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It's not going to happen, but that won't stop them from trying. Both were unhappy at the rejections but I managed to talk them out of it, luckily. Mele is a the biggest prospect form our first youth intake, only 18 but already getting some game time when Lucca is tired. He needs to work on his physicals though.

It's a real shame you missed out on Lucca earlier, would've made an amazing partnership with Araujo. I picked him up for 3.3m euros with Parma and he bagged 33 goals in his first season in the Serie A. Only Immobile did better.

January transfer window Karansingh will be happy that we once again dive into the scandinavian market, directly and indirectly. Our first signing is a relatively risk free one. Daniel Iversen, who was transfer listed at Leicester, joins us for a mere 250k to provide a little more depth in goal, as I'm not entirely sure about Schneller. We also manage a real coup as we loan a young German-Greek midfielder from Bayern, with a bargain option of 3M to reign him in permanently. The lad goes by the name of Argyris Katsamakas and could be the natural follow up for Anderson in a few years time. Finally, we also make a move for a Danish right winger, fighting off the likes of Valencia and Leipzig in order to secure his signature. Hallvard Rindsem will join us next season from Rosenborg and will probably go straight into the first team.

Youth intake preview Trying to stay calm but holy moly, this actually got me excited. Look at all those A's! Especially happy with the goalkeeper an full back prospects.

Transfer news Scratch the above, we have a deal! The board approached me with the suggestion to improve next season's transfer budget (which was set at 1.7M guarantueed), and I obviously agreed. They gave me 16M to play with for the next campaign, so I went in and made an offer for this fella with his transfer being arranged for next season. Long story short, we can officially welcome Mateo Obregon to the club! 18-years old, but Mateo will go straight into the first time. Either this means that I'll have to start fiddling around with a three at the back system, or someone will have to go. The only downside is that he wanted a release clause, but with it being set at 89M, I'm fairly happy to say that this kid will either stay for a long time (contract until 2029) or make us a boatload of money.

Wanted: Goals! We're still scoring, but it's mostly dead ball situations and penalties. Anderson has yet to hit the back of the net this season, and Lucca is also snatching at his chances..

The perfect coup.

Transfer news Two more players leave the club. Goalkeeper Belman, who we signed for free as a backup, moves to Lazio for 300k. Youngster Dario Sits, who has no future at the club, joins Cagliari in a deal going up to 2.2M. On the incoming side, we arrange a last minute loan deal for Lukas Schneller, a 22-year old German who seems surplus to requirement at Köln. He's in his final year of contract so if he impresses, we'll offer him a permanent deal in January. In other news, the Champions League draw has NOT been kind to us. The money's welcome though, and we now sit on a healthy 35M balance.

Thanks! I'm just looking at how to best fit Farias into my team. I'm playing with a flat five in midfield, so he'll probably phase out Henrique on the right and occupy the Mez(S) slot there. But it's not set in stone yet. Haha, two even! 😎 they were somewhere in the 50 next wonderkids, which is a list I tend to keep a close eye on. The real shame is that after I signed Farias and Trier, a scout report popped up for an 18-year old defender from River who looks downright amazing. But due to lack of budget and the fact that I can't bring in another non-EU player, I missed out. He's currently under bid from City.

Odd thing about Seoane, in my game I actually managed to sign him up in the Serie B playing as Parma for a mere 1.1M.

Might be worth bringing this up again as things really clicked in my second season in the Serie A, with some strengthening of the squad off course. Finished fourth in the league and could actually have stayed in second place but a wrong VAR interpretation on the prelast day of the season saw us drop down two places. Playing a flat five in midfield really helped (as did bringing in Lucca on a bargain deal from Pisa). He and the CM(A) are the main two scoring outlets, with Lucca bagging 33 goals in the league and Anderson hitting the back of the net 16 times. Might go for a proper wide midfielder/winger on the right now that Man left to Benfica, just looking to get a lot of crosses into Lucca.

Transfer news Three birds landed in one day! First up is our new central defender. Soren Trier is definitely one for the future, but he already has a few standout qualities: Great aerial presence, and some very promising mentals. We paid Viborg FF 2.1M for his services. Our second signing is someone we known through and through. After two successful loan spells, Maldini joins us on a permanent basis for 4.7M. Young, Italian and can play in multiple positions. What's not to like? Our third signing is probably the biggest fish. Facundo Farias rejected Wolves and the Premier League to join the Gialloblu! He doesn't come cheap at 7.5M but brings boatloads of technical ability to the club, and has a lot of potential to improve left.

Transfer news The departure of man leaves us with quite a bit of budget. Which is good, because we're trimming the squad quite a bit. Vazquez, 35 now, leaves on a free to Boca. Bernabé signs for Napoli. Cyprien, Tutino and Brunetta leave for River, Salernitana and SPAL for a combined fee of around 6M. On the incoming side, we've already arranged for some transfers before Man improved our budget considerably. Our first addition is the (future?) replacement of Man. Haidar Ali Kadhim is a Swedish-Iraqi kid who came through the youth ranks at Djurgardens IF who receive 2.4M for this move. A traditional left winger, the 18-year old will be retrained to play on the other flank instead. Kadhim will be a stand in for Jessy Deminguet, a 26-year old Frenchman who was already on my radar a few years back, but unattainable at the time. He's a left-footed central midfielder, but will also be retrained because he really fits the profile of an inverted winger on the right. He joins us from Rio Ave for a mere 425k, a steal in my opinion. Our third signing so far is a free transfer. Romain Saïss is worth 34 years of experience in the French leagues, the Premier League and the Serie A. He was released by Sassuolo, joins us on a very cheap contract (9.25k p/w) and will provide a solid backup option in central defense. This also means that Jakel will probably leave the club, if the right offer arrives. Our final signing is a loan from Juve. Fabricio Diaz doesn't come cheap, but he's a great all round option in midfield, with room to grow. We also get an (expensive) option to buy, with Juve having a buy back clause of several millions higher. As stated earlier, we barely missed out on Caoimhin Kelleher from Liverpool, but he chose Fiorentina instead. Although he would have been a great signing, his wage demands were very much in the high side for us, and he would have cost almost 10M. We're also still in talks with a central defender and a versatile midfielder (where we face competition from Wolves), in an attempt to broaden the squad a little for the upcoming European campaign.

Surprisingly, there's no interest in him so far.. but it's still early as we're only halfway through July. I did manage a few incoming transfers, which I'll talk about when I get home from work. Got a (future) right winger, a midfielder, and I'm in talks with another midfield player. We also signed a central defender on a free. The biggest hurdle will be the goalkeeper. My top target chose Fiorentina over us, and number two on my (very short) list would be a loanie but can only join us when he turns 18 in October.

Could defo be down to preseason not being optimal. I rarely have to rest players in my Parma save, although that will probably change now that we're in Europe.

Transfer news Well, the inevitable has happened. Man was asking ridiculous money and as he was entering the final year of his contract, we decided to cash in. There was a big list of clubs interested, but not many offers. He rejected a 40M move to Leeds and in the end moves off to Benfica for 34M + 25% on his next transfer (which hopefully will be a big one). As 45% of our revenue is added to the budget, this means we have something to work with now. First job will be to replace him, but we're also in the market for one or two midfielders. As Colombi also wants to leave, we'll be looking for a new goalkeeper as well.

2023-2024: Season review January transfer window Not too much activity this window. Grassi wants more playing time and leaves for PAOK for 550k. We fill up the squad in his absence with the loan of Maxime Gonalons. We also complete the signing of young attacking midfielder Moreno-Manzanaro (what a name!) for a mere 50k, from Juventud Laguna. Apart from that, four players leave on loan. Serie A With the new additions to the squad, I'm aiming for a stable mid table finish this year. With Maldini, Lucca and Anderson, I believe we have a lot more firepower up front to achieve this. We start off well enough with a six game unbeaten run (3W, 3D) before running into a heavy away trashing from Juve, 4-0. A week later, we manage to draw against Inter at home and then we go on an amazing seven game winning streak, which ends only just after the winter break. Highlights are three 4-0 wins (Salernitana away, Ternana home, Empoli away) and a narrow 3-2 victory over Napoli. Our run ends abruptly (and undeservedly) at home against Roma, when we lose 1-2. We bounce back with a win over title pretenders Milan, 2-1, and follow up with three narrow away wins in a row. We remain unbeaten for the next five games (3W, 2D), after which we go behind at home against Juve but manage to completely turn the game around, winning 2-1. All of this moves us up to a second place, within a shout of league leaders Inter. But three draws in a row (away at Lazio and Inter too though, so I was happy with them) put an end to any title aspirations we might have. We bounce back with an away win in Naples (1-3) and two more 3-0 victories, but we start stumbling right before the finish line. Drawing last placed Empoli at home 1-1 and losing in Udinese sees us in danger of losing our second place to both Milan and Juve. We convincingly beat AS Roma in their own ground 3-0 and follow up with a 4-0 victory over Torino. On the prelast day of the season, we play away in Milan, with second or third place at stake for both teams. Winning would put us in pole position for second place, a draw would keep Milan behind us and a loss would make it that we're depending on Juve and Milan to slip up if we want to stay in the top three. A very even game is decided by a very disputable goal, when Colombo scores what looks like a clear offside goal in the 91st minute but isn't overruled by the VAR. Our last game of the season is one to remember, when we trash Fiorentina at home 6-0, with four goals from Lucca. It isn't to be however as Juve and Milan both win their games, leaving us in a very impressive 4th place overall, securing Champions League football. Coppa Italia Another short adventure here. We beat Cosenza (2-0) and Spezia (on penalties) to reach the third round, where we played the reserves against Napoli and lost 2-1. Youth intake Was promised to be excellent, turned out to be very mediocre. Nothing to be chuffed about really. Finances and facilities The improvements to the youth and training facilities were completed mid season. Apart from that, we managed to sneak in an improvement to the youth recruitment, but that's about it. We were about 14M in the red at the end of the season, which was pretty much offset by the league prize money we gained. The CL money will be very welcome next season, because we only got a 3.8M transfer kitty and little room in the wage budget. We'll probably increase this with an outgoing transfer thoug, as Man is out of contract at the end of next season and his demands are just ridiculous. There's a 40M ticket on his head, with quite a few clubs showing a lot of interest. About the squad and performances Most of my transfers were pretty much bullseye. Lucca scored 33 goals in the league and managed an average rating record of 7.87. André Anderson was the other standout player offensively, scoring 16 goals in 32 appearances from a central midfield role. Man also was excellent on the left, winning the most assists award. At the back, Araujo and Valenti are sheer quality at the heart of the defense.

Not sure if this is the right place for it, but how is this not offside, and why does the VAR award it?

Yeah, Berg's never gonna be your spotlight player but he's a great guy to bring balance to your midfield. I think it's often harder to find defensively capable midfielders, rather than attacking brilliant ones.

Kristiansen might have a randon PA as well. I had him under my wing at Kobenhavn in FM21 and really liked him, but couldn't get him to improve enough to warrant a first team spot as he had to compete with a very good Casper Hojer. Berg's a great player, was pivotal for me at Bodo/glimt!

Back from a well deserved holiday and been playing a fair bit, so I'm expecting to post a new update next weekend. Maybe a january transfer window as well, if anything interesting were to happen. The one thing I can already give away is that Lucca is downright amazing. What. A. Striker. And for only 3.3m too.

The money will be in your bank account. Tax bill will depend on if you made a profit throughout the season. I think you probably mean if it'll still be in the transfer budget next season. The answer is probably not. Your board will set a new budget at the end of the season.

Cheers! Finances are still a bit of a challenge, will probably take until I can get into Europe for some extra cash inflow. I'm also looking to buy younger player cheap and perhaps move them on for (big) profits later on. Araujo is already generating a lot of interest so he might be the first one in this system over time. Although I'd rather build my defense around him.

Transfer news It's the end of July and I feel our homework is done. We're still on the lookout for an additional left back but this does not take priority. We do sign three other players. Nadir Zortea is another right back. He just turned 24 and is Italian, which makes him an ideal profile. He's also quite versatile as he can play all positions on the right wing. He joins us from Frosinone for 1,5M. Next up are two midfielders. I was actually torn between them until I noticed that I could actually sign both. Matheus Henrique joins us from Sassuolo in a deal that can run up to 2.8M. Roque Mesa brings a wealth of experience and will be the main replacement of Schiattarella. At 34, he's still looking ok physically and he has great mentals. On the outgoing side, after some dissappointing performances we decide to offer Mihaila out. In the end, he goes back to Romania, joining Cluj for 4.8M. There may be another outgoing transfer, which would mean us going back to the transfer market, as Dortmund and Roma are sniffing at Man. I've agreed a 15M transfer price with him, so we'll see what happens.

Transfer news Apart from Schiattarella and Buffon, nobody is leaving so far, with the exception of a few youth players that are deemed not good enough. There's a lot of movement on the incoming side though. On the left hand side, we unfortunately missed out on Gianluca Frabotta. He would have been an excellent fit: Young, Italian and free. He signed for Lens instead, where he was promised more playing time. They also signed Jonathan Silva though, so I'm hoping he'll become unhappy and will maybe be available during the winter window. We were more successful on other fronts. At the back, we signed a promising Italian centre back, Riccardo Capellini, on a free from Juve and did the same on the right with Gabriele Ferrarini from Fiorentina. Our central defense is well stocked now, but we'll be on the lookout for another right back if possible. In midfield, we managed to do a real coup by snatching André Anderson, a 23-year old Brazilian, from Lazio on a free. Great personality, Italian as a second nationality and very versatile. We also arranged the transfer of a very promising Croatian kid from Hajduk. Stipe Biuk cost us 3.9M, but with the performances of Brunetta and Tutino in mind, he'll be a very welcome addition to the squad. We'll try to add another defensive minded midfielder to the list. Our biggest transfer target is up front. This boy has been on our radar for well over a year, but because we didn't have any transfer budget last season, there was no way to swoop in and grab him. Now, we faced competition from a few other teams so we moved quickly to secure his signature. 22 year old Lorenzo Lucca was transfer listed at Pisa for a mere 3.3M. He'll take over from Vazquez, and hopefully reward that faith with a boatload of goals.