KlaaZ

Yeah, very happy with him, especially for that kind of money! @karanhsingh it's going well, now at fairly determined.

Almost forgot: Pietro Beruatto leaves for Belgian side Zulte Waregem now that we have a replacement, for a fee of 2.4M and a percentage on future sale.

Transfer news Three additional signings and we're done. We pick up Lorenzo Pirola on a free to provide some more depth in defense, after he was released by Inter. As a consequence, Guerin is loaned out to Ascoli. We also sign up a young Australian forward, Paul Christensen, who was released by Arsenal. And finally, we bring in a 16-year old Portuguese goalkeeper who hopefully will sort out our 'problem' between the stakes once he matures in a few years time. Diogo Figueira was spotted by our scouts at Rio Ave and had a relatively low transfer sum at 2.5M.

Very happy to have picked him up as the giants were circling as well. I don't think he's that bad under the hood, if it's only his ambition he might be fine even without improving. Unambitious is a bad personality but it says nothing about his professionalism afaik and his determination is ok.

Transfer news Our homework is done, although we're still talking with one player who might join on a free. After signing Soriano as a goalkeeper, our primary target was another left back. We found him in Helder Sa, who joins us on loan from Dortmund with an option fee of 1.9M. We also shop again at relegated Udinese, bringing in a very talented midfielder. Stefano Togni is only 18 but already touted as one of the upcoming Italian midfielders. I'm not entirely convinced about his personality but I'm hoping that a strong mentoring group will improve this significantly. Togni doesn't come cheap and costs 18M. Finally, we sign a potential French left footed defender from Sochaux, Rayan Guerin, for 4.5M. If the free transfer we're still hoping to finish goes through, this kid will go out on loan to get some game time. This also means that Balogh can leave when an acceptable offer arrives.

Transfer news We were in talks with two goalkeepers, Caoimhin Kelleher (who we barely missed out on in 2024) and Juan Soriano. In the end, we chose the financially more prudent option and went with the latter, saving us 12M and quite a bit of wage budget in the process.

With all of the above in mind, we're still in the market for a rotation left back, maybe a left footed central defender and most importantly, a goalkeeper. Schneller was not good enough to won't be signed up permanently and Colombi left the club as well, so if anything happens to Iversen we're in trouble.

Transfer news As stated before, Lucca had concerns about wanting to join a bigger club and as I couldn't talk him out of it, I decided to cash in. Leipzig will be his new employer as they met the price tag of 86M which we put on his head. This also means that we break the club record of another striker, Hernan Crespo, who moved to Lazio for 80M back in the days. The good news is, this gives us quite the bank balance AND budget to play around with, so we already invested, with five new players filling the ranks. The pick of the players signed is Mateo Obregon. The Argentinian wonderkid signs a five year deal and with a release clause of 87M, he'll be very hard to pry away. As stated earlier, we pay River 10.5M to make the switch. Apart from Obregon, we once again dive into the Scandinavian market. We pick up young speedster Rindsem from Rosenborg for 5M (although he has work to do regarding his determination), and we sign Frode Mork with a loan back clause from Molde for 4M. The latter is looking especially impressive considering he's only 17. Finally, we sign two more players. Batista Mendy was the Ligue 2 player of the season and as we needed a more defensive minded midfielder, I couldn't help but sign him up for a rather modest 3.9M. And to replace Lucca, we shop at relegated Udinese and bring in Sebastiano Esposito, 22, for 23.5M. He's not as good as Lucca, but I don't think he's that far off either. Before I forget, we also made the deal for Katsamatas permanent, signing him from Bayern for only 3M. A steal, truth be told.

Thanks! I fixed the Obrégon issue, but not in a way I liked. I reverted to an earlier save, dismissed two non-EU players and I still couldn't register him. So I went back again, bought the editor, gave him a second nationality within the EU before he joined and voila. Not ideal, but according to the rules, I should have been able to register him so... This also means that I sold Lucca to Leipzig instead of PSG. Everything else remains the same I think.

Update, I reverted to a save from the end of May, released two non-EU players who weren't ever going to make the first team, which means I only have two left at the club and should be able to register my new player, and I still can't when he joins on the first of July. He is once again flagges as both a player who occupies a non-EU slot, and a player who can't be registered until next season (or until a player is sold). This makes no sense. None.

I have a save on my laptop (as I move on a weekly basis and switch between laptop and desktop) from just before the final game against Napoli. Might replay, release the non-eu player and see if I can register him then.

Your star player will only push star ratings down for players in his position afaik. that said, I'd play Popow in most of the games, use the Chilean kid in games you are going to win comfortably, and don't use the third one as I believe his potential is rather limited. Then, as the Chileans gets better, you can start rotating him in more and more until he's good enough to become first choice.

Thanks. 🙂 The thing is, I know selling them to another Italian team doesn't work but I believe (currently at work so can't check) that terminating a contract should also free up a slot.

On youth and development As most people who read my previous journals know, I have a soft spot for finding and developing youngsters, especially newgens. I believe there's nothing more satisfying than finding a young gem, preferrably from a smaller nation, at a young age, reign him in and to mould him into a top player. At Parma, there was a lot of work to do in the beginning. The youth setup was lacking and the facilities were quite average. Even now, four seasons in, we still 'only' have excellent youth facilities. That said, we've made a lot of progress, both in terms of facilities, recruitment and coaching, and it's starting to show its results. Our last intake, for example, was very interesting. Something widely known is that the Head of Youth Development influences the personalities of the players from the youth intake. That's why, two seasons ago, we hired Vincent Kompany to fill the role after he was sacked by Anderlecht. Kompany, as you can see, is a model professional, which means his professionalism is 20, as high as it can be. I feel professionalism is probably the most important hidden attribute related to players reaching their potential (although ambition and determination play a role as well). What is less known (or so I've read), is that the personalities of the rest of your youth coaches also play a role. I'm unsure if they influence the youth intake, or if they can either influence personalities afterwards or will be more efficient in their training role. Either way, I pay special attention to the personalities of my coaching staff. As you can see below, three of my staff, including the manager and the assistant, are model citizens, and we have one perfectionist. That said, let's dive into the youth squad. In the overview, you can already see that there is a lot of potential present. Manzarano is the only one who was signed from another club, for 50k from some obscure Spanish club. Our biggest prospect right now is probably Matteo Mele. Mele joined Parma from the academy at the end of the first season and already made eight league starts last year, filling in for a tired Lucca because of the European campaign. He scored two goals and generally did well enough for his age. His physicals were a bit of a problem so far, but lately he's been showing marked improvements in that area. I'm hoping that in a few years time, he'll be our first choice to lead the line. I'll come back to the other prospects at another time, currently have to pause this save because I'm trying to figure out why I can't register Obregon despite releasing another player who occupied a non-EU slot.

Three of my biggest prospects in my Parma save. Katsamakas wsa picked up for 3M from Bayern, Obregon for 10.5M from River and Mele is an academy player.

Hi all. I'm a bit confused about the rule for non-European players in Italy. I currently have three of these players flagged as non-EU player who occupies a non-EU player slot. I then went on to sign an Argentinian central defender, who now is both flagged as a non-EU player who occupies a non-EU player slot and as an extra non-EU player who can't be registered until next season or until another non-EU player is sold. I then released one of my non-EU players, a youngster who is never going to make it anyway, on a free. But I now still can't register my new Argentinian. Will I still be unable to register him until the end of next season? Can anyone help me out here? I figured releasing one player would free up a slot for my new guy, but apparently it doesn't..

Hi all. I'm a bit confused about the rule for non-European players in Italy. I currently have three of these players flagged as non-EU player who occupies a non-EU player slot. I then went on to sign an Argentinian central defender, who now is both flagged as a non-EU player who occupies a non-EU player slot and as an extra non-EU player who can't be registered until next season or until another non-EU player is sold. I then released one of my non-EU players, a youngster who is never going to make it anyway, on a free. But I now still can't register my new Argentinian. Will I still be unable to register him until the end of next season?

Sad news, but he really wanted to leave and considering his influence on the rest of the group, I had no choice. I'll be looking to bring a replacement in or, if that doesn't work out, change the system and play Farias up front.

Just to pick up on this, it's june 1st apparently.

2024-2025: Season overview Serie A We started off very well with a six game unbeaten run, five of which were wins, and five cleans sheets. October and November had us tripping though. October was a very nasty month with three league games, away at Roma and and Juve and at home against Inter. We picked up a point in Turin, ironically in the only game of the three were we were not at our best, but lost in Rome and against Inter. Both games were even in terms of xG, but in the end it's only the three points that count. We had only two league games in November. We stumbled over Bologna at home with a 1-1 draw (in another game we should have won based on the chances), and barely beat Spezia away, once again despite dominating the entire game. December was a very good month, where form picked up against and we won all of our five games. We ended 2024 on a high, demolishing Lazio 4-0. The winter break came at a very bad time and January was a lot more mixed. We again lost two very even games in Milan and Naples (where we dominated, but again...), beat Torino and Verona at home and picked up a point in Salernitana. February was ok with two wins and two draws, which gave us a comfortable lead over the teams that were chasing us (Lazio, Roma and surprise package Sassuolo). But then we started collapsing... March saw us losing two games, at Inter and at home against Juve, beat Spezia and then draw again against Bologna, again in a game where we played them off the pitch. After losing the next game in Cagliari, we did pick up with three wins in a row. I figured we secured fourth place now but we completely lost it right before the end. We lost against hopelessly last placed Benevento, then lost again against Lazio. A very narrow win against Torino was a relief as our last two games were at home against Milan and Napoli.. The Milanese beat us in what was apparently the game where they could seal the title. This meant that on the last day of the season, we were trailed by three teams who were one or two points behind us. Sassuolo and Lazio played each other, while Roma had an easy game against already relegated Benevento. For about 20 minutes, we virtually dropped to sixth place. Sassuolo went 2-0 up against the Romans and AS Roma lead comfortably against Benevento. We were having a hard time against Napoli in a very even game. It took over an hour before Maldini put us ahead right after Lozano missed a one on one with Iversen. When Lucca scored in the 74th, I figured we were good but Lozano pulled one back four minutes later. Luckily, we held on to the narrow lead and secured fourth place, which means another season of European football at the highest level. Coppa Italia Better news from the cup. We beat Venezia and Napoli to meet Juventus in the semis. A very impressive 0-3 win in Turin set the basis for a cup final, and we finished it off with an (undeserved) home win as well. In the final, we were unlucky to come up against Inter, a team that had been scoring for fun and exceeding their xG all season. We lost 4-1 in a game that was, again, deceptively even. Champions League Our Champions League debut saw us draw a very tough group with Sporting, Real Madrid and Chelsea. To make matter worse, we lost our opening game against the Portuguese in another absurd fashion (story of the season, right). Luckily, we did a complete holdup in Bernabeu to bring home the three points and also picked up a point in London, losing the two other games. This meant that a win in Portugal would see us in third place. A hattrick by Lucca set us up for a narrow 3-2 victory. We then went out against Borussia Monchengladbach in the first knockout round of the EL, on penalties despite being the better team in both games. Finances and facilities Good news on this front. The European campaign puts us well in the green, we're sitting on a 49M balance. We also improved our facilities and managed to convince the board to spend more on junior coaching. And finally, after having an almost perfect attendance record for two seasons, the board agreed to expand the stadium with a bit over 5.000 seats. About the squad and performances Although I should be happy with the campaign, I feel there was more around the corner. We picked up twelve less points than last season, and our goals scored dropped from 79 to 65. Coupled with six goals more conceded, this flat out means that we declined compared to last season, despite being a stronger team. Lucca did very well but didn't live up to last season's performances, 'only' scoring 19 times in the league. Anderson saw his goal tally cut in half as well, down from 16 to 7. At the back, Valenti and Araujo also performed slightly worse than last season. And finally, Farias also didn't really live up to expectations. To top that, one of our coaches suggested that he may be having trouble with the pressure of playing professional football. He's also reacting badly when I fine him for poor performances. All of this means that we may have to reinvent ourselves tactically. But there's also good news. Our young Swedish winger Ali Kadhim did well enough on the left flank and has been improving significantly. Trier has been a mixed bag in terms of improving, but his performances were good. Jessy Deminguet, signed for only 425k, has been excellent on the right wing as a replacement for Man, and we also have a young player from the academy slowly breaking into the first team. Next up will be an overview of the youth setup, the last intake and the best prospects, both from the academy and the ones we picked up from abroad.

Season's finally over and I for one am glad it is. Update coming soon.

UEFA tv money does tend to arrive late, sometimes after your fiscal season is up if I'm not mistaken.

Will probably do a youth team blog separately after this season, to elaborate a little about the setup and the biggest prospects.

Yeah, forgot to mention that. I first assigned another Belgian, Caers (who is a perfectionist) but when Kompany became available after getting sacked by Anderlecht..

Not bad. Rindsem and Obregon are also in the top 20.