It might have been a bit anticlimactic after the drama of the Champions League, but we won our second consecutive Serie A title with a routine 1-0 win over Napoli. Albert Vrancken scored the winning goal. We followed the title-winning match with a 2-0 win over Treviso that was only un-routine in that the goals were scored by our 17-year-old youth striker Michele Proietti (for whom I nurture extremely high hopes) and our 18-year-old youth defender Riccardo Caprioli (who also featured in the last 10 minutes of the Champions League final).
The win against Treviso means that, despite feeling harried and pinched for most of the season, we actually finished with one more point than we earned the season before. It also means that we went undefeated for the season, in all competitions, in our new stadium. In fact, we have yet to lose our first game there. I loved the Silvio Piola, but there’s something about the new place that tells me we’re going to love it even more.
And on that note, we need to give it a name. I propose a contest. Submit your entries and/or votes for entries in the comments or by emailing contest@runofplay.com. I’ll pick the winner (I will take votes and arguments heavily into account) and announce the results on Monday. The prize: if you come up with the winning entry, the section of the stadium where the hardcore fans sit (stand, I should say) will be named after you. That’s right, Doug Cobbleplunge: this is is your chance to see the Doug Cobbleplunge End become a reality.
There’s a lot to be said about where we are as a team, about possible offseason moves (we’ll need a new right back for sure), about youth development, about the feeder club situation, about the staff. But this isn’t the time for any of that. There are moments in life when you owe it to the forces that made you to stop and take in what you’ve done. Like you’re only the representative of a million factors and confluences that all flowed together into what happened, but because you’re the representative you have to pause and go over it all again so that everyone knows where they are. You have to reflect.
We won every competition we entered this year except the Coppa Italia, all the way back to the no-consequences Silvio Piola Cup. We’ve got the Supercoppa Italiana, the UEFA Super Cup, the European Cup, and the Serie A trophy all sitting over the fireplace, and the shine when we look in their direction is a thing to soothe your soul. We’re it, now. We’re the club. We’re not the richest club on earth, and we’re not the top-ranked club by some computer coefficient, but it’s known. Everyone knows it. We may not be on top of the mountain for long, but we made it here, and no one can ever take our flag down or tell us we don’t understand the view.
Pro Vercelli is a club with a deep history, as you know, and until this season, we were always defined by that history; we were always “the club that was struggling to recapture the greatness it had lost.” We’re not giving up one iota of our mission to live up to the past, but now our fans can point to the present as a thing of glory all on its own. If anything, we can respect the past more, because it’s no longer a torment or an unreachable ideal or a source of alienated pride. It’s something we can identify with out of our own experience. We know how it felt.
So that’s what all this means, at the moment. It won’t get much better than this. Expectations will rise, accomplishments will be taken for granted, egos will get out of control. That’s just human nature, and I know that there’s no use wishing it was otherwise if I plan to keep the club afloat. I’ll just have to manage it. But for now, we know that where we are is somewhere special. We remember what it’s like not to be here, and we can appreciate what here is both for itself and in light of everything we did to reach it.
How many times in football do you honestly get to say that? How many times in life?
Read More: Football Manager 2009, Pro Vercelli
by Brian Phillips · June 12, 2009
As Pat Riley, the former coach of the LA Lakers and the Miami Heat used to say:
“Now is the time for ‘the disease of more'”
More money, more fame, more expectations, more egos, more pressure, more fans, more everything…
How does it feel to be a Legend? Would you rather be an Icon?
I’m assuming Legend is better because it’s higher.
“If anything, we can respect the past more, because it’s no longer a torment or an unreachable ideal or a source of alienated pride. It’s something we can identify with out of our own experience. We know how it felt.”
I liked that quote. I have NEVER become a icon or legend or favoured personnel on FM09, on FM08 you became one if you simply won a cup. On this one I was at Athletico Madrid for 5 years and made them the best club in the world.
Thank you for proving to me it is possible to get your name there.
A very good article!
A little idea for a post or maybe just part of a post: a “where are they now” bit. Look up some of your more important former players from your rise to the top and see where they are now, what they’ve been doing, etc.
I think Brian Phillips stadium is the only appropriate name for the new place. Your ego may not permit such a name, but if this fairy tale had played out in the real world, I have no doubt that the fans, the board, and the media would demand nothing less.
I’ve become a regular reader of your site due to the wonderful story telling and your great sense of the history of the game. Keep up the good work!
You could get Philips as a sponsor for your stadium. Then the stadium is named after you, but if anyone accuses you of having an overinflated ego, you could point out that it’s really just corporate sponsorship and there is one more “l” in your name. It’s a win-win situation, really. Also, your medical staff would probably get free defibrillators.
Stadium names that have come in through email so far:
Stadio Virginio Rosetta [named after a great Pro Vercelli player from the 20s, added advantage of being able to nickname it “The Rosetta Stone”]
Stadio del Risveglio [Stadium of the Awakening]
Renaissance Arena
Stadio del Risorgimento [Stadium of the Resurgence, with the added bonus of paying homage to Piedmont’s role in the Italian wars for independence]
San Euse [San Siro style, short for St. Eusebius, the famous third-century bishop of Vercelli]
The House of Lions [La Casa di Leoni, or whatever that is in Italian]
Stadium names proposed in earlier comment threads:
The Inferno, the City of Dis, or the Primum Mobile [riffing on the fact that we’re located on the Via Dante Alighieri]
The Acqua Paradiso [riffs on Dante, plus justifies the fact that we’re receiving two million euros a season in corporate naming rights]
Estadio Ricordati 1910 [in honor of the stolen scudetto of 1910]
Lastly, people in all media have overwhelmingly been suggesting naming the stadium after Walter Colombo. The stadium is not going to be named after Walter Colombo. I loathe Walter Colombo. Well, these days I kind of feel sorry for him, but still…it wouldn’t make any sense.
The visiting teams locker room or bathroom stalls could be named the Colombo. The vile chill you would get while walking past the visitor’s door would provide the extra motivation.
Damn it Phillips!
Name it after your wife. That would be really sweet.
If not that, then Stadio John Connor, as he is no doubt busy saving the human race from the evil Skynet while all Pro Vercelli can do is kick a ball around as one of the few remaining teams that sports an all-human line-up. Yes, I did just see the movie and yes, it was awesome.
My suggestion the last time a ‘name the new stadium’ came up a few weeks ago was “Estadio Ricordati 1910”, which is Italian for “Remember 1910 Stadium” … 🙂
Read the article; should have read the comments. *laugh*
Which still be appropriate with all the recent hardware, as the worst thing that can happen to any champion is to forget where you came from. Leads to complacency and stomach churning liaisons with Paris Hilton …
Bianche Casacche Stadia (White Shirts, Pro Vercelli nick name).
Guido Ara is another famous player from the Pro Vercelli glory days, winning 6 serie A titles. He also managed the club.. Ara Arena? Idk it doesn’t sound very italian does it. 😀
Wikipedia comes in handy. 🙂
I still like ‘Rossetta Stone’ nickname and ‘Estadio Ricordati 1910’ best.
What about following the trail blazed by Tottenham way back in 2009 and calling it Naming Rights Stadium?
how about Stadio dei Robusti Vini Rossi?
or, if you want to waltz down the corridor of naming rights, the Stadio Vimeo, which sounds vaguely italian.
or (last one) the Stadio Il Sodoma, in honour of the Vercelli born mannerist painter, who according to Vasari lived in a house bursting with apes, squirrels and marmosets, and once painted a self portrait with a badger.
‘The Stadium of Truth’?
I don’t know, there’s something of the glare of honesty to Vericelli’s rise, and equally something of D&D – the white shirts, 1910, the press conferences, Dogan…
New email nominations:
Stadio Pietro Ferraris
“He was one of Vercelli’s favorite footballing sons and a member of the Italia squad that won the 1938 World Cup (the nation’s second). He did spend most of his late career with Inter and Torino, but he started at the hometown club and I’d have to imagine with 438 appearances in Serie A and 123 goals, plus his Azzuri success, he’s probably still highly regarded in the place of his birth.”
Another vote for Stadio Guido Ara.
Siobhan joins a couple of other people in suggesting “Naming Rights Park.”
All right Brian. We need it.
Sorry the contest results are late, by the way. I thought I said “next week” when I actually said “Monday.” Anyway, check back tomorrow for the Announcement.
Estadao do Dragao Phillips? You are known as o dragao in portuguese, you know.