See, what happened was, after a flurry of rebuilding, The Onions found themselves mostly populated by Italians. The entire defence, including the keeper, in fact. "Hey", they thought to themselves, "wouldn't it be good if ALL the players were Italian?". And so it was. As inspiration, they took Il Grande Torino - no, not a car or a grumpy, reactionary film featuring a wizened Clint Eastwood, but the greatest Italian club side in the history of football. For more about their tragic story (one close to my own heart, what with me being a Manchester United fan), go and read about the achievements
here and the tragedy
here. Genuine tactical attention was paid by the manager (me) for the first time in the club's history (a system influenced by a very Carlo Ancellotti style 442 diamond, with hints of England in 1966) and the club sported a new badge and kit to commemorate:
Badge:
Home Kit:
Away Kit:
On the pitch, things *gasp* started to go well. With a fully assembled squad of biscotti-obsessives - Tripepi pulling the strings as a deep-lying play maker, Mantioni provided elegant bite (Gattuso style - Francesco was also a product of the Oniony youth system) in the midfield, Piovesan a colossus between the posts, Pedrocchi, Squeri and Paloschi reaping the benefits upfront - results just kept coming. Rankings were climbed, the top fifty was broken into and Il Cipolle Terrore became a regular fixture up there. For about a season, at which point I did my usual trick of ruining it for them all...
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