Football Italia: Season 8 – Unprecedented Success
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Season Eight: Unprecedented successes.
What we’re doing here is actually unprecedented. No team, since the start of the 2023/24 season, that has been promoted to the top flight and remained there, with records until last season, has finished above 15th placed in their first go at this league:
- 24/25 – Parma finished 17th
- 25/26 – Verona finished 20th
- 27/28 – Cremonese finished 20th and Parma finished 15th
- 28/29 – Pescara finished 20th
- 29/30 – Salernitana finished 16th and Verona finished 15th
- 30/31 – Parma finished 18th and Cremonese finished 17th
But we’re not just talking mid-table, or top half – we’re threatening the displace the big boys and finish in a spot that, at worst, will see us in the Europa Conference league, just twelve months after wrapping up a Serie B title, twenty-four, thirty-six and forty-eight after promotion heartache and just five years after promotion from Serie C – the third tier of Italian football.
Across that period of time, we have a couple of regulars, one of whom has gone on to become a multiple record breaker:
Whilst his compatriot from the youth team in 2024, Jacopo Lucenti – club captain – is probably more important, it is Ali who now holds the record for more appearances and goals for the club – with 104 in his 235 league games. Jacopo is four games behind and, probably, over the course of next season, will overtake my mercurial second-striker but this news has come at a good time for me, as I wrangle with the disappointment of a long term injury for Montoro, which has seen his loan prematurely ended and my youth intake.
The full sixteen graduates were signed and now join a 24-strong setup in the youth team as I really want to ensure that, among this tactical work and first team recruitment, I don’t forget about the core of the club – and that is the Sicilian and southern Italian element to our player development. From some quick map searching, I can see that, currently, we have eight Sicily-born players with a further four being born south of Naples – the traditional cut off line between North and South. In the first team, that number drops to three: Lucenti and Owusu are from Messina itself, whilst Vinci hails from Santa Croce Camerina, which is on the south side of the island, due north of Malta. Viti hails from near Florence, Bellino from Milan, Esposito near Naples, Amey from just north of Genoa and Mussolini and Pisilli from Rome – so it’s clear that the more developed players we have aren’t coming from local to us.
A quick search of those born in the top (above about 40,000 population) Sicilian towns and cities gives me 719 players with three of the top four highest valued being ours – the aforementioned Lucenti and Owusu as well as Migliori, who is out on loan at Rudes at the moment. As part of our rise, I want to take over from both Catania and Palermo – the two biggest cities – as the lead producer of Sicilian players, born or just bred here.
Away from the geography lesson, we’ve done pretty well on the pitch!
A superb first five and a much more expected second as tired legs and some little niggling injuries are taking their toll. 4-0 wins over Atalanta and Udinese, two top ten sides, is another sign that we are absolutely here to fight among these giants of football
With the title likely heading to the red side of Milan this year, our focus is on securing continental football for next year, which, given that we play Cremonese, Napoli and in-form Lazio in the last three, is likely to not be Champions League football, which, obviously, I’m fine with. The catapult from Serie B to here worked best because we built slowly and, honestly, give me top ten next year and some fun in Europe and I’m more than happy!
Forza Biancoscudati!
