 14. The best thing about the injuries to Bucchi and Rungratsamee has been Rabito’s excellent performances as a forward. A great pass over the top of a few defenders from Lennartsson saw Rabito chip the ball over the keeper for his second in the 54th, taking Ancona to a 2-0 lead. Lennartsson put through one of his own two minutes later with an astonishing 70-yard strike that curled right around the goalkeeper (and later took the Goal of the Month award). I was laughing at his long-range shooting ability a few months ago, but this was something special – put in from beyond the centre circle. To be fair, the opposing keeper had apparently fallen over or something, because he was a little squashed circle for a few seconds – just enough time for the ball to get around him. Ferrari picked up his first clean sheet in the 3-0 win. Antonio Perrone arrived from his arranged transfer after the game.

Antonio Perrone [21, D C, ITA]

Though he has never played a senior game in his career, despite being at Lecce since 01/02 and even going on loan in Serie C1/A, Perrone looks to be a decent player. He’s tall, quick and works hard. He will start in the Under-20s, but should get a senior game eventually.

I had to make a few changes to the side to face Verona with Sommese and Ferrari both injured after the previous match with strained ankle ligaments and Zamperini suspended for one game after picking up five yellow cards. At least Rungratsamee and Bucchi returned from injury on the bench. The first half was scoreless, and the closest Verona came to changing that early in the second was with a free kick which hit the post and went out. They again came close in the 84th, with a shot on the open goal coming back off the crossbar, but neither side was actually able to get the ball into the net.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Inter | | 22 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 37 | 8 | +29 | 53 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Milan | | 22 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 36 | 12 | +24 | 47 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Juventus | | 22 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 37 | 21 | +16 | 45 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Verona | | 22 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 34 | 22 | +12 | 38 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Roma | | 22 | 11 | 2 | 9 | 36 | 35 | +1 | 35 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Udinese | | 22 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 32 | 21 | +11 | 34 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Palermo | | 22 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 28 | 22 | +6 | 34 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Brescia | | 22 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 30 | 27 | +3 | 32 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Ancona | | 21 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 36 | 33 | +3 | 31 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Lazio | | 21 | 9 | 4 | 8 | 32 | 31 | +1 | 31 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Perugia | | 22 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 26 | 26 | 0 | 27 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Chievo | | 21 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 32 | 33 | -1 | 25 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Genoa | | 22 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 20 | 25 | -5 | 25 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Vicenza | | 22 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 30 | 35 | -5 | 24 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Sampdoria | | 22 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 35 | 43 | -8 | 24 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Atalanta | | 22 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 30 | 32 | -2 | 22 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Lecce | | 21 | 6 | 4 | 11 | 18 | 37 | -19 | 22 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Bologna | | 22 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 21 | 34 | -13 | 21 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | | Napoli | | 22 | 4 | 3 | 15 | 17 | 39 | -22 | 15 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | | Torino | | 22 | 3 | 5 | 14 | 21 | 52 | -31 | 14 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

The senior stats as at the end of January also follow:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pkd | Inf | Name | Apps | Gls | Asts | MoM | Pass | Tck | Drb | Sh Tar | Av R | Value |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| GK | | Agliardi, F | 21 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 47 % | - | - | - | 6.52 | £825K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| FC | | Rabito, A | 20 (3) | 5 | 2 | 2 | 71 % | 3.08 | 2.62 | 56 % | 7.17 | £5.25M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| ML | | El Kadouri, B | 20 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 70 % | 2.72 | 1.36 | 42 % | 6.95 | £3.2M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MR | | Chadwick, L* | 19 (2) | 0 | 4 | 2 | 67 % | 4.86 | 1.82 | 25 % | 7.14 | £4.8M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Inj | Zamperini, A | 19 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 74 % | 2.61 | 0.37 | 100 % | 6.89 | £1.2M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MC | | Munitis, P | 17 (2) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 71 % | 2.90 | 0.73 | 30 % | 6.79 | £1.4M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DC | | Sarr | 16 (3) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 78 % | 2.77 | 0.12 | 100 % | 6.95 | £1.6M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| MC | | Lennartsson, N | 16 (1) | 3 | 3 | 1 | 74 % | 2.57 | 0.69 | 50 % | 7.41 | £3.2M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DR | Wnt | Cassani, M | 14 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 61 % | 3.02 | 1.69 | - | 6.73 | £200K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DC | | Stepanovs, I | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 69 % | 1.73 | - | 100 % | 6.50 | £325K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Inj | Sommese, V* | 13 (2) | 0 | 4 | 1 | 70 % | 3.78 | 1.97 | 47 % | 7.13 | £2.4M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB3 | | Bucchi, C* | 13 (1) | 9 | 3 | 4 | 56 % | 1.00 | 1.17 | 76 % | 7.29 | £4.9M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB1 | | Cattani, M | 12 (1) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 65 % | 3.23 | 0.24 | - | 6.69 | £850K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB5 | | Rungratsamee, S | 11 (2) | 12 | 2 | 2 | 61 % | 0.73 | 3.18 | 67 % | 7.85 | £4.6M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| FC | | Vucinic, M | 10 (5) | 3 | 5 | 0 | 58 % | 0.91 | 0.30 | 80 % | 6.40 | £2.4M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| DL | | Zavagno, L | 10 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 70 % | 3.08 | 1.13 | - | 6.64 | £575K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB6 | | Potenza, A | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 75 % | 0.83 | 0.17 | - | 6.29 | £725K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | Stendardo, G | 4 (4) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 73 % | 3.19 | - | - | 6.50 | £825K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Inj | Ferrari, D | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 44 % | - | - | - | 7.00 | £550K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | Vianello, M | 2 (3) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 83 % | 2.22 | 0.37 | 100 % | 6.60 | £1.2M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Inj | Reid, A | 1 (4) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 54 % | 2.66 | - | 100 % | 6.40 | £450K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Loa | Pandev, G | 1 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60 % | 2.37 | - | - | 6.00 | £500K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | Pezzarossi, D | 1 (2) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 66 % | 1.85 | - | 100 % | 5.33 | £3.1M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB7 | | Adu, F | 0 (6) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80 % | 1.57 | 0.78 | 100 % | 6.83 | £0 |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB4 | | Ajide, O | 0 (3) | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 6.67 | £1.7M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Yel | Arthur | 0 (3) | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 6.00 | £1.1M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | Unh | Leonelli, M | 0 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 6.00 | £400K |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| SB2 | | Redavid, V | 0 (1) | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 7.00 | £1.8M |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | | |

| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[Donners]

February, season 2006/2007

Dwight Pezzarossi and Andrea Rabito again paired up in the first game of February against Roma, with Bucchi and Rungratsamee still on the bench. With the horrible run of games we had October nearly upon us again, it’s important they’re fit and ready to go. We won the previous encounter against Roma 5-1, but how could we do in the return match? Two goals to Roma striker Ronaldo in the first seven minutes provided a quick answer to that one. An incredible run around a series of opponents by Rabito got us one back a minute after Roma’s second, but he wasted a chance to draw level in the 24th, hitting the post when one-on-one with the keeper. Pezzarossi missed a similar chance a few minutes later and a 44th minute penalty to Roma after a trip from Sarr extended their lead to two goals. Rabito hit the post from close range again in the 49th, ending our hopes of winning. Roma capped it off with a fourth late in the game to avenge their loss earlier in the season.

Chievo was our last game before the truly scary run of top teams. Rungratsamee partnered Rabito up front. We had two lucky escapes early, with Chievo having one goal ruled offside and another shot inches wide. They finally scored in the 12th only to have a second goal ruled offside a few minutes later. Chievo had a player sent off mid-way through the first half, but just as it looked like we were going to take advantage, Munitis ruined a great run by having a shot from outside the area when he could have passed to the unopposed Rungratsamee well ahead of him. He made amends by scoring in the 34th, but Chievo regained the lead a few minutes after the break. Rungratsamee, who had been quiet, sent in a nice pass across the area for what was surely a certain goal for Rabito, but the forward inexplicably put it far too wide and hit the post. Rungratsamee somehow had two shots from about 10 yards out saved in the final minutes after great passes from Freddie Adu in his return to the senior side. Those wasted chances cost us the points – Ancona down 1-2 with a tough run to follow.

Top placed Inter were our first opponents on that run – but after 1-4 and 1-2 losses in our last two games, it’s not like we could do too much worse. Inter scored twice in the early minutes, and it was only through rare decent defending that we managed to keep it that low. Inter simply controlled the game, and the final tally of 18 shots to 5 made that quite clear. 0-2 was actually a flattering result for Ancona.

Next came Lazio, the side that hammered us 0-4 last time. We got a lucky break in the 24th, with Chadwick knocked over just inside the area. Rungratsamee’s penalty was initially saved, but he managed to tap in the loose ball. Just four minutes later, he drilled one in from 30 yards to give us a shock two-goal lead. Agliardi held a couple of fairly weak shots, but was eventually beaten in the 41st. We remained a goal ahead at half time and held that lead until there were just seven minutes left, when Lazio scored out of nowhere. The scores remained locked at 2-2 for the final minutes and we had to be satisfied with just one point after an early (if surprising) two-goal lead.

Second placed Milan came next in the difficult sequence of games. A rushed clearance from Zamperini was all that kept Milan from scoring in the 18th, while an El Kadouri header from a corner was cleared off the line. A wonderful sequence after a Mattia Cassani throw-in in the 41st saw rapid-fire passes from Chadwick and Pezzarossi reach Rungratsamee in the area. The keeper got his hand to his shot, but didn’t deflect it enough to keep it out of the net. Rungratsamee was unlucky not to score a second with a powerful shot from inside the area brilliantly saved early in the second half. Agliardi was having a rare great game, but finally conceded a goal to a corner with twenty minutes to go. Lennartsson hit the side netting in injury time and Agliardi made one more save in his finest Ancona game to ensure we grabbed a point. Two points from games against Milan and Lazio is not such a bad result. I arranged the signing of German Under-21 international central midfielder Markus Neumayr of Arsenal for £1.7M, to take place at the end of the season. It’s a hefty transfer fee by my standards, but he looks to be a great playmaking midfielder, which we really lack at the moment.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Holders - Juventus

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Inter | | 26 | 19 | 5 | 2 | 45 | 9 | +36 | 62 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Milan | | 26 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 45 | 20 | +25 | 54 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Juventus | | 26 | 14 | 8 | 4 | 46 | 29 | +17 | 50 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Udinese | | 26 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 37 | 22 | +15 | 44 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Verona | | 26 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 37 | 25 | +12 | 44 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Palermo | | 26 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 36 | 24 | +12 | 44 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Roma | | 26 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 43 | 42 | +1 | 39 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Brescia | | 26 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 36 | 32 | +4 | 38 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Lazio | | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 41 | 41 | 0 | 36 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Chievo | | 26 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 37 | 36 | +1 | 34 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Perugia | | 26 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 32 | 30 | +2 | 33 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Ancona | | 26 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 41 | 44 | -3 | 33 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Lecce | | 26 | 9 | 4 | 13 | 26 | 44 | -18 | 31 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Sampdoria | | 26 | 9 | 3 | 14 | 40 | 50 | -10 | 30 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Atalanta | | 26 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 34 | 34 | 0 | 29 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Genoa | | 26 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 23 | 32 | -9 | 29 |

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| 17th | | Vicenza | | 26 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 32 | 39 | -7 | 28 |

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| 18th | | Bologna | | 26 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 25 | 39 | -14 | 25 |

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| 19th | | Napoli | | 26 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 18 | 47 | -29 | 16 |

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| 20th | | Torino | | 26 | 3 | 6 | 17 | 22 | 57 | -35 | 15 |

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| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[Donners]

March, season 2006/2007

March kicked off with yet another tough game, away to Juventus. Munitis and Rabito had shots on goal in the first five minutes from inside the area, but both missed. Juventus had no such problems, putting in their first after 26 minutes thanks to Sommese giving the ball away in the midfield. A sloppy backpass from Zamperini that was easily intercepted by a Juventus forward nearly gave them their second just after the break, but Agliardi pulled off two good saves. It looked like we were headed for a 0-1 loss with Juventus controlling the second half, but a wonderful pass over the top of a few defenders from Sommese put Rabito through for an 85th minute equaliser. Federico Agliardi and Manuel Cattani did well to hold up against a Juventus onslaught following the goal, and somehow we made it to the final whistle without letting through another goal. A second great game from Agliardi and another point against a top side. The only bad news was the loss of Pedro Munitis to shin splints, putting him out until May. A few weeks ago Rabito would have been his automatic replacement, but with 7 goals in 13 games playing as a forward, I’m not so sure. He and Rungratsamee have done so well together up forward that Bucchi has been sitting on the bench for the last few games. Sommese did fairly well here, so I’ll probably go with a midfield of El Kadouri, Lennartsson, Sommese and Chadwick for the next few games, with Freddy Adu, Olasunkanmi Ajide and Vito Redavid playing a bit more off the bench.

After our long run against the top few sides, a game against Torino came as something of a relief. Lennartsson missed four shots in the scoreless opening half. Young defender Devis Nossa came on for his debut late in the game, but did little. A powerful shot from Adu in the final minutes was saved and the game remained scoreless at the final whistle.

Udinese, sitting in 5th spot, were our next opponents. Bucchi partnered Rungratsamee, giving Rabito a rest. Udinese should have taken the lead in the 25th, but a shot on an open goal went over. The first half was pretty dull and the second was little better, but a cross from substitute Dwight Pezzarossi in the 75th minute saw Christian Bucchi knock in his 10th of the season – and first since early December. Just as we looked to have the win, Udinese snuck one between Agliardi and the near post, putting the ball into the net in the final seconds of regular time. 1-1 was how it remained at the final whistle. It was our fifth straight draw, and ninth straight game without a win.

Our chance to avoid a tenth successive game without a win came against Bologna. A wild pass across the goal from Cattani gave Bologna an early lead. They held that lead at the end of the first half, but a corner from Sommese gave Bucchi his second goal in as many games from close range. The scores only stayed level for ten minutes, with another loose pass across the back, this time from Lennartsson, putting through a Bologna forward to hand them back the lead in the 70th. Again it took a corner from Sommese to bring us level again – this time headed in by centre back Sarr a few minutes after Bologna’s second. Another solid performance, but we again had to be satisfied with a single point after the 2-2 draw, making it 10 games without an Ancona win.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Holders - Juventus

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Inter | | 30 | 19 | 7 | 4 | 47 | 15 | +32 | 64 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Milan | | 30 | 19 | 6 | 5 | 50 | 24 | +26 | 63 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Juventus | | 30 | 16 | 10 | 4 | 50 | 30 | +20 | 58 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Verona | | 30 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 49 | 29 | +20 | 54 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Udinese | | 30 | 14 | 9 | 7 | 41 | 24 | +17 | 51 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Palermo | | 30 | 13 | 9 | 8 | 41 | 30 | +11 | 48 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Brescia | | 30 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 43 | 40 | +3 | 43 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Perugia | | 30 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 38 | 34 | +4 | 42 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Roma | | 30 | 13 | 3 | 14 | 47 | 47 | 0 | 42 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Lecce | | 30 | 12 | 5 | 13 | 33 | 46 | -13 | 41 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Lazio | | 30 | 10 | 8 | 12 | 48 | 52 | -4 | 38 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Ancona | | 30 | 8 | 13 | 9 | 45 | 48 | -3 | 37 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Chievo | | 30 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 41 | 43 | -2 | 35 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Bologna | | 30 | 9 | 8 | 13 | 37 | 46 | -9 | 35 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Sampdoria | | 30 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 44 | 55 | -11 | 35 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Atalanta | | 30 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 40 | 41 | -1 | 33 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Vicenza | | 30 | 8 | 9 | 13 | 34 | 40 | -6 | 33 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Genoa | | 30 | 7 | 11 | 12 | 25 | 37 | -12 | 32 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | | Napoli | | 30 | 4 | 7 | 19 | 22 | 54 | -32 | 19 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | | Torino | | 30 | 3 | 7 | 20 | 23 | 63 | -40 | 16 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[Terk]

need a win, donners. still on the edges of the relegation battle hope you don't fall further

[Donners]

Let's find out...

April, season 2006/2007

After a fortnight between games, we faced Vicenza hoping to finally get a win on the board. The first half went back and forth, but a beautiful 30th minute interception in the midfield from Nordin Lennartsson sent him running towards the goal. A neat pass on the edge of the area gave Bucchi a clear shot at the goal, and he put through his third in as many games. Slightly into the second half, and it was two goals to Bucchi thanks to an El Kadouri corner. Vicenza pulled one back in the 56th, but six minutes later Rabito ran around the keeper to make it 3-1 after a neat pass from Bucchi. Rabito repaid the favour in the 73rd to give Bucchi his first hat-trick for Ancona. At last, our streak of games without a win was broken with a convincing 4-1 win. I was happy to let Bucchi go at the end of the season a few weeks ago, but with five goals in the last three games, and fourteen from twenty-one for the season, the decision is suddenly a lot more difficult. Dwight Pezzarossi’s lack of impact certainly has not helped.

We had the chance to follow up that win against Palermo. Rungratsamee returned to partner Bucchi, but they wasted several early chances. Palermo was up 0-2 after only 30 minutes, and sealed it with a third early in the second. Everything went wrong for Ancona going forward, and we never looked in the game after the first few minutes. A simply awful performance from Ancona.

Things didn’t get much better in the following game against Napoli. Though we had much more of the play, the likes of Rungratsamee, Bucchi and Adu (in his first senior start this season, having come off the bench a dozen times) had their gettable first half shots either saved or wide. Not even having Napoli reduced to ten men helped us out – indeed, we were lucky not to go a goal down with an 81st minute Napoli goal ruled offside. We had twelve shots for the game but not a single goal in the 0-0 draw, which is a disappointing result.

The final game of the month was against Perugia. The first half was scoreless, with Pezzarossi (replacing Bucchi) having our only real chance saved. Bucchi came on in the 67th, and immediately had a penalty to take after Rungratsamee was pushed over in the area. He put through his 15th of the season, but the lead lasted just six minutes. The scores remained 1-1 when the final whistle blew – our eighth draw from the last ten games. At least we have avoided relegation, which was the main concern this season.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Holders - Juventus

| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Inter | | 34 | 21 | 8 | 5 | 53 | 20 | +33 | 71 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Juventus | | 34 | 19 | 11 | 4 | 60 | 32 | +28 | 68 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Milan | | 34 | 20 | 6 | 8 | 56 | 31 | +25 | 66 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Verona | | 34 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 55 | 34 | +21 | 60 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Palermo | | 34 | 16 | 10 | 8 | 52 | 34 | +18 | 58 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Udinese | | 34 | 16 | 9 | 9 | 45 | 28 | +17 | 57 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Roma | | 34 | 17 | 3 | 14 | 57 | 49 | +8 | 54 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Brescia | | 34 | 15 | 8 | 11 | 52 | 44 | +8 | 53 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Lecce | | 34 | 14 | 6 | 14 | 38 | 52 | -14 | 48 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Perugia | | 34 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 41 | 40 | +1 | 46 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Lazio | | 34 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 51 | 56 | -5 | 44 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Ancona | | 34 | 9 | 15 | 10 | 50 | 53 | -3 | 42 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Vicenza | | 34 | 10 | 10 | 14 | 41 | 47 | -6 | 40 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Bologna | | 34 | 10 | 10 | 14 | 45 | 52 | -7 | 40 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Atalanta | | 34 | 10 | 9 | 15 | 48 | 49 | -1 | 39 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Chievo | | 34 | 8 | 11 | 15 | 43 | 55 | -12 | 35 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Genoa | | 34 | 8 | 11 | 15 | 28 | 42 | -14 | 35 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Sampdoria | | 34 | 10 | 5 | 19 | 48 | 67 | -19 | 35 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | R | Napoli | | 34 | 4 | 10 | 20 | 24 | 57 | -33 | 22 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | R | Torino | | 34 | 4 | 7 | 23 | 27 | 72 | -45 | 19 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[Donners]

May, season 2006/2007

Defender Andrea Briotti arrived at the beginning of May.

Andrea Briotti [21, Sw/D LC, ITA – 5 U21/0]

Though he has only played thirteen senior games in his career, with just one in Serie A with Roma, Briotti comes over on significant wages (£7.5K per week) with a first team role expected. He reads the play well and possesses reasonable strength and pace, but will need to play well to help our often weak defence.

Briotti made his debut against Atlanta. A wonderful Mattia Cassani pass from beyond half-way into the area gave Rungratsamee a 16th minute goal. He scored a second after a nice chipped pass from El Kadouri to pretty much seal the game in the 55th, and with a late Atlanta goal ruled offside, we finished 2-0 winners.

Pedro Munitis returned on the bench against Brescia. The first half was utterly uneventful, and the second looked like being the same until Brescia scored out of nothing in the 71st. A second yellow to Rungratsamee in the final ten minutes did not help our attempts to regain parity, with the game finishing 0-1.

Bucchi and Pezzarossi joined forces up forward against Lecce in the absence of the suspended Rungratsamee, with Rabito playing in the middle. This was the second-last game of the season, with one more in June. They took the lead in the 22nd after a free kick was headed in, and a chip a dozen minutes later made it 0-2. Pezzarossi wasted a good chance to get one back late in the half, having a shot from about eight yards out saved. An incredible curling strike from Rabito just past the centre circle gave us our first in the 71st minute, but it just wasn’t enough – 1-2 in the end.

There was at least some good news to come out of the month, with Ancona players Andrea Briotti, Alessandro Fusco and Tse Lung Pappalardo called up to the Italian Under-21 side. Then again, considering the number of rubbish players around with Under-21 caps (including our own Potenza and Carlos Henrique), this means very little.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 1st | | Inter | | 37 | 23 | 9 | 5 | 59 | 22 | +37 | 78 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 2nd | | Juventus | | 37 | 22 | 11 | 4 | 69 | 34 | +35 | 77 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 3rd | | Milan | | 37 | 21 | 6 | 10 | 62 | 37 | +25 | 69 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 4th | | Udinese | | 37 | 18 | 9 | 10 | 50 | 33 | +17 | 63 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 5th | | Palermo | | 37 | 17 | 11 | 9 | 54 | 35 | +19 | 62 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 6th | | Verona | | 37 | 17 | 10 | 10 | 56 | 40 | +16 | 61 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 7th | | Brescia | | 37 | 17 | 9 | 11 | 56 | 44 | +12 | 60 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 8th | | Roma | | 37 | 18 | 4 | 15 | 60 | 52 | +8 | 58 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 9th | | Lecce | | 37 | 16 | 6 | 15 | 42 | 55 | -13 | 54 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 10th | | Perugia | | 37 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 46 | 42 | +4 | 50 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 11th | | Vicenza | | 37 | 13 | 10 | 14 | 47 | 49 | -2 | 49 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 12th | | Ancona | | 37 | 10 | 15 | 12 | 53 | 56 | -3 | 45 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 13th | | Lazio | | 37 | 12 | 9 | 16 | 54 | 61 | -7 | 45 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 14th | | Atalanta | | 37 | 11 | 9 | 17 | 51 | 53 | -2 | 42 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 15th | | Chievo | | 37 | 10 | 11 | 16 | 49 | 57 | -8 | 41 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 16th | | Bologna | | 37 | 10 | 11 | 16 | 48 | 59 | -11 | 41 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 17th | | Genoa | | 37 | 10 | 11 | 16 | 33 | 48 | -15 | 41 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 18th | | Sampdoria | | 37 | 12 | 5 | 20 | 52 | 70 | -18 | 41 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 19th | R | Napoli | | 37 | 4 | 10 | 23 | 25 | 65 | -40 | 22 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| 20th | R | Torino | | 37 | 4 | 7 | 26 | 28 | 82 | -54 | 19 |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

| | | | | | | | | | | | |

| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

</pre>

[Donners]

June, season 2006/2007

Our final game of a reasonable season was against Genoa. It was impossible for us to finish any higher than our current position of 12th, but a loss could see us sink as low as 14th. Sommese, Bucchi and Chadwick started on the pitch in what looked to be their final game for Ancona. A classic Rungratsamee run from the middle right to the area, finishing with a goal from a tight angle, saw us take the lead in the 6th. Rungratsamee tried the same move twenty minutes later, but hit the side netting with his trademark shot from a tight angle, when he really should have passed to Bucchi on the other side of the goal. Genoa drew level in the 31st minute, but with Rungratsamee having a brilliant game, it was only a matter of time before we hit back. Twenty seconds after the second half kick-off, an incredible long ball from Lennartsson put Rungratsamee straight through on goal, and he finished the move with ease. 2-1, but that only lasted for a minute – Chadwick won the ball on the wing and sent it forward for Rungratsamee. A turn around a defender and a simple finish for his second goal in a minute and second career hat-trick for Ancona. In the 64th minute, Sommese sent a wonderful curling pass over the top of a few defenders to…you guessed it, Rungratsamee. He charged at the goal line, and was pretty much on it, several yards to the left of the goal, when he finally stopped. I felt sure he was finally going to pass it this time, but not our Thai star. From a seemingly impossible angle, which I swear would be about five degrees at most, he hit it straight into the net for his fourth. A new Ancona record and a great 4-1 win to end the season.

[Terk]

great win to end the season with and it's objective achieved as you survived relegation i take it next year's consolidation and then trying to push on up the table?