FM16: Serie A / B / and lower - Calcio is here! We have pizza & spaghetti!

Reserved for future.

So I'll start Im playing as Juventus, currently coming into April currently sitting 1st in the league, unfortunetly lost in the 1st round of Coppa Italia , and Im to play the 1st leg of quarter final in CL vs Barcelona...

Players sold in the winter:

- Hernanes - £5M to Southampton

Bought:

- Cuadrado - £17.75M activated the clausule in his loan contract (was doing great for me)

- Dani Carvajal - £11.5M - he was transfer listed and having Lichsteiner injured all the time I decided to go for him, still he'll join in the summer and then I will sell Stephan.

- Ezequiel Lavezzi - £0 - his contract was running out, so I secured him for the summer - rotation £35k p/w ! so super deal

- Geronimo Rulli - £0 - his contract was running out, and Neto was performing bad for me so I decided to get a new reserve GK, and try to sell Neto in the summer

Will make a proper season report after its done. I have bought Mario Fernandes in the summer and woah he's so amazing for me this season 24(3) games so far delivering 12 assists scoring 1 and 8.06 AvR!

This is a good idea for a thread.

I've only had a quick go on FM so far with AC Milan. Montolivo and Bacca were really good for me. Berlusconi has finally spent some $ and cleared out some deadwood.

Will play a 4-3-3;

GK: Lopez

DR: Abate or DES or Calabria

DL: Antonini

DC: Romagnoli

DC: Mexes/Alex/Zapata

DMC: De Jong

MC: Monty

MC: Bertolacci/Poli

AMR: Niang/Cerci

AML: Bonaventura

FC: Bacca / back up Supermario/Adriano

Milan have some good youngsters who should be good in a couple of seasons as well; Donnarumma and Locatelli and Mastour (on loan in Spain).

Tassotti is a scout so its best to fire your Asst Manager and renew Tassotti's contract as Asst Manager.

Milan board expect qualification for UEFA cup but with the squad should be looking @ champs league football at least then onwards to bring the glory days back.

So all in all Milan have a good squad, will be looking for a central defender to play alongside the talented Romagnoli who should be your left sided DC for a long time.

I'm really disappointed there isn't Serie D enabled already, I'd really like to start a Parma game.

Oh well, I'm just gonna holiday for a season when I do.

There are quite a few great teams to play with in Serie A.

We already have Inter and Milan threads, other teams that should be mentioned are of course Roma, Napoli, Lazio and my personal favorite Sassuolo. They have amazing squad in the game.

Did draw first 1-1 vs Barcelona CL Quarters at home, and woah Dybala scored in 91st minute and the 2nd leg end with 2-2 !! We're through to semis!

I take it that there is no under 20's league so no point in having any under 20's staff or players?

I take it that there is no under 20's league so no point in having any under 20's staff or players?

There are both u18 and u20 leagues and you should have the staff and players.

Has anyone played with Parma yet?

First of All great to see a thread dedicated to the Italian leagues and would love to see more threads like this dedicated to other leagues e.g. La Liga or Bundesliga and below.

As far as Italy is concerned the only thing that always puts me off is the fact you can only sign 1 or possibly 2 non Eu players so limits finding a few diamonds. However I think this year starting as Parma is the big attraction to see if you can take one of the great clubs of the past back to where they belong.

I have spotted that someone has made a Serie D file and you can get it on fm scout (if I'm allowed to mention) other sites or on steam workshop, however I think it's a number of leagues with over 5,000 teams so I dunno if it's the real life structure or not but for me I think when I do come to start a game in Italy then Parma will be the one for me.

Has anyone played with Parma yet?

Yep. I loaded in Serie D via a database update, and managed to get them promoted to Serie C at the first try. Not sure how accurate the teams/finances were of the database update, but there's heaps of free transfers and loan players available, so should be able to assemble a pretty good team.

Just about to start the Serie C season it's heaps of fun as a save! Should definitely give it a try.

I am finding Serie A very tough when playing lesser teams, I'm AC Milan, most tend to play a 3-5DM-2 formation which is so defensive it is unreal.

Great idea for the a thread, the Football League version has been such a success over the years it's a surprise this wasn't thought of already. Well done stgahoy.

I'm coming to the end of a terrible first season with AC Milan, my original intention for the save was to play it until Parma came into the game but due to the drama of this first season I'm really keen to stick around in Milan.

I'm currently sitting 8th but having dropped as low as 15th, narrowly escaping getting sacked twice now. Both timed having to make promises to the board which I thankfully have managed to achieve. In all honesty it's my own fault as I've been chopping and changing formations and instructions that the players haven't had time to settle so I've been my own worst enemy...

I mage Donnarumma my number 1 straight away and he's been very good, some mistakes but that's to be expected due to his age. I've made a couple of decent signings after being given £12m to spend.

Transfers in :

Adam Maher £1.6m

Yohan Gourcuff free

I'm letting a lot of people leave in the summer both on bosmans and transfers so I can sort of start again both tactically and squad wise.

bdixon - What type of roles are you assigning to you striker and central 3, I've had a decent return from my wide men but no matter who I play in the middle or up top I've been returned poorly.

I might as well take part in this thread given the save I'm currently playing. I generally struggle these days to motivate myself for a long term save but I have started one as Savona in Serie C and so far it's been good.

After taking over I find out we start the first season on -6 points for match fixing and are predicted to go down, we basically have no money and I was only able to get free transfers or loans except for one player. Mauro Bollino was a real talent a couple of games back, clearly his PA isn't as good as it once was but I was able to pick him up with potential to improve and be very good at Serie C level.

Anyway I have completed the first season, at half distance things were looking good as we were up to about 10th even with the points deduction. After that we finished the season abysmally with about 10 games without a win. That left us in a relegation playoff where we suddenly turned up again and won both legs 2-1, so we stay up. Bollino was the top scorer in the end with 12 from midfield.

Summer of season 2 and I took the chance to get rid of a lot of the higher earners who were basically crap. I also managed to get Lorenzo Tassi back on loan again but for 0% wages instead of 100% which helped. We have managed one big signing which is Loris Damonte who was playing for the team we beat in the relegation playoff, this guy is clearly a Serie B if not Serie A player. The only problem is he is a right of left winger and his stats are average for those positions so I'm playing him at CB, he has zero positional ability there but I've never noticed to make any difference frankly. He is also now our captain.

Now into season 2 and we progressed through the group stage of the Serie C cup which we didn't last season although I'm really not bothered about that. We also won the first league game of the season 2-0 with two more from Bollino who has 4 in 3 including the cup games. We have one or two other players with potential, Attilio Cinquegrana is a poor mans Mascherano, picked up about 20 bookings last season and Vannucci is a great attacking left back at this level.

Stop playing BPL people and get in here!

GET MOTIVATED!

[video=youtube;CXDgnWToqFs]

What leagues would you guys load for an Italy specific save (along with Italy obviously)?

What leagues would you guys load for an Italy specific save (along with Italy obviously)?

For my Milan save I loaded;

Italy - SA&B

Then top leagues only for;

England

Spain

Holland

France

Germany

There are both u18 and u20 leagues and you should have the staff and players.

Thanks for reply, I had a look on the editor and for Milan under competitions its ticked there are no U20 fixtures so I got rid of all the U20 players and staff to save $. Am just running first team and U18's.

Finished my season as Juve, managed to win Serie A with 96 points quite comfortable with 101 goals scored.

Got caught out in CL in the semis by Bayern, a bit unlucky I was dominating them at home 22 shots for me only 2 for Bayern but it end up 0-0... In the 2nd leg Alex Sandro got sent off early and they trashed me 0-3.

In the Italian Cup I lost in the first round to Empoli 0-2..

Transfers In:

- Lavezzi - free - Rotation to cover the wings

- Geronimo Rulli - free - My new reserve keeper

- Dani Carvajal - £11,5M - He was transfer listed, and I was quite unhappy with Lichtsteiner, he was injured a lot, and he started to downgrade due to his age

- Andres Cubas - £4,5M - One for the future (loaned out to Roma now, where he became a starter :o )

- Eden Hazard - £53M + £25M in bonuses - Well my spending record, didnt really plan this transfer, but Real Madrid bought Morata off me for the contract release clausule... And in the affect I wanted to buy someone big either an AML or ST, went for AML as I have Dybala. My nr1 target was Alexis but Arsenal was asking about £120M, Chelsea wanted £85M at start managed to negotiate it down to this. So far I'm happy 7 games 5 goals 3 assists 7.79 AvR, Im looking to get his finishing better and we will see what happens

- Domenico Berardi - £30M + £10M over 48 months - One of my biggest targets in the game, pity we dont have the "gentelmans release clausule" as in real world and I had to pay this much, also the fact that Roma offered £38M didnt help and I had to react fast. Luckily Berardi chose me, this season he'll be playing in rotation system with Cuadrado, but next year I will probably sell the Columbian and get Berardi into the first team.

- Cristian Pavon - £8M - a last day of the window transfer, I had to buy a reserve striker as I had an offer I couldnt refuse for Zaza.

Transfers Out:

- Alvaro Morata - £21.5M - Totally forgot about his clausule still wasnt much I could do, I offered him a new contract but he demanded £240k p/w,negotiated it down to £210k p/w with key player, but he chose Real at £170k p/w and first squad status. If I would remember about the clausule I would sell him to Chelsea or PSG who were offering me about £40M...

- Neto - £7,5M - R. Sociedad - I guess they were in need of a goalkeeper after their GK was snapped out of contract by... me ; ) But also Neto was performing quite bad

- Mario Mandzukic - £12,5M - Lazio - Mario never settled for me so I decided to get some money off him and release his quite big contract, he's doing great for Lazio 9goals in 9 games, but as I said never got him working.

- Stephan Lichsteiner - £1,8M - Manchester United - As you see the fee I got is just bad, still the Swiss wasnt performing too well, he was injured aobut 60% of the time, his contract was big and he started to decline due to his age, I had Carvajal coming, with Mario Fernandes performing just godly, so I had to say goodbye to Forest Gump.

- Simone Zaza - £25M + £5M of bonuses + 50% of next transfer - Manchester City - This offer was just so good.. Zaza was quite good for me as a reserve striker but with this offer coming damn I just couldnt refuse.

- Isla £2.5M , De Ceglie £1,4M, Mame Thiam £1.1M , Magnusson £1M + another £1M from other deadwood

Total: £75M

Even though I spent much I also got a lot, and my balance is about £45M now.

First Team:

GK: Buffon

CB: Chiellini/Rugani

CB: Bonucci

LB: Alex Sandro

RB: Mario Fernandes

DMC: Marchisio

MC: Pogba

MC: Verratti

AML: Hazard

AMR: Cuadrado/Berardi

ST: Dybala

Rulli, Barzagli (retiring after the season), Rugani, Evra (retiring after the season), Pol Garcia, Dani Carvajal, Asamoah, Sami Khedira, Sturaro, Roberto Pereyra, Lavezzi, Berardi, Pavon

Plans for next transfer summer, selling Cuadrado and getting Berardi first squad, gettin a backup AMR, buying a backup LB and CB as Barzagli and Evra are retiring.

So my second season is done...

Started with me cocking it up by forgetting to register 4 loan players for the first half of the season so they only contributed from Jan onwards. We struggled badly in attack, at one point I think we had the best defence and worst attack in the whole league, Bollino who seems a star player for this level was terrible after the first game where he scored 2. He ended with 6 in the league all season, I was really disappointed with that.

At halfway we were midtable but improved with the influence of the 4 loanees in the second half of the season, specifically Alessandro Capello who scored 11 to become our top scorer despite only playing half a season. On the way we beat the team that ultimately won the league by a mile only to lose the next week to bottom of the league, that sums up our inconsistency. In the end we finished in 5th, 1 point away from the playoffs which was frustrating. Anyway now we get the chance to improve a bit more again over the summer, the young players have improved a little so I aim for promotion next time round.

Check Clemenza, Romagna, Audero, Vitale from Juve's U-20 you should be able to loan them out, and they seem to perform really well.

I've had Romagna on previous games, I doubt he would be possible for a Serie C club like us but I'll check out the others. I did have a CB called Bianchi from Juve last year who I will try to get back.

I had Clemenza and Vitale both loaned to Serie C, they didnt attract Serie B sides even though they are really good.

EDIT: Also Pol Garcia seem a good player from Juve U20

I'm going to start my firsr FM16 career in Serie A, managing U.S. Palermo (I'm actually from Sicily too!)

Can you guys recommend some solid players to get in the first transfer window? Bear in mind that I'll probably have a low budget...

I'm really disappointed there isn't Serie D enabled already, I'd really like to start a Parma game.

1 of my fav teams to play and I'm gutted too.

Finished my season as Juve, managed to win Serie A with 96 points quite comfortable with 101 goals scored.

Got caught out in CL in the semis by Bayern, a bit unlucky I was dominating them at home 22 shots for me only 2 for Bayern but it end up 0-0... In the 2nd leg Alex Sandro got sent off early and they trashed me 0-3.

In the Italian Cup I lost in the first round to Empoli 0-2..

Transfers In:

- Lavezzi - free - Rotation to cover the wings

- Geronimo Rulli - free - My new reserve keeper

- Dani Carvajal - £11,5M - He was transfer listed, and I was quite unhappy with Lichtsteiner, he was injured a lot, and he started to downgrade due to his age

- Andres Cubas - £4,5M - One for the future (loaned out to Roma now, where he became a starter :o )

- Eden Hazard - £53M + £25M in bonuses - Well my spending record, didnt really plan this transfer, but Real Madrid bought Morata off me for the contract release clausule... And in the affect I wanted to buy someone big either an AML or ST, went for AML as I have Dybala. My nr1 target was Alexis but Arsenal was asking about £120M, Chelsea wanted £85M at start managed to negotiate it down to this. So far I'm happy 7 games 5 goals 3 assists 7.79 AvR, Im looking to get his finishing better and we will see what happens

- Domenico Berardi - £30M + £10M over 48 months - One of my biggest targets in the game, pity we dont have the "gentelmans release clausule" as in real world and I had to pay this much, also the fact that Roma offered £38M didnt help and I had to react fast. Luckily Berardi chose me, this season he'll be playing in rotation system with Cuadrado, but next year I will probably sell the Columbian and get Berardi into the first team.

- Cristian Pavon - £8M - a last day of the window transfer, I had to buy a reserve striker as I had an offer I couldnt refuse for Zaza.

Transfers Out:

- Alvaro Morata - £21.5M - Totally forgot about his clausule still wasnt much I could do, I offered him a new contract but he demanded £240k p/w,negotiated it down to £210k p/w with key player, but he chose Real at £170k p/w and first squad status. If I would remember about the clausule I would sell him to Chelsea or PSG who were offering me about £40M...

- Neto - £7,5M - R. Sociedad - I guess they were in need of a goalkeeper after their GK was snapped out of contract by... me ; ) But also Neto was performing quite bad

- Mario Mandzukic - £12,5M - Lazio - Mario never settled for me so I decided to get some money off him and release his quite big contract, he's doing great for Lazio 9goals in 9 games, but as I said never got him working.

- Stephan Lichsteiner - £1,8M - Manchester United - As you see the fee I got is just bad, still the Swiss wasnt performing too well, he was injured aobut 60% of the time, his contract was big and he started to decline due to his age, I had Carvajal coming, with Mario Fernandes performing just godly, so I had to say goodbye to Forest Gump.

- Simone Zaza - £25M + £5M of bonuses + 50% of next transfer - Manchester City - This offer was just so good.. Zaza was quite good for me as a reserve striker but with this offer coming damn I just couldnt refuse.

- Isla £2.5M , De Ceglie £1,4M, Mame Thiam £1.1M , Magnusson £1M + another £1M from other deadwood

Total: £75M

Even though I spent much I also got a lot, and my balance is about £45M now.

First Team:

GK: Buffon

CB: Chiellini/Rugani

CB: Bonucci

LB: Alex Sandro

RB: Mario Fernandes

DMC: Marchisio

MC: Pogba

MC: Verratti

AML: Hazard

AMR: Cuadrado/Berardi

ST: Dybala

Rulli, Barzagli (retiring after the season), Rugani, Evra (retiring after the season), Pol Garcia, Dani Carvajal, Asamoah, Sami Khedira, Sturaro, Roberto Pereyra, Lavezzi, Berardi, Pavon

Plans for next transfer summer, selling Cuadrado and getting Berardi first squad, gettin a backup AMR, buying a backup LB and CB as Barzagli and Evra are retiring.

That is some very interesting piece of business there. Fun thing about Berardi, tho, is that when I checked him, he had the €25M clause, that was in the 1st season, which made me plan ahead to buy him when Cuadrado gets older (like in the 2nd or 3rd season). What happened is that he got a new contract with Sassuolo which whipped out his clause and now he is worth around €60М which is putting me off even though I know he is worth it. What is really strange here is that Morata, who has the same clause, offering him a new contract, when R. Madrid came sniffing around, didn't remove his clause.

Also, how do you set your midfield trio? I'm using the same formation but putting Marchisio in the DMC spot as a deep-lying playmaker (s) or (d) just doesn't give me enough defensive stability but I'd really like to play that way.

Is it a bug or are there no free italian agents under the age of 18?

Looking on starting a save as Lazio on touch on iPad. Don't think I've ever really had a save in Italy before

Lazio's squad is soooooo great this year. Felipe Anderson, Biglia, De Vrij and others very nice taem to play with.

Lazio's squad is soooooo great this year. Felipe Anderson, Biglia, De Vrij and others very nice taem to play with.

You forgot the best player, who easily scores 20+ in the first two seasons.

You forgot the best player, who easily scores 20+ in the first two seasons.

You mean Klose? For those who want to start a Lazio save, you can get up to 45mil for De Vrij and up to 40mil for Anderson at the start of the game. The problem is you'll lose 50% of the Anderson fee.

Zaza scores for fun for me. I'm really hoping to get him at least €40М.

I have been considering doing a save with Lazio this version also. Their squad is fantastic and I could never turn down the chance of managing Klose.

Regarding Anderson; I won't be selling him at all, probably let him go on a free transfer when his time is up as a top class player. 50% to a third party, what a rip off.

I like him a lot though, he's a proper winger; 15+ in dribbling, technique, crossing, flair, acceleration, pace and passing. Will be fun working with him.

Also, would you look at this;

They only offered him something like £11 million + some crap in clauses and I decided to just ask for double his value.. and they accepted? Looks like I'll be buying Dragovic as his replacement then.

Lazio's squad is soooooo great this year. Felipe Anderson, Biglia, De Vrij and others very nice taem to play with.

Liked Lazio from when I was a kid watching serie a on channel 4

I have been considering doing a save with Lazio this version also. Their squad is fantastic and I could never turn down the chance of managing Klose.

Regarding Anderson; I won't be selling him at all, probably let him go on a free transfer when his time is up as a top class player. 50% to a third party, what a rip off.

I like him a lot though, he's a proper winger; 15+ in dribbling, technique, crossing, flair, acceleration, pace and passing. Will be fun working with him.

Also, would you look at this;

They only offered him something like £11 million + some crap in clauses and I decided to just ask for double his value.. and they accepted? Looks like I'll be buying Dragovic as his replacement then.

Wow that's very tempting, I was planning on just keeping squad as it is till Jan at least but we shall see

Wow that's very tempting, I was planning on just keeping squad as it is till Jan at least but we shall see

I can't fault De Vrij at all. He's a fantastic player. But a bid like that is just far too good for any defender who isn't world class.

Tbh attribute wise he's one of the better cb's in the game. It's vital with Lazio to have a strong defence because of the board expecting attacking football and the players they have suiting attacking football the chances are they'll be exposed alot. At least from my experience!

I'm parma, won serie D in march. B oard gave me 8m to spend but im still semi professional. Does anyone know when I can go profressional? WHen I go to serie C or do I have to wait til serie B?

I loaded up a game with Fiorentina. Just wanted to check things out. There is money to spend - $11m Euros - but very little wage room left. They also have only 4 of the required 8 Italy-trained players registered. Checked a few decent free agents who would add another and while they would take backup contracts, I couldn't afford to offer them anything for wages.

In a similar fashion to de Vrij, PSG came in with a structured offer for Djordjevic, I negotiated for £28 million straight and they accepted.

I'm truly extorting these rich clubs.

Although he's not as good as de Vrij, I think £17.5 million for Musacchio is a very good deal and a very good replacement. My number 1 target in Dragovic went to United, sadly.

Just made my last transfer of the pre-season (unless a great offer for a player comes up) and I feel like I've done very well. £69 million in, £32 million out and I'm especially delighted at the sale of Djordjevic as, although he is a great player, if I'm going to get £28 million for someone who I wanted to eventually replace anyway, then I'm 100% going to take it. Konko and Braafheid are surplus.

As for transfers in, one of the main reasons I bought Musacchio in the end was his dual nationality of Italian, which enabled me to buy Mammana and Barbosa in without any issue. Barbosa and Mammana are potential world beaters whilst Tulissi, who may not have that much potential, is Italian and cheap as anything. The final two players are regens, Mirabelli being unearthed from my scouts and Friend, who I funnily enough only found when Sunderland (in one of my favourite clubs on my profile) bid £5k for him. I only really bought him because I love signing players from lesser teams and turning them into great players. He has really good potential, on par with most of my better youth players so I will definitely be keeping an eye on him.

edit: We beat Juventus in the Super Cup in a very scrappy but even game, with Parolo scoring a goal from a great corner from substitute Mauri.

I don't know that I'll do much with this game with Fiorentina, as I have a save going with Hull and I'm being tempted by my annual game in The Netherlands. But I didn't realize how much young talent Fiorentina had. I knew about Babacar and Diakhate, but there are at least a half dozen young players who could develop into first teamers, and a couple more out on loan. Many aren't really capable of making significant contribution yet, but it does make me worry less about trying to add some developmental players like I was thinking.

The home-grown player issue does need to be addressed. I could just register a few of the U21 players who count as home grown but don't actually need to be registered. That's really no different than leaving the registration spot empty. I'm going to have to adjust the budgets, move some of the transfer money into wages. That will allow me to extend the contracts of a couple of players who have just a year left, and then sign one or two relatively cheap backup free agents who can count as home grown. That will help with that issue.

Its not an overly deep squad so not really a lot of players I'm looking to move out. Two start as transfer listed - Yakovenko and Valero. Yakovenko has minimal talent, but little value so while I would glad get rid of him for almost nothing, I don't know if anyone will bite. I've taken Valero - he's talented, useful, and a fine tutor.

Still deciding who to target. I would love to add some move quality Italian prospects at positions where I don't have a ton of them. Unfortunately, my scouts keep telling me that any exciting prospects from within Italy won't join at this point. I'm really tempted to go after Andraj Zivokvic - he's tearing up the Championship in my Hull but it feels repetitive. Maybe some of the Serbian prospects? Ajer or Hou Saeter are possible options, though I need a DM prospect more than more CMs. A lot of the most enticing South American prospects will be out of my price range, but Mammana is awfully tempting. Especially as I think Gonzalo (who is much better than I realized) seems likely to decline a bit.

Edit - one possibility that I hadn't thought of would be cancelling the loan of Jakub Błaszczykowski from Dortmund. Especially if I get a quality prospect who can play MRL and AMR. That would free up some wages, I think. Now I really want to get home to the game to see if its possible to cancel his loan.

Finally finished my disastrous 1st season in charge of Milan. We ended up finishing 6th due to a decent run in the last 10 games, including a glorious 4-0 thrashing of 2nd place Roma.

Reached the semi final of the Coppa but couldn't stop Juventus who are incredibly strong and unrelenting.

Player wise the stand out performers were Menez & Abate. Menez finished top goal scorer with 16 goals which tells you the poor season we actually had. Abate was the best player in a very poor side, won Italian player of the year and went with Italy to the Euro's in France where he got in the team of the tournament. Favourite player by a mile.

The enigma that is Mario Balotelli.. Poor all season then last 10 games scores 11 of his 13 goal tally including a final day hat trick of screamers! I really wish I could have renewed the loan or could afford the £28m Liverpool are asking.. Shame.

I decided to let all the contracts run down to free up the wage budget for the summer overhaul I'm trying to oversea. So our went the likes of Mexes, Abbiati, Montolivio etc which freed up a lot of funds, it helped also selling off the unhappy players like Suso, Antonelli, Luiz Adriano etc. The deal that really helped was LA Galaxy paying £750k to get Torres £175,000 a week wage off the budget. I'll post an update with some more details and screenshots.

The board were really generous when they announced the season 2 budget which before any sales came in at a surprising £49m.

So I'm in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the summer transfer window, I'll post a better up date tomorrow or Wednesday.

Other thing of note is, Parma made it back in the Itslian league system so I have added a 2nd manager there with the hope of returning them to the top. Should add another layer to the challenge of this save..

I'm playing with Pro Vercelli. We got promoted the first season (finished 5th, promoted via playoff), and now my total wage budget for a first season in Serie A is about €95K.

I suspect we're going straight back down.

Had a little bit of time to mess around with Fiorentina some more. This might end up being as its an interesting club with bags of potential and, like I mentioned, I haven't managed tin Italy in a long long time.

Not absolutely certain where to spend money. The squad doesn't have all that much pressing need where an immediately upgrade is doable on the budget. I managed to land Andraj Zivkovic and John Hou Saeter while messing around. I'm thinking that if I do an actual proper save, I would probably target Zivkovic (he is effective as an AMR or MR, and can play on the left, plus he's very well-rounded in his skillset) and probably Mammana. Seems wasteful to target too many other spots, given the youth in the system. There really isn't a solid DM prospect but the ones I would want to target are out of reach at the moment, and more than adequate depth in the first team anyway.

Any Italian prospects of quality who would be close to the first team are either way out of the price range of the club or don't want to join from the start, at least according to my scouts. There are some 16-17 year olds I can sign for compensation who seem interested but most are not ready to contribute so they would become just another youth prospect.

I did look at Błaszczykowski's loan and I can terminate it. He's on 44k euros per week, so its a decent chunk, plus a monthly fee of $100k. But he's a pretty good quality player. Leaves me torn. With Bernardeschi and Illic, the right side of midfield looks reasonably covered, especially if I add Zivkovic. Terminating his loan makes sense, as that wage is about what Zivkovic demands, but he's much younger and would be tied to the club for years. Looking at it as swapping Blaszczykowski for Zivkovic makes it look like an easier decision.

Had the thought of possibly selling Rossi. Really good player who looks like he should bang in some goals. He's 28. If he remains healthy and productive, I will at it as a possibility after the first season. Babacar looks very capable too, and Rossi will start to decline in value before long. Cashing in makes sense.

My original thought was to go with a more possession-based, attacking tactic. Then I saw that being defensive is one of the club philosophies. So I might build around a more a defensive, counter approach with something more attacking as a backup plan. Interestingly, the club also seemed have a negative approach to building through youth, which I found odd given the quality young players in the system.

My original thought was to go with a more possession-based, attacking tactic. Then I saw that being defensive is one of the club philosophies. So I might build around a more a defensive, counter approach with something more attacking as a backup plan. Interestingly, the club also seemed have a negative approach to building through youth, which I found odd given the quality young players in the system.

You should ignore those preferences in the philosophy meeting (like Slightly Agreeing or Disagreeing with Defensive football or Youth Development) as they seem to be the defaults given to clubs like Fiorentina where the researchers have not set any actual philosophies. Fiorentina are very much known for an attractive, passing style of play and have been for years.

Have a fun save going with Parma. Got promoted from Serie D first season. Just got promoted from Serie C (still have a few games left to play)

I was looking at the rules for Serie B and it says theres a very low wage cap (like £3800 not 100% sure I am not on my pc right now) - does that effect new signings only as I have players already on wages over that. I have abused the loans system so far getting lots of loans in as I get promoted. I assume thats what I need to do again in B ?

If anyone can give me more information on Serie B then that would be appreciated. Thanks

You should ignore those preferences in the philosophy meeting (like Slightly Agreeing or Disagreeing with Defensive football or Youth Development) as they seem to be the defaults given to clubs like Fiorentina where the researchers have not set any actual philosophies. Fiorentina are very much known for an attractive, passing style of play and have been for years.

Good point. I thought that was the case with the Viola, even though I don't get to watch much Serie A at this point.

In truth, the side should be successful either way. One of the things that I really liked when glancing over the squad initially is that its not one-dimensional. Its not full of players who are purely attacking or purely defensive. Most have the skillsets to contribute in both phases. You have CMs who have really strong Passing but will still contribute defensively, wingers who aren't purely attacking, etc. It should make for a nice save where I can have two rather different approaches that can work depending on the opposition.

Started a Parma save with the Serie D enabled. Amazingly because of their high rep I'm able to get alot of decent players on loan who are too good for the division. Romagna and Audero from Juve, Ivan and Oneto from Sampa and Ferrari from Bologna. The leagues a stroll because they're far better than anyone else in it.

Have a fun save going with Parma. Got promoted from Serie D first season. Just got promoted from Serie C (still have a few games left to play)

I was looking at the rules for Serie B and it says theres a very low wage cap (like £3800 not 100% sure I am not on my pc right now) - does that effect new signings only as I have players already on wages over that. I have abused the loans system so far getting lots of loans in as I get promoted. I assume thats what I need to do again in B ?

If anyone can give me more information on Serie B then that would be appreciated. Thanks

I wasn't aware Serie B had a wage cap. It certainly didn't apply to me (I had Del Piero and several loanees on a wage above that).

The key thing is that you're only allowed 18 players over the age of 21 unless they're club legends.