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[FM24] Dievs, svētī Latviju


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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - December 2038 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

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Three more wins, including two over our direct title competitors. We go into the three-week winter break with a comfortable eight point lead.

KNVB Beker

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I'm pretty sure this is my biggest win on FM ever. :D

Groningen away in the next round.

UEFA Champions League

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A big win in Belgium keeps us alive. We're probably going to need something from our final two games against Rennes and Milan to progress. That Rosenborg result back in September really stings!

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1 hour ago, Rikulec said:
 

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - December 2038 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

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Three more wins, including two over our direct title competitors. We go into the three-week winter break with a comfortable eight point lead.

KNVB Beker

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I'm pretty sure this is my biggest win on FM ever. :D

Groningen away in the next round.

UEFA Champions League

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A big win in Belgium keeps us alive. We're probably going to need something from our final two games against Rennes and Milan to progress. That Rosenborg result back in September really stings!

Two big wins in the title race! Rosenborg is the one that certainly can come back to haunt you. But your in good form, although two tough games you can navigate then to hit the playoffs for sure 

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2 hours ago, SixPointer said:

Two big wins in the title race! Rosenborg is the one that certainly can come back to haunt you. But your in good form, although two tough games you can navigate then to hit the playoffs for sure 

:brock:

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - January 2039 - AFC Ajax

Friendlies

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A good win over the Europa Conference League holders to start the new year.

Eredivisie

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Two big wins at home with a disappointing draw in Breda sandwiched inbetween. No real harm done, we're still well in the lead.

KNVB Beker

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They did give us a bit of trouble, but couldn't keep up with us in the end.

Go Ahead Eagles at home in the quarters.

UEFA Champions League

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A classy win over a strong French side sealed the play-offs for us. And thankfully so, because Milan were way too strong. Unfortunately, slipping down to 17th means we won't be seeded in the next round and most teams we could come up against seem a bit out of our league at this point.

Transfers

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We sell some fringe players, because why not.

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Two new faces coming in from one of my old clubs.

Arpad Slavik - a decent defensive midfielder who could still improve. He'll spend the rest of the season at Jagiellonia and then he's going to be a second choice player for the first team.

Josef Kabíček - a direct replacement for Servais, and probably a slight improvement over him as well.

Moreover, Marcos Roberto Morais was promoted to the first team.

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - February 2039 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

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We seem to have picked up a habit of randomly drawing one game every month. Our next match is PSV at home and I'll dare say that if we win that, the title is all but ours.

KNVB Beker

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The Heerenveen game was a close one and we actually had to rely on Antolković saving a penalty before finally grabbing a late winner.

UEFA Champions League

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:lol:

Yeah, sure. Because that's totally what happens in those ties. Every year FM seems to give me **** in Europe, so I don't really bother anymore. It is what it is.

Transfers

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One more second choice player sold for a decent profit.

As a replacement, we brought forth Jonas Huldahl from the reserves.

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And that's the domestic clean sweep complete! It wasn't the most exciting game for the neutrals, that's for sure. We were in control after we scored a classic cup final set piece goal and then added a second just for good measure. There's no stopping us on the domestic front at the moment.

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - May 2039 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

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Two more wins to round off the season. A disastrous campaign for Vitesse, who have gone from finishing runners-up to being forced to fight for their lives in the relegation play-off in just a year. Other than that, no real surprises and the top four is made up by the usual suspects.

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Review - 2038/39 - AFC Ajax

Eredivisie

Results (Aug-Nov)Results (Dec-May)

Competition Performance: Winners

Our start was shockingly bad, but when we recovered from it, there was absolutely no stopping us. Our only two defeats came in August, since losing to Go Ahead Eagles we've gone 31 games unbeaten and counting. It feels like we've simply become too strong for other Dutch teams to keep up.

KNVB Beker

Competition Performance: Winners

A fantastic run for us, setting records for both the club's and the competition's biggest win ever and the highest number of goals scored in a season while conceding only once.

Johan Cruijff Schaal

Competition Performance: Winners

A solid win in the supercup.

UEFA Champions League

Competition Performance: Knockout Play-off Round

Similarly to the league, we had an atrocious start and then bounced back to secure qualification in good style. And then we got absolutely hammered in Germany in a famous return leg collapse.

Squad (1) - Squad (2)

When you consider that our oldest player is 26, I think the boys have done a great job this season. We have some proper world class players in there already, namely Álvaro, Villar, and arguably Ćulibrk. Here's hoping that some of the youngsters can grow into those massive shoes!

Transfers In (1) - Transfers In (2)Transfers Out (1)Transfers Out (2)Transfers Out (3)Transfers Out (4)Finances

As per usual, there was a lot of movement both into and out of the club. Many of the players we brought in looked spectacular on paper. Some of them, such as the ones mentioned above, did well and lived up to the hype, while others didn't. Díaz for example has been more like Darwin Núñez than Luis Suárez. Maybe they still need some time?

We've made a £160M profit, which is just obscene. Even as we're going to spend £50M on a stadium expansion, money shouldn't be an issue for us anytime soon.

Player of the Season

1st - Nikola Ćulibrk - last season he came 2nd on this list, this year I feel he was our most consistent and reliable performer over the course of the whole campaign. Vultures are already starting to circle around, but I really hope we can keep him for one more season instead of cashing in immediately.

2nd - Petar Lucijan Antolković - he needed some time to find his feet, initially he actually seemed so bad that I decided to replace him with Wijdenbosch in the starting line-up for a while. However, when he finally switched on, he became a real class act. Some massive performances from him, both domestically and in Europe, contributed a lot to our points haul.

3rd - Álvaro - I mean, just look at this guy. While his stats may seem a little bit disappointing at first glance - especially in the league - you could immediately notice the difference whenever he wasn't on the pitch for whatever reason. World class, simple as that.

Next Season

We still need some improvements if we want to make an impact in Europe. A left winger, a left-footed centre back, a defensive midfielder. If we can bring good players for those positions and hold onto our current key elements of the squad, we might be getting somewhere.

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There are always lots of managerial changes during the off-season period and here's an interview offer I've just received. Napoli (for some reason the usual magic doesn't work on the laptop I'm currently using, hence the in-game name) finished 6th in Serie A last season and decided to part ways with their manager. Interestingly enough, they were the last team other than Inter or AC Milan to win the Italian league title and that was back in 2028. Interview attended.

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In this game world Serie A has just become the second best league in Europe, only behind the Premier League. This is an opportunity to take over a big club in the league, one with a great history and great aspirations. I could have pushed for another season with Ajax, but this feels like a realistic career move, especially given how short my club stints have been in general throughout this save. I got my wage up to £50K p/w, the fourth biggest in the league. Let's go!

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - New Club - SSC Napoli

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Napoli have some of the wildest, most passionate fans in European football. The city is going to love us more than anything else, but they will also expect success.

Club Name: Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli
Nickname: Partenopei
Year Founded: 1926
Status: Professional
Stadium: Stadio Diego Armando Maradona (54,726 all-seater)

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I really, really like this squad to start off. Our best players are Alberto Tarabini, Ariel Galarza, and Lisandro Machado and I absolutely love the fact that they're all Argentinian. Seems fitting, given who our biggest club legend is!

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Looks like the board are only going to expect a top 4 finish next season. After that, however, we're supposed to become one of the top two sides in Italy.

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As I've already mentioned, the league has been dominated by Milan and Inter, with us and Juventus battling it out for the third place most of the time. It's going to be an interesting challenge to break down this stronghold. Especially Milan seem to have rebuilt their former power, in addition to the league titles you can see here they've also won the Champions League in 2032 and 2033. This looks like an interesting challenge!

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Preview - 2039/40 - SSC Napoli

Board Expectations:

Serie A: Qualify for UEFA Champions League
Coppa Italia: Quarter Final
UEFA Europa League: Quarter Final

My Expectations:

Serie A: I agree with the board. Let's concentrate on finishing in the top 4.
Coppa Italia: Not that important, although I'd like to have a good run.
UEFA Europa League: If we can hit the ground running, I think we have a chance to win it.

Budgets:

Transfer: £13,999,973
Wage: £3,300,177 (currently spending £2,997,663)
Balance: £47,087,975

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Pre-Season - 2039/40 - SSC Napoli

Friendlies

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A good set of results and plenty of goals scored.

Transfers

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Yeah, I just can't help myself. :lol: Over twenty players out, although some of them were deals arranged by the previous manager.

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See? Just five new players in, I'm not addicted!

Salvatore Bifulco - a proper wonderkid DM. We have an option to buy him for around £25M and it's quite likely that I'm going to use it!

Egzon Beqiri - a similar case to Bifulco. Milan are ridiculously stacked, we might be able to nab a couple of players off them.

Antonio Caruso - a decent, experienced squad player.

Kacper Tobiasz - our new second choice goalkeeper, he's already spent a few year at the club before.

Giovanni Rapanaro - another wonderkid, although we did have to spend plenty of cash here.

In addition, Enzo Grillot has been promoted from the U18 squad straight to the first team.

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13 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

Good luck in Naples. One of my favourite cities in the world!

Then I guess you're going to act as a representative of the Napoli ultras in this thread! :lol:

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - August 2039 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

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A very good start that could have been perfect if we had been more composed in front of goal against Sassuolo. Machado is on fire with five goals to his name already!

Transfers

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We got big money for a player who I don't even rate that highly.

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Alhaji Koroma - a much more rounded player than Vera, he fits our system better and is much cheaper.

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - September 2039 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

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Oh man. We got an absolutely brutal schedule in September, facing most of Italy's top teams, and simply fell short. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it looks, we definitely should have at least drawn against Milan and Fiorentina were ridiculously clinical with their finishing. Nevertheless, we've fallen all the way down to 13th and we desperately need to put together a good run in October.

UEFA Europa League

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The draw to Lyon was rather disappointing, we conceded twice inside five minutes of the game, then we turned it around, and finally we gave away a cheap set piece goal in injury time. PSV was a tense affair and thankfully this time it was us who benefitted from a late goal.

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - October 2039 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

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We're making this way more problematic than it should be. The defeats to Bologna and Pisa were ridiculous, we dominated but couldn't score and they just countered us. Against Udinese we were 3:0 up and cruising and yet still found a way to **** it up. At least we bounced back a bit by winning against Lazio (who are struggling even more than us after a great start), but I'm already under pressure. The fans are calling for the board to sack me.

UEFA Europa League

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At least we're getting the job done in Europe.

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - November 2039 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

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We tried our absolute best to sabotage ourselves against Torino and also didn't deserve to lose to Inter. So much frustration so far. We're six points off where we need to be.

UEFA Europa League

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A good win at a stadium I visited in real life not long ago. The Atlético game could have gone either way, so with our recent performances it probably shouldn't surprise me that it went theirs.

Edited by Rikulec
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He made three average sub appearances and that was enough to win a prestigious-sounding award. Am I the only one who sees a potential hint of irony in the dedication? :lol:

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - December 2039 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

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Two more points dropped, but should I really be complaining after an unbeaten month? We're at the halfway point now and it feels like we're not far off in terms of quality, but we really need to start taking our chances and to become that ruthless juggernaut of a team that just demolishes any lesser opposition.

UEFA Europa League

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We're just so painfully and frustratingly inconsistent. With two games remaining we've dropped into the playoff zone.

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - January 2040 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

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Okay, that's much better! We've now won seven of our last eight league games, drawing the other one, which makes us probably the best in-form team at the moment. The crucial win at the Olimpico gives us a bit of breathing space in the top 4 as we enter a ridiculous February, where we'll face Juventus, Fiorentina, and Milan. Also, if you're Polish and as immature as I am, you'll notice something about our first two goals against Brianza. :D

Coppa Italia

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We could have scored way more, but in the end a wonder solo effort from Wilfing was enough to send us through. I'm not complaining.

We got Inter away in the quarter final to add to our already ridiculous schedule for the upcoming month.

UEFA Europa League

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As it turned out, it would have taken a big win over Gladbach for us to jump into the top 8. We decided to just lose despite creating plenty of chances.

We got Monaco in the play-off round, definitely not the easiest of draws!

Transfers

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One significant sale in the winter window and that's our starting CB Rafael López. At 31 years of age I figured this was a good time to thank him for his service.

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Two new players joing.

Jesper Gundelach Bendtner - he's a Danish striker named Bendtner, I'm sure he's going to grow into the best player ever.

Mogens Topholt - another Dane, this time a big and scary one to replace López in the heart of our defence.

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - February 2040 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

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Another good month, even if we did throw away an opportunity to grab a huge win away at Fiorentina. We led 1:0 and wasted two great chances to extend our lead, and we were rightly punished. All in all, it seems that we've finally found some rhythm and the players are performing as good as their ability would suggest. If we can maintain this level consistently, a top 4 finish should be within our reach.

Coppa Italia

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I went overboard with rotation and Inter were just ruthless in front of our goal. Definitely not our proudest day.

UEFA Europa League

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They gave us surprisingly little trouble, which could also be a sign of the team having finally stepped up to expectations.

We got Arsenal in the round of 16. No easy draws.

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - March 2040 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

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Four games, four wins, four clean sheets. Why couldn't we play like this from the start?

UEFA Europa League

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**** off. I feel robbed. We were the better team in both games, but once again our finishing was a massive letdown. It's a real pity, with our current form we could have won the whole thing.

Youth Intake

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Not great, not terrible. Personally I think I like Dolci more than Mariani.

Davide Mariani

Denis Dolci

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - April 2040 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

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A hugely frustrating month with three away games against strong opponents. We can play better for large chunks of those games, nullify all threats and create chances, but at some point we're simply going to concede and we can't make our own opportunities count. 10 defeats in the league is simply too many. Three games to go and we're very, very likely to finish 4th.

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30 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - May 2040 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

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An unbeaten, if slightly underwhelming, end to the season.

An AI team getting 96 points very encouraging for improvement in AI in long term saves nice to see

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15 minutes ago, Mcfc1894 said:

An AI team getting 96 points very encouraging for improvement in AI in long term saves nice to see

This, and Fiorentina scoring 107 goals as well. This universe feels like the 90s Serie A, you have seven or eight teams with world class players in their squads and it's really, really competitive. Especially Milan have a ridiculous squad, and some of their biggest stars are also their academy products. It's a fun challenge and, as you've pointed out, the AI seems to have done a good job here. :thup:

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29 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

Top four is still a good finish, especially for a season filled with frustrating inconsistent form. 

I agree, I'm happy to have met the pre-season expectations. As said above, this is a damn tough league to play in and it actually feels refreshing not to be winning everything straight away!

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Review - 2039/40 - SSC Napoli

Serie A

Results (Aug-Nov)Results (Dec-Mar) - Results (Apr-May)

Competition Performance: 4th

All things considered, I think we did okay. Certainly not great, but it also wasn't as bad as our early season form that saw my job being under threat with us languishing around mid-table. Our team is really good, but so are several others and if we want to challenge for trophies here, we have to improve even further.

Coppa Italia

Competition Performance: Quarter Final

A poor performance at the Giuseppe Meazza cut our dreams short.

UEFA Europa League

Competition Performance: Round of 16

Our up-and-down league form was also reflected in the league phase here. The Monaco tie gave plenty of promise, but then we couldn't capitalise on our advantage over Arsenal and blew our chance to knock them out. For a bit of consolation, they ended up winning the trophy in the end, so I guess there's no shame in losing to the eventual winners.

Squad (1) - Squad (2)

As already said, I really like the squad we have at the moment. The starting XI could beat anyone on a good day and, if anything, we probably could do with one or two quality impact subs for the future. On the other hand, we have some players on astronomical wages and our finances have taken a massive hit this season, which may force me into some tough decisions. Especially Tarabini is such a case: he has a year left on his contract and normally this would be a good moment to cash in, but he's a world class player and there's a massive risk of me not being able to find a good enough replacement. Ideally I'd also like to replace Machado with a cheaper alternative, but his value has tanked for some reason. Some proper top level management dilemmas right here!

Transfers In - Transfers Out (1)Transfers Out (2)Transfers Out (3)Finances

Some big transfers both in and out. The one that isn't displayed here is the purchase of Arnal Fúnez for £71M made before I took over, something that has largely shaped the situation we find ourselves in right now. With this move included, we've more or less broken even in terms of transfer fees paid and received. I'm especially happy with the impact of Bifulco and Topholt, on the other hand Rapanaro and Koroma have been rather disappointing so far and that's another £60M spent.

At almost £60M in the red I can hear the alarms blaring, even though our finances are somehow listed as okay. We have the prospects of Champions League football, but I highly doubt it's going to be enough to get us out of this hole. Tough decisions ahead!

Player of the Season

1st - Lukas Wilfing - by far our best and most reliable player. A consistent performer and one of our two players who managed to get a goals and assists double-double in the league. Some of his goals were proper beauties as well, and he just loved to pop in with a breakthrough when we struggled in some tough games. Indispensable.

2nd - Arnal Fúnez - he's pretty much the guy who messed up our finances, but on the other hand he's also value for money. A proper world class winger who could either create loads of chances for his teammates or bang the goals in by himself. He's lucky he's done so well for us, otherwise I would be fuming at the previous manager!

3rd - Lisandro Machado - our top goalscorer on the one hand and probably our most frustrating player on the other. If he was a consistent performer, he'd probably top this list and break all sorts of records this season. Don't get me wrong, 29 goals in the league alone is a fantastic return (but still not good enough to be the top scorer, hats of to Milan's Matteo Piazza and his 34 goals). However, he had days where he'd completely disappear and/or miss absolute sitters, sometimes those were costly. Pure chaos impersonated!

Next Season

We need some smart fine tuning in order to get this team to the next level. There's the Tarabini situation to deal with, there are uncertainties surrounding Machado, and probably a million other small decisions to make. Get those right and we might be challenging for trophies, but right now the task at hand is to get the finances in order without weakening the team.

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Season Preview - 2040/41 - SSC Napoli

Board Expectations:

Serie A: Qualify for UEFA Champions League
Coppa Italia: Quarter Final
UEFA Champions League: Be competitive

My Expectations:

Serie A: A top 4 finish is the minimum, hopefully we can do better than last year.
Coppa Italia: Not important.
UEFA Champions League: I'd like to at least get through the league phase, that should be doable if we don't sabotage ourselves.

Budgets:

Transfer: £6,620,189
Wage: £2,673,570 (currently spending £2,638,926)
Balance: -£16,165,941

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Artjoms Laizāns' Management Career - Pre-Season - 2040/41 - SSC Napoli

Friendlies

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Goals, goals, goals!

Transfers

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Two significant outgoings as we say goodbye to long-time loyal players Tarabini and Galarza. It wasn't easy, but with their transfers we save over £500K p/w worth of wages. There's also a chance that we might have one more big sale before the end of the transfer window, so watch this space.

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Eight new players in.

Bernardo Maia - last season we severely lacked a proper backup striker. Now we have a really good one.

Matteo Dini - looks like an absolute steal. Even if he doesn't develop much, he could become a useful second choice player.

Gianni Fiorentino - I'm taking a huge gamble here, but this is who we're going to replace Tarabini with in the short run.

Paul Finnerty - Leeds got relegated this season and we picked up their best player for peanuts. He should provide a great option for the no. 6 position.

Flávio - a decent cheap rotation player.

Mauro Peluso - I can't believe we've got him so easily. Probably one of the top goalkeeping prospects in the world at the moment.

Augusto González - him and Rapanaro are going to battle it out for the starting spot on the right wing.

Glenn Derks - one more backup player.

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