Season 1 - You're all fired!

Fantashtico arrives at the club bright and early for his first day in charge and immediately transfer lists 20 players.

My God the squad sucks ass. The good news is, within the first 2 weeks, half of these players are off the wage bill, in some cases with financial compensation being acquired. 190k for Eddy Mengo being the most surprising and helpful bit of business.

I make the decision to employ an attacking 352 formation, as it cuts down on full backs.

What do I need to make this system work? 11 players for the first team and another 10 to fill out the squad. That's right, in season 1, I sign 21 players. For the combined total of 3k. Bargain. All these acquisitions are made in the first month. The focus is on youngsters who can hopefully develop as the team rises through the leagues, though a couple of experienced heads are thrown in for good measure, in particular Bernard Lama - a very experienced French goalie.

The most important players bought in at this point are David Collins - an English forward, Joao Paiva - a Portuguese striker, Adolfo - a Spanish forward and a pair of American defenders - Nelson Akwari and Oguchi Onyewu. The staff is also re-adjusted with a scout promoted to coach and a player/coach and player/assistant manager bought in.

The season progresses much as I expect; an early exit from the Serie C Cup, but a fairly easy title victory, winning 26 of 34 games and scoring 93 goals - 60 between Collins, Adolfo and Paiva. David Collins wins his first of three successive "Fans player of the year" awards.

As an interesting aside, Sant'Anastasia are relegated after a play-out defeat and a 17th place finish.