The streets of Pompeii, blitzed with deadly gas and ash nearly two millennia ago, were filled with pools of beer, champagne and Aperol in the summer of 2030 as supporters celebrated arguably the most seismic shock in recent Italian football history. The FC Pompei fairytale continued to reach new heights as Robí Sulpicius led the Campanian minnows to a shock promotion from Italy’s third tier via the Serie C/C playoffs.
Their promotion created an unusual situation as Pompei’s temporary home Massimo Romano was well below the minimum Serie B capacity of 5,500. However, they were only 12 months away from moving into their new 12,875-capacity home Pompei Stadium. Despite promotion, the club still only had a 1-star reputation, below even some tier-five clubs, and its bank balance was £600k in the red. Furthermore, their financial situation hadn’t allowed them to make any improvements to the club’s infrastructure in the last seven years – which meant their facilities and youth recruitment were all just 3/20.
The step-up in quality would require a massive improvement in playing staff, considering last season’s squad was barely good enough for Serie C. The Pompei board further increased Sulpicius’ weekly wage budget to £22,500 with a £37k transfer budget, which was boosted marginally by the first cash sales of his reign as full back Marco Marchi joined Angelo Baiardi for £2,400 then, in January wingers Matteo Malasomma and Nicola Visentini moved for £5.5k and £9.5k to Picerno and Crotone.
However, the manager maintained his record of still not spending a cent on players. The summer arrivals began with promotion hero Alessio Marconi returning permanently along with fellow midfielders Mario Amadio, Simone Scotta and Giacomo Castellano, who can double up at centre back. They were joined by striker Simone Pagani and winger Andrea La Torre then loan deals for midfielder Andrea Castaldo from Napoli, right back Domenico Cambi from Vicenza and centre backs Davide Luzi and Edoardo Tufo from Frosinone. (Note: I was on a plane writing this and apparently forgot to take player screenshots!)
Sulpicius had ended up with an overload of midfielders, so devised a new approach that slightly mixed things up with a more conservative, unconventional-looking narrow 4-5-1. He’d likely jump between that and the 4-3-3 and, while nobody would have any hope for Pompei, Sulpicius trusted the core of players like Marconi, attacker Davide Rapetti, centre back Leonardo Bacher and keeper Matteo Esposito.
Stepping Up To Serie B
Unsurprisingly, Pompei were huge favourites to be relegated from Serie B with their title odds of 300/1 significantly higher than those of Pro Patria (33/1), Foggia (25/1) and Benevento and Reggiana (20/1). Relegated Palermo are 2/1 title favourites followed by Modena and Salernitana (9/4), Pescara (5/1) and Sampdoria (11/2), who Sulpicius never suspected they’d be in the same league as. And for context of the mammoth challenge Pompei faced, their £875k annual wage salary was 35 times less than Modena’s ludicrous £31m following a tycoon takeover in April and significantly less than Salernitana (£23m), Palermo (£17m) and Ternana (£15m).
Pompei’s life in Serie B began with some really tough tests. First up, they travelled to Venezia, who scored with their first attack, but Pompei responded by doing the same as a great run by Amadio set up Saul Correnti to equalise. But Venezia scored just before half time and after an hour to ease to success. They then hosted Palermo, who have the likes of wonderkid David Martínez and Pedro de la Vega, which saw Pompei’s first experience of VAR as Amadio’s 36th-minute equaliser was ruled onside after the visitors had obviously scored their first shot. Both sides had goals ruled out after the break but the title favourites nicked it midway through the second half – yet the performance showed plenty of promise.
Pompei earned their first point in tier two as Rapetti and ball-winner Andrea Palella earned a 2-2 at home to Ternana. And that was followed by their first victory as Correnti and an Amadio edged a 2-1 at Foggia. Next up was a visit from moneybags Modena, who had Reinier earning £42k a week!, but a superb defensive effort and seven saves by Matteo Esposito earned a 0-0. The defence continued to deliver as they repelled 25 shots while Marconi nicked a 1-0 win at Reggiana, in a trip to leaders Juventus Next Gen, where Correnti’s 54th-minute strike was only wiped out by a dodgy 81st-minute penalty and earning a 1-1 at home to Pescara.
That solid run ended with a 4-0 thumping at Sampdoria but, 10 games into their maiden Serie B campaign, Pompei found themselves in 12th place, 4 points clear of the drop zone. They also lost 1-0 at home to Pisa and 3-1 at Bari but picked up an impressive point at home to recent Serie A side Frosinone, who later offered Sulpicius an interview for the third time in two years, which set up a few crunch game against fellow lower table sides.
La Torre’s double inspired a 2-0 victory at struggling Catania, Amadio followed suit to down bottom-side Pro Patria 2-1, Bacher headed the only goal at home to 17th-place Cittadella and La Torre and Amadio strikes defeated 19th-place Spezia 2-0. That gave them the confidence to pull off their biggest win yet as a late Scotta brace downed leaders Benevento 3-2. And it sent Pompei into 12th place at the halfway mark of the season. They’d amassed an impressive 26 points to sit 13 points clear of the relegation places into heading 2031 with plenty of confidence.
Worrying Form – And A Relegation Twist
Pompei began 2031 with a narrow 2-1 defeat at Pescara before getting dominated 1-0 by Juventus Next Gen, whose participation in the division feels like a bit of a joke. A tricky run continued with a tough run of games against Pisa, Sampdoria, leaders Benevento and Palermo – and they lost all of them to set a new club record seven successive defeats.
A point at home to Venezia restored some confidence before a crucial trip to 19th-place Spezia, where they also drew 1-1. But Marconi bagged a first-half brace to defeat Cremonese 2-1 and snap a 10-game winless streak, which took Pompei 10 points clear of the drop with eight games remaining. That win came at the right time ahead of two huge crunch relegation clashes. Pompei drew 1-1 at home to 18th-place Catania before another 1-1 at bottom-side Pro Patria maintained that gap. They then lost at home to Bari, which saw Catania move to within nine points with five games remaining.
The run-in began with a trip to struggling Frosinone which, of course, they drew 1-1 and yet another draw followed in a dull 0-0 at home to Foggia. Pompei thought they’d secured survival with two games spare as their 4-2 loss at Ternana coincided with Pro Patria, Catania and Frosinone all losing. They celebrated by beating Reggiana 1-0, in which Rapetti suffered a serious broken ankle, before getting thumped 6-0 at champions Modena. However, there was soon a twist in the tale.
That was because Pompei were thrown into a two-legged relegation ‘playout’ against 17th-place Spezia. The away leg was up first and Pompei were terrible, falling 2-0 down inside an hour before Pagani ended his ridiculous 26-game goalless streak to nick a late consolation with his first goal for the club. Star man Correnti picked up a training injury so Sulpicius took the more attacking mindset with his 4-3-3 approach.
So the entire season boiled down to Pompei’s final game at Massimo Romano. The first half was lit up by Scotta’s wondergoal, picking the ball up 35 yards out and curling it into the far top corner. La Torre swiftly smashed one off the bar and nothing else happened, so the game drifted towards extra time. Spezia bossed the game and got their reward in the first minute of injury time in first-half extra time and Pompei couldn’t muster a response. And yet another 1-1 wasn’t enough.
Pompei were relegated back to Serie C.
That saw Pompei relegated from Serie B, despite finishing outside the relegation places and 4 points ahead of Spezia. They finished the season with 39 points after 9 wins, 12 draws and 17 defeats.
Reflecting On Relegation
Relegation was always on the cards this season, but to suffer it in the fashion Pompei had was particularly hard to take. At least Sulpicius now fully understood the Serie B relegation rules, but it took him a little while to get over the pain of being relegated at the very last gasp.
It was pretty clear why Pompei got relegated, a lack of goals. Amadio led the way with 8 followed by Correnti and Marconi (5), La Torre (4) and Scotta and Bacher (3). And shockingly, none of their ‘strikers’ managed more than 2 goals all season. Amadio was arguably the only bright spark of the campaign as he also led the way with 5 assists.
There was some positive off the news as the club went through a takeover. Despite talks of a “tycoon” being interested in the club, it ended up only resulting in an internal takeover. However, the new man Alessio Di Rocco did wipe off the club’s negative bank balance, which had reached £1.2m, then provided several cash injections worth around £250k. So that, combined with the pending new stadium move in the summer, offered some promise for the future with a little additional concern.
However, the new owner also showed a complete lack of respect to his manager. Remember for a moment that Pompei were given absolutely zero chance of survival by the bookies, and Sulpicius had massively overachieved to finish in 16th. However, Di Rocco called Sulpicius into the boardroom two days after suffering relegation. And, despite him asking for another chance, they ridiculously sacked him as Manager of FC Pompei.
So unfortunately, despite really enjoying this save over the last eight seasons, Rise From The Ashes has come to an end. Sulpicius took charge of 316 matches at FC Pompei, of which he won 127, drew 103 and lost 86 with a 40% win percentage. His sides scored 479 and conceded 413 en route to 2 league titles, 3 promotions and the closing relegation.
We’ll be back with more FM content very soon. That includes the ongoing Wonderkid Factory II series with AZ Alkmaar, of which posts will be published every Monday. And we’ll have a pretty epic new series replacing this, starting next Friday!
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