Looking after the finances

Whilst not wanting to sound like a nervous accountant, the financial situation of the club does leave me a little uneasy.

And whilst I’m not keeping the purse-strings tied in a double-knot, I do want to be prudent and not splash cash for the sake of it.

All the signings I’ve made so far have been for free. But in truth, there wasn’t anyone for sale who was much better than what I was able to bring in for no fee.

The problem though, is that the better the squad gets, the smaller the talent pool of free agents becomes and spending becomes necessity to grow.

There is one thing, however, that I always look to do in regards to club finances and that’s set up a self-governed Wage Budget.

Setting a Wage Budget

We’re still operating on the second smallest budget in the league. 19th of 20. With only Dolomiti Bellunesi below us.

For further context, the top spending team, Genoa – who you can’t see on this table thanks to the shoddy UX – have a wage budget of £23.19m. Palermo come next (in their sexy pink kits) with £14.29m.

It would be easy to panic and use ALL my available budget in order to “compete”… but that’s where you can run into problems. Especially, when it comes to the additional fees such as appearance and goal bonuses… there’s always a player with a “match highest earner” clause…. before you know it you’re over the budget. The Board are angry. Players are angry because they now have teammates earning three times what they earn…

It’s a problem-set I’m desperate to avoid.

Club culture is key.

The Wage Structure

With a weekly wage budget of £74,500, the challenge is to stretch every pound without breaking the structure that’s served us well. To stay disciplined, I’ve formalised our squad into three clear wage bands: 

• key players (x 4) each capped at £5,700 per week
• regular starters (x 8) on a maximum of £2,850
• squad players (x 10) limited to £2,280

It’s not glamorous, and it certainly doesn’t leave room for indulgence, but it gives us a framework that keeps the squad balanced and the finances intact. Survival is the priority this season — and that starts with resisting the urge to overspend.

How do the squad fit into these bandings?

After a skim through the existing squad, I’m lucky that no one is earning more than they should based on squad status.

It was important, though, to ensure the new players I was bringing in also adhered to the system.

As you can see, I did well.

• Gabriele Corbo – Regular Starter: £1,600 per week
• Nicolo Pietra – Squad Player: £700 per week
• Edoardo Piana – Backup (Squad Player) £1,800 per week
• Manuel Rosetti – Breakthrough Prospect: £975 per week
• Edoardo Vascotto – Future Prospect: £535 per week

With only one Regular Starter, it’s no surprise that it was pretty steady to stay under the cap.

Contract Renewals

This prudence meant I was still £25k UNDER the weekly budget and meant I could address contracts of key players who were due to expire at the end of the season.

• Filippo Guccione – Important Player: £1,900 per week
• Lorenzo Coccia – Fringe Player: £1,500 per week
• Luca Trombini – First Choice Keeper: £2,300 per week
• Samuele Righetti -Regular Starter – £1,800 per week
• Marco Gilli – Important Player – £2,600 per week

None of which came anywhere near the maximum weekly wage for their playing status. This means I have plenty of budget still available to bring in new players when needed – and also means that if I want to break the structure for someone too good to turn down, I can.

New Season, New Look

I was planning on sticking with the wonderful 2024 home kit for a few seasons, I decided to celebrate our promotion with an upgrade to the new 2025 home kit which you can see, modelled by Pattarello, below:

I delved into the world of 3D kit making and although I couldn’t get it perfectly correct due to its limitations, I’ve done a pretty good job.

If anyone knows how to get a white band across the bottom of the shorts – like on the sleeves – please let me know!

The Season Begins

I always find it mildly annoying when cup competitions begin whilst pre-season is still in mid-flow. However, that’s the hand we were dealt and a rotated team swiftly beat Serie C’s Benevento 4-1, thanks two 2 goals from Alessandro Capello.

The next round of the Coppa Italia saw us face a real challenge: Udinese from Serie A.

We put in a tremendous performance, and although their quality was undeniable, we defended well and managed to sneak a 2-1 win with both our attacking #8’s – Guccione and Chierico – getting on the scoresheet.

Our Serie B Journey

Remember Dolomiti Bellenusi? The only team in Serie B with a smaller budget than ours — and conveniently our opening opponents.
We controlled the first half but couldn’t make it count, so I pushed the mentality to Positive at the break. Cianci thought he’d given us the lead moments later, only for VAR to rule it offside by inches. He kept knocking, forcing a great save with a powerful header, but we just couldn’t break them down. A late red card for Bellenusi should’ve tipped the balance, yet neither side climbed above 1.0 xG and the match fizzled out into a 0–0 that felt like a missed opportunity.

Three days later came Catania, sitting deep in a compact 5-2-1-2. We dominated again, only to fall behind to Daniele Donnarumma with their first shot on 22 minutes. Guccione won a penalty just before the break, but Pattarello’s effort was brilliantly saved.
For the second match in a row we saw red — this time Tavernelli, dismissed for a second yellow on 62 minutes. Even down to ten we remained the better side, Capello rattling the bar from a free-kick, but ultimately slipped to a 0–1 defeat.

Two games, no goals, and the window closing fast. We needed a spark.

Two New Arrivals

Michele Besaggio arrives in Arezzo as a quietly astute piece of business: transfer-listed, overlooked at Avellino, yet carrying over 70 Serie B appearances and the kind of untapped ceiling that fits perfectly with the club’s recruitment ethos.

Secured on loan with a £300k optional fee, he offers immediate value and long-term upside. Comfortable as either of the two No.8s in the Disciplina & Controllo system, Besaggio brings composure, work rate, and a technical sharpness that should slot naturally into the evolving midfield structure. At 24, he still has room to grow — and Arezzo may just be the place where that promise finally accelerates.

The next signing puts an end to my search for a 4th winger.

William de Camargo arrives in Tuscany with a résumé shaped across Europe – a Brazilian wide man moulded in Spain, sharpened by short spells in Ukraine and Belgium, and now ready for a fresh chapter in Serie A. His adaptability should make settling in Italy almost seamless.

Signed as a free agent with the expectation of being a regular starter, he’ll require careful management, but his profile fits neatly into the evolving demands of the system: two-footed versatility, pace, dribbling quality, and the ability to operate confidently on either flank. At 27, he brings experience without losing the hunger to prove himself, and his direct style should add a new dimension to Arezzo’s wide threat.

Your team are fit… but are they Dyche-ball fit?

I’ve said before that I want this squad to be one of the fittest in the league — especially after how our performances tailed off late in games last season.
Recently I watched two interviews that reinforced that goal: Sean Dyche discussing the poor fitness levels he inherited at Nottingham Forest, and Morgan Gibbs-White describing the “beasting” sessions Dyche used to rebuild them — a brutal Tuesday of running and conditioning, followed by a calmer Thursday focused on tactical work with Ian Woan.

So I’ve created my own version. Now that the early-season double game-weeks have eased, we’re building this structure into our routine. With most of our fixtures falling on Sundays, the schedule shifts slightly — meaning Wednesday becomes our “beasting day” for the next few weeks.

An immediate impact

Despite neither of the new players being in the starting line-up for our next Serie B game against – their arrival clearly lit a fire under the squad.

By half time we were 2-0 up and it should’ve been 4-0 as both Djamanca and Cianci missed sitters.

William de Camargo made an immediate impact, putting us 3-0 up with a back post header from a Djamanca cross.

Our first win of the season and we looked great.

William de Camargo scored on his Arezzo debut.

Up next came Vicenza and, after the previous game, I was expecting another strong performance.

We gave an early goal away, caught trying to play out from the back, but were again handed a life-line when Maxime Lefebre lunged in on William de Camargo with a two-footed horror challenge and saw a straight red card on 21 minutes.

A massive 69 minutes against 10 men.

We equalised on 10 minutes later, when a low, driven shot by Chierico was parried into the path of Guccione who slotted him from close range.

We absolutely dominated them put couldn’t find another goal, despite accumulating 2.43 xG.

The real tests

After a relatively kind opening run that yielded just one win, we hit a far tougher four-game stretch.

Parma came first, and the pre-match scouting made it clear their squad was miles ahead of ours. It showed immediately: two goals inside ten minutes, then a professional shut-down for the rest of the match. A stoppage-time header sealed a 0–3 defeat.
Six players rated 6.3 or below, and all were spoken to post-match. Chierico and Tavernelli — both on 6.2 — had the nerve to challenge the criticism, insisting they’d played well.

Benched.

Genoa followed, with Besaggio and William de Camargo replacing the pair. But the pattern continued: their first shot of the game put them ahead, Ankeye racing onto a lofted pass and beating Piana, who had been rotated in for Trombini.
Vitinha — on £37k a week, more than my entire starting XI — doubled their lead, either side of two of my players being forced off with injuries: Cianci sidelined for 5–6 weeks with knee ligaments, and Pattarello picking up a lighter knock.

From there we dominated possession, chances, and xG, but their keeper, Leali, produced a man-of-the-match performance to keep us out.

Another defeat.

The corner turned?

We badly needed a confidence boost — preferably two.

The first came in the Coppa Italia against Vicenza, who we’d drawn with recently. I made nine changes, and the rotation players delivered: a 2–0 win, both goals involving Niccolò Pietro. First, he delivered a perfect corner for Gigli to head in, then rose above everyone to nod home a Tavernelli cross.

With a two-week international break ahead, I arranged a friendly against Serie C’s Chievo, giving both XIs 45 minutes. We won 5–1, and the mood lifted.

That encouraged me to start Positive for the rivalry match with Modena — risky, given their seven-game unbeaten run. After a shaky opening, we took the lead against the run of play as Capello tapped in a low Pattarello cross. Modena stayed on top, forcing Trombini into multiple saves before half-time, but we grew into the second half and held on for a vital 1–0 win, moving us up to 13th.

Next came possession-hungry Sampdoria, set up in a narrow 4-1-2-2-1. We conceded early again — a far-post tap-in for Baeten — and although Righetti clipped the bar, we struggled to get control. After 30 minutes I switched to a 4-2-3-1, pushing play wide to drag their midfield out of the centre. It worked: Capello drifted right and slid in Besaggio, who equalised with a tidy finish.

We saw only 30% of the ball, so a 1–1 draw felt like a good point. The downside was Pattarello being ruled out for three weeks with a strained hamstring.

Michele Besaggio – scored his first Arezzo goal against Sampdoria

Next up were 17th-placed Sudtirol in a tricky midweek fixture, with the squad still feeling the effects of chasing Sampdoria for 90 minutes. After a shaky opening we settled quickly and tore apart their 5-3-2, helped by a Capello hat-trick and a goal from Guccione.

The final game of this update was against 14th-placed Mantova. With Eklu and Renzi injured, Damiani and De Col stepped in, and our injury problems grew further when Guccione limped off after 35 minutes with the match still goalless.

A firm half-time message sparked a reaction. Rosetti — on for Guccione — opened the scoring after a clever Besaggio assist, and Chierico, replacing a tiring Besaggio, thumped in a low William de Camargo cross before going off injured himself. Mantova pulled one back late through Bonifanti, but it wasn’t enough.

A 2–1 win, and we stay 8th.

Looking ahead

With Padova (18th) and Juve Stabia (13th) on the horizon, we’ve got a real opportunity to add more points before the schedule stiffens again. Four league games unbeaten suggests we’re finally finding our rhythm and adapting to the demands of Serie B.

The Defence are performing well, we have competition for places in midfield and on the wings and up front, Cianci is returning from injury to compete with Capello who has scored 5 goals in his 6 games as a starter since Cianci got injured.

The next challenge? Keeping this momentum — and our key players — intact as the January window approaches. The squad’s growing confidence hasn’t gone unnoticed, and the coming weeks will reveal whether we can build on this platform or face a new battle off the pitch.