FM 10 A.S Bari

Jean-François Gillet: The club captain and loyal servant to the club as he starts his 10th year in between the sticks for the club. Not the best goal keeper in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but high reflexes, jumping and agility should be enough to mask over his qualities lacking in other areas.

Daniele Padelli: The second choice at the club on loan from Sampdoria, you are paying £4,800 wages for the duration of his loan, but luckily there is an option to cancel it.

Andrea Masiello is a good prospect at center half and I spent the season turning down co-ownership deals for him. He was a starter from the off, improving week by week and finished the season as the clubs player of the year. Souleymane Diamoutene on loan from Lecce and probably starts off as your second best CB. I made the mistake of playing him at the start of the season and accepting a co-ownership bid from Genoa for Leonardo Bonucci, but when Diamoutene was injured Bonucci came in and did so well that he kept his place for most of the season. Andrea Ranocchia on loan from Genoa also improved vastly and became third choice center back.

Your full backs offer nothing going forward bar Parisi on the left, Pisano on loan from Torino is solid and probably a better bet for games where you are going to be under pressure on that side. None of your right backs are really good enough, so I brought in Yakubu on a free and rotated him with Diamoutene.

Allegretti: He is a good set piece specialist. Long throws, free kicks, corner and penalty taking are all superb, he has very high flair, creativity, infulence and team work. For a year at least i'd have him as a starter and work to his strengths rather than look at his weakness. Forget CA's and PA's, attributes like his can come in handy no matter who you are up against.

Alessandro Carlo Gazzi: No frills midfielder, high determination, decent enough team work and work rate also he is rated as 16 in tackling. I'd have in the team to simply defend and give the ball to somebody more able than him. Would make a good tutor for a youngster.

Massimo Donati: A rounded midfielder but not excellent in any department.

Sergio Almirón: On loan from Juve and it is a cigarette paper between him and Barreto who is the best player at the club at the start. This mekes him a certain starter and it is advisable to try and take advantages of his long shots. For all his wastefulness at times in my save, it has nicked me a few vital points.

Edgar Álvarez: Quick, agile, good off the ball and not much else, however I have used him as a secret weapon in games I am chasing where the full back is tiring and because he's only recently signed you have no choice but to keep him. Like I said though, in certain games he may just be able to cause enough havoc to earn you a point.

Emanuel Rivas: Best of a bad bunch, strongest as a AMR, accomplished MR, ML and AML, decent enough pace good dribbling, if you decide to play with wingers it could be an idea to stick him on the left and have him cut inside.

Alessio Sestu: Can play both sides, good dribbling and flair but there just doesn't seem to be that much about him to me. He is on a co-ownership though, so he's stuck with you for a year at least.

Mariano Donda: Injured for 6 months or so at the start, so no real chance of selling him this year. Once fit give a few substitute appearances to at the most and hope to get rid next year.

Vladimir Koman: On loan from Sampdoria, again good dribbling and flair, looks best as an inside forward cutting in from the left wing.

Antonio Langella: Aging, but surprisingly he still has a bit of pace in him. He is also a natural forward but his lack of finishing skills and composure puts me off him playing there unless it's an emergency.

Barreto: Co-owned with Udinese. Quick, determined and capable of moments of magic. First choice without a doubt.

Riccardo Meggiorini: Co owned with Genoa, good finishing and nothing else about him to be fair.

Ferdinando Sforzini: On loan from Udinese, good target man to head if you can get a tactic to work round him.

José Ignacio Castillo: Injured for the first 3 months, again a good target man to head though and hope the ball finds it's way to Barreto

Vitaliy Kutuzov: Can't comment on him to be honest, was offered money early on for him and I accepted straight away as he didn't look good enough.

Good thread

I've got a Genoa save on the go and Bari are useful 1st season. Rannocchia and Bonnucci are both very promising.

I have completed my first season at the club and the sole aim was to avoid relegation at the start of it. With that in mind I took the avoid relegation option which didn't leave me with much money to spend. I decided after looking at the squad a defensive and attacking midfielder were my main priorities and that to help fund it I could let a few players go if I could get the cash for them. These were all my dealings for the season.

As creator of the thread I felt it would be more enticing to those who may fancy a go at this if they could see what was possible with little transfer activity. Anybody can make a good team over night if they spend money they don't have, on lots of top youngsters and for a long term save I feel that it would have took the fun out of building the side.

The season saw us kick off against Lazio and we were soundly beaten 2-0. The following week we were highly unlucky not to come out of the game against Genoa with a point. We did chalk up our first point of the season the following game with a 1-1 draw against Sampdoria.

We lost our next 4 games against Udinese, Inter, AC and Juve all by a single goal. I wasn't too down hearted by it though as we played well in each of them considering Annan was sent off in 2 of the 4 games.

We got our first win of the season against Siena and then Liverno who turned up at the perfect time for us. Seeing us able to win these games gave me hope that if we can beat the teams around us we will have an excellent chance of surviving. Another 9 points by Christmas made me believe it even more as we sat in 17th place.

During the Autumn, the drawn out affair of a takeover was complete. Unfortunately any hopes of a generous chairman were dashed as he stated he did not intend to pump any extra money in to the club.

The new year came and Annan went off to the African nations cup which meant if we were to pick points up I would have to have a rethink on tactics as the other DM's at the club were not good enough to hold on their own. This is where I decided to use a tactic I had used for lower league clubs successfully in the past.

We won our next 2 games against Atalanta and Chievo, then as you can see here we struggled for a while. I changed the mentality of the team from attacking to counter for the Juve draw and changed Rodriguez' role in the team and everything just seemed to click together from thereon in.

We finished the season in 11th place and finished the season with a decent enough profit to allow the youth facilities to be improved.

For season 2 I have been given a £4.8M transfer kitty for a mid table place. My youth academy has produced a left back called Romero Raimondi and he is already rated as 2 stars and potentially one of the best players of his generation. Bearing in mind that I did want to buy a pair of full backs this season I can now focus on a better RB and a CM. I am going to sell all the dead wood too to increase my spending power.

Hopefully this will inspire a few people to start as one of Italian Football's yo-yo teams and make them become a force in Serie A for years to come and finally get the locals to come and support their local team

EDIT: Thanks for the comments edgar, I nearly started as Genoa myself after seeing your thread and AI controlled they turn out a decent team in my other saves, hopefully you can go even better.

Good 1st season

Bari finished 15th in my 1st season with Genoa. Without Ranocchia this season they aren't faring so well and are looking likely to go down.

Raimondi looks good but will need some tutoring, his mentals need some work.

What did u use Baretto as? Looks to be hammering it

Edgar - Ranocchia didn't really look like he was going to get much better in my save, according to all my staff anyway (I always get a few opinions) so i'm not too disappointed that the loan is finished, he did serve me well for the difficult first year though.

Unfortunately I am having to redo from the start of season 2, I had got in to mid July having secured Mark Van Bommel and Burdissio on frees, the other half of Barreto and Lazio went and bid £3.75M for Yakubu which i'd have been stupid to turn down, but my power went and my last save was June 30th

What it has given me the opportunity to do this time is make sure I get the other half of Bonucci. He and Masiello worked well together, so losing the day's i've done could turn out a blessing in disguise.

Will report later on my dealings.

Rubentus_Juventus - I had him set as a poacher in the positions screen, then in the team tactics screen I have ticked the target man box and target man supply to run on to. The AM's are all set to play lots of through balls. He barely scored before Christmas until I changed the whole shape of the team around, so it's safe to say for me at least it works, will post a screenie of his stats later on.

Ranocchia has been pretty rubbish for me 2nd season, Bari got good performances out of him though. Bonnucci definitely looks the better option

Since you're knocking about in this thread i'll ask here rather than the Genoa thread:D I'm looking at getting El Shaarawi either on co ownership or might splash out over 48 months, problem is I'm not going to use him as a right winger immediately if I do sign him so I was wondering if you knew how he'd be at AMC? other options are Ninis or Petrucci, Verratti is at Udinese and they aren't budging on his fee

Since you're knocking about in this thread i'll ask here rather than the Genoa thread:D I'm looking at getting El Shaarawi either on co ownership or might splash out over 48 months, problem is I'm not going to use him as a right winger immediately if I do sign him so I was wondering if you knew how he'd be at AMC? other options are Ninis or Petrucci, Verratti is at Udinese and they aren't budging on his fee

He's much better on the wing, especially as he's still developing. I don't use AMC so can't say for sure but I have used him as my creative MC and he does ok, just nowhere near as effective as he is out wide. It depends what role your AMC is tbh. Playmaker I think would be too much for him but he could probably be an effect attacking mid. Verratti would be ideal but if Udinese have their claws in good luck.

Quick update: I'm almost in Febuary now and after losing the transfers (and also the regen posted above ) I had done I opted for these deals. This is supposed to be strongest line up, though I have had no choice but start playing Rits more often than not recently. I had him tutored by Yakubu and his stats have flown up This is how he's looking at the moment (he's played 2 more games since then and got another goal and assist)

A mention has to go to Barreto too who cleaned up the Serie A player awards (bottom line in the biography)

We are currently in 3rd place 4 points behind leaders Inter(though 2nd-4th keeps juggling between myself, Juve and Genoa) which I am chuffed with. I'll still be happy if we finish in 8th which was my aim for the season. I'm still in the cup too, but I am playing AC next in that so i'm not too confident we'll be progressing any further.

I've finished off the season and what a season it was too.

As stated in my previous post were fighting for a champions league place even though our predicted position was 14th. The game against AC Milan at the time was probably the most significant (at that time) in my reign at the club, we finally managed to beat a top side for the first time and also broke the club's attendance record and was only a few hundred short of the 51k for the all time record (click)

Juve and Genoa faded away in the fight for CL places, but they were quickly replaced by Milan and Fiorentina for the main part. With about 5 games to go Milan faded slightly enough to make me confident of 3rd spot and an automatic spot in the CL group stage.

Inter bar one week were always ahead of me in first and always looked like winning the title, but the interesting fight came in the final three games of the season. As newly crowned champions Inter played Fiorentina I played away to Sampdoria (a game I should have at least got a point from) unfortunately I lost 1-0 and Fiorentina went on to beat Inter by the same score to leap ahead of me in to 2nd spot. This left me a point behind in the penultimate game against Inter whilst Fiorentina had a very winnable game against Catania. Unfortunately for my game at Inter Annan was suspended (again:rolleyes:) and Barreto picked up his only injury of the season and we duly lost 2-0. However Catania pulled off a shock 4-2 and left me needing a win in the home game against Fiorentina.

Barreto was just about fit enough to start the game and we quickly went 1-0 up through a Rodriguez penalty. After 16 minutes Barreto latched on to a through ball, rounded Frey and we went 2-0 up. It stayed that way until a few minutes from the end until Babacar pulled one back for Fiorentina after a mistake by Gillet. We hung on though to leap back in to 2nd place.

Barreto was Europe's top scorer with 30, we had Bareto, Rodriguez and Masiello in the Serie A team of the year too.

Surprisingly Lazio went down at the other end of the table and I was offered the job which was flatly turned down.

The summer turned out a long drawn affair which I wish I holidayed now to be honest Bigger clubs were trying to tap up my players which meant offering new contracts to all that were part of my long term plans. This on top of scouting everywhere and anywhere to add to the squad was pretty hard, especially as I had identified 4 non EU players that could easily have improved the team.

I was given £20M to spend by the chairman, but for the 3rd year in a row we have had to indure the £300k a week wage budget. This seen us miss out on Adler from Leverkusen for £7.5M, Zarate from Lazio for £10.5M, Dzeko from Wolsburg for £13M and bringing Cassano back to the club for £12.75M simply because the budgets wouldn't stretch to accomodate their wages.

In the end I plumped for a few regens that had caught my eye earlier in the year. Sirl and Annan spent the summer complaining after I turned down bids for them. I already had Sirl's long term replacement in mind with both Helan and Rodriguez, so that wasn't a problem and for a while I felt I could hold on to Annan for another year, so I brought Klanic in at right back which took my last non EU spot for the year. By chance my scout had finished his report of Central Europe a few days before the transfer window and said Defour was available for £13.75M, with this I weighed up the fact Annan misses plenty of games and was currently unhappy, so I put the bid in for Defour and offered Annan out for £15M. In the end I accepted £13.25 and put that in to a keeper I'd been scouting for around 8 months to make my final activity look like this.

We are still secure financially and even with every deal incoming being paid upfront we still have a bit to spend if need be. The board restrictions do have a part in it, though bar one big signing a year, I want to be cautious until the debt is clear and we are selling out every week.

The Champions League has drawn us against Arsenal, Leverkusen and Celtic, so there is an outside chance of getting out of the group.

(click)

2nd place.

Europe's top scorer with 30, Serie A team of the year

the table

this.

where u dl the logo ?

The top two packs from here

too many ... which 1 ?

9,000+ Club & Competition Logos for FM10 + 9,000+ Club & Competition Logo Pack Fix v2

*This turned out a longer post than expected, so apologies now:D*

Table

Transfers

I think the table speaks for itself in saying we had a successful season. We got off the mark with a couple of convincing wins against Siena and Udinese and then had our typical stage fright in the big games when Milan beat us comfortably 2-0. From thereon in we remained unbeaten until just before Christmas in the league, though we did lose at Leverkusen and then Arsenal in the champions league group stage.

With new goalkeeper Matjin Bloom, right back Mario Kalinic and left back Villar Rodriguez added to the ranks we became and even more secure unit at the back.

Once I saw that Steven Defour was available I made the tough choice to let Annan go. He had served the club very well and was an excellent tutor to the younger players who I had needed to bed in quickly in the first two seasons. Unfortunately his discipline meant couldn't be trusted to stay on the pitch and with me still only having a £300k wage budget for the season I had to continue running a small squad so we couldn't afford many suspensions and off he went for a very tidy profit which covered almost all of Defour's fee.

With more games to play this season Morrison and Helan came in for free to make the numbers up and both have made slight progress over the course of the season. Morrison chipped in with 4 goals.

Starting his 3rd season at the club without playing in the first team I decided it was now or never for Zuculini to make an impression. Whilst in the U20's squad he had been tutored by Yakubu twice and Annan one or two times and i'd also had him training to be an AMC too using Tugs training. Whilst his average rating so far hasn't been great, the playing time has done his attributes the world of good and i'll give him roughly the same amount of games next season.

We got our half of Bekdemir back and surprisingly he also made an impact in games this year and his improvement led to me selling the highly disappointing Formica in the winter.

Next up is the rise of James Rodriguez who stepped up remarkably as you can see for yourself. Without a doubt the star of the show now.

Barreto had his poorest season so far for me, but stuck on 69 goals for almost a month and half he bagged 4 in an 8-0 demolition of Reggina to break Luigi Bretti's record in style and now has 85 goals for the club to his name

Hetimaj was brought in to the club after me failing in a bid to get him in the 2010-11 winter window when by chance my world scout had picked him up. He settled in to the team instantly with a goal and has played the lone role up front rather well when Barreto was out of form or needed a rest.

Our debut in the Champions league saw us reach the quarter finals. I would have been happy with 3rd and a Europa spot after the winter, so this was quite an impressive feat for the side. Highlights were undoubtedly doing the double over Bayern in the first knockout stage and the home win against Arsenal. The quarter final first leg broke the clubs record attendance. That was short lived though as the last home game of the season against Parma saw it beaten by a hundred or so.

Again we had a few players recognized in the team of the year.

With Roma's shock relegation I had hoped to bring De Rossi in from Roma but the board wouldn't budge on the wage restrictions, but with a £50M war chest this season we should be able to compete for a player or two that can take us up a step.

I'm looking to sell Adrien this season as I develop a new tactic which will either be a narrow 4-4-2 diamond or 4-4-2 with wingers pushed up. Zuculini improved dramatically last year, Rits is good enough to start most games, then there's Defour (though if I can get a top class player he may go) and Rodriguez who can fit in there too.

Other targets are a young right back and center back (hopefully both Italian) and depending how the pre-season test goes i'll be investing in either a third striker or a winger.

I want to progress in the Italian cup this year for certain, I haven't made it past January in the competition yet and another quarter final (or semi if we get a kind draw) in Europe.

hmm just finished exams, which means time to FM, which means AS BARI HERE I COME!

Farrr out Baretto is ****ing me off, i set the team around him and hes scored 2 bloody goals in 11 GAMES!!!!!

Good to see someone else try Bari. There's a lot of potential if you can get through the first season.

What role are you playing him in? I played him in a lone role as a poacher and also ticked him as a target man. He was superb doing that in the first 2 season for me and then decent in the 3rd, though he was rotated a lot more.

Yeah im doing exactly what you told me! But yehh he is failing miserably

Gotta add Souleymane Diamoutene is an absolute beast! Him and Masielello are killing it for me.

My biggest scalp is AC Milan away i won 2-1 and Inter Milan away 1-1! Thank god my defender and mids are scoring, im winng or drawing every second game (at home) and am currently 8th!

ohh and i want to stab Baretto

So I've just loaded up a game with Bari upon SMPL's recommendation. Predicted 19th, but I think the squad is better than that, some good players at the club.

After a brief overview of the squad there's a good goalkeeper, a few good centre backs, a couple of good midfielders and a few decent attackers. Initially I've decided to go with a 4-5-1 formation, but this could change a lot. I'd lineup something like this:

Looking to my defensive midfielder to act as playmaker, so that everything goes through him - he should be getting 100+ passes against lower opposition, with two solid midfielders in front of him to break up the opposition and again look for the simple balls.

The left back and right winger should supply the width, the left winger cutting inside to make a second striker - the left winger will be my main goalscorer.

Overall I'll look to keep heavy amounts of posession but against better sides I'll trust my defence and sit deeper, play the quicker forwards and a more battling midfield and hit on counter attacks.

Also due to the overall low standard of players I'm trying to make sure they stick to the tactics by playing rigid with low creative freedom and very specific individual instructions.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I'll only be signing Italian players, and I won't be making any signings in the first half season.

Gillet. Of course.

Good to see you try this Joe, I actually started a new one after recommending it to you. It's the one of few saves that kept me interested for more than 4 seasons, which is why I thought you may like it.

I've not been as strict as you on my transfers. I flogged a few off to make some extra funds and am playing a 4-4-2 diamond mostly with 4-5-1/4-3-3 wingers for tough games or when there's injuries. I'll post a few screenies later once i've loaded the game up.

Purefun is right about Gillet. More than good enough for a year, maybe 2 depending on your progress.

Finished my 1st season in 15th place. It would have been better but I had injuries around February time when I was 10th and in with a shout of a top 6 place and then another one at the tail end where I had a really tough schedule. These were my ins and outs and considering I was forced to play Hamid for a couple of games and a few others who were nowhere near good enough I was quite happy with the season.

In Jan I asked for more money and got an extra £7M, nobody good enough was either able to join there or then or would have been a waste considering they'd have been free at the end of the season, so I used that money between wages to get what I thought would be my total dealings to bring Rivas, Blasi, Riquelme and Feghouli in for free and Buonanotte in. However this turned on it's head when we qualified for the Europa league via fair play and we were given £20M to spend for a mid table finish. So to add to the already agreed transfers I have brought in this lot and recouped a big slice from sales and loans.

I was tempted to not go stupid, but being in Europe so early changed everything and I wanted to be able to compete seeing as we were there (even though it was by default )

I've kept the new players as Italian as was possible and Macheda has an agreed fee of £15M (Paloschi was the other target, but AC wanted £15M for their share alone and my scout rated Macheda as potentially a better player) and my aim for this year is to be in the top 7 of the league, quarters of the Italian cup and get out of the group stage of the Europa league, just been drawn against Rangers, Kobenhavn and Helsinki so it should be achievable.

Haha how lucky can you get. Fair play ffs

It's about time I had a bit of luck like that to be fair If Annan had have came to me instead of Battaglia then there'd have been no way i'd have been there

Just had a good win at Sampdoria and a credible draw at home to Milan to start my league campaign, Catania next up.