[FM20] Champagne Football II: Calcio Offensivo

[noikeee]

February 2027: Starting to feel the pressure
 

Coppa Italia semi-final 1st leg: Bologna 1-1 Napoli (Hebibovic 28; Tonali 45)

A very open match that deserved more goals for both sides - not the nicest result to take to Naples for the 2nd leg... perhaps resting a few players here might end up costing us another run to the Italian Cup final.

Serie A: Cremonese 0-2 Bologna (Wijndal 45, Pellegri 53)

Total dominance and we could've easily scored more than 2. This is what I like to see and it is so much more pleasing against Cremonese. I noticed they were fielding one of my old youth products at RB, and he is rubbish, so I turned on "focus down the left" and had fun all match long.

Coppa Italia semi-final 2nd leg: Napoli 1-4 Bologna (Preguinho 79; Wijndal 41, Pellegri 43, pen 67, Gozzi 61)

And this is one of those great days that I just didn't see coming. After struggling so much the first leg at home, and having lost to them in the league recently, I thought we had a tough match here to try to turn this tie around. Well nope, we had den Otter on form with 2 assists and Pellegri with 2 goals as we smashed 4 past them. Onto another cup final, as we'll try to defend our trophy against Milan.

Serie A: Bologna 1-0 Atalanta (van Mosselveld 74)

A really hard fought win over an Atalanta side having a good season. We had more shots and chances, but it often felt like they were the ones in control of the match. But middle of the 2nd half, we got our goal.

Champions League 1st knockout round 1st leg: Bologna 1-3 Arsenal (Bordignon 58; Bruno Fernandes 2, Olmo 30, Ajer 32)

Ouch, there goes our European run, probably. I knew we were in trouble when Bruno Fernandes scored a direct freekick right at the beginning, then the bad things just piled on and on. Arsenal were far better than us.

Serie A: Cagliari 1-1 Bologna (Pinamonti 26; Jefferson 72)

A bad match as the team sulked in morale after the Arsenal defeat. We were lucky that Jefferson had one of those super rare moments where he shows why we pay him silly money, with a great solo goal on the counter after a corner, to avoid a 2nd consecutive loss.
 

Serie A: Bologna 1-1 Roma (Jefferson 50; Cristante 90)

This damn game. We had 30 shots, 15 of them on target, got the goal on a set piece, and then on the dying minutes it all goes to **** because they've switched to a narrow 4-3-3 and I was too arrogant to try to adapt and defend better.

Well that's taken a turn for the worse in the last few games. We're pretty much effectively out of Europe now and Inter have cut the gap to 3 points. We need to recover soon... specially since the next Serie A match is away to Inter.

[noikeee]

Youth intake 2027

       

Nobody stands out, but I wouldn't be shocked if there's a good player or two in this bunch. Obviously these kids are now compared to our senior squad, which is very good and has a few world class players, so no wonder it's difficult for youth intake prospects to have 3+ stars of potential.

[noikeee]

March 2027: Hanging on despite unconvincing form

Serie A: Inter 0-0 Bologna

A frustrating match in which we had lots of chances, but just couldn't put away any of them. Either way it's still a positive result not to lose - had we done so, Inter would've caught up with us.

Champions League 1st knockout round 2nd leg: Arsenal 1-1 Bologna (Olmo 68; van Mosselveld 38)

Another good away performance in which we perhaps had a few more chances than our opponents. However, this time the result wasn't good enough for our ambitions, as the 3-1 defeat at home in the 1st leg obviously had put us in danger. We're out of Europe and can focus on the domestic competitions now.

Serie A: Bologna 3-1 Torino (van Mosselveld 25, 54, 81; Donato 13)

This started badly and the team looked to be on a bad headspace, but thankfully, this didn't apply to Eric van Mosselveld. The Dutch striker was on a rare inspired day and took all his chances to grab an hat-trick - leaping past our other strikers to become this season's top scorer on 13 goals.

Serie A: Citadella 0-1 Bologna (André Anderson 90)

Another tough match that could've gone worse - we were a bit tired on the pitch, also missing a few players that were out in international fixtures, and struggled to put our shots in the back of the net. Until André Anderson showed up as supersub scoring from the bench at the very end. A very important goal to keep Inter at bay.
 

We've not had a single convincing win this month, but we retain the 3 points lead over Inter and that's the key bit. Perhaps now that we're out of the Champions League we can focus properly in Serie A, and seal the title we've been chasing for a few seasons.

[noikeee]

April 2027: Cup winners but hanging on to 1st in Serie A by a thread
 

Serie A: Salernitana 1-1 Bologna (Cristiano 43; Obasi 48)

In classic FM fashion, despite creating very little danger, Salernitana went a goal up through our former striker Alberto Cristiano, who's been rubbish for them. Who assisted him? Our former midfielder Bernard Mensah. Yep classic FM. In the 2nd half we equalised in a corner then hit the woodwork 3 times and Pellegri also missed a penalty. Classic, classic FM. Oh and we get Jefferson injured for the next 6 to 8 weeks (not as if I think we'll miss him). And Inter beat Milan the same day, so they close down the gap to just 1 point...
 

Serie A: Bologna 3-0 Brescia (den Otter 21, 27, Bordignon 81)

Now this is more like what I like to see - a controlled match from beginning to end. 2 crosses from Rafael to den Otter gave us our first 2 goals then late on Bordignon added a third in a counter.
 

Serie A: Sassuolo 2-2 Bologna (Malen 42, Munoz 85; Wijndal 6, Bordignon 81)

On this form we don't deserve the title. Twice we opened a lead... twice they drew. Lennart den Otter is also added to the injury list, the only good news is Inter draw away to Juve so they miss the chance to overtake us.
 

Serie A: Bologna 5-1 Verona (Pellegri 6, van Mosselveld 31, Castro 83, Cousin 45, Vuckovic 85; Prado 72)

Now that's more like it. One of our biggest wins of the season, including another 2 assists by leftback Rafael who appears to be on good form, and nice goals from long by Sebastian Castro and Nicola Vuckovic.
 

Coppa Italia Final: Bologna 4-1 Milan (Vuckovic 2, Castro 53, Wijndal 66, Afonso Sousa 85; Sensi 88)

What a great way to win a cup. We were winning from minute 2, Vuckovic's dry shot entering the area having gone in, but we squandered a few opportunities before the break and were only winning by 1. We took care of that in the 2nd half though, first through a loose ball that fell to rightback Sebastian Castro, then through a recurring goal which is Owen Wijndal being released free from the left flank; then Afonso Sousa got us the 4th in a corner. We still conceded one from long, but we had been the superior side and deserve to retain the cup.

Serie A: Udinese 0-1 Bologna (Afonso Sousa 64)

This could've gone wrong. We took a long time to get the goal, even though we were on top, but it eventually resulted in a goal, midway through the 2nd half, Afonso Sousa in a corner. I'm glad otherwise Inter, who had played and won earlier, would've overtaken us.

 

We got another trophy in our cabinet, but the big one, the Serie A, is starting to slip away from us. Inter has cut our lead to 1 point, and do Atalanta have a chance?! 4 matches remain, unfortunately it's a pretty tricky run of fixtures for us as we face Lazio, Milan, Juve. Can we hang on for just a little longer or has all the season-long work been in vain?

Edited June 1, 2020 by noikeee

[ShaunG95]

Wow, the race for the title looks tight! Superb resurgence from Juve too to get back in with a shout for Europa League football.

[noikeee]

3 hours ago, ShaunG95 said:

Wow, the race for the title looks tight! Superb resurgence from Juve too to get back in with a shout for Europa League football.

Yes, it's a tight race... unfortunately, because we had a big lead and we shouldn't have let them back into contention. And now I'm afraid I bring further bad news...  

Juve have turned this season around quite dramatically, yes. Which is a shame, I wanted to poach a mega CB they snapped up last Summer when we were also interested. If they were getting relegated...

[noikeee]

May 2027 (1): A season's work going down the drain
 

Serie A: Bologna 0-1 Lazio (Vesic 14)

Disaster. My players trembled in fear with the pressure, they scored with their 1st of their total 2 shots on target, and we had an horrible day upfront, mostly shooting against their legs instead of on goal. Inter overtake us. Despite the fact we've been 1st all season long.
 

Serie A: Milan 0-2 Bologna (Gozzi 42, Rafael 84)

More like it. Truth be told, this was more a good result than a real good match, but at this stage of the season we just want the points. The goals came in a set piece, and... the routine pass to a onrushing leftback from deep.

Right after Milan-Bologna ended, Napoli-Inter started... I had big hopes they'd lose points. They didn't. Inter win 1-0 in Naples.

I'm gutted. It looks like we've thrown the league away, after having led almost all year long. There's still 2 matches to go, a chance to recover it back, but we'll need Inter to cooperate.

[noikeee]

Thanks for nothing Cremonese, you useless *****.

[noikeee]

May 2027 (2): It all comes down to the final day
 

Serie A: Bologna 6-1 Juventus (Pellegri pen 27, 45, 65, Rafael 41, Bordignon 42, 45; Dominguez 21)

I feared the worst when we did nothing the first 20 minutes and then conceded from a long shot. From that position, I couldn't have imagined that we'd end up winning this one 6-1 - the goals just piled up after we turned it around and the squad loosened up. We take the title to the final day...
 

Serie A: Empoli 1-2 Bologna (Petriccione 91; Ampadu 6, Pellegri 11)

So it all comes down to this. Us away to Empoli. Inter away to... Atalanta, who had a fine year and briefly challenged us too. We need to win, and for Inter to slip, but a Inter draw in Bergamo would do.

We draw first blood. Minute 6, Daniel Bragança's wide free kick, Ethan Ampadu heads it in. His first goal for Bologna, no less. As it stands, we're champions.

But wait, there's MORE good news. Atalanta have scored, 1-0 over Inter, the same minute. This couldn't have started any better.

5 minutes later, we add another. Pellegri pounces on a rebound loose in the keeper's box. 2-0 for Bologna. We just have to wait now, the remainder of the whole match. As things stand we're very champions. But there's a long way to go.

Half-time comes. We're dominating our match and the 2-0 advantage seems comfortable. Atalanta remains a goal up. Come on, just hold up another 45 minutes.

The minutes keep passing. And passing. The results still stand. Some 15 minutes before the end, I make a bunch of subs.

I bring in Owen Wijndal as the final sub. It's injury time now. We still win 2-0. Atalanta still win 1-0. Only 2 late Inter goals can change it now.

Or 2 Empoli goals. And BOOM, oh no no no no. They score. Our keeper looking like an idiot rushing for the ball wrongly in a set piece, it falls to their midfielder who taps it in. We're still winning, but it's not as comfortable. We can't slip up, not now.

Minute 94. It's a corner... but for us. Please call for the end of the match, ref.

He does. It's over in our end. We've won. What's the news from Bergamo?

 

 

 

 

 

We've ****ing did it. Thank you, Atalanta.

 

 

 

YES!!! What a ****ing ride. I seriously thought we had dropped it, but finally, finally, Champagne Football conquers Italy.

[oriole01]

Well, all the hard work finally paid off. Amazing season, and it's been quite an enjoyable ride with Bologna so far. Looking forward to seeing you properly take on the CL soon.

[Northernpilgrim]

Congrats on the title. What a final couple of weeks!

[Hootieleece]

Congrats on the Treble. It is still an amazing achievement.

[cerud]

Getting over the line on the last day! Great feeling! 

[kidthekid]

Congrats on the clutch win.

[noikeee]

On 04/06/2020 at 07:22, oriole01 said:

Well, all the hard work finally paid off. Amazing season, and it's been quite an enjoyable ride with Bologna so far. Looking forward to seeing you properly take on the CL soon.

 

On 04/06/2020 at 11:28, Northernpilgrim said:

Congrats on the title. What a final couple of weeks!

 

On 04/06/2020 at 11:46, Hootieleece said:

Congrats on the Treble. It is still an amazing achievement.

 

On 04/06/2020 at 17:43, cerud said:

Getting over the line on the last day! Great feeling! 

 

On 05/06/2020 at 21:23, kidthekid said:

Congrats on the clutch win.

 

Cheers for all the comments guys, it was fun.

I haven't been playing much lately because this career is starting to get heavy on my computer as the seasons go on, a new computer should be here in a few days which is exciting, should allow me to play this in a much more flowing way.

[noikeee]

Season review - Bologna - 2026/2027

Competitions

• Serie A: Champions
• Coppa Italia: Winners
• Coca-Cola Supercup: Winners
• UEFA Champions League: Lost in the 1st knockout round to Arsenal

Club vision

The board is very happy all across every area, which is rather unusual, they tend to be highly demanding ungrateful ***** in FM20.

Finances

 

Looking good, but we need more convincing Champions League campaigns to truly start challenging the big European financial powerhouses. I want to get to the point where I can splash 100M in a player and obviously we're not quite there yet - transfer budget for next year is 33M. However, it's quite likely we might sell players as there are a lot of teams interested in a lot of our guys.
 

Squad statistics

 

Top 5 players of the season

Before picking them, I want to say it was really hard to trim it down to 5 players. Unusually, for such a successful season, it wasn't because they were all great - it was because almost nobody stood out! In a way, this was a super weird season - we won all domestic Italian trophies yes, but player by player almost everybody was inconsistent, with periods of good form alternating between the different options for each position.

 

5. Lennart den Otter (MR)

 

The Dutch right winger deserves a mention albeit he's technically not part of our strongest 11, Nikola Vuckovic playing in his position. However the Serbian RW had a bit of a shocker of a season whilst Lennart was weirdly a happy goalscorer, at a point topping our scoring charts. He ended the season with 11 of them, plus 5 assists and 5 player of the match awards.
 

4. André Anderson (MC)

 

Another player who had a bit of a surprise overperforming year. He's been here with us for the past 4 seasons, but this was his best yet. Now playing consistently deeper as mezzala rather than AMC, he shone particularly when he'd show up for late shots from the edge of the area - ultimately got 7 goals and 5 assists, and a very satisfactory 7.35 average ratings.

3. Pietro Pellegri (ST)

 

A frustrating feature of my current set of "Champagne" tactics is they don't seem to get the best goalscoring numbers from our strikers, also I'm not entirely sure whether it's my players or the tactics, but they seem to go in and out of goalscoring runs, which ends up dividing the numbers between all of them, rather than any individual getting super impressive numbers. In this context, I was pretty happy with Pellegri's final tally of 17 in the back of the net, which ultimately made him our top scorer. He finished the season in particularly good form, a hat-trick v Juventus then a goal in the decisive final match vs Empoli.

2. Paolo Gozzi (DC)

 

The one thing that pisses me off about Paolo is that at the end of the season, when it's time to decide the title, he always ***** his pants and feels the pressure. Up until there, however, it was another excellent season from our pacey CB with a ratings average of 7.38. He's also wildly underpaid and I manage to convince him every time we can't give him a better contract. That helps me like him.

1. Daniel Bragança (DM)

 

Another killer season from my favourite DM on a 4th consecutive season on loan from Chelsea (!). His ratings were maintained at a stratospheric level of 7.45, and he got 12 assists again, and 5 player of the month awards.  He's mere days before turning 28, but I think I'll spend my entire transfer budget on him by activating the 28.5M€ clause I negotiated in this season - he's too good, I think I can get another 3 top level seasons out of him.

Other honourable mentions

Jefferson (AMC, ML)

 

He had his moments with 1 or 2 wonderful goals, but our most talented player - on paper - had yet again an underwhelming year. At this stage I'm patiently awaiting the moment someone finally activates his 80M€ release clause, so I can be freed of his wages and his wasted potential. Another option might be to give up playing him as AMC or on the wing, and just field him deeper as mezzala.

Sebastián Castro (DR) 

 

On his first season for the club, the Colombian RB was mildly underwhelming. I expect more than 7.14 ratings. However he ended the season well and at the moment he seems to have more potential than anyone else in the squad - if he can max it out he can become the best RB in world football.
 

Riccardo de Franco YP26A (DC)

 

We have a healthy handful of fairly promising youngsters who could one day become useful squad players. None of them are world class players in the making, but we should have no huge problem filling in homegrown quotas. 18 year old centerback de Franco is on the frontline of this queue of talents in terms of potential, although 1 or 2 older players are slightly more developed and have spent the year out on loan.

Individual competition stats

Serie A:

Bragança is the stand out here, making it to the average ratings and player of the match awards charts. Unusually we just about managed to sneak in a striker into the top 3 scorers, Pellegri on 14, but you can tell from our lack of dominance in the individual stats, despite the fact we topped the championship, just how spread out our talent is among our squad. Oh and our old man Torresi continues to dazzle for Inter.

Career tracker

Season  Club                 League           Cups                    Continental                  Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19/20   Cremonese (Italy)    Serie B - 2nd    Coppa Italia 4th Q rnd                               Promoted
20/21   Cremonese (Italy)    Serie A - 10th   Coppa Italia 4th Q rnd
21/22   Cremonese (Italy)    Serie A - 4th    Coppa Italia 4th Q rnd
22/23   Cremonese (Italy)    Serie A - 15th   Coppa Italia 1st rnd    Champions League 1st KO rnd  Sacked midseason
        Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 13th                                                        Hired midseason
23/24   Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 7th    Coppa Italia 1/2 final   
24/25   Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 2nd    Coppa Italia 1st rnd    Conference League final    
25/26   Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 2nd    Coppa Italia winners    Champions League 1/4 final
26/27   Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 1st    Coppa Italia winners    Champions League 1st KO rnd  Supercup winners

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

[noikeee]

Well this is a pretty big deal.

We definitely had too small of a stadium, why go all this trouble to only upgrade from 31K to 42K capacity though?! I don't get it! Why don't shoot for something like 60K for once?

[noikeee]

Oh this absolute ****ing muppet. He already rejected a similar move last year, I think it was to Juventus. Despite the fact he now wants to "move to a bigger club". I'm starting to suspect I'll end up having him leave on a free in 2 years time when his contract expires.

[noikeee]

So I instant-resulted the last friendly of the pre-season with a full strenght 11 at home against a smaller side and...

  Poor Belivacqua!

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2027-2028: Stability time

With little money to invest on mega-signings and no big moves for our star players - up until now, mid-August - this Summer has been rather quiet. We collected some cash by selling players we didn't need, some of them who were out on loan last year, like defensive midfielder Mattias Jakobsen, who was our biggest sale for 15M€. Homegrown winger Gianmarco Cangiano was another of these sales at 6.75M€. But perhaps the highest profile departure was our starting goalkeeper, Gavin Bazunu, who was let go on a paid loan to Juve, to make way for a new keeper.

In terms of new signings, most of the transfer budget was splashed on Daniel Bragança, who finally becomes a permanent Bologna player, after 4 years of excelling for the club on loan. We only brought in 3 more players - one of them is a wonderkid who we got on a free, another a new starting goalkeeper, and the third a pretty average youth player (Jonathan Soriano) I grabbed just because it was on a free and I could. So let's focus on the 2 real new big signings:
 

This English teenager is already not that far from world class level, despite only having 3 senior appearances in his whole career so far. It was absolutely bonkers that I managed to grab him on a free, although there are two problems. First, with him I now have way too many midfielder and attackers - I was betting on other clubs coming in for players like Jefferson to free up space, but it didn't happen so far. Second, I don't actually know what to do with Paul. I'm thinking DLF upfront probably, to use his aerial ability, but a finishing of 12 is poor. He seems like a jack of all trades, master of none kind of player.

And here's the new goalie. I seem to hire a new goalkeeper almost every year, and every year it's only a very slight upgrade on what I had, but it is what it is. Yet again, Manuel Gasparini is only marginally better than Gavin Bazunu, but I think it's still a step on the right direction. 5.75M€ was a very nice deal for him.

Current squad and starting 11:

There's way way way too many attackers and midfielders. Inter is still interested in Jefferson, Newcastle and Norwich are interested in Bordignon, there's 2 weeks of transfer window still to play out, these transfers could still happen... If they don't come with bids I won't force anyone out of the club, I want to maximise the fees I get for any potential sale and this is the best way as far as I know - wait for the AI to really want them.

After winning all domestic trophies last season, this career now moves to a new phase, which is, to try to dominate Europe. As you can see the squad is almost the exact same as last year, so I don't expect a wildly better Champions League campaign this season already, but winning it is the long term goal. To get there, we must go through seasons like this in which we only make baby steps towards it. And I'd very much like to consolidate our standing in Italian football by retaining at least the Serie A title.

[noikeee]

August 2027: Confident start
 

Turns out nothing of note happened the rest of the transfer window. We retain all of our players.

Serie A: Bologna 1-0 Cremonese (Obasi 4)

Dull way to win with just one goal in a set piece, but beating Cremonese is always particularly pleasing after the history I have with them.
 

Serie A: Sampdoria 0-2 Bologna (Jefferson 12, Obasi 67)

This early season I have slightly revamped one of the tactics to try to better fit Jefferson, as a MC advanced playmaker rather than a AMC, and it worked beautifully on this match, the lad getting the opening goal, getting 9.0 ratings and we generally controlling things well in the final third. Weirdly low possesion stats, though.
 

 

It's all looking good. We have also received a surprisingly easy Champions League group which bodes well.

Edited June 7, 2020 by noikeee

[Hootieleece]

Not a bad Champions League Group...your team should go through easily. 

[noikeee]

20 hours ago, Hootieleece said:

Not a bad Champions League Group...your team should go through easily. 

It's looking good so far...

[noikeee]

September 2027: Maintaining a 100% record
 

Serie A: Bologna 1-0 Udinese (Vuckovic 71)

This was much tougher than it should've been, we continuously stumbled against Udinese's wall for 71 minutes until we lucked into a goal. Udinese didn't attempt to shoot at goal not even once, though.
 

Champions League group stage: Bologna 4-1 Olympiacos (Pellegri 12, von Mosselveld 54, 66, Obasi 74; Dikaiopoulos 79)

If Udinese didn't attempt to shoot at goal against us, Olympiacos only attempted it 3 times - and scored the first time they tried, after 79 minutes in which they hadn't. By then we had opened up a 4 goal lead to make it a pretty damn convincing win.
 

Serie A: Empoli 0-4 Bologna (van Mosselveld 65, 90, Curtis 66, 74)

It's becoming a recurring feature of this season that we limit the opposition to almost no shots at all - just twice, none on target this time. We struggled to turn our dominance into goals the first half, but we put in a wonderful show the 2nd half - van Mosselveld with a brace, youngster Paul Curtis also with one, his first 2 goals for the club, and Jefferson with 2 assists. Best performance yet from the new tactic hands down.
 

Serie A: Bologna 1-0 Lazio (Cousin 77)

This became tougher than it needed be, when 5 minutes before halftime Giuseppe Amoroso saw the 2nd yellow card and we were down to 10. Lazio were still timid afterwards however, and near the end we still managed to win this with a Noah Cousin header from a wide indirect freekick.
 

Serie A: Inter 0-3 Bologna (Obasi 26, Pellegri 35, 48)

I'm starting to love the new tactic. This was as good as we ever played against our big title rivals the last few years - just clearly dominated this match and took our chances, Pietro Pellegri upfront inspired answering successfully crosses twice. That's how you do it.
 

Champions League group stage: Sevilla 0-2 Bologna (Jefferson 86, Gozzi 88)

This was proving to be a tough one, but we woke up in the very final minutes. First through an absolutely sensational solo goal by Jefferson on a counter, then Gozzi headed one in a corner. Lovely.
 

 

Well this is going fantastically well. I'm really enjoying our football at the moment and we're doing the business. Undoubtedly the new tactic has helped, which has come in to replace our previous away tactic with a AMC - the AMC has been turned into a MC AP/A, and the left striker has been switched from DLF/S to CF/S. That's it. It's working great.

 

[noikeee]

New record.

This streak started last season, but is telling for just how dominant this beginning of the season has been so far.

[noikeee]

October 2027: 16 consecutive wins
 

Serie A: Bologna 1-0 Brescia (Cousin 59)

A disappointing, sluggish performance, saved again by a centerback heading in a set piece. Oh well, 3 points are 3 points.
 

Serie A: Cagliari 0-2 Bologna (van Mosselveld 3, André Anderson 57)

This was a good showing, not a great one, but it didn't need to be after we had opened the score that early. That's 13 consecutive wins now.
 

Champions League group stage: Bologna 2-0 Sp. Braga (den Otter 4, Bordignon 86)

Another match in which we got the early goal, nervously sat on this narrow margin for long, but eventually got the 2nd one. But were Braga particularly close to surprising us? No.
 

Serie A: Bologna 3-2 Atalanta (Obasi 3, van Mosselveld 19, 50; Benko 23, Michelini 51)

Prior to this match, I got the news we were on the brink of a new Serie A record for most consecutive clean sheets. I thought this was unacceptably defensive for "Champagne Football" and promptly made a couple subtle, minor tactical changes. It worked brilliantly as we successfully conceded twice, whilst also scoring 3 times.
 

Serie A: Parma 0-1 Bologna (Cibilica 35)

Against all odds, the guy that scored here was deep playmaker Andrei-Razvan Cibilica - with a missile from miles out. That was the only thing that managed to beat our own keeper, Zdravko Zivadinovic, on loan to Parma, but it wasn't for lack of trying. We attempted 30 shots at goal.
 

So we're on 16 consecutive wins now - 13 from this season, plus the last 3 fixtures from last year. I guess that's not too shabby.

[Northernpilgrim]

You're in incredible form. KUTGW!

[noikeee]

November 2027: We draw a match, but set new records

Champions League group stage: Sp. Braga 1-1 Bologna (da Luz 92; Curtis 23)

We were only winning 1-0 through a Paul Curtis header, but largely dominating this match, until the final few minutes when Braga ramped up the pressure. And in injury time... they equalised. So that's the end of our winning run then, it finished at 16 consecutive wins. But does this draw matter? Not really. A couple hours later we were mathematically qualified for the next round of the CL as Sevilla beat Olympiacos.

Serie A: Fiorentina 0-1 Bologna (Pellegri 69)

This was starting to look like another draw as we struggled to convert our dominance into goals. Then we caught them off guard in a ball turnover up high, and a lightning quick short counter resulted in the game's only goal.

Serie A: Bologna 4-1 Verona (Pellegri 7, Curtis 42, Schlager og 56, Cristiano Henrique 65; Dorsch 13)

We looked unconvincing and nervous the beginning of the match. But as the goals starting to go in, they kept coming. That's what I like to see. 12 wins in 12 in Serie A.

Champions League group stage: Olympiacos 0-2 Bologna (Cristiano Henrique 3, Cousin 45)

Another easy win and it should've been more, we hit the woodwork 3 times. Brazilian flairman Cristiano Henrique is finally starting to grow into this team after a fairly subdued debut season last year, and had a particularly great match.

Serie A: Lecce 1-4 Bologna (Ricciuli 73; van Mosselveld 12, Amoroso 31, Pellegri pen 46, Curtis 93)

This was a disaster for Lecce within the first 20 minutes, their keeper giving away an howler, directly mugged by our forward van Mosselveld, then they had a man sent off. After that, there was only one way this was going to end up. It's a new club record of 21 consecutive unbeaten official matches, whilst we make it 13 wins from 13 in Serie A.

 

Is it too early to start thinking about the invincible season in Serie A? That's something I've never managed to achieve in FM in any of the big European leagues as far as I remember - but it's starting to look plausible here.

Now of course, the other big test is the final stages of the Champions League. We're basically yet to play anyone good in Europe, so I have no idea yet if this is the year we're good. Feels like we've gone a level above last season, though. I'm excited.

[noikeee]

The one time we're seeded for the round of 16 after winning the group.

[noikeee]

December 2027: Our best month yet

Serie A: Roma 0-5 Bologna (Pellegri pen 32, Gozzi 43, Curtis 74, Afonso Sousa 92, 93)

We camped on their area all match long, got them a billion bookings, and converted all the ensuing set pieces. Easy. Quite a shocking result, quite frankly - this got Antonio Conte sacked out of Roma.

Champions League group stage: Bologna 3-1 Sevilla (Hebibovic 25, den Otter 48, Curtis 54; Morilla 35)

This was a fun open game as it didn't matter anymore and I rotated the side. To nobody's shock, we still won. We lost Hebibovic and Afonso Sousa to injuries though, which isn't nice.

Serie A: Bologna 4-0 Milan (Pellegri 17, 64, van Mosselveld 48, 59)

Another really easy win, largely thanks to a red card for Milan midway through the first half. Nice to see both of our forwards getting 2 goals, we sometimes struggle with the goalscoring numbers of the lads upfront.

Serie A: Juventus 0-3 Bologna (Pellegri 30, Amoroso 50, van Mosselveld 68)

This could potentially have been a tricky match, Juve have woken up this season and have been thereabouts with Inter as our closest challengers. But nope, the lads were inspired again, pouncing with 3 goals despite the fact we didn't create that many chances. And this makes it a new Serie A record of consecutive wins, too.

Serie A: Bologna 2-0 Pisa (Jefferson 14, 88)

A strange match. Pisa came at us with an unusual 3-1-4-2, a pure 3-at-the-back formation with no fullbacks or wingbacks, and although we dominated ostensibly with Pisa only making a single shot all match long, as you'd expect given they're a very small club who just got promoted, despite all this many of our players were nervous. The goals ended up coming from our most usually underperforming player, Jefferson, with a rare brace.

With very one-sided matches against Roma, Milan and Juve, I think this was our best month yet. We seem to have this year's Serie A title lined up with 17 wins out of 17, the big test now of course is the Champions League tie against Man City. Last year we were knocked out in this round, and the previous year in the quarterfinals, so clearly this has been our ceiling in the competition recently - are we now good enough to go a level above that?

Edited June 11, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

January 2028: Continuing the crazy winning run
 

 

I've decided to splash every little last cent of our transfer budget in a leftback. To make way for him, I loaned out our backup LB, Rafael.
 

There's a huge lack of truly proper good attacking LBs worldwide, and this is almost the very best we can get. He's still not as good as Wijndal going forward, and worse has the "stays back at all times" trait, which I'm trying to retrain out of him. But let's see what he can do. If he impresses I might just sell Wijndal and go for him and Rafael as our 2 future LB options.

Serie A: Bologna 5-0 Sassuolo (Castro 5, Jefferson 20, Vuckovic 30, Rabbi 84, Pellegri 93)

One of those matches where there's nothing to say, it was just totally one-sided, Sassuolo attempted 0 shots and went down to 10, too.

Serie A: Napoli 0-2 Bologna (van Mosselveld 14, Cristiano Henrique 57)

Napoli made loads of fouls, this meant we had lots of set pieces, so we just scored from them. Pretty routine match.

Coppa Italia 1st round: Bologna 2-1 Cremonese (Jefferson 56, Curtis 88; Osimhen pen 24)

Wow, an actually difficult match and one we reached half-time losing! We turned it around in the 2nd half, capitalizing on Cremonese going way too attacking in the final minutes, to launch a devastating counter-attack that culminated with a 88th minute winner. Particularly nice to knock them out, of course.

Supercoppa Final: Bologna 4-0 Milan (Vuckovic 49, Cousin 58, van Mosselveld 76, 86)

It was a tricky first half, but the 2nd went like a dream. It was all started by the most brilliant throughball by Cristiano Henrique to Vuckovic, then later on Bragança would also play a glorious throughball assist to van Mosselveld. So that's another trophy in the bag then.

Serie A: Cremonese 0-2 Bologna (van Mosselveld 44, Pellegri 57)

The credit for this win has to go to Dutch striker Eric van Mosselveld, who's been having a great season. The first goal was a nice powerful shot after a corner, and then he assisted his striker partner for the 2nd goal.

Serie A: Bologna 3-1 Sampdoria (Afonso Sousa 4, den Otter 50, Bordignon 92; Rannochia 36)

Another win, we only woke up after halftime though.

Coppa Italia quarter final: Bologna 2-0 Atalanta (Rabbi 21, Cibilica 92)

Atalanta were feisty, but we got the goals. Onto the cup semi-finals now, luck would have it we face Inter.

Serie A: Udinese 1-2 Bologna (Donato 67; Pellegri pen 22, Jefferson 46)

They got a goal mid the 2nd half, but it was too late by then, we held on. That's another perfect month then.

 

 

It's end of January and we've only drawn 1 match all season long, haven't even lost any. This is setting ourselves up to be knocked out by Man City in the CL last 16, isn't it?

[noikeee]

I've got the new computer on my hands now so I can play this quicker. Therefore I think I'll start posting shorter monthly updates from now on, as writing updates largely kept me busy whilst FM processed.  It's not proving to be a super interesting season to write about every match anyway, almost every match is the same!

Edited June 14, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

February 2028: A few mishaps, but we show up at our best in the CL

Well well well. I shouldn't have written that every match is the same now, because a) we lost our unbeaten run in all competitions this season, losing at home to Inter in the first leg of the cup semifinal; and b) we lost points for the first time in Serie A this season. And then did it again too!

Thankfully we had a great time in the one match I most anticipated. The big trip to Manchester. We were great and specially Pietro Pellegri. Got the first goal then we had our back up against the wall as Paolo Gozzi saw a red card, and City attacked and attacked. Yet Pellegri still got us a 2nd goal despite us being with 10 men. We should go through now.

What's harder is turning round the cup semi-final, that's the very next match now at the beginning of March in the San Siro. We just beat them in the league too, we can do it again, I hope. Anyway I'd gladly swap a Coppa Italia trophy, which we've already won twice, for a run deep into the CL later stages...

[Hootieleece]

On Cruise control in Italy. You should be good for a deep CL Run.

Winning is why you play the Game, but playing youth and backups against lower table sides when possible might be a good idea. So the starters can be ready for for CL matches.

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, Hootieleece said:

On Cruise control in Italy. You should be good for a deep CL Run.

Winning is why you play the Game, but playing youth and backups against lower table sides when possible might be a good idea. So the starters can be ready for for CL matches.

Yeah I already do this, keep the strongest 11 for the biggest games, and play the next best 11 in the games just before those if there's not enough time to properly recover.  I rotate a lot always trying to get the best players at full strength for the key matches. 

[cerud]

Really enjoying this career. Great write ups! Italy is beginning to look easy for you.

[noikeee]

Cheers guys.

I got news and it ain't good.

He ded. Out for the rest of the season.

He was having a very crappy season anyway, he's still only on 6 goals. By comparison to the other strikers - Pellegri's on 16, van Mosselveld on 15, Curtis on 10.

[noikeee]

Youth intake 2028

By this stage it's quite hard for players to stand out in potential given the level they're being compared to (the senior squad guys), but I still think this is a little disappointing. The top player has good attributes but my staff already think he's close to his potential, so...

[noikeee]

March 2028: We finally look vulnerable in Italy, yet shine in Europe
 

 

It's done then. My hopes of getting the almost unattainable undefeated season in Serie A, were shattered in Bergamo with a 2-0 defeat. I fielded the backups, but we were out of our game, somewhat uncharacteristically even for the 2nd XI, and deserved to lose.

The signs were there that our invincibility aura was disappearing, when we got knocked out of the cup by Inter. We had earlier lost 1-0 at home, and went to the San Siro to try to turn it around. And we almost just nearly did so, when Lennart den Otter made it 2-1 with 6 minutes to go, all we needed then was to hold on to an away goals lead. But sensationally, to our dismay, Sergiño Dest smashed one in from long range in minute 91, a rebound from a corner, and took us out of the competition. After winning it in 2026 and 2027, this year we won't be able to try to defend our status as holders in the final.

But now, although the signs are that our dominance in Italy is starting to wane a bit - not that Parma would've known, we smashed them - my attentions are turning to Europe and our CL bid. In the return leg, after having already won 2-0 in Manchester, we were sensational. We put all our Brazilian flair on the pitch and both Jefferson and Cristiano Henrique scored identical wonderful goals, solo runs from the midfield to put it in the back of the net. It was a massive 4-0 win, 6-0 on aggregate, booking us a quarter-final against Barcelona. We beat Barça 2 years ago in the group stage, can we do it again? If so the winner of Real Madrid-Benfica would await us in the semi-final.
 

[noikeee]

April 2028: Erling Haaland kills Bologna's European dream
 

 

Our excitement in the big trip to the Camp Nou didn't last long. Minute 4, Erling Haaland scores. 7, Erling Haaland scores. 16, Matthijs de Light scores. Just to add insult to injury, just before halftime Haaland got his hat-trick. 4-0 down by half-time and our Champions League glory dreams were over in truly shocking fashion. We were unlucky, as we hit the woodwork twice, but then so did Barça, as they were truly inspired. We conceded 5, could've been more.

At least we got the away goal, but that was very little consolation. We had to pull off the same kind of miracle they did to PSG all those years ago, and although we were much better back home, we came 2 goals short. That's it, knocked out in the quarterfinals again, like 2 years ago. It feels as if this season we were much more competitive, had a real chance of going all the way, but all it took was one single bad day.

In the Serie A, there wasn't much of a story through April. Win with clean sheet, win with clean sheet, etc. The exception was the loss against Milan, our closest challengers in the table, and only the 2nd in the league all year long. But we had already clinched the title in the previous match against Roma, with 4 matches to spare.
 

[noikeee]

May 2028: Switching attention to next season
 

 

The final 3 matches of the season saw us get our 3rd and final defeat of our Serie A season - 2 defeats in a row, what's wrong with us! - before smashing Sassuolo and comfortably beating Napoli to get a total of 101 points in the league.

I think it's time to reflect on how this year went on, and what's the ambitions and the plan for the next one. Now obviously this season went incredibly well with that insane run from the beginning of the year until February. For the first 32 matches of the season, we won 31 and drawn 1. That was crazy good. But if you look from that point onwards, it's not gone anywhere near as flawless. The rest of the season was still good enough form to fight for titles and probably win them, but clearly a level below. I'm unsure which of the Bolognas will show up for 2028/2029. Either way I think we're now good enough to start dominating Italy.

The question is how to take on Europe. The obvious answer is to keep on piling up quality on the squad, get as good a player as I possibly can for every single position, however there's actually a bit of trouble here. We're leaking money now. I've hogged too many good players and the wage bill is starting to look difficult to pay - at a stage we have taken a big loan to build the new stadium. So it might take some clinical squad building to try to further improve, perhaps selling 2 or 3 backup players or even a starter if a big bid comes in. It's diminishing returns from now on, we already have a world class squad, it's much easier to improve a crap squad!
 

[noikeee]

Season review - Bologna - 2027/2028

Competitions

• Serie A: Champions
• Coppa Italia: Lost in the semi-finals to Inter
• Coca-Cola Supercup: Winners
• UEFA Champions League: Lost in the quarter-finals to Barcelona

Club vision

 

The board isn't gonna be pissed off when we're dominating Serie A.

Finances

 

This is actually looking pretty terrible as our bank balance sunk to a negative 14M€. We're spending too much on wages now and haven't made a big sale in a while, whilst I kept on signing players. Time to balance the books.

 

Squad statistics

Top 5 players of the season

5. Paolo Gozzi (DC)

 

Another excellent season from our Italian-Nigerian centerback, but this year his CB partner Obasi managed to get higher ratings, and more goals too!

 

4. Pietro Pellegri (ST)

 

And I also just about finally managed to get a striker to break past the 20 goals mark - Pietro got 21. Granted, 6 of them came on penalty kicks, but his aerial ability is a huge asset. However he needs to watch out because youngster Paul Curtis is eyeing his position in the side, and is developing dramatically...

 

3. Jefferson (MC, ML)

 

Finally, finally, our most talented player on paper Jefferson showed up. The tactical changes fit him like a glove and he shone from a MC position, either as mezzala or attacking playmaker; and he'd also play well on the left wing whenever I put out the 4-4-2 and he became an inverted winger. He would end up as the player with most player of the match awards (6), and also sum up a pretty brilliant 12 goals and 8 assists.

 

2. Samuel Obasi (DC)

 

His greatest season for us yet as he topped the ratings for the entire squad at a sensational 7.53, also scored 6 goals.

1. Daniel Bragança (DM)

 

I had to pick him as player of the year yet again, albeit Obasi beat him in ratings this time, because his 15 assists this year was just ridiculous.

Other honourable mentions

Paul Curtis (ST, MR)

 

I thought this English kid could struggle to adapt to Serie A, wow, was I wrong. 16 goals and 6 assists and he looks like an even better DLF in the making compared to Pellegri, with largely the same aerial skills but more of an overall game. I would've liked a better finishing attribute but he doesn't seem to struggle to put them in the back of the net!
 

Marco Lorusso (GK)

 

We have a lot of promising players out on loan, but my pick as the most impressive of them all is 20 year old keeper Lorusso, who spent another year in Serie B, playing for SPAL. He's almost good enough to challenge Gasparini in our side, but I want him to play regularly so he can develop, so he should continue out on loan.

Individual competition stats

Serie A:

Clean sheets isn't the stat I'm most looking to top, but I guess Gasparini had a great year on goal. Pellegri was an outside challenger for top scorer but we're never good at that, and Obasi came close to Leroy Sané's wonderful season for Juve on the ratings.

Champions League:

Gasparini kept his goal so well that he also got 6 clean sheets in the CL.

 

Career tracker

Season  Club                 League           Cups                    Continental                  Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19/20   Cremonese (Italy)    Serie B - 2nd    Coppa Italia 4th Q rnd                               Promoted
20/21   Cremonese (Italy)    Serie A - 10th   Coppa Italia 4th Q rnd
21/22   Cremonese (Italy)    Serie A - 4th    Coppa Italia 4th Q rnd
22/23   Cremonese (Italy)    Serie A - 15th   Coppa Italia 1st rnd    Champions League 1st KO rnd  Sacked midseason
        Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 13th                                                        Hired midseason
23/24   Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 7th    Coppa Italia 1/2 final   
24/25   Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 2nd    Coppa Italia 1st rnd    Conference League final    
25/26   Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 2nd    Coppa Italia winners    Champions League 1/4 final
26/27   Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 1st    Coppa Italia winners    Champions League 1st KO rnd  Supercup winners
27/28   Bologna (Italy)      Serie A - 1st    Coppa Italia 1/2 final  Champions League 1/4 final   Supercup winners

 

[noikeee]

Jefferson GONE

It was always likely to happen. With a 80M€ release clause he had since he signed 4 seasons ago, and him on obscene wages we couldn't upgrade anymore, AND on his last year of contract, I was kinda wishing for it to happen, but it's still sad he goes just after he finally played a blinder of a season.

See ya, ya legend.

[noikeee]

Interesting job, but I'm not moving out until Bologna wins the Champions League. Maybe not even then. And who knows whether I want to move out of Italy at all once I do want to move...  

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2028-2029: Big moves
 

 

This Summer finally saw us involved in some major deals in and out, as I moved to stack up the club's finances which were starting to look rather bare. The big news was of course the sale of Jefferson for 80M€, something I couldn't influence as Man Utd activated his release clause. But it was my decision to sell forward Antonio Bordignon (Fulham, 62M€), who was struggling to score enough goals for my liking; young defender Noah Cousin (Brighton, 45M€), who remained promising but perhaps not quite developing as much into the world class defender I had expected earlier; leftback Massimo Falanga (Schalke, 30M€) who was here only for the last 6 months and underwhelmed pretty badly; midfielder André Anderson (Brighton, 22M€) who had spent the last 5 seasons at the club, with 2 excellent years in 25/26 and 26/27 but who had fallen out of favour in 27/28 and was starting to get old; youngster Duccio Viviani (Torino, 11.5M€), a homegrown centerback who I played as an emergency backup and had little potential; goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu (Celtic, 7M€), who had already been replaced by Gasparini as the starting keeper last year; and midfielder Bernardo Sebastiani YP23E (Sassuolo, 4.7M€), just short on potential to be anything useful. Woof! All this made for a record 263M€ in sales.

So what did I do with 263M€? Well for a start my cheapskate board barely added anything to my transfer budget, just 35% of the income was directed towards my spending, and some of the deals included instalments so it doesn't count for this season. All in all I just hired 3 players. One striker to replace Bordignon, one centerback to replace Cousin, and a ridiculously good deal for a striker that was too good to pass up, despite the fact he didn't really fit the squad.

One of the things our squad lacked was a true top class advanced forward. Hopefully, this Moroccan kid comes in to fix that. Almost as physical as Eric van Mosselveld (our previous top choice), and much better technically than the Dutch forward, he should be able to slot in immediately upfront. Cost us 30M€ from Rennes.

A player I've been following for the past 2 or 3 seasons, I finally managed to bring him to Bologna, although it took us our most expensive deal ever at 45.5M€, from Cagliari. This 20 year old centerback has everything to hold down the position for the Italian national team for the next decade - if he can stay clear of injuries, which has been a problem.

The wildcard. I didn't need yet another forward, but a player like this for 7.25M€? Come on, this deal had to be done. I find him an awkward fit in my squad - he's probably just a tiny little bit slow to be the AF, and with Curtis and Pellegri using their aerial ability to great effect as the 2nd strikers, I think he's just not as good in the air to steal a place from them. So where do I intend to play him? Uh, what if I play him as the mezzala, alternating with Cristiano Henrique for the position? Dribbling 19 looks awesome. He needs to be in a position he can dribble.

Current squad and starting 11:

There is a big Jefferson-shaped hole in our midfield, which we couldn't quite fill, but players like Hebibovic and Cibilica have been eyeing a spot for the last 2 seasons, can they finally rise to the occasion? Also, I am quite excited by what looks to be a wonderful new striker pairing in Curtis-Oakrim - two wonderfully talented youth players who should have the potential to become even better. So there's reasons to be optimistic even though we should be weaker without Jefferson. Feels like a transition moment, but with some luck it could still be the year we crack Europe, too.

Edited June 23, 2020 by noikeee

[noikeee]

An okay group, a bit on the hard side with a team from Spain and another from Germany.

[noikeee]

August 2028: The new kids get acquainted with Serie A

Not the 2 most convincing wins ever, but we do kick off with 2 wins. New kids on the block Rayan Ouakrim and Traian Fulea both scored their first goals for Bologna against Cagliari, so that's nice.

[noikeee]

September 2028: Getting the early season winning run going
 

 

It's starting to look similar to last year's start, as we're on 9 wins from 9 matches this season. We didn't start the month in particularly convincing form, just scrapping by 1-0 wins (including one over Napoli with a 96th minute winner!) but then grew into a rhythm that's a little better. 

This has given us an early season lead in the Serie A - albeit tied with a Inter side that seems intent on giving us a fight again, after gone missing last year - and also a decent start in the CL with a precious win in Germany then a more natural 2-0 home win over Rangers, theoretically the easiest match in the group.
 

[Hootieleece]

You need to score more goals...It is shocking to see Bologna in 2nd place!

Obviously you are playing entertaining enough soccer...LOL

The Chairman must be creating a shortlist of replacement managers!