[FM13] Second Star to the Right...

[deltablue]

13 hours ago, noikeee said:

Ugh, losing a continental final is never a fun experience. Better luck next season!

I see you've just suffered the same fate. It's especially disappointing since I was pretty sure we were going to win. Still, you can't win them all. 

[deltablue]

Gold Cup 2043

Glory to Mexico! It's especially sweet with a full USA team in the competition as well, even though they didn't play. The Americans went out to reigning champions Honduras (who making up for a failure to qualify for the World Cup) setting up an easy final. The Hondurans at least managed to defeat Canada as well, the first time in a long while that the Canadians weren't even semi-finalists. They had even been beaten finalists 3 times in a row before the last tournament. The other thing of note is St Kitts qualifying out of the group ahead of El Salvador, who were at the World Cup a year ago.

[deltablue]

Copa America 2043 - Peru

Argentina win for the 6th time in 9 tournaments during the save, while Ecuador are runners up for the 4th time, yet to add a continental title to their 2018 World Cup. Mexico U23's made it to the semi's, topping a group that included a disappointing Brazil (who have done surprisingly little aside from a single win and one other final appearance). The USA U23's did not have such a good time of it.

[deltablue]

Summer 2043

We're back to not having much to talk about (and I can hear your cries of relief), at least incoming. Outgoing was another matter entirely. It may seem strange that even having entered last summer with 100M in the bank (a far cry from the early couple of years where scraping together a transfer budget was a challenge) but that's no excuse for trying to be financially sensible, and all my sales were for other reasons as well.

Giving a few more players the chop took us to almost 160M worth of sales since last July, and probably 200kpw taken off the wage bill, which despite a lot of pay rises as players become established stars remains just the 4th highest in the league (Torino of all teams being just above us) and 11th in the Champions League (which is actually still a bit of a rise having been something like 17th just a couple of seasons back). I love that stat. It often enables me to say 'we're being successful while spending far less than the competition'. I think I cited it a bit in Turkey as well, can't remember about Sweden. We probably also do very well in terms of 'cost of assembling squad'. 56M in total for our 'best 11', with Djibo (16M) and van den Hoogenband (9.5M) making up 25.5M of that. Cardia was 3.6M, Peric 5.5M, Lokando 6M, Bouwhuis was a 'Bosman', Xuxinha 2.8M, Milinovic 3.8M, Trabelsi 800k and Mexes 28k.

Israel's arrival had been coming for a couple of years (and surely there must be a joke about a Dutchman, a Frenchman, a Brazilian and a German all playing up front for an Italian team) and with that I seemed pretty satisfied with a squad with 2 players in every role, and no 'extra' players stagnating through lack of opportunity like in recent years. I was still wondering about Angloma's long-term prospects and eventually signed another defender to play on the right as the only deal actually made this summer, though decided against disposing of the Frenchman until I can see how Haase develops. That also gives us a full subs bench for domestic games, which somehow feels right.

With the squad seemingly settled for now, it seems like the time to have a full squad overview, with the new signings being shown then.

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Goalkeepers

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Full-backs

 

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Centre-backs

 

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Defensive/Central Midfielders

 

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Wingers/Forwards

 

 

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CL Draw 2043

]

Galatasaray and Dortmund aren't the easiest of opponents but then again there's always going to be at least one (often two, three if you're really unlucky) at this level. I'll probably chase a 3rd CL title before moving on to a new challenge.

[deltablue]

Oct 2043

 

We made a flying start to the season in the Super Cup, registering our easiest win over Juventus for a long time, maybe even ever. Aside from hitting a bit of a brick wall against Sampdoria and Cremonese, we seemed to be sweeping aside all comers pretty comfortably. After the disappointment of our CL defeat to Tottenham at the end of last season, it was nice to see that we were still working very well as a team. Perhaps things got a little slower after the October international break, with a draw against Galatasaray, another draw at newly promoted Pavia (who had admittedly started well) and it took a long time to overcome Cagliari, but we're still in a good position both at home and in Europe, having only conceded 4 goals in 14 matches in all competitions, scoring 34. If a few draws are the biggest disappointments, we're going very well indeed, and even those were all strong performances where we couldn't quite do it that time.

We're helped by how poor Juventus are doing. After winning their opening game 7-0, they went on to lose their next 4, including to us in Turin, in contrast to our recent disasters in that fixture. That still leaves Napoli providing a warning that we need to limit those draws, having won every game until mid-October. They haven't been serious title contenders for a while, but did win the Europa League last season (which is why they have a game in hand, from the European Super Cup) so I'm not ruling out a proper challenge from them if we're not careful. However given how we're doing do far they'll have to be really good to stop us in the end.

Skjold upgraded their facilities yet again at the start of summer (now with 'good' training facilities and 'average' youth), then splashed out 1.6M on a Brazilian from Uruguayan club Bella Vista. I had hoped that was the first of a few big signings, especially as I hadn't given them my £5M for the window yet, but a few free Danes (and one for 16k) were all they managed until deadline day when they brought in the promising Brogger from Koge for 210k. They struggled early on in their first ever season in the Superleague but seem to be keeping their heads above water. Hopefully they can do something in January, especially with another payment coming from us (which I always sort out before the window opens). Their average attendance has shot up to 3317, from 1353 last season, and thats with their run to the cup final skewing the latter figure. 

[deltablue]

Dec 2043

Near perfect. It seems odd that bottom of the table Alto Adige were the only opponents we failed to beat, though not for want of trying. Trabelsi, Mexes and van den Hoogenband were all underwhelming but we still got 13 corners! It was very frustrating indeed to finally take the lead through a penalty only to concede one of our own. Still we're doing well however you look at it. Despite conceding twice against Galatasaray that penalty was the only other goal we let in over 9 games, taking us to just 7 in 23 matches so far this season. The Champions League final remains our only defeat since February, a run of 42 matches!

One thing I forgot to mention last time was the squad depth we're using. Djibo was injured in the Super Cup which set the tone for a season without a single clean bill of health. By the end of September he had been joined by Angloma, Peric, Hajji and Trabelsi, so for once we didn't have to worry about sorting out our subs bench due to only being allowed 7 in the CL (as opposed to up to 12 in domestic games) because that's all we had. They mostly cleared up after the international break but we've had Muller, Milinovic, Berthomier, Xuxinha (though only briefly) and Mullins after that.

Melone still remains sidelined, as has Haase (who is just 17 and an 'extra' player anyway) but all the other outfielders have had a chance to shine and made a strong contribution already. Whether it's Djibo or Mullins, Angloma or Peric, Pirozzi or Trabelsi, Berthomier or Lokando, Rousvoal or Xuxinha, Udo or Bouwhuis, Israel or Muller over van den Hoogenband or Mexes... we just keep on winning, and usually winning well.

Not a bad draw. We'll very rarely get opponents where we can think 'this'll be easy' but they don't seem too tough, relatively speaking.

Maybe Alto Adige wanted to spoil the party. That means we're almost at the point where half the career in terms of matches played have been at Milan.

[Benjoe]

Your players are just so well-developed, and especially a kid like Fausto is a treasure.

Too bad about the loss to Tottenham. Never pleasant to lose to those tosser - and then to do so in a CL final.

Great progress for Skjold as they move into the legendary Superliga! Seeing Brøndby in the First Division was painful, though - but thankfully they moved up! 

[deltablue]

6 hours ago, Benjoe said:

Your players are just so well-developed, and especially a kid like Fausto is a treasure.

Too bad about the loss to Tottenham. Never pleasant to lose to those tosser - and then to do so in a CL final.

Great progress for Skjold as they move into the legendary Superliga! Seeing Brøndby in the First Division was painful, though - but thankfully they moved up! 

Kid? He's just turned 28 It did get me looking at what he was like as a 17yr old new signing (not even able to play in central midfield at that point, only as a DM) and he is an example of a player who has developed well. Others either already looked good at an early age or haven't quite hit the heights I hoped they would, even if they've still turned out to be decent players. That's encouraged me to post a few 'baby pictures' which I'll do below.

I had faced them in Europe before, in the Super Cup and CL group in the same season. We beat them only narrowly in the first match, only managed a draw in the San Siro but won 2-0 away to beat them to top spot, on the way to winning our second European title. While they clearly weren't easy opponents, I felt we still had the advantage and should have won, but we just didn't play well enough and they did.

Skjold face a tough challenge to stay up this season. There weren't many games played after October before the winter break but they did end up in the relegation zone heading into it. They have their £5M allowance for the January window and I hope they'll use it.

[deltablue]

Baby Pictures

From tiny acorns, mighty oaks grow. I thought I'd save Trabelsi for last since he's just become our first WPOTY.

[deltablue]

Mar 2044

I had a feeling that our unbeaten run would end against a smaller team, and so it did at bottom club Cremonese of all teams. We quickly equalized after they took a shock early lead and I thought the hard part was over but it seems not. We were still finally drawing clear of Napoli and they lost the next day so it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. If it wasn't for the Paris defeat at the very end I could claim that it was our only defeat of the season not just in the league but in all competitions, though there have been some close calls.

I plan to leave Milan after we claim a 3rd Champions League win, which hopefully won't be too long a wait even if it doesn't happen this season. I feel torn between an attachment to this side and the joys of things going so well and the need for a new challenge, especially since I'm not really paying attention to the matches half the time because I don't really need to, and would be nice to be able to achieve something again rather tnan have the easy ride I am now.

I know we've played the first leg already for a change but I've become used to posting this. We've faced them in three ties before this and won every time. Our three matches at the San Siro have ended up 2-0, 4-0 and 5-0. I joked last time about all the players wanting to be excused from their next trip to face us so even with the Paris defeat, I feel confident we can turn it around at home.

[BoxToBox]

My word, the speed of Trabelsi at 15....

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On 28/07/2017 at 20:27, BoxToBox said:

My word, the speed of Trabelsi at 15....

Well he's faster than a speeding bullet now

[deltablue]

May 2044

I'll be quick so I can fit in the CL final. With the league pretty much won a while ago I didn't mind too much having a couple of April blips, especially as they turned out not to be a sign of a more serious drop in form.

The Champions League was always going to be the focus and having lost in Paris we went down again at home to PSG, the first time they had scored against us at the San Siro in 4 attempts. However they never do well here and after Mexes equalized we were able to push on with two more to take the lead. We were still a single away goal from defeat so there was great relief when Mexes scored again to seal it. Unfortunately he then got injured in the following league game. He might just be fit enough to feature in the final but that otherwise ended his season.

I had a feeling when the draw was made that if we beat PSG we'd probably end up with the winner of Chelsea-Barcelona, and indeed for the first time we faced Barcelona, managed by Morgan Schneiderlin. The other semi final? Dinamo Zagreb v Newcastle! Cardia had unfortunately joined the injury list that was getting long again just when I was going to put him in again after his previous injury, since Thomas had 'Important Matches' as a weakness.

We should have taken advantage of an early spell of pressure to take the lead in Catalonia and paid for it. We had clearly lost our chance to get something and while it looked like we could keep it to 1-0, a late penalty ruined that. 6 players were out for the return and while I knew the tie wasn't over yet, a single away goal would be fatal. We at least managed an early goal. Van den Hoogenband took a 3rd minute penalty which hit the post but the Barca keeper tried to dive for it, not being able to get a proper hold but managing to touch it, giving the Dutchman an opening to run in, take it away from him and score.

We should easily have gotten more before long, especially with Xuxinha not doing enough with every free-kick he tried to convert. I wondered if we were blowing it but van den Hoogenband managed to get a second goal to give us an extra 30 minutes. Again I worried that we could have won it earlier but after Trabelsi was dispossessed in the penalty area with 5 minutes to go, the ball rolled to the nearby van den Hoogenband. Rarely has the 'hat-trick hero' title been more fitting.

The cup final was harder than it should have been, as we conceded two equalizers after giving away possession cheaply, before Berthomier thankfully struck in injury time to avoid extra-time. That keeps up our run of winning the cup for the last 4 even-numbered years.

I'm very nervous about the CL final. If we win, it'll be my last match at Milan, but I was amazed as how good some of Newcastle's players were so it's not going to be an easy one, especially while weakened, though Cardia and Angloma will be our only players still injured outright (though we'll see on Mexes' fitness). After losing to Tottenham last year a second successive defeat would be hard to take. However we didn't play well a year ago, so if we put in a proper performance this time we should be able to do it.

[deltablue]

Champions League Final 2044 - Milan vs Newcastle (Nou Camp, Barcelona)

Having denied Barcelona a home Champions League final we hope to claim glory for ourselves against Newcastle, who narrowly missed out on the Premier League to Man City by a single point. Keeping a couple of players in the team on merit didn't work well last year (though it was far from the only reason for our defeat) so Carranza comes in for Udo, whose strong form has dropped off anyway, but with Lokando being a bit hit and miss, Berthomier still seems the better bet. Thomas is in goal again but this time not by choice. Otherwise we were running a first-choice team anyway, in so much as we have won given what a team effort this season has been. Mexes is nowhere near fit enough to start but might be able to cope as a sub later on if Muller fails to perform.

Milan Line-up

Subs
Pirozzi
Mexes
Mullins
Rousvoal
Israel
Lokando
Udo

We started off exhanging chances, we had the set-pieces while they had a couple of more dangerous opportunities from open play which Thomas thankfully managed to stop. The balance started to swing our way as the first half wore on but the chances were nowhere near good enough. I was really worried we were missing our opportunity to take the lead but a great team move ended in a goal. Djibo played a short pass to Muller on the edge of the penalty area. He was challenged and the ball rolled free for van dan Hoogenband to pick up and fire home into the far bottom corner.Milan 1-0 Newcastle!

We looked firmly in control after the break, with van den Hoogenband in particular missing a few chances to give us another. They only managed a couple of chances but I was still worried that they might be able to snatch an equalizer, and we'd only have ourselves to blame for not putting it beyond them if they did. However a moment of defensive weakness gave us another opening. After a lot of exhanging possession through slide tackles on our right side, a Newcastle defender tried to play the ball across to the keeper. The keeper slid in for it but van den Hoogenband pipped him to it and managed to control himself enough to  turn and fire into the empty net. Milan 2-0 Newcastle!

Newcastle managed to threaten a little more after that, and had a goal disallowed for offside after slotting home past Thomas at point-blank range, but that was the last whimper they managed. I put on Mexes with a few minutes left, as it was the least he deserved. Unfortunately I couldn't do the same with Cardia. He was just back in training but with such low condition there was no point even having him on the bench, and I wish I could have brought him on as well with the game safe so he could lift the Champions League for the 3rd time as captain.

It wasn't a classic final by any means but just as last year the main difference was that Tottenham played well and we didn't, this time it was the other way around. Unfortunately like Djibo last year (though this season was another matter entirely) and Pirozzi before him, Berthomier couldn't handle the occasion but otherwise everyone played their part very well. They've all been stars this year, and the reward is a clean sweep of trophies.

 

[deltablue]

I must admit to feeling rather torn. I said that I'd probably leave Milan after the third European win but it all feels rather sudden. 

There are no shortage of reasons for wanting to leave. The first is the length of time I've been at the club, not wanting any single team to dominate the career or the trophy cabinet.

Secondly, it's all feeling too easy. I wasn't even watching the screen during matches half the time last season if something else was competing for my attention because it was going so smoothly. Even in Europe we've now made 4 finals out of the last 5 so there's little sense of achievement left. 

It would also be nice both to have a change of scenery and pace. After experiencing life at the top end with lots of midweek cup/European games and the expectation of competing on a few different fronts, I always felt that after Milan I would want to return to somewhere much smaller with shorter and simpler seasons.

So why would I want to stay? Well the obvious reason would be an attachment to the club and many of my players, though that would be true whenever I left. 

The other reason is maybe it isn't time yet. I was a lot more patient with my best teams of the past, even with the same feelings creeping in. When I left it was after a far longer period of dominance and with the core members of the squad entering their 30's. Cardia is now 30 with Milinovic turning 29 this year but otherwise the established players are still in their mid 20's. It feels like we still have so much more to do together, especially as it's only been in the past year or two that we've become this strong. 

[BoxToBox]

Is there any particularly interesting projects open at the moment?

[deltablue]

2 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Is there any particularly interesting projects open at the moment?

In terms of clubs? I haven't had the chance to see yet. Stopped right after the CL last night. It's unlikely though given I'll be looking for something very particular. 

[Raware]

Gut feeling is always the one to go with.  Sounds like a new challenge is what you need to stop the save getting stale.

[deltablue]

18 hours ago, Raware said:

Gut feeling is always the one to go with.  Sounds like a new challenge is what you need to stop the save getting stale.

Well since the season is now over I will probably fix the screenshots in the thread, since it makes it impossible to follow for anyone who doesn't know or remember what happened before. I still have them all in different folders for each team (and one for the international tournaments). 

I pretty much know what I'm going to do but that gives me a bit more time to see what people say and feel certain. It also draws it out a little longer

[Dexter_Morgan]

When you get the feeling that you are dominating like that and no personal goals left then I would go with your gut and leave delta, you just find yourself going through the motions and wasting your time if you force yourself to carry on, 3 CL's in a short time is fantastic record so at least you can leave knowing you've made Milan the best side in the world again

[deltablue]

End of Season 2044

Phew. I have almost 900 screenshots relating to this save and I've now sorted everything out! One thing that was interesting was being able to look back and see how long everyone's been around. 12 years for Mexes, 11 for Cardia, Bouwhuis and Milinovic, 10 for Trabelsi and van den Hoogenband, 9 for Carranza, Peric and Xuxinha, 7 for Pirozzi, Udo and Thomas and even 6 for Angloma and Lokando!

There were a few late blips but otherwise we were impressive in all areas from start to finish. We had a bunch of injuries but that didn't stop us as we shone whoever was in the team, with the players coming in earning the right to stay there a while, and it's interesting seeing how many appearances almost everyone managed to get, even Melone managing to get a decent number of appearances in the second half of the season.

Star Player: Van den Hoogenband marked his 10th season at the club in style (though still leaving plenty of opportunities for Israel). Even with it being such a team effort, he made the difference in Europe, getting all three goals in the comeback against Barcelona and both in the final against Newcastle, allowing him to beat Mexes' 7 year record for goals in a season. That makes it 259 goals in 317 appearances, and counting.

Squad Stats

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4 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

When you get the feeling that you are dominating like that and no personal goals left then I would go with your gut and leave delta, you just find yourself going through the motions and wasting your time if you force yourself to carry on, 3 CL's in a short time is fantastic record so at least you can leave knowing you've made Milan the best side in the world again

Thanks Dexter. You and Raware have made a good case but I've decided I'll stay for now. In general I'll always feel like remaining at a club I'm happy at unless the case to move on is overwhelming (so the point on my gut was the wrong way around), and it's not quite that strong yet. In this situation the bar is especially high. It's true that there is nothing new to be achieved but that hasn't stopped me from having fun with some memorable teams of the past, and I'd have missed out on a lot if I had left them at a similar stage.

I have never been able to say goodbye easily and it feels like this team and I still have 2-3 years together before it would feel right to part ways. We also haven't had a memorable CL win yet and while I'll probably be waiting a long time if I wanted to make sure we got one, I'll soon have plenty of opportunities to leave Milan under the circumstances I'm passing up now. I like to prepare myself in advance (usually I know when the final season will be before going into it) and having said "After the 3rd CL win" maybe it came a bit too suddenly.

 

 

[deltablue]

Skjold Update

Skjold were borderline the whole season long, sometimes just above the relegation zone, sometimes just in it but they managed to survive at the end of the season. I prematurely mentioned last year that they would be in Europe as cup runners up since Lyngby looked set for the title but they messed it up and only finished 3rd (2 points off top) so that didn't happen after all. However for fair play reasons they do make Europe this time, with Llanelli being their first opponents. A couple of Europa League qualifying rounds won't make a big difference but it's a start.

[deltablue]

Euro 2044 - Netherlands

Yet again international success eludes my players. Mullins (as a late sub appearance after a solid debut tournament) was the only one who was even in the semis, otherwise everyone was knocked out in the quarter-finals aside from the Italians, and being a sub in a couple of warmup matches are the only international appearances Cardia has made in over a year. No one made it in the 'dream team' first 11 but we did have Milinovic, Mexes and van den Hoogenband (Dutch first choice at last) on the subs bench. Muller (also enjoying a good debut tournament for the Germans at the age of just 19) won goal of the tournament with Trabelsi featuring in 3rd. Maybe they'll have better luck at the next World Cup, though Milinovic would be delighted enough to play in it. Croatia failed to qualify in 2034 and 2038, and they left him out in 2042 due to an injury even though he would have been fully fit for the first game.

Belarus have been making a few small waves recently. They made the last World Cup, Dinamo Minsk were in the knockout rounds of the Champions League a couple of years ago and Juventus had a Belarusian manager for a few years until February. They qualified second from the group ahead of Portugal and Belgium but lost easily to Russia. Georgia also made it out of their group in a 3-way tie with the Czech Rep and Sweden, with the Swedes losing out.

Spain were were probably the best team in the world not too long ago, but after a brief period in the shadows seem to have found their form again, comfortably winning every game, the highlight being a 4-0 thrashing of the Dutch. Bouwhuis seems to have a weakness against them as looking through his international record, that match and a friendly last November against the Spaniards are the only blips in a record where he's otherwise almost as consistently strong as it is for us. Wales remained a decent international team for a while after being the save's first World Cup winners before also fading (eventually failing to qualify for a few tournaments) so a semi-final appearance is a welcome return to form for them.

[deltablue]

Summer 2044

Building for the future never stops, and it was nice not to have to dig too deep for players for a change. We already got a right-back in the youth intake which took us up to 4, so at least one had to go. Comparing Haase and Angloma left the latter as the loser, French international or not. Melone was the other loser when I bought an English defender who looked similarly good while being a few years younger. The 4th central defender in the squad has rarely seen much action and given we had 3 defensive/central midfielders who could play in defence (with a 4th coming in) we didn't have to worry about defensive depth so 4 was all we needed.

That brings me to a bit of research I did. I had generally managed to make profit even on unwanted players (having also made some big transfer profits at Bucaspor) so being fond of a bit of number-crunching I decided to take a look in depth. Melone and Angloma make 28 players I've brought in and later sold, making a loss on just 4. I have made a loss on just 4, paying a total of £175.55M and getting £359.15M, just over double. Gomes is both the record signing (at £16M, joint with Djibo) and sale (£40M).

There were no more sales after as while a few more players were bought in (Pinto from the youth intake) they're far too young to be more than 'bonus' squad members and feature right away, so don't bump replace anyone in the current set-up. They also mean that at 22.31 we still have the youngest average age in the league. However while early on we fared very badly in the team comparision stats, we're now the best in a lot of different areas (for example tacking and positioning in defence, and finishing/movement in attack) and the worst in none.

New Players

[deltablue]

CL Draw

I'll rarely have easier draws than this. Stuttgart aren't a bad side but I don't expect too much trouble from Young Boys and Diosgyor.

[deltablue]

Nov 2044

Machiavelli once said that when you use mercenaries, victories are slow and unconvincing and defeats are catastrophic. At least that's how Tim Parks puts it in 'A Season with Verona' but I'm not going to look through the entire book to find out precisely what he says. That clearly applies to our current situation having set such a high bar for ourselves last season.

We started strongly this year as well, though it did seem silly to have won a 'double' after just 3 matches played. However we ran into early trips to Juventus and Napoli and didn't do very well in either. That wasn't entirely unexpected or much of a set-back but we then had a lot of draws, usually from going behind early and only managing to equalize when we should have gone on to get a winner. In Europe we qualified from the group after 3 1-0 wins and a 0-0 draw as we seemed to be severely lacking our old attacking spark, otherwise conceding an early goal wouldn't have mattered much in a lot of those matches. Injuries haven't been quite as numerous as this point last season but they have hit the 'key' players, Bouwhuis, Trabelsi (still reigning world player of the year for now) and more recently van den Hoogenband.

On the one hand, it at least shows there is some challenge left, though I'd probably be happier if we were cruising again, especially as I've been considering future plans. There are 3 clubs (2 English, not Ipswich, and one Mexican) I've already got my eye on as the team is failing to deliver on the reasons why I didn't leave in the summer, though I still don't regret it. I'll probably leave at the end of the season if I feel able to end on a high enough note (far from certain at this stage), if not hopefully we can manage it the next year but I don't plan on still being at Milan after that, subject to how I feel nearer the time.

[deltablue]

Champions League Draw

Now that's drawing the short straw, though we could have had Barcelona as well.

[deltablue]

Jan 2045

We seemed to have recovered our form in December and going into January, but it wasn't doing us much good. We were already trailing Juventus by 5 points and we weren't able to narrow that gap even by a point. That meant that when we faltered a little later in the month it meant they doubled the gap. A poor defensive performance caused us to have to come back and equalize against Cesena twice then go on to lose anyway, and we were held against Genoa. After easily beating Fiorentina and Juventus (which gives me hope we can do the same in the league since we'll need it) we only squeaked by Sampdoria in the semi-finals 1-0 on aggregate. The next midweek is the first leg against Man City and we'll need to pick ourselves up for that.

With our title hopes looking more shaky I feel that I'm certainly going stay if we don't win, after all it doesn't seem right to leave without being champions when I could so easily do so when we are, and it has at least given me some motivation back.

 

[BoxToBox]

I guess it's nice to have a bit of motivation, even if it comes at the cost of the current season.

[deltablue]

23 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

I guess it's nice to have a bit of motivation, even if it comes at the cost of the current season.

Yes. Even when winning it's often been close enough that the matches are a lot more interesting to watch, compared to last season when it was often 'we're already winning comfortably so I can turn my attentions to something else'. The fact that we're doing better now sort of creates a 'best of both worlds' situation. I can still enjoy us going very well while still having a lot to play for.

[deltablue]

Feb 2045

Now that's more like it. I was worried about going to Roma, who were only just behind us in 4th at the time, but while narrow we still managed to pull off a win, at the start of a month full of excellent results. However it's not doing that much good. We managed to beat Juventus at home just as I knew we needed to, but that still leaves us 7 points behind. They've won every single league game aside from that one since October and we don't seem to have knocked them off their stride in the slightest. They failed to make it out of their CL group (only getting third on head-to-head results over Twente after being far behind Marseille and Panathinaikos) so maybe a strong Europa League run will help them drop a few league points at last.

I may have said that we hadn't had a memorable CL final, but the same can't be said for some of our knockout ties and Man City can be added to the list. The last time we played them was when they knocked us out in the quarter-final the season before we won our first European title, but the tide had turned now. I was shocked when we took a 2-0 lead early on in the away leg, then 3-2 after they managed to get it to 2-2, they equalized again but a couple of van den Hoogenband goals gave us a strong lead to take home. I resisted the temptation for a while to ease off in the second leg, even after we got two more goals and I was confident they wouldn't score the 5 they needed to turn it around.

I was wondering if we'd get PSG again, having faced them in the knockout rounds for the past three seasons, and 4 of the last 5. We still might but we have to win a repeat of last year's final with Newcastle first. They narrowly missed out on the Premier League title last season (having been holders) and are in a similar position now, just a single point of Man Utd (while Man City are only 6th). They definitely have the potential to be more of a challenge this time but if we are back to our old selves, we should probably win.

[deltablue]

May 2045

As I expected, Juventus didn't drop enough points to give us a chance of winning the league, even if we managed a 100% record for the rest of the season, which we didn't thanks to one of those 'How on earth didn't we score?' 0-0's against Pavia. They only dropped 2 points before clinching the title (though had a couple more draws afterwards), lifting the Europa League as well. You have to hand it to them, I thought we had left them far behind but for the 3rd time we miss out to them despite breaking the 90-point mark.

Now you're probably wondering what happened to the Italian Cup final, the truth is that I never played it because this happened...

One of the clubs I was following became available. I didn't want to leave before the end of the season, especially with the chance of going out on a cup final win, but I have done it before to chase a specific club. Besides, we finished the league season and they finished their season as well so it doesn't really count as swapping clubs during the season. The final point is with the trophy haul I've managed at Milan, what's one more cup? However you just know that the first sign of struggles at the new club and I'll be badly wishing I was back in Milan

Star Player:  This is a bit of a 'lifetime achievement' thing, for our longest serving player. 13 years and he's still just 27! I did originally want to last pretty much his entire career (and that of van den Hoogenband) but that would involve hanging on far too long. He scored his first goal just a few minutes or so after first coming on in a cup match, having just turned 15. It was the first of 203 for the club and counting in 468 games, which doesn't actually sound that impressive, but there were 121 assists as well reflecting his more 'all-round' role, with van den Hoogenband being the big goal hitter.

Squad Stats

[Raware]

So...where to next?

[deltablue]

33 minutes ago, Raware said:

So...where to next?

Any guesses?

[Raware]

32 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Any guesses?

Is it too obvious to say Ipswich?   

[deltablue]

46 minutes ago, Raware said:

Is it too obvious to say Ipswich?   

Yes, but it is in England

[Dexter_Morgan]

Norwich

[deltablue]

14 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Norwich

Cheeky beggar!

[deltablue]

Chapter 5: The Pride of Kent (Gillingham)

Pretty much from the moment I joined Milan I knew that after spending time at the top level I would head to the lower leagues once more. In Sweden and Turkey I had been more successful with smaller clubs than before, and with the career turning into a bunch of one club mini-projects I sought a long term challenge once again. At Gillingham I've certainly found it. They were relegated from League 2 a couple of seasons ago and had just finished 15th in the BSP. They were over half a million in the red, a financial situation that looked like it would be getting worse before it started getting better.

Almost the moment I arrived I wondered what I was letting myself in for. My former Milan players will be featuring heavily in the World Cup at the end of the season. My new Gillingham players will be watching it in the pub. Still as a Kent native (and the only football game I've seen in person was Gillingham-Ipswich near the end of the 2002/03 season) I was bound to be attracted to them eventually, even if they are over 30 miles away. I was actually checking up on Swindon (who had dropped out of the playable leagues altogether at one point and had spend most of their time since in the BSS, looking like a good club to try and return to glory) but on seeing Gillingham in the BSP as well, they became the 3rd club I was looking out for and the first to become available at roughly the right time.

[deltablue]

Summer 2045

The club's financial situation meant that it wouldn't be easy rebuilding the squad, though we did have good players in a few positions who would do nicely for now. There was no chance of any proper transfer budget (though £1,260 appeared out of nowhere later on) and when I arrived the club was maxed out on a 20kpw wage budget, which was shrunk to 17kpw at the start of the following season. I had already culled a bunch of players whose contracts were expiring along with a few others we could probably afford to which at least gave me some room to target a few players whose contracts were about to expire.

After that it was a bit of a juggling act, as even with a relatively small squad I felt we were 'heavy' in a couple of places and I sacrificed the backup keeper to try and get enough spare wage budget to get in a few players where I felt we still needed it. This is essentially how I'm going to have to operate for now. All free transfers, and trying to stretch the wage budget as much as possible. In the end I did just about all I wanted to do for now with 116pw spare! We're helped by having Blackpool as a parent club for the occasional loan. They're only in League 1 but I'll take what I can get, and the first young player they sent seemed fine.

Signings

[Dexter_Morgan]

Good luck, seems you have a big job trying to do anything with the budgets

[noikeee]

Shame you couldn't leave Milan at the top with one of your most successful seasons, but Juve was ridiculous this year and you've had plenty of success before anyway.

We nearly swapped clubs at the same time, I was very close to taking over Milan in my career yesterday but eventually chose Monaco instead. 

Good luck in the English lower leagues!

[deltablue]

5 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Good luck, seems you have a big job trying to do anything with the budgets

I am pretty pleased with what I managed to do this time with no room to work with. Despite having to make a few payments when releasing players the bank balance is holding mostly steady, having worried that it would spiral out of control with ever shrinking wage budgets. Still I wanted a different sort of challenge and I have definitely got it

2 hours ago, noikeee said:

Shame you couldn't leave Milan at the top with one of your most successful seasons, but Juve was ridiculous this year and you've had plenty of success before anyway.

We nearly swapped clubs at the same time, I was very close to taking over Milan in my career yesterday but eventually chose Monaco instead. 

Good luck in the English lower leagues!

I was going to go for one more year but once I saw the Gillingham job was available and I could probably get it after the last Milan league game there didn't seem to be any point. After 6 titles, 3 Champions League wins, 4 cup wins (and on the verge of another) with a number of the minor trophies, there didn't seem to be any point in staying with that opportunity on the table