Comments on: Pro Vercelli: The Boneyard, Part III

By: Darren

Darren — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:12:17 +0000

Good work, Brian. Been following your blogs for quite a while now and keeping tabs on how the Vecelli are getting on. It inspired me to start my own league with Como, who after 6 seasons i've just missed out on promotion to Serie A with, spending a measely 3k in the process, but signing 62 players in total on Bosman's.

I don't suppose you ever signed Antonio De Matteis or Christian Berra did you? Probably one of the most efficient and bank balance friendly force's around in the Italian lower leagues.

By: Brian Phillips

Brian Phillips — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:08:17 +0000

Wait, you mean that didn't really happen?

Thanks for the kind comments, all. Rest assured that there's a Pro Vercelli wrapup in the works that will answer all your questions, assuming you don't have really weird or irrelevant questions. And I've started idly scheming about a follow-up project…

By: Dave W

Dave W — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:37:41 +0000

I should say I know they are a real team, in reality. But such is the persuasive power of your imagination, the real Pro Vercelli as you originally described them (I'd never bloody heard of them!) seem as distant and unreal to me as my Grandad's story about Maajor Frank Buckley injecting his Wolves team with Monkey Glands before an FA Cup final in the 1930's.

By: Dave W

Dave W — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:30:33 +0000

Wow Brian, it's not really over is it? If it is, I hope you have a nice send-off planned. I agree with the idea to let it run on auto for a while. I can only imagine how sad you will feel the first month or so when you do start another game. I have looked out for Pro Vercelli's results as though they were a real team, like Motherwell or Leyton Orient, the same importance. If this is the end then I have to say it's been epic, a real pleasure and not just a guilty one.

By: Will

Will — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:27:05 +0000

I have four questions for you, Brian.

#1. Is the Pro Vercelli Saga Really Over?

#2 Who is your favorite player from your time at Vercelli?

#3 What was the strongest reaction that a Pro Vercelli game ever brought out in you? Running around your house? Tears of joy?

#4 Did you ever quit out of the game without saving for the sake of the story?

#5 When can I buy this in book form?

By: AlexZ

AlexZ — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:08:52 +0000

Forza Pro, Brian, and thanks for the amazing story. Probably the best sports fiction I have ever read. And I still maintain this should, one way or another, find its way into the Vercelli locker room…

By: Pro Vercelli: The Boneyard, Part III « Scissors Kick

Pro Vercelli: The Boneyard, Part III « Scissors Kick — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:05:59 +0000

[...] Pro Vercelli: The Boneyard, Part III "I thought about just posting the screenshot of the match report with no commentary, under the theory that what you fill in with your own imagination would be more intense than anything I could describe. But that isn't really true, and besides, you don't need this one to be made more intense. Even buffered in prose, this one is intense enough. Off we go." (The Run of Play) [...]

By: Jay-Z

Jay-Z — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:31:23 +0000

I'd like to second the calls for a 10 year autopilot run once you "retire". It would be nice to see how the careers of some of the Vercelli stalwarts like Dogan, Ibrahimovic, The Ferj, and others play out.

By: Dom

Dom — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:29:09 +0000

Pouring a 40oz of Barolo out for this one.

By: Sethu

Sethu — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:25:18 +0000

Fitting Finale. Well Done and Thanks a lot.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:09:38 +0000

When is the book being published?

By: AMARE STOUDEMIRE

AMARE STOUDEMIRE — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:14:58 +0000

Wow.

From the cold halls of Liverpool, two years in the Future (I think 2025, but I haven't played in a while), I tip my hat to you, sir.

FORZA PRO!

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:02:47 +0000

Forza Pro. Im about to cry.

By: Will

Will — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:59:09 +0000

Forza Pro

By: CG

CG — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:11:52 +0000

Oh! By the way! I asked once before but was turned down. Would be awesome if you'd upload your PV save-game for people to download, but retire Brian Philips (in the game, too) before you do it.

By: CG

CG — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:07:51 +0000

Even though it's sad that this is the end of the best football-story ever told, it's the only fitting end. However, I'll hang myself if you don't blog about a FM 2010 save when it comes out. Pretty please with sugar on the top?

Forza Pro!

By: Brandon C

Brandon C — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:59:31 +0000

Indeed. Forza Pro!

By: Stowe

Stowe — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:42:40 +0000

There's only one thing left to say: Forza Pro.

By: James Robinson

James Robinson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:23:12 +0000

This.. this cant be the end of Pro Vercelli.

What a fantastic way to end it though, if it is.

By: gvb

gvb — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:20:05 +0000

Brian, you should make a save file, and then run out the next decade on autopilot. Just to see what your youth stars end up doing/see if the team can maintain without you/etc… I think that would be a neat concluding post.

By: shane

shane — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:28:05 +0000

Congratulations, Brian, and thanks.

By: rob

rob — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:47:24 +0000

Third, Ted and Chris. Took a couple months (of real time) to play a couple season with Everton (to get the hang of things), and then dove into a quest to take Berwick Rangers from the Scottish Third Division to the Champions League.

By: Kegs

Kegs — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:45:10 +0000

@Chris Yeah, it'd be nice to get a team into the football league, and there is a big enough population to support a team in the lower leagues.

But the problem you have is that you are at most a 2hr drive away from Plymouth, and Cornwall is traditionally a rugby county and is notoriously good at squandering football talent, usually by making them play rugby if they show any aptitude whatsoever.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:00:18 +0000

(Stolen from C. Palahniuk)

I thought we were a real love relationship. I did. I was very invested in love, but it was just this long, long sex thing that could end at any moment because after all, it's just about getting off. Almost all the time, you tell yourself you're loving somebody when you're just using them. This only looks like love.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:59:47 +0000

I also second Ted. Without this story, I may never have bought Football Manager at all. My literature degree may be suffering slightly, but overall my life has definitely been enriched!

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:56:44 +0000

@Kegs: Seriously though, there needs to be a Football League club further west than Plymouth! Cornwall is an underestimated area of this country and I at least want to give the county a club that will represent the area's proud cultural identity on a national level and strengthen the local economy. Of course, it will just be a game but it would make a great story as well.

By: Kegs

Kegs — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:35:18 +0000

@Chris I hope you realise just indifferent us locals are to the fate of the ancient celtic nation of Kernow.

On the otherhand, Truro City's ground is a it shoddy and could do with some refurbishment (I am actually a Truronian)

By: t'OM

t'OM — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:09:44 +0000

if it's not too rude to ask…

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:08:55 +0000

I don't care if it's fictional; somehow, that's still the greatest football match I've ever heard of. This entire saga has been so good that it inspired me to get the game a few months back, and frankly, my life hasn't been the same since then.

By: t'OM

t'OM — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:08:30 +0000

Brian what are your career earnings?

By: David

David — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:05:36 +0000

What will be next for the legendary Phillips? A political career, perhaps? I could see Mayor of Vercelli, maybe even President of Piedmont or a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. But somehow I envision the quiet American will ultimately retire to his 17th century villa overlooking a Barrolo vineyard. Viva Vercelli

By: Richard Whittall

Richard Whittall — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:58:50 +0000

"With your help, I'm going to pick a team, then offer weekly updates about our inexorable march to the top of a mountain made of crumpled European Cups." -Run of Play, November 2008

And there they are, four of them. This was an amazing feast…

By: Elliott

Elliott — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:49:03 +0000

I´m most impressed by the ability to win consecutive European cups without backing by a brutal dictator – although my favorite subplot was the abrupt resignation of the fitness team manager.

Some absurd fanfiction is in order….

By: t'OM

t'OM — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:11:07 +0000

"to have had" such a wonderful manager?

By: Alan Jacobs

Alan Jacobs — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:34:09 +0000

Brian, thank you for showing us how a football manager handles both stress and success with class and style. I hope at the final whistle you exceeded Jose Mourinho's choretic enthusiasm. Also his skill.

Now back to the real world, where Alex Ferguson snarks about referee fitness and demands the addition of still more stoppage time . . . .