There was no heroic surge. We set a punishing pace from the outset, and we kept it up to the end. For a time it looked as though Inter would keep it up with us, but they'd faltered by midseason, and when we finally won the scudetto—in a 4-1 home win against Genoa, with goals by Fábio (2), Michele Proietti, and Riccardo Caprioli; all players under 23, the latter two in their teens—we did it without much drama. Not that our fans felt the lack: in Vercelli, all that seemed to matter was that we'd picked up another title, the club's tenth overall, and equaled the club record of three straight league championships set from 1911 to 1913.
We played our last two games knowing the championship was settled, and won them with youth teams, 1-0 against Treviso and 2-0 against Lazio. We finished with 97 points, the most of any team since I started at Vercelli 12 years ago, and allowed only 19 goals all season. I would have liked to score more (I think we would have, had Teixeira not been hurt and out of sorts all year) but we won 31 games and took the league by 11 points; by any measure, it was a spectacular season.
All that was left was the Champions League final: Manchester United at the San Siro. I was nervous before the match, and not just because it had been a geologic epoch since we last won a game in Milan. We were playing to win our second straight European Cup, something no team had done in three decades. Man Utd had two of the best strikers in Europe in Steve Bony (24 goals in 29 games) and James Holmes (14 goals in 17 games), and the match was being billed as the immovable object of our defense versus the unstoppable force of their attack. On top of that, I was anxious about our own attackers: Kozlov had been playing well enough, but Teixeira had been absolutely awful since coming back from his latest injury, and I had no idea whether to play David (generally more trustworthy) or Linnane (in much better form recently) on the left. I picked Linnane, hoped Kozlov wouldn't get hurt, and left the rest to fate.
Fate looked cruel in the 31st minute, when Man Utd's Andrés Arévalo got on the end of a Steve Bony cross to put us in a 1-0 hole. But eight minutes later, Linnane dove head-first at a low ball from Paolo Martini and drove it into the back of the net. 1-1. Just before the half, Kozlov picked up a knock on a hard tackle from our former left back Arnaldo Mora. We went into halftime tied, and I had no choice but to send on Teixeira.
As the second half ground on, we gradually emerged with an advantage in possession and chances. Martini, playing in the holding midfield spot, was relentless in winning the ball, which freed up our attacking players to spread out wide and get forward, which in turn caused some disarray in Man Utd's tight 3-5-2 formation. Martini found Kenji Mogi unmarked at the edge of the area in the 51st minute, and Mogi sailed in the 20-yard shot to give us a 2-1 lead. From that point, we were never really threatened, and when I sent on our second substitute, Rafael Avilán, for the exhausted Fábio in the 78th minute, he returned the favor by scoring from close range three minutes later to give us a 3-1 lead.
Arévalo scored again to make it 3-2 in the 88th, but we survived a few minutes of late tension to secure a deserved win. Final match stats: 55%-45% possession, 16-7 shots on goal, 76%-60% pass completion.
We'd won our second straight Champions League title, and wrapped up a season in which we won the UEFA Super Cup, the Club World Cup, the Coppa Italia, the Serie A title, and the European Cup. It was a total, across-the-board triumph, and it has to go down not only as the greatest season in the history of the club but as the greatest season in twenty-first century football.
Counting the Europa League win three seasons ago, this is our third straight year winning at least a league/European double. So we're hardly strangers to success. But it's only now that I can really say we've re-established the club on a footing worthy of the past, which was the goal all along. We've proved ourselves not only against our contemporary opponents but against our own history. Now the only thing left is to figure out how to top it.
When I read 'which was the goal all along' I almost thought you were going to stop playing your Pro Vercelli save!
Now that the cornerstones of your managerial legacy are firmly in place, will you be raising the bar in any other way? Building a team only out of the best of Italian youth players, or something like that?
How is your fan base now? I imagine a playground somewhere in a suburb of Milan where kids are going to school in Pro Vercelli white, pretending to the others that they've always supported them, that their dad used to watch them when they were Serie C2/A.
I have always wondered who it was who proved that anything is possible if you try hard enough. I am ashamed to say that I never suspected it was Brian.
Mark — It's not really our style to restrict the team to a specific age group or nationality. I'd rather make the team as strong as I possibly can and then see what can be done with it.
As for the fan base: it's growing, and with our promotion deals in China and the US (holla, San Jose Earthquakes) it increasingly encompasses glory-hunting nine-year-olds with an increasingly diverse set of first languages (holla, Cantonese dialect). We sell out the Naming Rights with every home game, and since it seats 30,000 and the entire population of Vercelli is around 44,000, we're obviously doing well at home, too.
Alan — Don't worry. Those fans are clearly drunk.
I think the next step is to slowly but inevitably spin your football manager position into a role as a budding messiah for a hot new cult.
Briantology, as explained in the book Brianetics. I like it.
"A milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and the arch."
A few weeks ago you had a nice feature about former Pro Vercelli stars and where they are today. A similar sports news feature that I'd be interested in would be a rundown of Americans (US) in Serie A or in the Italian leagues. Are there any? Any stars? Anyone (in or out of Serie A) you'd like to see don the Pro V stripes any time soon?
You really should scour the ranks of PV free agents for an obvious proxy for Alexi Lalas, just so you can sign him and have the pleasure of cutting him after a late sub appearance in a cup game
Or perhaps, the "quantum echo" of Marcelo Balboa.
You could use him in the cult, you know human sacrifice.
If there's not some offseason scandal in Vercelli pretty damn soon, I'm following another club.
Multiple summers of feuding with Senad Ibrahimovic didn't tick that box?
I think the struggle has just begun – your task is not to write Pro Vercelli into the heavens as one of billions of stars.
No! Pro Vercelli must come to be more: the foremost star in the sky, the sun to Milan's Alpha Centauri. The greatest club team in the history of clubs, or teams, or greatness.
Or something.
This had made absolutely fanatastic reading over the last while. Cheers Brian. You'll struggle to keep it interesting now though unfortunately I'm afraid. All good things must come to an end
Buzzzzzzzz kill bro. Total buzz kill.
Just remember to keep signing young and talented players each off-season – the competition for spots must remain fierce.
Its better to have a lord of the flies atmosphere in the locker-room than a bunch of roaming and recalcitrant black sheep.
And are there any truth to the rumors of Phillips to San Jose?
Lazio relegated. Oh man.
Speaking of relegation, have your ties to Sampdoria improved the bottom of the table club? Also, how is the performance of players you've loaned to them?
Terrible. Just terrible. They have four (I think) of my players, and the ones who get any playing time are averaging about a 6.1.
Some of my youth players suffer from a syndrome that makes them refuse to accept loans to feeder clubs they think are beneath them (but where they could actually get playing time and do well), and instead hold out for loans to clubs that seem prestigious to them (but where they aren't good enough to contribute or get any meaningful experience). In their own minds, they're too good to move to Legnano in Serie B, but they're out of their depth at the club that lives up to their standards.
It's annoying. I blame agents.
By my count you have 3 feeders, Legnano, Liaoning FC, and Sampdoria. Any others that I am missing? Also, have the boys gone out to China for a scrimmage?
We've also got the San Jose Earthquakes, SC Cambuur, and FC Martigues. You know, we're contractually obligated to play a friendly in China every year, but we have yet to actually do it. I don't even thing the reserves have been going. Odd.
Well I spent yesterday evening reading through the Pro Vercelli archives from scratch – fantastic stuff, and the videos were lovely.
You've even encouraged me to have a go with the 3D highlights, which I'd never been convinced about.
Cheers Brian.
I've just finished reading this saga. Well done. I'm now itching to get a copy of FM 09–the newest I've ever gone is CM4, which I bought on eBay and discovered was a Thai bootleg copy. I'm still playing CM 01/02. The media and team interactions has me intrigued.
This is my first time posting, because I finally caught up. Great blog, great selection…please don't listen to the haters and keep it going! Sad to see that you dropped my beloved side, the Portland Timbers, from your roster of feeder clubs but I guess you're just EVER so lightly above that level at this point.
Hmmmm, now the Timbers, there's a team that can use the flash and insight of an accomplished manager.
Oh, and to add….
Forza Pro!
great blog, play on with your Pro Vercelli