ACN Siena 1904, commonly referred to as Siena, is an Italian football club based in Tuscany.  As with many Italian sides, Siena have gone through financial turmoil in recent years including being re-incorporated after bankruptcy on more than one occasion. Historically Siena have been a lower league side however they have had a couple of spells in Serie A this century and were most recently lead back there in 2010-11 by current Spurs boss Antonio Conte. Today they find themselves in Serie C which is where I come in to take them on a journey…

Aim of the save: To successfully implement a club culture at Siena that leads to them becoming the best side in Italian football.

The Club Culture:

• High intensity, possession based football
• Focus on youth development
• Smart recruitment

Implementation plan:

High intensity, possession based football

Work harder than the opposition out of possession to then take advantage when in possession

• Players required to have high levels of work rate, determination and natural fitness
• No set formation but style must remain
• All staff must fit with this style to ensure coaching is as effective as possible

Youth development

Developing a clear pathway from the youth team to the first team

• Regular upgrades to youth facilities, youth coaching and youth recruitment until they reach the maximum level
• Youth coaches signed that fit with clubs style of play
• Once players reach the age of 18, those with first team potential must be playing first team football whether that is in our first team or out on loan
• No loan signings allowed, focus on developing our youth not our competitors
• Create affiliate club relationships with teams lower down the pyramid that have good training facilities to help aid our players when out on loan
• Mentoring set up to aid transition to first team

Smart Recruitment

Focus on signing players who can be sold for a profit and fit the clubs style of play

• Italian players – We need a strong core of homegrown national players, signings must have potential to improve in order to generate a greater resale value
• The best cheap young foreign talent – This will be done by establishing a world class scouting network in nearby Eastern European countries such as Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia to sign the best talents they produce. We will create affiliate club relationships as part of this. Once established in Eastern Europe we will look to move focus into other areas of the world, primarily South America
• Youngsters not wanted by top sides – Youngsters are regularly transfer listed or released by the top sides, we want to give an opportunity to them on the cheap and show clubs they were wrong to let them go
• Experienced players to help with mentoring – They must only be signed on free transfers, fees shouldn’t be paid

A big thank you to @cameronfm for hosting this series on his site. I’ll be back with chapter 1 soon where we’ll take a look at the club, how I’ve started to put the club culture in place and carry out a review of my first series in charge.

Thanks for reading,

The Last Throw.