Italian Leagues Question

In the past few FMs more often than not I have managed in the Italian leagues however in FM2008 I've never fancied it. So I was just wondering what other people think of them in particular the top leagues rather than LLM.

I think what put me off was the whole condfidence issue with FM2008 as more often than not I would go through barren phases which I think would get me fired now.

Odly enough I've never fancied managing in the Italian leagues on FM2008 either.

Italy has a bad type of TV revenue distribution, a bit like "the winner takes it all" (or the big teams).

If the researchers did a good job, then it's not very funny to manage in Italy.

On the other hand, it's terribly funny to steal the eggs in the big team's nest.

And then there's a hell of a lot of England in Italy: Genoa founded by brits, juve with the colours of Notts county....

Kind of boring - no Reserve league makes things slightly tedious as you have to mass-loan, and the slightly-irritating "1 non-EU player signing per season". On the plus side, there's no Big Four or it's difficult to replicate as usually 3rd and 4th are highly-contested (Roma and Juventus are good but not great compared with Fiorentina or Lazio, for example). Co-ownership's an interesting thing but ultimately can end up making players more expensive.

It's worth a shot, I guess, but I prefer Spain.

Serie A is the best league in the world

In Fm08 I only played with Milan - won everything over 6 years, then I stop to test the FML match engine.

Thanks for the replies. I remember playing on CM 2001/02 and Italy was fun but too evenly matched among the top sides. FM2007 was fun with Juve in the second league but it was two easy to get them promoted.

The 1 non-EU player per season is a tough one.

As for the co-ownership facility, I try to stay away from it, it can be a bit of a lottery. I don't use any 3rd party software for PA so if big clubs are looking to co-own any players I just take it as a hint they know something I don't. I maybe wrong there, just the way I look at it.

I've only just started playing FM, and in Serie A, so I've not had a reserve league to miss. The youth league has been won the last two years by Inter, and they're leading again this year. I don't know if that makes any difference to you.

If you're not bothered who you play as, Fiorentina or Roma might be interesting with one of this seasons updates, as they've both made useful signings - look at Fiorentina last night, leading away to Lyon and only drawing because of a dodgy goal.

Here's a couple of screenies of the first two Serie A league placings from my game. I'm Torino

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj194/Nerazzurri07/SerieATIMLeagueTable.png

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj194/Nerazzurri07/SerieATIMLeagueTable-2.png

Hope that helps. Give it a go.

I really like italy, infact, each season my two best friends and I play a hotseat game there. Always a good laugh, lasts a long time and always hard to win the thing!

I really like italy, infact, each season my two best friends and I play a hotseat game there. Always a good laugh, lasts a long time and always hard to win the thing!

This is my first game with FM and I think I'm struggling with tactics. But if you think Serie A is hard is 11th and 12th with Torino not too bad? Or should I be doing better like I think?

I'm surprised Milan won your league. Inter are immense normally as ibrahimovic is amazingly good not to mention to the rest of their strikers..!

Inter are there forever, or at least until Zlatan retires..

I'm surprised Milan won your league.

It broke my heart

Italy has a bad type of TV revenue distribution, a bit like "the winner takes it all" (or the big teams).

If the researchers did a good job, then it's not very funny to manage in Italy.

On the other hand, it's terribly funny to steal the eggs in the big team's nest.

And then there's a hell of a lot of England in Italy: Genoa founded by brits, juve with the colours of Notts county....

after the scandal of 3 years ago it was established that the black and white of juve are not to represent Notts County but they actually represent the colours of inmates clothing at a prison

JUVE = CHEATERS!!!

I hate the Italian league, I had a particularly nasty 3 years at AS Roma in one of my long term saves, now I have no interest in it at all.

This is my first game with FM and I think I'm struggling with tactics. But if you think Serie A is hard is 11th and 12th with Torino not too bad? Or should I be doing better like I think?

Can someone give me a confidence boost with this or just confirm I'm a poor manager? LOL

11th/12th isn't bad if it's your first ever attempt at FM.

I quite like Italy although I'm not very good there. More particularly I like some of the Italian teams (their names roll off the tongue so much more lyrically than Bury or Bolton). I've managed Fiorentina in a few versions, although not recent ones until FM08 where I created a team that I loved to watch, but were not typically Italian and thus were not good enough. I finished 4th, 5th, 6th in the 3 seasons I completed. Given that in my game, unlike someone else who posted above, there is very much a "big 4" I was really chuffed with my first season, but since then I have supposedly improved my team, but gone backwards so my confidence in my ability to put good tactics together for a league like Serie A has dropped through the floor.

I also started managing Sampdoria in that game and for the guy who was asking about Torino, I finished 10th first season with Sampdoria and then got sacked ~8 games into season 2 when we were in the bottom 3, but at least starting to improve.

So all in all, I love Fiorentina, I like Sampdoria, Palermo and mebee one or two other teams, but I hate Serie A because Inter, Roma and Juventus in particular were unbeatable (over a season) in my game

Can someone give me a confidence boost with this or just confirm I'm a poor manager? LOL

no you are not a poor manager because if you are playing without any database updates Torino have a very poor squad at the start of the game. in real life i think an 11th place finish for Torino would be like a scudetto for them seeing that they avoided relegation by two points last season.

It's taken me 20 seasons to drag the San Marino club side to Serie A with playing virtually all san marinese players but i'm loving every minute of it .

It's taken me 20 seasons to drag the San Marino club side to Serie A with playing virtually all san marinese players but i'm loving every minute of it .

That's DEDICATION!! I hope your chairman appreciates you!

Italy can be fun to manage in if you are willing to perservere with all of the restrictions.

As per some of the above posts, the foreign signings limit, as well as the lack of a reserve team tend to put me off managing there, however I do usually have the league as active.

Whats also important is that the reputation of the Italian leagues is accurate. E.G, boring football, small crowds and far inferior to English, Spanish, German and French in terms of attractiveness to players

Whats also important is that the reputation of the Italian leagues is accurate. E.G, boring football, small crowds and far inferior to English, Spanish, German and French in terms of attractiveness to players

I've just had a 3-2 with Roma; nothing much boring about that.....

I think Italy is the hardest league to manage. I always tend to struggle there even when I am a good club.

I have made Palermo into the best team in Italy after four seasons. I am a couple of games away from winning the Scudetto for the second year in a row along with the Champions League to add to my trophies. I beat out United 2-0 first leg then 3-1 second leg and I am go against some French team so its basically mine. Only in Italy can you have the best looking team in the world

I have been offered jobs in Italy many a time but never took one?! I am sure I played a save on the old Champ in the early days and I'm just not interested in for some reason?

May have a go in FM09!

Whats also important is that the reputation of the Italian leagues is accurate. E.G, boring football, small crowds and far inferior to English, Spanish, German and French in terms of attractiveness to players

I would say you are wrong in 2 out of those 3 things, If you have ever watched Roma, Fiorentina or Udinese play you would know that watching italian football is not boring, at least when these teams play. Small crowds, compared to Germany, England and Spain yes, but bigger compared to France and all other Football leagues. And attractiveness to player? Ibrahimovic, Adriano, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Pato, Shevchenko, Seedorf etc play there, can you see any of these players going to the French or German league?

I would say you are wrong in 2 out of those 3 things, If you have ever watched Roma, Fiorentina or Udinese play you would know that watching italian football is not boring, at least when these teams play. Small crowds, compared to Germany, England and Spain yes, but bigger compared to France and all other Football leagues. And attractiveness to player? Ibrahimovic, Adriano, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Pato, Shevchenko, Seedorf etc play there, can you see any of these players going to the French or German league?

Don't be baited, my friend. And by staying on topic people like Ferret will hopefully get lost down a rabbit hole

Im playing Seria A, its the most challenging league. Currently Fiorentina in jan08 (FM08) and 6th in the league, some reason though the teams above me are invincible

That's DEDICATION!! I hope your chairman appreciates you!

He keeps offering me new contracts so can't complain but still not on the club's favoured personnel lol.

I usually manage in England but I've taken on the challenge of restoring the glory of Juventus. At the start of my second season, Inter and AC were too strong in my first season but I managed to make the champions league so I'm on course. The lack of a reserve league is annoying as far as keeping players fit goes, and the non-EU player restriction makes it difficult to poach all the best South American talent (I expect Spain would have a big advantage there compared with Italy and the UK) but it'll be interesting to see if we can mix it in Europe with the English clubs - I've drawn Liverpool in my group who are champions (!)