Official Calcio Catania Thread - Can You Save Them From Relegation?

Calcio Catania SpA

Founded:

1908 as Educazione Fisica Pro Patria

1946 as Club Calcio Catania

Nicknames:

Rossazzurri (Red and Light Blues)

Gli Elefante (The Elephants)

Etnei (The Etneans)

Ground:

Stadio Angelo Massimino, Cibali

Capacity - 23,420

Chairman:

Antonio Pulvirenti

Strips:

Home Away Third

History (Shamefully lifted from Wikipedia, many apologies):

The origins of football being played by representatives of the Province of Catania can be traced back to Englishcargo ships, thanks to the workers who brought the game to Sicily. Specifically the earliest Catania team can be traced to match which took place on 2 May 1901 at San Raineri di Messina against Messina, the team was named Royal Yacht Catania; an English ship with a local Catanian crew.[3]

The ship workers team was just a pastime however, Catania's first professional and most stable football club was founded on 19 June 1908, by Italian film director Gaetano Ventimiglia and Francesco Sturzo d'Aldobrando, who founded the club under the name A.S. Educazione Fisica Pro Patria. Early on they would always play against sailors visiting the port of Catania, particularly foreign ships. Though their first ever match was against Regina Margherita an Italian battleship, the game ended in a 1-1 draw and the Catania line-up that day consisted of; Vassallo, Gismondo, Bianchi, Messina, Slaiter, Caccamo, Stellario, Binning, Cocuzza, Ventimiglia and Pappalardo. Just two years later they changed the name to Unione Sportiva Catanese.[4]

In the North of Italy, football was more organised and those clubs competed in the early Italian Football Championships, while Catania and other Southern clubs competed in competitions such as the Lipton, Sant' Agata and Agordad cups. U.S. Catanese survived the First World War and just after it played in the local Coppa Federale Siciliana. Seven seasons later in 1927 they were entered into the Campionato Catanese, which was won in the 1928-29 season. As they gained promotion the club were entered into the Second Division, and changed their name first to Società Sportiva Catania. They first competed in Serie B in the 1934-35 season[5] where they finished 4th; that season Genoa won the Serie B title.

Catania played in the league for three seasons during this period, before being relegated. Down in Serie C, Catania were crowned champions in the 1938-39 season, finishing above Sicilian rivals Siracusa and Messina (who came in 2nd and 3rd respectively). Their return to Serie B was not a pleasant one, the club finished bottom of the league and won only three games that season. The club's name was briefly changed to Associazione Calcio Fascista Catania during the 1942-43 season in Serie C, which ended prematurely because of the 2nd World War.

[edit] Rebirth

After World War II ended, a local competition was organised, the Campionato Siciliano. US Catanese were back; at the end of that season a local team named Elefante Catania[6] were merged into the club. The merged club kept the Catanese name and competed in Serie C during the 1945-46 season, but finished last. In the same league that season a team called Virtus Catania were also present and finished 8th.[7]

At the end of the season, Catanese and Virtus merged together to form Club Calcio Catania, with the first president as Santi Manganaro-Passanisi (who had been president of Catanese). They were entered into Serie C where they spent three seasons, after an epic duel with Reggina for first place Catania prevailed with stars such as Goffi, Messora, Ardesi and Prevosti, gaining promotion to Serie B during 1948-49.

[edit] Calcio Catania's Golden years

The late 1950s through 1960s are considered the golden years for the Catanian club, as they managed to achieve promotion to Serie A on two separate occasions during this time. Their first promotion from Serie B came, when in the 1953-54 season Catania beat out Cagliari and Lombardy side Pro Patria to be crowned champions of the division. Their first season in Serie A, saw Catania achieve a respectable 12th place finish, but the club were forcibly relegated due to financial scandal (as were Udinese).

Under the management of Carmelo Di Bella (who had played for the club in the late '30s) Catania gained promotion from Serie B in the 1959-60 season. The race for promotion in third spot went down to the last day of the season and was very tense. Catania had lost their final game 4-2 to Brescia and needed Parma to get a good result against Triestina for the Sicilian club to secure promotion. That is exactly what happened and Catania had thus gained promotion once more. .

Catania returned into Serie A for the 1960-61 season, to begin what would be a six-year stay in the league. Their return season was emphatic as the newly promoted club finished in 8th above top Italian clubs such as Lazio and Napoli. This season produced several notable wins; they beat Napoli and Bologna twice, Sampdoria 3-0 at home and most notably they beat AC Milan 4-3 in Sicily and then on the final day of the season they beat Internazionale 2-0, with goals from Castellazzi and Calvanese. This rubbed the salt into the wounds of Inter who lost the closely contested title that year to Juventus.

Four years later in 1965 they would also finish 8th in the league, this time above Roma and Sicilian rivals Messina. Many of the club's most notable stars played around this time, such as; midfielders Alvaro Biagini and the Brazilian Cinesinho, along with wingers Carlo Facchin and Giancarlo Danova in the side. Catania more than held their own amongst the giants of Italian football, with wins against Juventus (2-0), Fiorentina (2-0) and Lazio (1-0).

[edit] Mixed fortunes in the 70s and 80s

After their relegation in 1966 Carmelo Di Bella left and Catania stayed in Serie B; clashing with Palermo in the Sicilian derby before the Palermitan club were promoted. Catania followed in 1969-70 with a third place finish; though their stay in Serie A this time was very brief and they were relegated back down after one season. Their most impressive results that season was 3-1 win against Lazio and a draw at home against AC Milan, Catania lacked goalscorers at the time as they only scored 18 goals altogether in 30 games. Worse was to come for the club, who in 1973-74 were relegated down to Serie C, but fortunately for the club they were able to bounce straight back with a promotion into Serie B as champions. A similar situation happened in 1976-77, where they were relegated down to Serie C. This time however, they were not able to bounce right back; they finished 2nd and then 3rd before finally being crowned champions of what was now known as Serie C1 in 1979-80.

After three short seasons, Catania were promoted in 3rd place behind AC Milan and Lazio, into Serie A. They played the 1983-84 season in Italy's top league, but it proved to be an especially dismal season, with only one win (which came against Pisa) and 12 points despite the presence of Claudio Ranieri and Brazilian imports Luvanor and Pedrinho.

[edit] Decline and revival

The decline of Catania started most evidently after its last relegation to Serie B. The team was no longer able to reach the top division of Italian football, and instead continued to decline, being relegated for a while into Serie C1 for the latter part of the 1980s. The lowest point of the club's history, however, was reached in 1993, when the team was cancelled by the FIGC because of financial irregularities.

However, after a long judicial battle, the magistrature declared the Italian Federation decision as invalid, and forced it to include the team back into the footballing fold. Catania was thus included in the Sicilian Eccellenza (the sixth level of Italian football), but in the meantime another Sicilian football team, Atletico Leonzio from Lentini (in the Province of Syracuse), had been relocated in the city and renamed Atletico Catania. Despite all of this, the "real" Catania was able to rise back to Serie C in a relatively small number of years, and even back to Serie B in 2002.

During 2003, Catania was at the centre of a controversy that led to the enlargement of Serie B from 20 to 24 teams, known as Caso Catania. The club claimed that Siena fielded an ineligible player in a 1-1 tie, a result which saw Catania relegated, whereas the two extra points from a victory would have kept them safe. They were awarded a 2-0 victory, before the result being reverted, and then re-awarded again. In August, the FIGC decided to let Catania, along with Genoa and Salernitana stay in Serie B, the newly-reborn Fiorentina were also added for the 2003-04 season. The ruling led to protests and boycotts by the other Serie B clubs that delayed the start of the season.

The league went down to 22 teams for 2004-05, while at the same time Serie A expanded from 18 to 20 teams. During the start of that season, Antonino Pulvirenti, chairman of the flight company Windjet and owner of Acireale, a Sicilian Serie C1 team, bought the club. Catania's new ownership let the team enjoy a revival, and in 2005-06 Catania ended in second position, earning promotion to Serie A.

Against Atalanta in Serie A during 2006.

[edit] Return to Serie A

The 2006-07 season saw Catania in Serie A for its first appearance in 22 years. In their first season back Catania began well, though they recorded a couple of heavy defeats, their home form saw them peak as high as 4th after 20 games.

Their return season changed drastically on 2 February 2007, due to the 2007 Catania football violence incident. It happened during the Sicilian derby with Palermo, policeman Filippo Raciti was killed during football-related violence caused by Catania ultras outside the Massimino stadium.[8] The event led FIGC commissioner Luca Pancalli to cancel all football-related events in the country for a period of time; including league and national team matches. Catania chairman and owner Antonino Pulvirenti announced his willingness to leave the football world, stating it was not possible to go on producing football in Catania.

After the Italian football league restarted, Catania continued on but dropped in form largely. In truth their slump in form had started just before the derby incident and all together they failed to win for twelve games in a row, before beating Udinese 1-0 in late April 2007,[9] they eventually finished 13th.

The following season, with Marino leaving for Udinese and Silvio Baldini taking charge of the team, proved to be much harder. Poor results in the league table were however coupled with impressive performance in the Coppa Italia, where Catania reached a historical place in the semi-finals, then lost to Roma. Meanwhile, Baldini resigned from his post on March 31, 2008, being replaced by Walter Zenga in a somewhat surprise appointment (at least due to Zenga's lack of expertise at the Serie A level). Despite this, Zenga managed to lead the rossazzurri off the relegation zone, saving his side from falling down to Serie B in a heated final week game, a 1–1 home tie to Roma, with an equaliser goal scored by Jorge Andrés Martínez at the 85th minute.

Transfer/Wage Budget:

I reccomend you choose Avoid Relegation as your aim; you will reciece £3.5m for transfers and £185k p/w for wages.

08/09 Squad (9.3 update):

Albano Bizzarri - GK

Tomas Kosicky - GK

Matias Silvestre - SW, D C

Cristian Silvestri - D RC

Ciro Capuano - D LC, WB/M L

Lorenzo Stovini - D C

Christian Terlizzi - D C

Alessandro Potenza - D/WB RL

Gennaro Sardo - D/WB R

Cristian Llama - WB/AM L

Davide Baiocco - DM, M RLC

Pablo Ledesma - DM, M RC

Marco Biagianti - DM, M LC

Ezequiel Carboni - DM, M C

Mariano Izco - M RC

Guiseppe Mascara - AM RLC, FC

Jorge Martinez - AM RLC, FC

Takayuki Morimoto - AM RL, ST

Giacomo Tedesco - AM LC

Gionatha Spinesi - ST

Michele Paolucci - ST

Five Players to Keep:

Lorenzo Stovini - He may be the wrong side of 30, but he is undoubtably a reliable CB capable of stopping the greatest of Serie A forwards. Change him to your captain as Davide Baiocco will not play many games

Pablo Ledesma - A new signing from Boca, he will rule your midfield and become your most valuble player. Expect to fend off bids from Inter, Juve et al, in January.

Jorge Martinez - Top class winger or forward, this guy will guarantee you goals and assists wherever you play him.

Takayuki Morimoto - I initially thought this 20 year old Japanases to be a bit part player, but little did I expect him to finish as Serie A's top goalscorer with 20 goals. Do not sell at any cost.

Michele Paolucci - On loan from Juve, he will provide you with solid service as the leading target man. He may take a while to get going but he is the perfect foil for your smaller forwards such as Martinez and Morimoto.

First XI:

I play a flat 442, but with the number of defensive midfielders and attacking midfielders, I would imagine a 4231 suits Catania very well.

Bizzarri

Sardo Silvestre Stovini Capuano

Izco Ledesma Biagianti Martinez

Paolucci Morimoto

Reccomended Signings:

Roberto Guana - Forms a dynamic partnership with Ledesma.

Sebastian Blanco - He won't play every game but he is a very useful player when he does.

Franco Zuculini - Quality young player, will play well for the first team and you can sell him on for a heavy profit later on.

Current Squad and Formation

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3751/63302526.png

Tactic

http://www.filefront.com/14596497/viola29-442-HOME.tac/

http://www.filefront.com/14596503/vi...442%20AWAY.tac

08/09 Season Results

Serie A - 10th

Italian Cup - Lost in 4th qualifying round v Brescia

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/6839/10220153.png

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/8863/97077130.png

08/09 Transfers

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2495/21844469.png

09/10 Season Results

Serie A - 4th

Italian Cup - Lost in quarter final v Roma

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/336/92133823.png

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9898/45325604.png

09/10 Transfers

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/7164/44586701.png

Thanks for reading

viola29

Nice OP.

Will add it.

Been looking for a team like this. Ill try it.

Now trying to look about for some talent for £3.5m.

Want a centre mid that really knows what hes doing, age is not much of a worry, aslong as he can still run!

Anyone got any ideas who would want to join Catania? Looked at the player reccomended but i want to try someone different

Mariusz Lewandowski? Ill be looking at him, if mine ever loads.

Gonna play 4-1-2-2-2 with wingers, so will be looking at getting Ochirosii.

Tyoldinho

Try looking at Jan Polak from Anderlecht, Work Rate 17 and Stamina 18.

If you can raise finances by selling a few players try to get Steven Defour from Standard.

sned777

Seems like you're going to play with an extra player! I regret not getting Ochirosii, although the wingers you start with are fairly decent.

Both of you let me know how you get on.

Oh yeah. I meant 4-1-2-2-1

Whats the deal with co-ownership? Do they get the player, or do I keep him?

When they make the offer they specify which team the player will play for.

For example, I signed Sebastian Blanco for £3.5m in the summer. In January Sampdoria wanted to co-own Blanco for £4m but Blanco was to stay at Catania for two years, when both teams will bid for the player. I saw this as free money and took it.

Steven Doufour seems like a brilliant signing if i can get hold of him.

What about his fellow friend Witsel, will he do the job or not?

Is there any freebies that are good enough for Catania, or shall i just spend the money!

First Season League Table

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/8863/97077130.png

Current Squad and Formation

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3751/63302526.png

I got Robert and Mariusz Lewandowski, Razvan Ochirosii and Loic Nestor so far.

Tylodinho

Witsel would be fantastic, although I very much doubt he'd come to Catania, even if you could raise the money. I'd imagine he'd cost in the region of £7-8m.

As for the free players, I don't tend to sign them and I reckon there are very few free players that would be able to compete for a position in the first team. Some would be okay I guess for backup if you were desperate but Catania's squad is good enough IMO.

sned777

Nestor is quality, he'll provide solid back-up for a year until he is ready to step up to the first team and Lewandowski looks sound.

What about Appiah when he becomes fit? He is normally brilliant for a freebie in centre of the park!

Ohhh i still havent hit continue on my game yet, been on it couple hours now. Been doing training, tactics, scouting and all that i take pride!

You can't go wrong with Appiah I suppose.

Season Update:

09/10 - 4th in Serie A with 34 points after 17 games, 4 off 1st placed Juventus and quarter-final of the Italian Cup.

Just played my first friendly vs Wolfsburg. Played full strength first half and was 1-0 at HT. Did 11 subs at HT and final score was 2-0 Martinez and Spolli with the goals in either half. Martinez scoring from the AMR position as R.Lewandowski is upfront. Nestor is a starting CB.

If youre on an update Tyoldinho, players like De Guzman, Moretti and Zenden on frees.

08/09 Transfers

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2495/21844469.png

09/10 Transfers

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/7164/44586701.png

Well done sned, bet that was tough game aswell!

I will update when i play all my friendlies and signings, im hoping for all wins in them! Build up some confidence!

Well done sned, bet that was tough game aswell!

I will update when i play all my friendlies and signings, im hoping for all wins in them! Build up some confidence!

Yeah, morale is key, my pre-season is usually like this:

1st Match - Big team (eg. Man Utd, Barcelona)

2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Match - Tour of Andorra

6th Match - Good team (eg. Atletico, Tottenham)

Nice deals there Viola29 love your manager name aswell. So classically Italian. I'll get a scout report on Cristaldo, I havent bought him in ages. Shame Salvio moved to Fiorentina. Will probably check out Faccioli aswell.

Haha, thanks, the name just came to me when I was Fiorentina manager of FM2005. Stuck by it ever since!

If you're playing on an updated database, Catania have signed Gennaro Delvecchio, who is kind of like an Italian Cahill, if you use him right he can definitely get goals.

Great OP btw.

I CBA to do screenies, so Ill type it instead.

Pre-Season Friendlies:

Catania 2-0 Wolfsburg (Martinez, Spolli)

Gallipolli 0-6 Catania (O.G, R.Lewandowski x2, Capuano, Ochirosii x2)

Catania 1-1 Man Utd (R.Lewandowski ; Carrick)

Catania 3-0 NEC (Ledesma, Ochirosii, Capuano)

Catania 6-0 Paterno (Silvestre x2, Plasmati, Izco, R.Lewandowski, Capuano)

Catania 4-0 Foggia (Martinez x2, R.Lewandowski, Spolli)

Transfers:

Out:

Ezequeil Carboni-loan fee £150k

Andrea Campagnolo-loan fee £45k

Giuseppe Mascara- £1.8m

Adrian Richiutti-loan fee £425k

Matias Silvestre-£1.8m (CO)

Takayuki Morimoto-£925k (CO)

Ins

Robert Lewandowski-£925k

Tzlil Hatuka-£5k

Loic Nestor-£180k

Razvan Ochirosii-£250k

Mariusz Lewandowski-£4.2m

Jonathan Cristaldo-£200k

Matej Rapnik-free

Sebastian Viera-free

I had the retain players ddt file up, so had access to lots of players.

Will load up a save momentarily. This looks quite fun

Stop copying me

Haha, I don't mean to. My Arsenal save is frustrating me at the moment so I need something to do take my mind off of it for a while.

one of the best opening posts i have seen in years....well done....nice read

My first competitive game just played, was in the TIM cup, 3rd qualifying round against Treviso. Won 3-0 with Robert Lewandowski getting a hat-trick.

First League game was a solid 3-0 win away at Bologna. Slightly marred by the injuries to R.Lewandowski and Martinez. Goals were scored by Ledesma, Cristaldo and Capuano. So a great start to the season. I'm probably going to do a match report for every game.

Games 2 was at home to Siena, after the International break I had a full squad back. The result was a comfortable 1-0, with the goal being scored by Ochirosii, who was later taken off injured, not a serious one. Ledesma also picked up a slight knock, nothing serious either.

Got Torino in the TIM cup 4th Qualifying Round at home. I thought it would be the most difficult game so far, but we dominated and won the game 3-0. Goals from Jorge Martinez and a brace of headers from Matias Silvestre sealed it. Although, Ledesma picked up yet another injury.

I'm sitting top of the league due to alphabetical order going into my next game vs Bari . Seemed like it would be an easy game, even if it was away from home, but it was more difficult than I thought. 0-0 at HT and shortly after Ht we conceded our first goal of the season to Sergio Almiron. Changes were made and Morimoto got a goal back, but we drew 1-1, first points dropped.

Next up came Cagliari, another game which we could/should win. A line-up without R.Lewandowski and Ochirosii was quite weak. Lewandowski's replacement Gianvito Plasmati scored the opener after 24 minutes. Then Ochirosii's replacement Barrientos scored moments later. Then Ledesma's replacement Biglianti scored on 42 minutes to put us 3-0 up at HT. A couple of fringe players came on at HT and Cagliari got a goal back, but the game ended 3-1.

Nice results sned777.

Season Update:

10 games left and i'm sitting in 6th place with 53 points. Only 3 points behind 4th placed Roma and just 2 points ahead Napoli in 8th. Europa League is my aim at the very least. Best result of the season - 2-1 at home to Inter (Blanco scoring in the 8th and 82nd minute).

Knocked out of Italian Cup quarter final by Roma.

Top scorer with 15 goals is Martinez. Unfortunately he was in his last year of contract and wanted to move on. I chose to keep him for a year before the inevitable free transfer rather than cash in for a paltry amount. He has now accepted a pre-contract deal with Atletico.

After my summer spending spree, my bank balance is now at a worrying £451k! However I can expect a fair bit of money as at least half of my team are wanted by bigger clubs. I hope I don't go the way of Leeds.

Cheers. Shame your gonna lose Martinez. Ive gone up to 3rd in the table now, after drawing with Udinese and Fiorentina, before destroying Genoa 4-1. Just about to play AC Milan.

Edit, managed to comeback from 2-0 down and draw 2-2 thanks to an OG and 87th minute equaliser from M.Lewandowski.

This looks quite good. Going to give it a go and swap between this, my arsenal save and Leeds save untill fm10 comes out and i can afford it

Looking to get a few co-ownerships done aswell!

What players would be not need if im playing a sexyfootball tactic so;

gk

dr

dc

dc

dl

dm

mr

mc

ml

st

st?

Nice one sned777, is that your best result so far? Martinez now has 23 goals in 27 games so I am absolutely devastated .

sparey, to be honest, apart from the 5 players I mentioned in the OP, the rest are replaceable. You can mould the team to fit your style of play. Try and ship some of the reserves for some extra cash but keep most of your first team squad. Good luck with your save and keep posting on here to let me know how its going.

I'm thinking of taking this up but on the WeeGie update (it's the only reason i'm not continuing my ajax save). Hope this wouldn't put my posting off topic. Would like an answer from viola29. thx

Why not want an answer from me? Im sure were all doing our saves on different db's, Im definitley not on Weegie, but as long as you post about your Catania save, it wouldnt make it off topic.

Then i'll post the thing was since the db is different there would be inevitable differences in the ongoing game. my idea was that there shouldn't be a problem. Anyway thx will be posting soon.

There will always be differences, even on the same db, different clubs being bought, you buying different players etc.

I'm using the 9.3 patch db released from SI a while ago.

Season Update:

Secured 4th place in Serie A with a 4-0 rout of Napoli on the final matchday, Martinez scored a hattrick in his last game for the club, I felt like giving him a standing ovation! Hopefully Champions League qualification will sort out my money woes.

Here is the tactic i'm using if anyone is interested. I took me months but I developed it all on my own, and I think its quite good .

http://www.filefront.com/14596497/viola29-442-HOME.tac/

http://www.filefront.com/14596503/viola29%20442%20AWAY.tac

Well it's the end of the first transfer window and now is the time for an update(Will Probably be doing monthly updates in this format).

Figures are in Euro

Players Out

Mariano Izco - Brescia - 1.7m

Matias Silvestre - Lazio - 1m (Co-ownership still in my squad)

Fabio Sciacca - Perugia - 650k

Francesco Millesi - Verona - 950k

Adriano Mezzavilla - Juve Stabia (Loan)

Takayuki Morimoto - Udinese - 1.9m (Co-ownership still in squad)

Giuseppe Mascara - Ascoli - 1.7m

Cristian Llama - Empoli - 475k (Co-ownership at Empoli)

Gionatha Spinesi - Rimini - 550k

Cristian Suarino - Cavese - Loan

Blazej Augustyn - Cavese - Loan

Mirko Antenucci - Modena - 1m

Tomas Kosicky - Empoli - Loan

Jorge Martinez - Lazio - 2m Co-ownership still with me

Players In

Per Ciljan Skjelbred - Rosenborg - 1.6m

Razvan Ochirosii - Steaua - 220k

Sergey Krivets - Bate Borisov - 525k

Marco Storari - Milan - Loan 90k Fee

Diego Buonanotte - River - 5.25m (+25% of profit form next sale)

Andrea Poli - Sampdoria - Loan 450k Fee with 1.5m future fee

Miko Albornoz - Brommapojkarna - 140k (player worth checking out)

Friendlies

Unterhaching 0 - 9 Catania

Hercules 1 - 3 Catania

Gallipoli 0 -3 Catania

Sangiovannese 1 - 4 Catania

Paterno 0 - 11 Catania

Catania 7 - 0 Levante

Official Matches

Coppa Italia Catania 3 - 1 Salernitana

Serie A Bologna 2 - 2 Catania (coming back from 2 - 0 down and ended the game in 10 due to a Morimoto injury after all substitution were made due to minor injuries and were it not for this could probably have won)

You sold Izco!? He's still in my first team and performing admirably.

Haha, I just signed Ochirosii for £4.9m. I forgot about him in the first transfer window .

yes brought Skjelbred instead, he's with me on most saves. how's Ochirosii by then and you should check Albornoz he's 17 at game start and amazing.

From his stats, £4.9m for Ochirosii was an absolute bargain. I'll post a screenie of him soon.

Unfortunately Albornoz isn't on my game, I have to run a medium database otherwise the game runs unfeasibly slow.

Right then time for my first update of how things are going:

So I am currently at December 1st with Catania and things are going very well. We are currently situated in 5th place in the league after doing superbly well in the fixtures that we had to. We have beaten all of the teams who the media thought was going to be around us at the end of the season and we have also sneaked in wins against Fiorentina and Sampdoria. Our best performance was against Atalanta where it was expected to be close but we turned on the style and beat them 5-0. We have made it into the 1st round of the Coppa Italia where we will face Juventus so our cup run will probably end there.

1. 2. 3.

1: League Table as of 1st December

2: Current Squad Status

3: Current Transfer History

Second Season League Table

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/336/92133823.png

First Season Results

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/6839/10220153.png

Second Season Results

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9898/45325604.png

Razvan Ochirosii

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1665/92589747.png

Watson156

Nice deal with Santon there, depending on how long you can keep him that £475k will be peanuts! If I were you, i'd be thankful for a quick cup run so as not to distract from the league campaign.

Pre-Season Update:

Just qualified for the Champions League Group Stage courtesy of a 5-2 aggregate win over Sporting CP. Major transfers this summer; sold Pablo Ledesma for £12m to Napoli as he was unhappy and wanted a move, and seeing as no player is bigger than the club, I was happy to take £12m and give Franco Zuculini the chance for a starting role at the age of 19. Biggest incoming signing is Marquinhos from Palmeiras for £4m upfront, £4.5m in monthly installments and £5.25m after 50 league appearances. Scored on his debut v Sporting.

Edit: Drew Arsenal, Olympiakos and Basel. Not the most difficult of groups methinks. Especially not when I could have got Bayern, Villarreal and Marseilles.

Watson156

Nice deal with Santon there, depending on how long you can keep him that £475k will be peanuts! If I were you, i'd be thankful for a quick cup run so as not to distract from the league campaign.

Ive got Santon for two years so hopefully by then we will have done something to make him realize that this is the club that he should be at. As expected I am already out of the cup. We lost to Juventus 4-2 but that scoreline is such an injustice. We were leading them 2-1 up till the 80th minute and then when they scored they got a lucky goal that shouldn't have counted and then we went looking for that final goal and they just scored on the counter.

Well done to you for making the champions league. Get some good money from that and then maybe the possibility of making it into the UEFA Cup if you cant make the knockout stages of the champs league.

Hehe, i'm planning to go to the final .

Ah, 2 new recruits I see. Ive not been on mine for a while.Its 10th November and Im still unbeaten, the only unbeaten team in Serie A.

Ive got Emir Faccioli coming in for £190k in January. Dont think I need strengthening.

Edit: just lost to Juve 1-0.

Watson you're doing pretty well and well done on Santon and 2 years have been enough for viola29 to secure a CL spot which might be enough for Santon.

Weel done viola on CL qualification and Ochirosii really seems a bargain at 4.9m with his stats, hope mine improves that way as well.

And even Sned seems to be doing very well.

Currently i'm 7 games in and lying in 6th place and feel pretty good about winning the sicilian derby against Palermo.

Also in the Coppa Italia my next opponent is Fiorentina in the First Round and will probably end there.

Cristaldo will be joining next season for 325k.

Also if anyone could mention a good goalkeeper as on the update Bizzarri is a Lazio player and really don't like either Andujar and Campagnolo while Storari is signing for Palermo once his loan deal with us ends. Viera decided he'd rather play second fiddle to Cech at Chelsea while i remembered of Enyeama way too late as he is a Juventus player already.

Catania Season 1 Review : 2008/2009

Have just finished my first season in charge of Catania and have finished a very credible 6th. This bases of this good position was the ability to win games against the teams that were around us and below us. We took 4 points out of a possible 24 against the big 4, (Juventus, Milan, Inter & Roma) this was a draw against Juve and a win against Roma. Both these results were at home.

One of the other positives of this season was that our below par squad seemed able to cope in this division. We haven't got a squad of world class players nor do we have a unlimited transfer budget but we have been able to work around this by the players training hard and having a little bit of luck in that not many of the players got injured or suspended. The down side of this is that a lot of my players are wanted by other teams. So far we have agreed to sign Ze Castro for £500k, Pablo de Barros for £550k and Leandro Gioda on a free transfer. We are going to have to add a few more players to the team. Ideally we need a new top quality goalkeeper, center midfielder and a right midfielder. We managed to sign Niculae during January but he was very disappointing and a bit unlucky (hit the bar 5 times over 2 games) so if we can get him scoring next year then it will hopefully be like a brand new signing.

Financially we are doing okay. We have got £17m in the bank which is very stable for a club like ours. We also are way down on our wages allowed and I plan to reduce our wages even further this coming season. I also managed to do a smart transfer deal. I agreed to sell Morimoto on a co-ownership deal to Genoa for £1.4m. After seeing him improve over the season I decided that I didn't want the possibility to arise that we may lose him so I made an offer to Genoa to buy back their 50% of him for £950k. They agreed and the deal was done so we made a nice profit of £450k.

League Table | Squad | Transfers

Feel free to ask anything or request any other screenies.

kcar_92

It depends on how much money you have. I splashed the cash and probably paid over the odds for Ochoa, but a good keeper is so important. Is Riou on your save? Also try looking at Benoit Costil.

Watson156

Who were your league goalscorers? I had Morimoto on 20, Paolucci and Martinez on 7 and several players on 3/4.