[FM21] I did not write half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed

[Rikulec]

Great work in the Europa League!

[scarp]

@Rikulec Thanks a lot! I did not expect it because Chelsea is still a strong team but somehow we managed to come on top

[scarp]

Good-bye Poland

With the win in Europa League the challenge in Poland is completed and I will move forward, depending on what offers I can get or who asks me first since I can not refuse an offer when I am unemployed. 

Montenegro will therefore added to the database as Poland will be removed.

Currently I can get offers from Armenia, Luxembourg, Italy or Greece and Montenegro since next season.

 

 

[scarp]

Surprisingly, no club came to ask for an interview up until half of December when Fiorentina came knocking so sticking to the challenge rules I said yes.

[scarp]

Fiorentina

As we can see below, team never again reached the hights of top six finishes and for past seven years became a mid-table club in Seria A.

Finances look absolutely horrible.

Facilities are looking good.

This season I will be looking to safely stay up and try to off-load some players to help the finances.

I took over the club on 15th place.

Looks like the Italian league has gotten way more even.

Edited July 29, 2021 by scarp

[scarp]

Fiorentina

After looking over the team of 35 players I immediately sent around ten of them to reserves, brought some talents up and ended up with this squad.

Goalkeepers:

Great number one goalie but the other choices are meh at best.

Defenders:

Overall missing the quality on CB position except Bielik. Corti was promoted from academy and I might play him a little bit alongside Bielik.

Midfielders:

Will be looking to off-load Fountas but this season I will still keep him in the team. 

Attackers:

Mostly young players on not that huge wages so I can work with that.

 

Key players:

[scarp]

January 2028

We started fantastic with 4-0 win against Juventus but then we lost twice, first to Inter which was understandable but then to Parma. Very annoyed with this loss as we were the better side most of the game. Decnet draw with Napoli and then we smashed Crotone.

 

Transfers

I sold Rekik for 1.5mil and splashed almost all my cash (7mil) on this wonderkid - will probably also change the tactic to accomodate him more od DM - from 4-2-3-1 that I used in Jagielonnia to 4-3-3.

[scarp]

February 2028

Three wins and a loss against the 1st team? I call that a succesful month.

[scarp]

March 2028

Another decent set of games and we are up to ninth in the table.

[scarp]

April 2028

We saw a drop in form but there's nothing to play for anyway.

[scarp]

May 2028

We beat Roma but lose to Juventus, overall we finish 10th.

[scarp]

Season 2027/28

Overall I am happy with the results, we managed to be competitive and hopefully I will load even more players this summer to make place for some signings.

[scarp]

August 2028

Not the start I wanted against Atalanta but we bounced back against Salernitana.

 

Transfers

This team needed a full rebuild and I think i have done a great job this summer. We sold all the player we did not need anymore and substantially lowered our wages spent as well as pay for all nine incoming players. Biggest transfers are surely two wonderkids, Santiago Herrera and Nebojša Latifovič. Herrera is also model citizen so I am super excited to have him in the team. Hadzic and Chveja will be our new starting wingbacks and Pipi will probably be sparting in the middle as box-to-box midfielder. Bresser, Lucchetta and Italiano are signings for the future and Clausen will provide depth in the attack.

 

 

[scarp]

September 2028

Latifovič on form as we play really great at home but we struggle significantly in away games.

[scarp]

October 2028

Decent results in October, we almost beat 1st in the league Inter, we were up 3-1 but in the end they managed to get a point. Clear weaknesses at the moment are our right wing and CBs, something to look into in summer maybe. Aim for this season is to guarantee participation in Europe next season.

[scarp]

November 2028

Great month for us and we climb up to fifth in the league. Changed tactic from 4-2-3-1 to 4-4-2 as it more fits our key players, so lets see how it goes 

 

[scarp]

December 2028

We continue with a great form - can we actually make top four?!

[scarp]

January 2029

We lose to Lazio in Italian Cup but in league we win three out of three and we have now won eight consecutive matches. At this point I think we should focus on finishing top four.

 

Transfers

When Henan came with 20mil offer for Balk who was not even a starter half of the season it was a no-brainer for me. We needed someone new for right wing and finally we found Filip Kadlec with 6 days to go in transfer window and paid his release clause. I am happy with our attacking end at the moment but we will have to massively improve defense in order to be somewhat competitive in Europe next season.

 

[scarp]

February 2029

Surprise loss to Sampdoria sees us drop to third. Beating Lazio was very important as it put us eight points above fifth place.

[scarp]

March 2029

We dropped a lot of points this month but so did our competitors. Lazio managed to climb back up and now it is pretty even top five with 7 games to go.

 

Academy in-take

Two very talented youngsters emerged from the streets of Florence this march.

[scarp]

April 2029

Great results in April even though Herrera injured himself in game against Bologna and it was projected that he will miss whole month, he came back against Roma to help us secure a win and record high points total for Fiorentina with three games to go. Safe to say we will most likely finish in top four, but can we perhaps to the unbelievable and challenge for the title?

[scarp]

May 2029

Two more wins and we are currently first!

We play at San Siro in the last game of the season. Plot twist though - if we draw, Juventus most likely takes the title.

 

[scarp]

Last game of the season

 

We have actually done it!!! We win the tite after beating our biggest competitor in the last game of the season on their stadium! 

Honestly in the end probably the fact that we did not play in Europe was the main factor behind this success. I barely rotated the squad as we had no quality apart of starting eleven so with Europe games we would stand no chance and probably finish around 5th place. For next season my aim will be to get more depth to be able to play in Europe as well and we will aim for top four finish in league. This is probably one of my biggest achievements as I took the club that finished 10th and during one summer managed a rebuild that free'd 300k of wages and won a league title, all this with having the best net spend in whole Seria A.

[scarp]

Season 2028/29

All this and only three players managed to get into team of the year 

Edited July 31, 2021 by scarp

[deltablue]

Good work clinching the title in a tough race.

[scarp]

@deltablue Thanks  it was very unexpected but surely welcomed

[scarp]

August 2029

Decent start to the new season.

I want to advance from this group.

 

Transfers

This time we had some money to spend and we did not necessarily need to offload anyone. Fuerte is someone I have been following even back in Jagiellonia and when he was availaible for 9mil I decided to go for him. Mrkela will be our new starting goalie and Hrncar will probably takes Pipi's place in the midfield. Caprioli will replace Bielik on CB and Filo has the skills to fight for the starting spot aswell. We still need a left back and probably back-ups on wings but we will look into those positions more again in winter. And I don't know why but it feels like every player turns wonderkid as soon as he joins my team  Filo, Hrncar & Mrkela did not have wonderkid status when I was scouting them.

Edited July 31, 2021 by scarp

[scarp]

September 2029

Overall a great month but very unexpected draw against PAOK which will make advancement a bit harder.

[scarp]

October 2029

Pretty bad month by us, we are really struggling in Champions League and most likely won't be able to advance.

[scarp]

November 2029

Honestly no idea what happened against Bologna and Atalanta, both games we should have comfortably win but we ended up with zero points and it will be huge problem to try to stay within top four now. On the other hand in CL we did great as we beat Liverpool and PAOK which means if we beat Shakhtar we are through.

[scarp]

December 2029

We beat Shakhtar to secure Champions League KO Stage! In league we lose to Lazio (again at home) but we beat Inter and the league is super even in top five.

Seven titles in Germany out of 9 seasons. Quality.

[scarp]

January 2030

After losing to Juventus we picked up great form and breezed through everyone to Italian Cup semifinals and Serie A 2nd place. We also won Super Cup game against Lazio and for first time this season i feel confident going into the games.

 

Transfers

Simone Scuffet did not want a position of second goalie so I let him go and brought Wächter as solid second choice. Also bought Thrane from BVB and he should be starting - either as CB or as CM.

[scarp]

February 2030

Fantastic form continues as we beat Milan 5-1 in first leg of Italian cup semifinal and 4-1 Borussia Dortmund in CL. In league we did really well aswell but Juventus is currently five points ahead.

[scarp]

March 2030

Not the best month, we lose points to Salernitana and Bologna and I think the title race is over us. We advance to CL quarterfinals where we will meet Man Utd.

[scarp]

April 2030

We lost 1-0 on Old Trafford which gave us a decent chance for the rematch and we managed to start really well thanks to Caprioli's header and Valente's penalty and defended really well the rest of the match. In league we dropped points against Lazio but we are still in the game for the title.

[scarp]

May 2030

We start the may by beating Inter three times in a row, securing both top2 finish in Serie A and Champions League Finals. Then we move on to play Juventus who was at that point three points above us - win would mean we would be 1st going into the last game of the season against 20th Empoli. We were the better team and did not let Juventus do anything, comfortably finishing 2-0 before winning the title again in Empoli! Unfortunately, apparently 4th is the charm for Inter as they beat us in Italian Cup final on penalties after four goals were scored in overtime. We will play Man City in Champions League finals.

 

[scarp]

Champions League Final 2030

Man City was the better team through out the whole game and deserved to win the game. I believe this loss will only make us stronger in the long run.

[scarp]

Season 2029/30

[scarp]

10-years around the world

At first I was providing the updates after each season but scrapped that as I did not have the patience to go through it every season. I still want to keep in touch with how it goes elsewhere so here we go.

Noone got even remotely close to Neymar's price. To my surprise it is Real Madrid and not PSG that is the team that spends the most.

Premier League

The most recent title goes to Liverpool who win for the third time in last ten seasons. The most accomplished team is Man City with five and Man Utd got two titles aswell. Chelsea did not finish in top three in more than ten years now.

 

La Liga

Real Madrid started the decade in a fantastic way - clinching the title five times in the first six years but since that Barcelona managed to catch up (read: bought Haaland) and won the title three times in last four years. Atletico seems to drop slightly as they have not finished in top three for four years now.

 

Bundesliga

Bayern managed to win the title after very long eight years when BVB was absolutely dominant in Bundesliga, winning seven times. Hertha managed to get a one title aswell.

 

Serie A

Fiorentina is the surprise to many  After finishing third in 2027/28, AS Roma has been on a swift downhill path, finishing in bottom ten in last two seasons.

 

Ligue 1

Not much to see here 

 

Ekstraklasa

Jagiellonia reign did not last long after my departure.

 

Europa Conference

Although not winning a title in Ekstraklasa, Jagiellonia managed to get into Europa Conference finals in last season. PAOK is a very surprising winner in 2025.

 

Europa League

No longer a spanish teams' dominance.

 

Champions League

Man Utd with three in a row between 2027 and 2029. Overall huge dominance of english teams, can we change that? PSG reached one finals and still never won a Chmapions League.

 

EURO 2020

We have already seen this madness before as Norway won the title.

 

World Cup 2022

I believe I already told you about the crazy Morocco run...

 

EURO 2024

Another 2nd place for England as Spain beats them in the finals. Nothing too surprising in this tournament, everything looks to be back in normal.

 

World Cup 2026

Belgium wins the World Cup after beating Argentina 5-4 in the finals! USA made history here when they reached Quarterfinals.

 

EURO 2028

England third time in a row lost in the finals, this time against.. what.. Ukraine?! For the second time in a last three EUROs we have a very interesting winner. Other than that, nothing too crazy.

 

Awards

Balloon d'Or

Haaland equalizes Messi's record as he wins six times. De Bruyne, Lewandowski and Kulusevski among the other winners.

 

Golden Glove

Courtois won Golden Glove five times, ter Stegen twice and currently the best goalie is Unai Simon.

 

 

[scarp]

August 2030

Great start to the league campaign as we beat Juventus thanks to last minute de Ligt's own goal.

We should advance easily from this group.

 

Transfers

Wayni Henrique is the all-time biggest spending for Fiorentina as he joins us from Flamengo, we needed to free up non-EU spot so Pipi was let go to Chelsea, other than that, most of the departures were on free. Maier will be our new starting right back and Minguez will provide back-up. De Marco should have been back-up for Chveja but our czech left back got injured for 7 months so lets see if de Marco can be starter when he's only seventeen. Minguez and Spasic will both provide backup. Filiz will join academy for now.

[scarp]

September 2030

We lost to Inter who took revenge for last season finale but we comfortably beat Hertha in CL and continued well in the league. Match against Parma is really interesting as our CB Lucas Lucchetta scored a hattrick without a single penalty and also Fred Mukendi scored on his premiere as he's only 17 years old.

[scarp]

October 2030

Great form continues in October, the only setback was a game against Roma.

[scarp]

November 2030

Valente and Herrera on great form as we make sure we advance in CL from 1st place. We are now four points above 2nd in domestic league.

[Sonic Youth]

The good form continues 

Also, a CB hattrick 

[scarp]

@Sonic Youth Yes, Lucchetta overall is scoring quite a lot of goals, considering my attackers are kinda struggling to score I believe he's my third topscorer after Valente and Herrera 

[scarp]

December 2030

Great form but we somehow managed to lose to 18th Chievo at home. We are still first, five points above second Juventus. Gap to fourth Inter is 14 points.

Very tought opponent considering we finished first.

Haaland overcomes Messi with his 7th win in the competition.

Herrera bearts Reyna who won in last seven consecutive years!

[scarp]

January 2031

We win Super Cup and also eliminate Juventus in Italian Cup. In league draw with Inter and Juventus so the gap between us and Milan is now just three points.

[scarp]

February 2031

We lose to Lazio in the first leg of Italian Cup semifinals but we managed to overcome it in away game after beating them 4-1 after our captain's hattrick. We also rob Barcelona on Camp Nou with 1-0 win after we were the worse side whole game long.

[scarp]

March 2031

We beat Barcelona at home and advance to quarterfinals. In league we only draw into Torino so we are still 5 points up.

No easy opponents at this stage.

[scarp]

April 2031

We lose on Anfield to Liverpool but manage to overcome it once more during our home spell as Esneider Becerra scored twice. We got Real Madrid in semifinals and we had to play without Herrera who got injured game before. We struggled all game long except the start when we scored an opener but still managed to hold on to a draw thanks to Mrkela. Game before that we beat Milan 2-0 to lift Italian Cup in Florence for the first time since 2001. In league we are now only one point up but we have a game in hand.