libbyshuss

Season Summary After three play-offs in three seasons this was a return to reality. We weren't awful, but we really weren't good and bumbled around all season. Weirdly, we'd go through periods of being unbeaten and then not winning, rather than being consistently inconsistent. But no mind, a boring mid-table season is the finish Players We don't really have the players to push us any further I don't think. No real stars and the best players are still only Serie B level at the moment. Our best player, Mateo Hasani 28A, was sold before the season started as teams kept getting closer and closer to his 4.2m release fee so I offered him out for £4m +50% and Real Betis bit and off he went. His value was still only 4-6m so I don't think he'll be making us a fortune yet Endri Ejupi 26H - I was expecting a lot out of my Albanian striker after his solid but steady year on year improvement. But this season he couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo. He was rubbish! and if I had a decent youth back up he would have been out on his ear. But we struggled on and he finished top scorer on a massive 8 goals. Somehwat down on last season's 24. Hopefully it was just a blip Stefano Melani 29A is the star of the team. Now 20 he is regarded as a Serie A standard player and has only 2 years left on his contract. With a 4m release fee for clubs in higher divisions I can't see us holding on to him much longer either. he really wants to leave as well, which is never a good sign! Best two youth players to break through as first team regulars were Andrea Fabbri 30A in midfield and Vincenso Capiluppi 29D, who is a natural at LW, RW and up front, which makes him a hugely useful addition to the squad. Potential Serie A quality as well! Youth So, the main problem I have is I literally can't remember the last time I got an excellent intake. They are all average/good for some reason (possibly that I cannot get the board to improve my junior coaching above average). Anyway, another underwhelming preview followed by an even more underwhelming intake A promised good intake turns into a 3 star average intake that looks like this:- 2 elite talents aren't bad I suppose and there was a nice range of nationalities. But still, I was hoping for more with exceptional youth intake. All time Youth Records Interesting to see Fabio Vaccaro 24B at the top of the appearances table. he's a classic squad player in this type of challenge - a jack of all trades and master of none! He is equally as inept at CM as he is RW, LW and AMC, which means he often finds himself in the first Xi despite never being first choice. Bevilacqua 27A is still pondering around Serie B. I have a 50% clause on him but I'm more likely to get nothing than any money from it I suspect. Finances and Upgrades Still not great. Losing around 4-5m a year which meant the board had to do this halfway through the season:- It also means that they are not in the slightest bit receptive to any requests for upgrades, meaning i'm kinda stuck in a weird limbo. It always happens in these challenges though, I often go seasons at a time treading water before something happening to push us on to the next level. Who knows what it could be, maybe I'll finally get lucky with an amazing newgen? Career We're an established Serie B side for now, which is all the board want, but the players all throw their toys out the pram should I have the temerity to suggest we are in any way more ambitious than try to avoid relegation. So I guess another season of consolidation, while successfully bringing through a couple of youth players, will do.

i think you'll be fine, we can all see it's a bug and not you. good luck!

Season Summary Well, looks like we're an established Serie B club now, despite the media predictions still under-valuing us. The players tend too as well. Every time I say we'll aim for a mid-table finish they get all huffy and claim I'm setting them up to fail. But we're a good side now! Third time in a row we make the play-offs and third time in a row we fail in the play offs. But we keep getting there, and that's the main thing. One season we'll get a bit of luck and that'll be it! Players Mateo Hasani 28A - My Albanian left winger/cum right inverted winger. Now has 19 Albanian caps and is rated as a Serie A level talent. With a 4m release clause, only 2 years on his contract and a constant refusal to sign a new one I think he'll be a Serie A player sooner rather than later - hopefully with us, but more likely with someone else. Stefano Melani 29A - CM, still only 19 and my other Serie A rated player. He also wants to leave for a stronger club and also has a 4m release clause. If we can hang on to him promotion isn't out the question but it is a rather big if Edris Ejupi 26H - I love players like this! clearly not rated in my initial intake but forced his way into the side and thrived. Halfway through the season I abandoned my 4-6-0 and went to 4-3-3 and he was the spearhead of attack. Constantly improving and constantly getting into the Albanian squad - yet to make his debut though! Youth An ok preview, but the lack of A grade talents was a worry The intake was weirdly ok. Only 4 players worth signing but the two elite talents look pretty good. Chiapetta looked the best. I wanted to sign 4 but in the end i could only sign 3. Never seen this before:- Now that's just mean! what's the point of an intake if i can't sign them????? All time Youth Records Facilities and Upgrades Still have no money and now my youth facilities are downgraded! aaargh!!!! Career

nah, i had faith in you! some of those players you were churning out looked amazing, made me wish I'd started in Turkey! congrats on finishing the challenge!

i'll be honest, i had you down as the most likely to complete it first this year. Sorry @HenTheChicken!!! good luck!!!!

congratulations!!!! amazing achievement!!!

I use Visme, which is pretty much just the same as Canva very easy and intuitive to use

Whenever I do England I always find that first promotion is by far the hardest. I completed it with Whitby last year and I think it took me around 10 seasons to get out that bottom tier, it's just a nightmare. Sometimes you just need a bit of luck getting some cash to improve your youth recruitment/junior coaching. makes a huge difference down there. Once you get to league 2 it seems so much easier and you fly up the leagues

Season Summary A second unbelievable season. Again we were favourites to go down so I didn't expect too much but we started pretty well. Mid-table around October with little hint as what was to come. 8 wins out of 9 and suddenly we were top of the table at christmas! we couldn't quite maintain that level of form but heading into the final four games we were second in a really strong position for automatic promotion. All four teams we had left to play were in the bottom half of the table too, all fighting for survival. we won two and lost two - it often happens playing those teams fighting for their lives at the bototm. Little annoying as it meant we were in the play offs again. This time we got to the final only to be outplayed by Verona and beated quite easily. Still, two unlikely play-off campaigns in two seasons is a pretty impressive run for us Players I'm still playing my 4-6-0 formation (or 4-3-3-0) which seems to really suit my players. The best players this season were:- Edris Ejupi 26H - My Albanian striker who can't hit a barn door with a banjo when played as striker is a different proposition when played as an AMC second striker. 20 now, looking good and made a few Albanian squads, including one that meant he missed out on the play off final. He didn't come on. Mateo Hasani 28A - Our second Albanian star. 19 years old, made his international debut, coveted by Serie A teams and asking to leave. 9 caps by the end of the season! He's a natural left winger but he's much better suited as an inverted right winger in my formation, which is where he usually plays. Got a wicked left foot! Fabeo Vaccaro 25B - spent last season sulking on the bench as Hasani took his place on left wing. Moving Hasani meant he was brought back in from the wilderness - to become our best player of the season! Stefano Melani 29A - 17 year old central middie who convinced me to cash in on Manuel Bevilacqua 26B, our best player from last season. We sold him for 4.7m plus 50% sell on and Stefano made sure we did not miss him at all. Gonna be a cracking player if we can hold on to him! Wonderkids Very nice! did not expect this. I mean, only 50th, but still - we got on the list! Youth So we all know how important youth intakes are! so imagine my excitement when this preview came in.... And then picture the pure joy on my face when the intake came in and was actually judged worse!!! i signed 4, and 2 of those 4 are temperamental personalities, my absolute least favourite. Luckily not Barbieri who gives us options at CM and LB at least. All Time Youth Records Corrente 24A is now a free agent after being released by Parma Romagnoli 24F played 6 games this season Bevilacqua 27A joined fellow Serie B side Sampdoria. and only did ok. He is now wanted by Lecce and looks like he'll be sold for less than we sold him for. Not ideal.... Career not sure we're good enough yet to push for Serie A so I guess I'd be happy with another season of consolidation. I do need my board to give me some more upgrades but they're totally refusing!

Season Summary Again we were favourites to go down so to have the season we did have was unbelievable! We took our strong finish to the season before into the new season and went 7 games unbeaten which set us up nicely. Whereas before it might have kickstarted a plummet down the league we were much stronger this season and picked up good results throughout. A finish with 4 straight wins placed us 5th and into the promotion play-offs! We got through the preliminary round thanks to home seeding, but then went out to Venezia for the very same reason. I'm not complaining - the aim at the start of the season was survival so to make the play-offs was just a massive bonus. Can we keep it up next season? Players Endri Ejupi 26H - Albanian striker who did really well on loan a couple of seasons ago , so I gave him achance last season. he was crap. I gave him the first 9 games of this season, where we were brilliant and only lost once. He scored zero goals with an average rating of 6.56. Absolute toilet. So I experiemented with more people up fron but by christmas it was clear that nobody was any good. Then it hit me. Why even bother with a striker? So I went 4-3-3-0 and after 2 games injuries presented Ejupi with his chance at redemption. He was an absolute revelation as a second striker behind nobody! ended up with 15 goals! my toilet striker! Manuel Bevilacqua 26B - Midifielder and absolute star of our team. Only two years left on his contract and he's already making noises about leaving. In reality there's no way I can keep him. He's Serie A standard already. Biggest decision of this save so far is going to be when to let the lad go.... Samuele Binda 25A - Poor old Romagnoli, my star keeper. Knackered his spine last season and put himself out of action for a year. So Binda came in, after an impressive loan spell, was brilliant, won young player of the year, and is now by far my first choice keeper. Romagnoli is now fit and on the bench. It's hard not to feel sorry for the lad. I might cash in on him tbh, for some reason my youth intakes keep throwing up decent keeper prospects. Youth A 5 star excellent intake promised! And it came in, but with only 3 elite talents! Gah.... The pick of the bunch:- He could well be the perfect replacement for Bevilacqua, but will need a couple of years to build up those physicals. Finances yeah....... so we were losing money, but no more than I ever have done, when we got taken over, with our debts of 6m cleared! We carried on losing money when I got this message:- I didn't think things were that bad! Anyway, this new board seem supportive of me and far happier to throw money at the clubs problems than the board before. Which suits me to be honest! Career We'll still be around 20th in the prediction league I'd have thought so survival is again our main priority

Season Summary An unbelievable season! We started brilliantly, with 3 wins and draw in the first 5 to go third. After 1 win in the next 14 it came clear that those 3 early victories were against the 3 worst teams in the division - and we were clearly the fourth. By the time we went into the winter break we were in the bottom 3. So I hatched a plan of playing friendlies against the worst teams I could find to build up our confidence. It's amazing what a 16-2 win can do! 4 wins and a draw out of the first 5 after christmas and it was looking good! and then six straight defeats plunged us back in trouble. We managed to somehow put together an 8 match unbeaten run at the end (six draws!) to pull out of trouble and qualify for the play-offs! Novarra were favourites, and won the first leg 4-2. I've never massaged morale as much as I did before the return leg and amazingly it worked! we won 3-0!!!! I was convinced we'd be relegated for so long and we somehow pulled it out the bag! Players Filllipo Garace 25B - I was desperate after christmas so gave Fillipo his debut because at that stage, why not? And he was great! all the way to the end of the season! Manuel Bevilacqua 26B - looks like my first real proper talent. Started the season as a back up for midfield and ended by far my most valuable player. Antonio Romagnoli 24F - my other proper good player! I was convinced I was going down when this happened to the lad how the flip do you do your spine in that badly lifting weights??? what a numbnuts.... Youth ooooo, a golden generation! bring it on! and the intake looked nice with this lad the pick of the bunch! he looks a cracker! Finances and Upgrades Career After three relegation battles in Serie B I'd love for a nice boring season. But all three seasons we've been favourite to go down and I'm pretty sure i'll be favourite again next season. I need a superstar striker or something!

that looks really harsh. I'm sure the boards are much more trigger happy this year, some of the sackings we've seen seem really mean!

Season Summary A really pleasing season given that it was our first with a majority youth based squad and after losing our two best players last season. We were never in any trouble and got some really pleasing results along the way (5-1 against Brescia! Lovely stuff!). Consolidation is now the aim - it's slow and steady in a save like this! Players really pleased with the youth players I brought through this season Dino Marascuilo 25C - I don't usually like playing youngsters as deep lying playmakers. In my head that's the job of a 35 year old Pirlo or something but this lad really stepped up and did well. His attributes aren't the best and his potential is only Serie B standard so there's a good chance he'll be nowhere near the first team in a couple of seasons time but for now he's a very welcome addition to the squad Fabio Vaccaro 24B - My least favourite type of player - the one that throws his toys out the pram if i so much as offer a mild rebuke. But he's a speedy left winger, and i like my left wingers speedy. He's also right footed so i can invert him. Inverted wingers are my favourite! Antonio Romagnoli 24F - The crappy keeper youth who is easily our best player now. Wants to leave for a better club and is happy to wait for a bid of 2.6m. I can't see it coming any time soon but given the binfire that is our finances I wouln't be too upset if it did. Youth Very interesting. The preview wasn't great and the intake was only a 3.5 star 'good' intake. But still had 4 elite talents! I can't wait to see an excellent intake! Best prospect easily this fella, who I'm hoping will be a future international star! well, in Albanian terms anyway All Time Youth Records and Stuff Finances and Upgrades So I spent £2m on my youth facilities, getting them all the way up to great. Hopefully it will pay off sooner rather than later as it has put my finances in a lot of trouble. Career It's fun here in Sicily. I'll be more than happy with another season of consolidation in Serie B. The squad is still much closer to relegation than promotion but we've got a really strong youth squad now so who knows in a couple of seasons?

ah man, i know exactly what you mean. those last two months of results are really harsh. it definitely seems more like morale manager than anything else down in those lower leagues. hope you get a bit more luck/understanding board next time round!

Season Summary So with a prediction of finishing 20th and a board expectation of us battling bravely against relegation our main aim was clear. Just to survive! and we managed it, mainly due to our good form against the teams around us. Being that the board/players expected us to go down it also meant morale management was much easier than I thought it might be and that definitely helped. Only 3 draws out of 38 as well! So into a second season in Serie B! Players Marco Corrente 24A - our star striker! He absolutely refused to sign a new contract without a release fee in it. At 700k it was a little low but I was hopeful we could renegotiate at the end of the season. He was so good we never made it! 17 goals in 26 games later and it was triggered at the end of the January transfer window by Hellas Verona. So not only did we lose our best player we didn't even get a sell on clause! Guiseppe de Luca - Our star player in Serie C. scored a ludicrous amount of goals in our 3 seasons there. In Serie B he got found out though and, at 35, it was clear his legs had gone. He knew it too and promptly retired at the end of the season (along with 3 other legacy players over 30). We'll be heading into the new season with our most inexperienced side yet! Giovanni Romeo - Was a legacy youth player. Stuck him in out of desperation and he turned into a great player for us. Then, during the last season, he came out as gay. We gave him all the support we could and how did he rpay us? by demanding a transfer and refusing to sign a new contract! so I had no choice but to move him on. 650k and 50% future fee to Torino at the end of the season Antonio Romagnoli 24F - Thrown into the first team really young as there were no keepers above one star CA in the legacy squad. He did good and his CA and PA kept rising year on year. he is now a 4 star keeper with possible 5 star potential (future Serie A talent) after coming through as a 2 star PA 'good talent'. It's always worth hanging on to those 2 star talents, you never know how good they can become! Fairly sure it was that personality that was the key. a 2 star professional personality is worth way more than a 4 star temperamental in my experience. Next season will be interesting. we lost our two best players and 3 with invaluable experience! We're gonna find out just how good our youth set up is... Youth Well, this was weird. The preview was a 5 star golden generation promise, but with only one A grade player! So I wasn't expecting too much. And when the intake came in that 5 star preview had been downgraded to a 4.5 star excellent preview. And yet.... 5 elite talents! Lovely stuff! shame their personalities are all at the James Corden end of the axis rather than the Keanu Reeves end, but what can you do? Mentoring? not any more, my older professionals all retired! Pick of the bunch is this lad:- All Time Youth Intake Records Finances and Upgrades I used the money from the Romeo sale to upgrade the youth facilities at the end of the season. The option popped up after 'develop players through youth system' popped up on our club vision. No telling how long it will be there so I moved quickly! Other than that we're still just about breaking even so another couple of sales may have to happen soon Career

Season Summary Promotion as champions!!! We started with 10 straight wins, i couldn't believe it. We were so far ahead! After christmas though our form became much more erratic and we were almost caught by Foggia and Palermo. In the end we got our lowest points total in the league so far but it didn't matter. We were champions! Serie B here we come! Players This is what worries me. Our first season in Serie B and we'll be predominantly youth based. Part of our erratic form was due to this happening just after Christmas:- Still easily our best player at 35. I didn't think I'd ever see him again, and I was right as he retired only a few weeks later. It did mena i had to move de Luca (now 34!) to left wing and promote Marco Corrente 24A to the first team a season or two early. He went up front and scored 14 in 20. Not bad! Youth An excellent golden generation intake, but only two elite talents! I need more! Lost another two players poached as well. Ferrucci looks particularly annoying! All-Time Youth Records Romagnoli 24F just shows how poor my legacy keepers were! Normally he'd be nowhere near the first team but he was our best keeper at 15! Career The biggest worry is that Serie B has come too soon and I'll be sacked by christmas. The boards definitely seem more trigger happy than they have before. I have a feeling we'll be starting favourites to go down. Avellino ran away with Serie C last season and finished bottom by a long way!

Season Summary Another amazing season from us and one that would have won us the title in either group A or B again, but for some reason we were stuck with Avellino who ran away with it. We did better in the play-offs as well making the final where we narrowly lost to Modena 3-2. Players the best two players were again de Luca up front and giovinco on the left wing. But they are now 33 and 34 respectively so I don't think I can rely on them for too much longer. I do have some really promising youth coming through though - one of the benefits of having excellent training facilities at this level - but they're nowhere near the level of these two just yet. Youth Only two elite talents is a little disappointing after improving youth recruitment two levels. But also de Luca and Giovinco are both so good they totally skew the ratings. In any other Serie C side I'd probably have 12 elite talents! 3 star CA is rated as a good serie C player by my coaches so I shouldn't be too disappointed really. also, i got my first poached player! Finances Good, breaking about even. Not because of attendances, which are miniscule, but because for some reason we get almost 3m a year in sponsorship money. My youth facilities are good but rather worryingly i have not yet seen the option to ask for them to be improved. Career

it's a new bug/feature they introduced last season. It's to do with a hidden attribute of your chairman to do with their attitude to youth. all you can do is either change his rating in the editor or hope and pray for a takeover with a more youth friendly chairperson. it was a huge game-breaking feature/bug for a lot of us last year, it's really frustrating.

Season Summary A great season! It's amazing how much easier this game is when you keep morale high by winning and you keep winning because of high morale! We would have got automatic promotion in either group A or group B but thems the breaks. Straight into the play offs, where we fell at the first hurdle. So back into Serie C we go and I'll be amazed if we're able to repeat the trick for a second season. Players The legacy players at Catania are really strong. The star is Guiseppe Giovinco, real life brother of Sebastian Giovinco, but he's got quality all around him. The only issue is that 7 of the best XI are over 30 and will need replacing sooner rather than later. And 2 of them retired at the end of the season! So it will be interesting to see how we do with younger replacements Youth So with 7 of the first team well over 30 a good youth intake was imperative! and did we get it? well, no.... The preview was really disappointing Only a good intake! so when the intake came in I had to be pleased it gave me an elite talent. But ideally, I need more Finances and Upgrades Luckily there's a fair bit of money sloshing around in Serie C. We started with a bank balance of around 2.9m and together with our good run of form the board were happy to give us two upgrades to youth recruitment. So with any luck we'll see an improvement in youth intake next season. Career

oof, bad luck. i know how you feel! it does seem particularly difficult this year

Here we go again! ChievoVerona shouldn't exist so I've gone back and chosen a fallen giant who do exist! The original team went bust and the reformed side were demoted down to Serie D. But they're back into Serie C for the new season! Those starting facilities are insane for this challenge! The game is still using the old defunct team badge, which I would change if i knew how. I suspect you got to use the in-game editor to do it? i dunno... edit: it was easy, just the same as changing kits Anyway, fifth time lucky!

Saved me a job! something didn't quite feel right about it from the start to be honest. took me a while to put my finger on why/what it was!

technically, yeah. I googled and as far as I can see a new version of the team is in tier 5 under a slightly different name but not with this badge/history. So i guess it's a matter of argument whether they're the same team or not. to be honest i was surprised to see them too, but they're in the game so i figured why not. i'll be sacked before too long anyway! edit: on further inspection it looks like they're using the players from Sona Calcio, who are a totally different separate side. I think you might be right, they shouldn't be there at all. There's other fallen giants in Italy like Catania and Livorno, I think i'll go back and start with one of those. Shame, i was enjoying that £9m bank balance! but it shouldn't be.....

ok, so i went back to the random factor like a tractor! and.... and the winner is.... calling mr. holiday man! 9 months later and he presents us with these options Catania were hugely tempting but I always had a soft spot for ChievoVerona and it was really sad when they went bust. Apparently they are kinda back in Italy, and the game seems to think they're valide for promotion to Serie C in 2023! so, here we go.... Really nice starting facilities! Media prediction is a bit scary, given my record so far in FM23. The balance is insane though - £9m!!!!! i can't possibly screw this up, can i? can i????

a little bit of all really! First two years nearly always just in youth team. Even the best I leave there unless I'm desperate. very rarely have i had 16/17 year olds who perform. I tend to send players out on loan at 19/20 if they are nowhere near the first team. every now and then you get a nice surprise, and if nothing else a bit of extra transfer value.