With the World Cup and everything else I've been itching to play some FM again, and so I figured I would go all dynasty on it as well. I started a couple careers with other teams, but there's a part of me that just can't stop myself from wanting to go back to my old favorite, in real life and the game, Napoli Soccer. A few months ago I was in the midst of another Napoli dynasty (you can find it here:
http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ghlight=napoli) when my hard drive committed suicide and took FM and everything else with it. Others might have taken that as a sign of some divine intervention to do something more productive with their free time (or at least switch teams or something), but for some reason neither of those things are possible for me. So here we go, another FM dynasty, I'll kick things off with a few very similar posts to those at the beginning of my old one, but this time our hero is Blanco Poloma, a 28 year old Argentinian manager with fire in his eyes and ice in his veins and... a strange name. (Blanco Poloma also once led my Incan Empire to a fairly sweet Civ 4 victory back in February, so don't doubt him, the man has talent...)
An Overview
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Originally Posted by Wikipedia
A.C. Napoli (Associazione Calcio Napoli) was formed in 1926 as Internaples (after the marger of two exisisting clubs: Internazionale Napoli and Naples) and spent most of its history in Serie A, often being the sole representative of the Italian South in the country's top division. The club changed its name to S.S.C. Napoli in 1963. Players who played for Napoli include Guillermo Stábile, José Altafini, Dino Zoff, Ruud Krol, Diego Maradona, Careca, Ciro Ferrara, Laurent Blanc, Gianfranco Zola, and Fabio Cannavaro.
It was Maradona who put Napoli on the world soccer map, leading them to two scudetti in 1987 and 1990 and the UEFA Cup in 1989. They also won the Coppa Italia in 1962, 1976, and 1987, a Coppa delle Alpi in 1966 and a Supercoppa Italiana in 1991.
After Maradona's farewell, it started a slow decline for the Neapolitan team. A first relegation to Serie B came in 1998, and Napoli fans had to wait till 2000 to see their team going back to the Italian top division.
Napoli dropped again to Serie B in 2001, but that was not the worst to come. With a debt estimated up to 70 million euros, the club became bankrupt in August of 2004. A new club, Napoli Soccer, was born to ensure Naples wouldn't be left without football.
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Napoli is one of the more interesting clubs to start an FM career with as they have a massive stadium (the 78,400 capacity San Paolo), top training facilities, a healthy balance sheet, and an initial roster well-equipped to handle promotion from their initial league. But there are challenges.
Club Chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis informs me, over the growing hum of an enraged fan base gathered outside the stadium, that despite my relative lack of managerial experience I have the full confidence of the club's Board. He gives me a more than adequate transfer budget, considering the club's level and initial roster strength, but asks me to do whatever I can to raise the club's profile.
He reminds me that he is living in the shadow of his father, Dino De Laurentiis, legendary producer of films such as
Serpico,
Three Days of the Condor, and, um,
King Kong Lives.
I promise to do what I can and set out to mold this team into something that can actually follow through on everyone's all or nothing expectations of a C1B League Title.