[The Italian Job! Italian league thread is here!]

1 hour ago, jonathan44 said:

@AndySummersReal shame about that Tonali release clause, but Viviani looks an absolute star replacement.

I was in a bit of a bind with that one. The DoF had implemented a £7.5m release clause, which I then had to upgrade further into the season. I could potentially have removed it altogether, but was running so tight on wages I couldn't reasonable afford to overpay Tonali's salary and instead decided to leave it in. Overall, it is too low, but all things considered £22m goes a long way at Brescia.

As it goes, Viviani had beaten Tonali to the main youth awards too.

[The Italian Job! Italian league thread is here!]

I'll try and keep this relatively short, as I find posting images on here a real chore. For my opening FM19 save I wanted a club not in the top division, not rich, but with an able youth setup. So Brescia Calcio it was.

I identified five players that I wanted to develop as priority; Sandro Tonali, Mattia Viviani, Guilio Magri, Matteo Cortesi and Brijan Ibrahimi. Tactically, I set up with a primary 442, a secondary 433 and a 2341 as the option (credit @VinceLombardi as the progenitor of this, it was a shape that interested me). With a mid-table finish expected, 2018-19 started slowly as the squad began to familiarise my demands. Midtable after the first half-dozen games, we then moved steadily upwards and began to play the kind of football I aimed for, eventually losing out to Pescara in as close a title race as you could imagine. With funds low, Luca Tremolada was the only signing of note. Player of the season, Felipe Curcio with 16 assists from left back.

Cue 2019-20 and an expectancy to avoid relegation from Serie A. Personally, I was aiming higher - top 10, but uncertain how the squad quality would hold up in a very competitive league and hedging my bets. With low funds, I had spent little over the summer; improving the defensive situation with star GK Alberto Brignoli and stiffening the defence with Bogdan Tiru, and bringing in the versatile youngster Mads Roerslev. A strong start put the squad on the front foot from the off, although a couple of beatings by Inter and Juventus caused me to rejig the 442 to the version shown.  It made a significant difference and the season developed better than hoped and the side developed a reputation as big-game stuffers; clean sheets away to Napoli, both Milans and Fiorentina the highlight. Tough to beat, we were in the European places all season and in an almighty battle for 4th, before eventually settling for 5th. And that suits me fine; the adage 'don't run before you can walk'. Champions League participation would have been too much at this stage. I am aiming for Europe again next season, no more.

Curcio again won player of the season, although Leonardo Morosini was my pick. Cortesi was the surprise package; he has come full-circle in my estimation. From touted star, he had a torrid end to the promotion campaign and opening to Serie A, before bursting into life and finishing as club topscorer on 14. He is now firmly the no.1 striker. Viviani has gained plenty of game-time, and although Curcio has been a standout, I have given Magri a lot of games at leftback too. Ibrahimi has had little impact to date.

A highlight of the debut Serie A campaign was the accounts. With a tiny wage budget, we made approximately £1.7m per month even with a small ground. That steady improvement enabled me to bring in a marquee signing in January, Antonino La Gumina, and allowed a reasonable summer budget of £8m. Although things have since escalated rapidly as PSG activated Tonali's release clause in a £22m deal. Viviani - almost a carbon copy of Tonali - will step into the breach, and if I can go into the new season with the rest of the squad intact I will be happy. I had targeted BPD and IW(a) as my key areas to improve; I had already agreed a deal for the lightning-quick youth Mohamed Daramy to fill the versatile left wing/forward position and had brought in Luca Valzania in CM, which leaves me not much worse off with Tonali's departure. BPD has proven trickier; I am very strict on maintaining a gentle growth to the wage bill - with a small ground I can't afford not to be - and have scoured Europe and most of my preferred options are out of reach. PSG pipped me to Leo Santos, Jerome Onguene has a cruciate injury, Jules Kounde too expensive in salary, Mavropanos unavailable. The best Italian prospects, Varnier, Romagna and Luperto, are not viable. Looking towards a cheap deal for Matej Chalus; not fully ideal, but has a big value growth potential.

Moving into 2020-21, tactics will again get a shake-up. The 442 is so flexible that it is my constant preference. I loved the 433 asymmetric on FM18, but it hasn't had the same resonance on this version and I will ditch it. The 2341 moves up as the second tactic and I am working on something experimental for the option; potentially a tactic that incorporates as many as four IWBs. That one is for pre-season...

Tactics

Player Development

2018-19 transfers

2019-20 transfers

2020-21 transfers (ongoing)

[Great players in FM that never made it irl]

Sherman Cardenas is another I forgot yesterday.

He was a bit of a rascal as a 16-17 year old. Now 27 and he's had a perfectly presentable career in Colombia, but has never played for the International team. Turned out against me a couple of times in my current Argentinos Juniors game.

Oh, and Nicolas Millan. Debuted for Colo Colo at 14 and 11 years on he's amounted to nothing, playing 2nd/3rd division football. But he turned out something like this (not my screenshots):

[Great players in FM that never made it irl]

Anatoli Todorov is the player I remember with most fondness.

He was outrageous as a 17 year old in his Litex Lovech days, so likely around 2003. He is now 31 and has been a poster boy for trawling the depths of the Bulgarian leagues.

Lebohang Mokoena was another favourite, always signed him for Ajax. At least he made eight appearances for South Africa, but never progressed outside of his home country. At the same time, Evandro Roncatto, who ended up on a brief hiatus to Kazakhstan.

There were also some fantastic Swedes around the turn of the century; Kennedy Bakircioglu, Tobias Hysen, Jonas Lunden. Some of them went on to have good careers, notably Bakircioglu played for Ajax and Hysen was most recently seen in China, but they were god-like for my Arsenal side at this time.

[Project Invincible - Recreating the Arsenal Invincibles]

If you have any more ideas for possible settings or PPM’s that you think players should have, then please leave a comment below.

As an Arsenal fan, I look forward to following this thread Cleon.

Two suggestions that sprung to mind were a Passes Shorter on Gilberto; he was very much a recycler of possession through his positioning and instinct, but he would invariably then drop the ball off with a short pass. He didn't often spread the play as, say, Schneiderlin at Southampton.

I would also be tempted to remove/not use the Shoots less often on Pires. This is very much a PPM that would apply to someone like Ozil now, but a strong facet of Pires' game was the ability to drive forward/cut inside and curl an effort from outside of the box. Depending on how much Shoots less often affects the long-range shooting from the position, it could be one to consider.