[FM11] Barcelona’ing the way through the lower leagues – is it even possible?

[zagaluke]

Champions league final in the Aviva, I wish.

Anyways well done on the champions league

[SnakeXe]

Fantastic job, really well done!

[deltablue]

Great to see the gamble pay off.

[Murrayzoster]

great season there mate well played, just wondering what skin do you use?

[noikeee]

Congrats on the clean sweep! Really impressive!

Thanks. "Only" took me 21 years to reach this level though.

Champions league final in the Aviva, I wish.

Anyways well done on the champions league

You guys got the Europa League final last year, it's almost the same thing. I mean it had FC Porto, you don't get any better football clubs than that.

Fantastic job, really well done!

Thanks.

Great to see the gamble pay off.

I knew we still had a bloody good shot at winning the league despite the resting of players, but it came a bit too close for comfort at the end. If I was in charge of Napoli I would be very frustrated, they beat the highest points total ever yet still lost the title to us..

great season there mate well played, just wondering what skin do you use?

Don't know from memory and I can only load FM again tomorrow night. I suspect it's just the default dark skin. Remember I'm still on FM11 hence why some things may look different.

[kingjericho]

Hey, remember that guy who managed Praiense? He won the Champions League!

[AK22]

Fantastic stuff! A properly momentous season in Italy! Is that job done now with Roma?

[noikeee]

Hey, remember that guy who managed Praiense? He won the Champions League!

I don't remember. Must've been a hell of a long time ago.

Fantastic stuff! A properly momentous season in Italy! Is that job done now with Roma?

It feels like job done yes, after having reached that level and prepared Roma for the future too with plenty of potential world class youngsters. However I have 1 more season in my contract and intend to see it out because:

• My next goal is to collect as many as different and as prestigious trophies possible. It's a golden chance to have a go at both the Club World Cup and the UEFA Supercup, so I want to stay. They're both sort of mickey mouse competitions, but the CWC recognizes you officially as world champion and it's been my #1 goal for this career from the very beginning.
  
• I've never retained the Champions League in any FM or CM and would like to attempt it. Moreover, this one CL was very weird in that I haven't faced any real opposition since the group stage, so it feels a bit like having won by default. Next year I'm almost certainly going to have to prove myself with far tougher teams to beat.

At the end of next season I intend to leave Roma whatever happens. Next stop England or Spain with the biggest club I can get a job at.

[HotChocolate]

Brilliant win in the Champions League

[B.W.G]

Congrats on the clean sweep,hope you can get the CWC for your trophy collection as well

[noikeee]

This is going to be a quick one because I've advanced a bit (currently about to play my first official match of the new season) so I just want to get this done.

Roma 2030/2031 - season review

League

A superb streak of results under any other circumstances, however that defeat to Napoli really opened things up and with them playing relentlessly well (again I emphasize both Napoli and us beat the all-time points record this season!!) that meant I couldn't commit any mistakes until the very end.

Thankfully we had a very easy calendar for the last few matches, the only tricky tie being away at Palermo but we pulled off a 2-1 win there, with a 88th minute Bagayoko winner. That may just have been the key moment. We arrived to the final fixture 3 points ahead of Napoli and wondering what would happen if we ended up level on points (I never found out), it nearly was a massive choke but we just about held on to a poor 2-2 draw at home to Cagliari to clinch our third consecutive Serie A.

(League positions graph)

Cups

This was a tremendously bizarre Champions League and as I mentioned before, it feels like we won by default. It really is nuts that from the Group Stage onwards we avoided teams from all the top 5 european leagues. Ajax are a huge club in 2031 in terms of finances but don't fully have the team to back it up, and we stroll past them in the final as previously mentioned - indeed from all the knockout stage opponents, it was the minnows Anderlecht who felt like giving us a tougher time. Bizarre circumstances or not, it counts as a Champions League and it's Roma's first ever. I personally rate the Club World Cup as a bigger achievement because to win it you have to win a continental trophy before, but the Champions League is the most competitive club trophy you can win both in real life and in FM. Another huge mark in my career.

In the cup, that was a pretty difficult semi against Palermo, but what will remain in history was that epic 6-3 final, one of the most entertaining matches I've ever had in FM, deciding a trophy too, and versus our toughest rivals. Napoli came back from 2-0 down to 3-2 ahead in the final 20 minutes, only for us to sneak past an equaliser and take it to extra time. And then it was a Roma masterclass with ukranian striker Ivanov claiming some credit with a magnificent exhibition, almost making people forget that place is usually Bagayoko's...

Top 5 key players

(Full squad and stats)

5. Billel Zarabi (AMR) - His most consistent season yet, finally fullfilling his potential as a world class winger, but a late season injury ruled him out of the CL and Cup finals - which opened up a place for usual backup Gideon Gabriel to score a decisive brace in Dublin... 11 goals, 17 assists.

4. Pedro Abreu (DC) - The portuguese centre-back evolved from promising rotation player in the first season, to settled first team member in the 2nd season, to finally exploding as the mighty leader of the defence in this 3rd year in Rome. A 7.52 rating for a centre-back is sublime.

3. Nicola Ferraro (AML) - I can't believe I didn't rate him when he arrived (well I do, his attributes don't look THAT great) but by now he is absolutely key. He has a remarkable gift for scoring tons of important goals. 20 goals, 17 assists.

2. Dahamane Bagayoko (ST) - Still by far our top scorer, and he was utterly unplayable mid-season when he had that patch scoring 8 goals in 2 matches, but lost some fire later on, before and after his injury. A great season but not as great as the previous. 39 goals, 17 assists.

1. Kévin Duval (AMC) - Bagayoko may be FM's Chuck Norris, but this season the king was Kévin. If previously he merely scored and assisted regularly, and at key times, this year he went further and backed it up with a superb 7.70 average rating. 26 goals, 27 assists - absolutely AWESOME for a midfielder. I can't believe FM is so daft he STILL wasn't picked for the Ballon D'Or shortlist last year.

Bagayoko just missed out on the Serie A top scorer award by 2 goals to the inevitable João. We did have the Serie B top scorer though - Roma youth product Luca Antoniori on loan to Udinese. That was BRILLIANT for a kid that only turned 18 after the season was finished.

Finances

Well I don't have a screenie of the finances so don't know for sure anymore but I think the figure by the end of the season was a remarkable 63M€ in the bank. The Champions League pays money.

We rose in the rankings to become the 8th richest club in the world.

Conclusions and future expectations

Well, it's hard to outdo this, but keeping up this level of success for another year is enough challenge. I've explained what I'm going to do next in the previous posts: try to win the CWC, try to retain the Champions League then leave Rome at the end of the season.

A new board was appointed meanwhile, an internal promotion, and nothing really changed. The new chairman offered me a 5 year contract which I rejected and that was it.

Career overview

[b]Season   Club (nation)         League (tier)                          Notes[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/11    Praiense (POR)        2ª Divisão Sul (3) - 4th
11/12    Praiense (POR)        2ª Divisão Centro (3) - 1st            Lost in promotion playoff
12/13    Kettering (ENG)       Blue Square Premier (5) - 7th           
13/14    Kettering (ENG)       Blue Square Premier (5) - 22nd         Resigned mid-season
        Venezia (ITA)         Seconda Divisione Girone A (4) - 15th  Won relegation playout
14/15    Venezia (ITA)         Seconda Divisione Girone A (4) - 4th   Lost in promotion playoff
15/16    Venezia (ITA)         Seconda Divisione Girone A (4) - 3rd   Lost in promotion playoff
16/17    Venezia (ITA)         Seconda Divisione Girone A (4) - 1st   Promoted, Serie C Cup winners
17/18    Venezia (ITA)         Prima Divisione Girone A (3) - 6th
18/19    Dresden (GER)         3.Liga (3) - 8th
19/20    Dresden (GER)         3.Liga (3) - 13th                      Resigned mid-season
        Belenenses (POR)      Liga Orangina (2) - 10th
20/21    Belenenses (POR)      Liga Orangina (2) - 2nd                Promoted
21/22    Belenenses (POR)      Liga Zon Sagres (1) - 4th                 
22/23    Belenenses (POR)      Liga Zon Sagres (1) - 4th              League Cup winners
2023     Krylya Sovetov (RUS)  Prem'er Liga (1) - 10th                 
23/24    Celta (SPA)           Liga Adelante (2) - 4th                Lost in promotion playoff
24/25    Celta (SPA)           Liga Adelante (2) - 1st                Promoted
25/26    Celta (SPA)           La Liga (1) - 6th
26/27    Celta (SPA)           La Liga (1) - 7th                      Europa League winners
27/28    Roma (ITA)            Serie A (1) - 3rd
28/29    Roma (ITA)            Serie A (1) - 1st                      Italian champions, Champions League finalists
29/30    Roma (ITA)            Serie A (1) - 1st                      Italian champions, TIM Cup winners, Supercoppa winners
30/31    Roma (ITA)            Serie A (1) - 1st                      Champions League winners, Italian champions, 
                                                                     TIM Cup winners, Supercoppa winners

[buzz2k7]

Are you staying one more season or heading to another club?

[noikeee]

One more season then leaving.

[buzz2k7]

1 more season of awesomeness!

[noikeee]

Roma 2031/2032 - season preview

Transfers (in)

I had roughly 70M€ to spend and thought of splashing it all on Taument, but eventually decided to overlook the dutch winger and went for reinforcing other positions on the field:

Steffan Georgi (MC) (58M€) - Huge fee (beating my 55M€ record of Bagayoko) and he's already 28 so is only a short-term substitute for the aging Mignon Pedro/Carlos da Silva who fight for the MC position, but is one of the best central midfielders in the world, absolutely superb player.

Anas Lemrabet (DC) (3.7M€) - Worth 10 times his transfer fee. This world class centre-back was stuck playing in the Emirates and had so little notoriety he hadn't even been capped by Morocco yet when I signed him.

Marco Zanchi (DL) (20M€) - We were short on homegrown players for the Champions League and this man is a more than competent attacking full-back, quite young too and starting to make the Italy squad.

Plus 2 youngsters:

Virgile Ulrich (DC) (free) - I'm not going to complain about grabbing players like this on a free. Only 2.5 stars of PA but with the club reputation going sky-high, that's how half my first team players are now rated, including some of the most important, so...

Glenn Maréchal (AMC, ST / AML) (2.5M€) - I probably overpaid for him, but a strong prospect nevertheless, already a Belgian international at the age of 18.

Transfers (out)

The really big news were the sale of a duo of top defenders. German Mike Kunert, a fan favourite and an absolutely key player in my first 2 seasons at the club, had lost his starting 11 place to Dario Vanoli, was already 31 years old, was being paid too much and was on his last year of contract. He left to Hoffenheim for 11M€. The other big sale was Branko Krizanac to Villarreal for 28M€. Excellent left-back but Nem was now the first choice, and I prefered the younger, homegrown Marco Zanchi, for no discernible difference in quality. Other first team players who left were winger Gomes (to Cagliari, 9.5M€) and veteran keeper Alexandr Kuznetsov (Bordeaux, 4.2M€).

I also decided to offload a large bunch of youngsters who I didn't feel were ever going to make it into the first team. They were all my signings in previous seasons but all left for bigger fees than we paid originally, so it worked out well. Thomas Schweitzer broke a leg while on loan last season was sold by 1M€. Portuguese striker Cristiano Moutinho made us a profit of 2M€. Alan Fabbri went for 1.9M€, strikers Konstantin Geyer and Damiano Attimonelli for 4M€ and 3.5M€ respectively.

Finances

The signing of Steffan Georgi really made an impact on the finances, but somehow with the CL money and the youngsters sales we still remain comfortably in the green with 11.2M€ in the bank.

Roma further up in the rankings to 7th richest club in the world.

Youth intake

Not a massive prospect but midfielder Alessandro Di Meglio looks interesting enough, 2.5 stars of PA.

Full Squad

The usual gigantic squad now with plenty of youngsters on the verge of first team football, beyond a few guys that were already here last season (Fioravanti, Christie, Abdellah, Cabrera) I also rescued Hofmann and Antoniori from loans and they both look stellar. I like having this large lot of backup youngsters and homegrowns, as the CL squad is always a little short and they are a great help in any injury/suspension crisis.

Fixtures

Bloody good start to the season as we've won two trophies already. Including an european trophy I hadn't collected yet:

The Napoli game was brilliant, we usually have a very hard time with them but this game we comfortably outplayed them even with 10 men - conquering our third consecutive Supercoppa.

As for Zaragoza we put a very poor performance actually, but still somehow scrapped the win thanks to Kévin Duval's brilliance, hence conquering the only modern UEFA club trophy that escaped me. It's worth noting Bagayoko was suspended for both games but he still seems far from his best and although we've won the two Serie A matches so far - Milan away(!) and Torino at home - they were both average 1-0s, Bagayoko scoring one in Milan but missing a lot of chances too. He has lost his mojo and I'm not sure how to get it back.

The Champions League draw was very interesting, because I'm having the chance to face my former club Celta!! They had a magnificent season last year missing out on the title by 1 point, led by the playmaking genius of my signing Sergio Elustondo. We are also up against Lille and against Celtic who we faced last season in the quarter-finals. A draw I'm happy with, actually.

Predictions, conclusions, etc

First priority: the Club World Cup, no doubt. The second priority is retaining the Champions League and prove ourselves against more worthy opposition than last year's awkward bunch of random teams. But I'm not planning to use as much of an aggressive rotation system this year as I want to go in the best possible shape for the Serie A too.

As stated before, I intend this to be my last season for Roma and will start to look around for jobs after the Club World Cup. I'd like to finish the season letting the contract run out but if a great opportunity shows up after the CWC, I may re-think that, let's see what happens.

[deltablue]

Hope you're not peaking early.

[noikeee]

Here's a new feature that I was keeping for the end of my career whenever I get tired of it, but with a bug starting to delete player histories left right and centre throughout my game (bloody annoying), I'd better do this while I can still access a lot of info on the player's careers.

Top 20 players I've managed - 20 to 17

This is a selection of the most relevant players that have made a mark on my teams throughout my career, not necessarily the 20 best players (otherwise I might as well just list the current Roma squad), but the most remarkable ones for their level.

20. Alessio Ballesi (Venezia 2014-2018, Dresden 2019)

I've always made a point of not using the corner routine exploits, but my stint at Venezia nevertheless had a couple of very prolific centre-backs, the first of which Alessio. A stalwart in defence, he added to his defensive abilities an ability for scoring goals - particularly in his Venezia debut season in 2014/15, scoring 10 of them in the league. And by the time I promoted Venezia to the Prima Divisione, he was still key despite the higher level of football. I took him with me to Dresden later, but he didn't have a particularly good start to the season in Germany and I deserted from the club shortly afterwards.

19. Luis Pinto (Portugal U19s 2021-2022, Portugal 2028-2030)

In my short stint as manager of the national Under 19s he looked like the star of his generation and would indeed go on to have a successful career, albeit I never managed him at club level. He didn't quite pulled it off at the beginning of his career as a youngster for Lyon, but followed that up with short but hugely impressive stints for Basel and Leverkusen. His performance for Leverkusen and in the FIFA World Cup 2026 - when he was named the World Cup Golden Ball despite Portugal not going far - impressed Man City who paid 17M€ for him in 2027 and he's been there since. His World Cup 2030 was not as amazing in terms of personal performance, but still was a key man of the national team that eventually clinched the title under my command, indeed he was picked as part of the 2030 World Cup Dream Team.

18. Pedro Abreu (Portugal 2028-2030, Roma 2028-present)

Bought for 11.75M€ from Fulham in 2028, he slowly developed into a superstar of my Roma side. He grabbed a first 11 place by the 2nd season, and by the almighty 3rd season - when we finally conquered the treble - he was the unquestioned leader of the defense. Together with Luis Pinto (and a few others) he too was a star of that World Cup winning team with Portugal and picked for the Dream Team. Unfortunately he was suspended for the final, something he'll certaily regret but somehow Portugal made it without him...

17. Mignon Pedro (Roma 2027-present)

A very hit and miss player, some seasons more impressive than others, but sheer class nonetheless, a truly world class player. He is one of the very few players in this list who I have managed at club level that I didn't hire but inherit - and I won't complain about it. I named him captain the minute I arrived at the club (he still is the captain) and he was key for 4 seasons, albeit by this 5th season I'm starting now he's starting to lose his place and I'm considering letting his contract run out - but only because he's 32 years old, has started to watch his physical abilities drop, is paid a huge wage and wants an even bigger wage to renew!

[noikeee]

Top 20 players I've managed - 16 to 13

16. Martin Holly (Celta 2023-2025)

A player who was superb for a short while then quickly faded in my pecking order. Martin was absolutely amazing in my first season at Celta, the one I arrived mid-season and took them to the playoffs where we missed promotion to the top tier, by making an incredible 30 assists in the league. The following year Rogério and Gueye arrived and took his place, he stopped making assists, and at the end of the season was sold to Dundee United for 950K€.

15. Bojan Petrovic (Venezia 2016-2018)

In my long stint in Venice, few forwards did anything remarkable, the limelight normally focusing into either wingers or defenders. Petrovic was the exception as he excelled in a superb half-season in 2016, bagging 14 goals in 14 starts after his arrival in January. He would go on to score 19 the following year - a weaker goals/games rate however - and then faded completely in my final Venezia season, now having been promoted to the Prima Divisione, but hindered by injuries.

14. Ahmed Omar (Krylia Sovetov 2023)

A total gem that I only got to manage for 6 months or so, the duration of my very short stay in Russia. The club was leaking money at an incredible rate, and fearing bankrupcy I panicked and agreed the sale of Ahmed, by far the club's greatest player, for a mere 6.25M€ to Udinese. I never got to handle the consequences in Russia as I left for Celta immediately, but still kept an eye on Ahmed's career. He went from Udinese to Milan, and from Milan to Man City, for a 25M€ fee. He became one of the world's greatest midfielders (and one of the most highly paid too, at a 1.2M€/month wage), recently being one of the favourites for the Fifa Ballon D'Or, although he didn't win.

13. Enzo Lacalamita (Venezia 2014-2018)

A very inconsistent player, but nevertheless the player that alerted me to how devastating someone could be on a AMC-that-bombs-forward role. He was the reason I first tried a 4-2-3-1 in the 14/15 season with Venezia as he finished that year on supreme form in that role. The following year he was underwhelming, but came good again in 16/17, scoring 14, as we gained promotion to the Prima Divisione. Once we were promoted he never featured any regularly again and selling him for a club record of 55K€ was one of the very last things I did before leaving Venice in 2018.

[SnakeXe]

Great idea for a feature, mind if I nab it for my thread when I reach 20 seasons?

[noikeee]

You can, but the royalties are expensive.

[SnakeXe]

I'll give you 5% of all proceeds from my thread.

[deltablue]

I'd take that deal.

[HotChocolate]

I'd take that deal.

No dealing unless you have a license.

[noikeee]

Top 20 players I've managed - 12 to 9

12. Juninho (Belenenses 2021-2022)

A one-season wonder on loan who excelled for my Belenenses side who had just gotten promoted to the top tier, and his 18 goals (15 in the league) were key to qualifying us for Europe immediately with a 4th place. I didn't manage to renew his loan or sign him permanently, and the forwards who replaced him next season couldn't match his ability. He'd make it all the way up to Bayern Munich in his career, but unfortunately could only make 3 appearances for that club in 4 full seasons.

11. Khalil Baghouli (Celta 2025-2027)

A bargain I got in my final season in the Liga Adelante, as he was stuck in Egypt with a release clause of 5.25M€. He would go on to become a star of world football after being a star of my Celta side for my later seasons in the club. He was good as a striker but with Sankaré filling that position even better, I retrained him as AML and he delivered greatly from there too, scoring 17 then 21 goals in my two seasons for Celta at the top level. Unfortunately when my Celta side reached the crowning moment in the Europa League final, he was on bad form and only made a cameo appearance as a substitute. Went on to play for Real Madrid for two seasons having a major impact in his second Madrid season, scoring 20 goals - before sensationally leaving on a free then signing for... Lens. At the age of 29 has 37 caps for France.

10. Ibrahima Gueye (Celta 2024-2027)

Not entirely sure I should put him above the franco-tunisian Baghouli, as Baghouli's brightest moments for Celta were perhaps brighter than Gueye's, but I did pick the senegalese winger as my player of the season for my Europa League winning campaign. Gueye was an exciting promising winger when he arrived, performing greatly for a 20 year old in the Liga Adelante. Once we got promoted he had a fairly underwhelming season but was still picked as the spanish league's Young Player of the Year, and then excelled as Celta's most consistent attacking player in my final season for Celta, scoring 15 and assisting 14 - particularly so at continental level, with 6/6 on goals/assists. Celta sold him immediately once I left, for 20M€ to Lyon, and he became an amazing player for the french side, with average ratings of 7.73 and 8.03 in the last two seasons. He is now clearly one of the best wingers in the world.

9. Ruud Nijholt (Belenenses 2021-2023)

Another one-season wonder, albeit he played two years for us, but was supreme on the second season, scoring 18 as a roaming inside forward from the AML position, before he had a serious injury mid-way through the second half of the season. I left Belenenses then and he was predictably sold immediately for 1.5M€ to turkish side Bursaspor. He unfortunately never made it to the top, but did eventually reach the Premier League where he has been playing for the past couple seasons for Birmingham, now on the later stages of his career.

[j88_ftm]

I love reading this thread. That Roma side is fantastic - I'd love to manage them! Reminds me a bit of the best team I've ever had on any instalment of the series - my Inter team on FM05 after about 6-7 seasons were similarly dominant. Very impressed with Napoli for taking you to the last day of the season despite your incredible record! Good luck in your last season in Rome then

[noikeee]

I love reading this thread. That Roma side is fantastic - I'd love to manage them! Reminds me a bit of the best team I've ever had on any instalment of the series - my Inter team on FM05 after about 6-7 seasons were similarly dominant. Very impressed with Napoli for taking you to the last day of the season despite your incredible record! Good luck in your last season in Rome then

Glad the thread is entertaining you, I love managing this side too, it's fun to win. Napoli as I've said multiple times are insanely good, I'm puzzled as to why they always choke in the Champions League because they've got comfortably one of the best squads in the world.

Now time to show off some of the latest wonder feats from my players. Soslan Ivanov took a rare chance to start as Bagayoko was injured for a week, to score an hat-trick in Udine including this beast of a goal:

[video=youtube;ahrzh9La3dM]

Shortly after that, I didn't mean to be this rude when visiting my old pals in Vigo:

[noikeee]

Another couple of quality goals from the ongoing 2031/2032 season. Centre-back Dario Vanoli's missile from way out against Fiorentina - not sure if the goalkeeper didn't have a hint of responsibility here too:

[video=youtube;GFLE41q5SaQ]

Teenage striker Luca Antinori scored a wonderful brace in his Champions League debut against Celtic, the first of which this delightful powerful volley in off the post:

[video=youtube;KEbR8lhh8RE]

[noikeee]

FIFA Club World Cup 2031

This probably deserved a full blown update inc. detailed report of the final in the same vein as some previous key matches in my career, but I'm not in the mood for that. So let's start by the semi-final (yes because FIFA lets the european champions start at the semis already...) where we breezed past an underwhelming saudi arabian side:

That was to be expected, even if we took our foot off the gas in the second half. Now the second match was far far tougher - against south american giants São Paulo. To put this in perspective, they have won 7 of the past 11 editions of the Libertadores, and shocked a few european sides in the Club World Cup, too. They just had two players shortlisted for the Ballon D'Or, and I've been trying to sign a few of their players for ages to no avail, because they're world class and São Paulo won't even negotiate bids as high up as 50M€. They're almost as good as any european side IMO, certainly stronger than Ajax who we beat in the Champions League final.

The game was incredibly tough. We had a couple of early chances, then Marco Zanchi, who had been having a great season so far after his arrival from Palermo, was unfortunate to score an owngoal, putting São Paulo ahead 1-0. Then the brazilian side gained momentum, hit the post and created danger multiple times before half-time. Thankfully the half-time whistle did arrive then we watched their winger Robinho get sent off for a 2nd yellow card, with the São Paulo manager bafflingly leaving a huge hole in midfield as a result from that, playing a 4-3-2 wide. I told my team to play attacking and exploit the middle, but despite a few chances the equaliser only came in the 84th minute, throught the inevitable Kévin Duval. That meant the game went into extra-time, a strangely uneventful extra-time until just after switching sides, Duval found Ferraro unmarked and the italian winger gave us the winner. We were world champions.

That is the season's main objective achieved, we've won 3 trophies already and are in good shape to attack the remaining 3 - league, cup and Champions League. More on that in the mid-season update which I may write tomorrow. Not having much time to play FM lately other than at the weekend..

[noikeee]

I knew we were looking good to have a shot of our players winning the Ballon D'Or this year, with 4 nominated and both Bagayoko and Duval named as favourites by the media:

The news on January 1st 2032 arrived with all sorts of awards. I was delighted to find the next two news items in my mailbox, first time ever in all FMs I've had a player win this - totally deserved too:

It was also nice to see Dudu make the World Team of the Year along with Duval:

Great way to start the year on a positive note.

[noikeee]

Roma 2031/2032 - mid-season update

Transfers

It's getting usual for there to be very little movement in January as I don't want to upset the registration of the Champions League squad and I spend the transfer budget all in the Summer. So the only thing that happened was that two players groomed out of the Roma academy left. 19 year-old midfielder Davide Cini was shafted to Bordeaux for 775K€ and I also finally lost my patience with Matteo Guzzetti's lack of development and sold him to Racing for 1.4M€

In other transfer related news, our captain Mignon Pedro's contract is expiring at the end of the season and we're not reaching agreement. He's 32 and his skills are already clearly on a decline yet he wants a payrise. Sorry mate, you're still a class player and have been a loyal servant to the club for the 5 years I've known you, but f*ck off and die. I'm sure you'll have the luck to find a club that'll be willing to pay you... erm, half of what I'm paying you.

The finances are a comfortable 12M€ in the green.

League

Three games where we've lost points: an early season draw in Palermo, a very hard fought draw in Naples where we pinned back and forced to play defensively not to lose to our rivals, and a dreadful loss in Bari, clearly the worst game of the season so far (because it's the only defeat in all competitions!).

We've been wildly inspired throughout most of the season, big highlights being a 5-0 win over archrivals Lazio, and a just ridiculous 7-0 away win over Torino. I quite fancied hammering Fiorentina 6-0 too! For all the awesomeness, the highly annoying Napoli bunch just keep on stalking us and indeed are even in front of us due to the fact we have a game in hand - the Club World Cup screwed the calendar completely:

Cups

The Club World Cup was covered in detail previously - breeze past the saudi side, then an extremely difficult final against São Paulo where we just about managed to scrap a comeback, becoming World Champions in Johanesburg.

Now if our Serie A form was ridiculous, what about the Champions League. I really was mean to my former employees Celta and put 14 past them in 2 matches... ouch. Even a team packed with all our youngsters slaugthered Celtic 5-2 with 4 goals in the first 20 minutes. Our group record looked like this: 6 games, 6 wins, 29 goals scored, 7 conceded. Decent! Unfortunately the draw didn't go very well for us and we'll have to face Bayern next.

The italian cup has been difficult so far, we nearly had pie on our face against Verona as I fielded a weakened side and we trailed for most of the game, but still managed to turn it around. The Juve match wasn't much easier but we're through and have to face Fiorentina in the semis. The other semi is Palermo-Napoli, neither of which comfortable opponents for a theoretical final...

Players

Bagayoko was on a fairly underwhelming number of goals then of course he went again on an insane run of goalscoring in January. 3 scored against Milan, 4 against Torino, 4 against Mantova. That ups his league goals tally to 21 (current Serie A top scorer), overall to 33 because he's been bloody good on this Champions League edition. But THE MAN still is the recently crowned Ballon D'Or holder Kévin Duval, already on 18 goals, 16 assists, 7.81 average rating. All hail the swiss god of midfield, set-pieces, and late runs into the area.

Another highlight has been Nicola Ferraro as usual - 11 goals, 14 assists - and the surprise superb performer has been centre-back Dario Vanoli, with a 7.88 average rating in the league he's 2nd best on the Serie A's player stats, just behind Napoli's João. Nice to see some italians doing well, albeit neither count as homegrown, not even for the nation. Annoying because Vanoli was originally a Roma youth product, sold long before I arrived at the club.

Goals for the rest of the season

3 trophies won, 3 trophies to go - and we've won them last year. I'm doing my best to try to get a perfect record by winning all 6 competitions (yet another achievement I've never got in FM), but it's probably a bit too arrogant to promise that. Napoli are as annoying an opposition on the Serie A as ever, the cup can go wrong because I'm expecting a Napoli-Roma final again, and the Champions League will surely be a lot harder than last year, very few minor sides are still in the competition.

[kingjericho]

It seems you're reaching the end of a cycle over there.

[noikeee]

Well if I wanted the cycle could last a lot longer because plenty of these players are young and I have lots of excellent youngsters I've been developing to become stars and replace the old guys, but I feel it's time for a new challenge for myself once the season is done.

[AK22]

Blimey, Napoli are pushing your hard still! Can't ask for much more from your team though, the performances have been excellent (Bari aside)

[deltablue]

Plenty of life left in this side.

[sheeshy]

What a career.

[noikeee]

Top 20 players I've managed - 8 to 5

8. Marco Gerardi (Venezia 2016-2018, Belenenses 2020-2023)

The ultimate reliable, aerial balls dominator, goal-scoring centre-back for my Venezia side back then. I got him first on a loan from Cittadella on 2016, and a 7.40 average rating season ensued as he gave us the extra quality needed to clinch the promotion we had been flirting with for a couple of years. I managed to re-loan him for the following year an dhe again was a key player as we nearly reached the playoffs on our debut Serie C1 year. I then left Venice for a quick unsuccessful stint with Dresden, but later I arrived at Belenenses and signed him back for my 2nd season in Lisbon. Again he propelled us to a promotion, and albeit he never reached the heights of his Venezia days for Belenenses, he still remained a squad player in the top tier of portuguese football, which was a far higher level than his talent should've allowed.

7. Fabio Silva (Belenenses 2019-2023)

The most iconic player of my Belenenses side. I first realised how valuable he was in my first half-season, when I picked him as player of the year thanks to 8 goals, his pace doing damage on the Orangina. The next season he completely exploded and ended as our team's top scorer despite being a winger, his 15 goals promoting our side to the Liga Zon Sagres. His first Zon Sagres season was quite underwhelming tho, and he even lost his place to german winger Seb Schreier, but in my final year in Lisbon he became a star again and decided to start providing assists instead of scoring the goals himself, finishing the year with 20 of them. He recently retired after many seasons in the Serie A for Parma - I played against him a few times - where he had been retrained as a right-back by some AI manager!

6. Paulo Miranda (Venezia 2014-2018)

I had my fair share of important portuguese wingers in my sides along the years, and he was the equivalent of Fabio Silva but for my Venezia team. A mere 2K€ spent on him in the 2014 Winter, as I arrived to the club, proved quite cheap. He was already my favourite player in my first half-season when we narrowly avoided relegation, and the following year he broke the Serie C2 assists record, 17, but lost his first-team place mid-season. Next year he claimed it again, albeit he didn't meet the same level of assists, and was still an important player in the 2016/17 year when we finally got promoted. He left his best year for the end of my Venezia stint though, and surprised me as I picked him as player of the year again in 2017/18, now a level higher, in the Serie C1. Never quite reached the highs of many other players in the list, but his longevity as a key player for Venezia gets him this high.

5. Ibrahima Sankaré (Celta 2024-2027)

My best player at Celta, an amazingly good signing as I grabbed him on a free from Lyon in the 2024 Summer. Exploded already in the year he arrived, scoring 34 goals and assisting 10 as we got promoted, and continued his superb level of performance for my 2 years in La Liga with Celta. I picked him as player of the year again in 2025/2026, as he scored 22 in the spanish top tier, ending as 2nd top scorer of the league. In 2026/2027 he had a very slow start to the year but later recovered with a superb second half of the year, finishing the season on 27 goals as we won the Europa League. Went off to have a great career after I left Celta, as he was sold for 24.5M€ to Marseille (to the horror of the Lyon staff who released him on a free years before) and terrorised french defenses for seasons until he was sold to Man Utd for 18.75M€ last Summer (2031) - scoring 17 in 17 for them.

[noikeee]

I would have loved to follow this season in detail as I've done through some of the last few years, as it really did have quite a story to tell. What happened was the following: I caved in to impulse-shopping and got FM12 on that Steam promotion. So whilst I had plenty of possible challenges left in this save, I have decided to play just this one final season on Rome and quit the career, to move on to FM12. So I played this final season rather quickly whilst the forums were down.

Roma 2031/2032 - season review

League

We were going so well. 17 consecutive Serie A wins. A tightly fought win over title rivals Napoli, a 4-0 hammering of city rivals Lazio, goals everywhere. Napoli had slipped a couple times and we were now comfortably in front. Then the unexpected happened, we lost 3-2 at home to Inter. Surely a one-off? The following game seemed to indicate so, as we beat a Serie A record by humiliating Bari 9-0 as a revenge for our defeat earlier in the season. But not quite. A loss to Fiorentina and a late equaliser conceded against Juve put Napoli on equal points with us.

Then a complete disaster ensued - we lost to Catania. With three games to play, the title was now Napoli's to lose. We did our part beating Livorno and Udinese, whilst Napoli drawn with Inter, but still arrived at the final fixture with a 1 point advantage over us. We needed a small miracle. Again we did our part and had no issue handling Taranto, whilst receiving the sensational news that Napoli was losing at home to Juve 1-0. I kept nervously looking at the "latest scores" widget all-game long, amazed that the Napoli goal didn't yet arrive. And it never did. Napoli choked in the final match, letting Juventus win the title for us - our 4th consecutive title. What an amazing finale!

(League positions graph)

Cups

First the italian cup. Last time I'd posted we were in the semis and about to face Fiorentina, well we beat them 4-1 in the first leg and pretty much settled things there despite a reasonably difficult second leg. The final opponents however, were the dreaded Napoli. And Kévin Duval was injured. It was quite a match, they got the lead midway through the first half, then had a player sent off, and we equalised. However despite having 1 extra man, we never quite dominated the match and there were no more goals, it going all the way to penalties. The accuracy of all players involved was shocking, even Bagayoko missed one. Napoli's finishing was less atrocious and they won it. This was one week before the final league fixture, so I was pretty certain after that penalty shooutout I had just gifted them the double...

The Champions League campaign was amazing, a great great way to assert ourselves as a genuine top side in Europe, after the rather hollow batch of opposition we had last year. Bayern were relatively tough opponents in the last 16, but we scored one more in both games. Next up were PSV and this was the most crucial point of the campaign, despite the lesser reputation of the Eindhoven side. We were beaten 1-0 away and they should have scored more, we were now in a very uncomfortable position for the 2nd leg. And it was really tough, Duval scored a pen after half-time to equalise then Carlos Paulista put us through with a 89th minute winner. Sensationally, Milan had knocked out Napoli in another fixture, and were our next opponents. It turned out strangely easily, particularly in the second leg as we went to San Siro win 3-0 with 3 goals from centre-backs. We were in the final, again.

Barcelona were a very fitting side for me to face as the final game of my career, after all this had all started as an attempt to emulate their style of play, 22 seasons ago. It was a slightly anti-climatic final though, as there wasn't much drama. Billel Zarabi opened the scoreline for us already in the 2nd minute, and then I watched in agony as my side missed clear cut chance after clear cut chance after clear cut chance (it ended 8-0 for us in that department). We held on to 1-0 all game long until the final minutes when I started making substitutions to kill time, so our flairy homegrown midfielder Lorenzo Strano came off the bench to score the final 2-0 with a diving header. We had retained the Champions League.

Top 5 key players

(Full squad and stats)

5. Billel Zarabi (AMR) - Had a serious period of bad form throughout the season, and even lost the place to Gideon Gabriel for a couple of matches, but recovered just in time to score a key goal in the Champions League final, which I think counts as him finally fulfilling his huge potential. 11 goals, 23 assists.

4. Nicola Ferraro (AML) - A late season injury coincided with the league slump, which may have not been completely unrelated. As good as ever, 14 goals, 19 assists.

3. Dario Vanoli (DC) - Wow, this was quite superb from the centre-back who came out of our own academy. 7.60 average rating says it all, but what about his 11 goals? Completely vital to save our asses on set pieces when our midfield was losing creativity.

2. Kévin Duval (AMC) - An absolutely amazing season from our recent Ballon D'Or winner as he finishes on a scarcely believable amount of 27 goals and 30 assists, the later of which a club record. Unfortunately got injured for the entire final month of the season, therefore missing the italian cup and Champions League finals, together with the decisive league matches.

1. Dahamane Bagayoko (ST) - It was a coin toss between him and Duval, but he got 53 goals again. 12 of them in continental competitions! This time he only got 4 assists which is a little weird as he did use to give goals to team-mates, but can't complain about his finishing.

Finances

I leave the club sitting on a small fortune of 39M€ in the bank.

The end

A superb season to finish this career on a high, even if our league performance wasn't as good as last year and we needed a last-minute gift from Napoli to win it. I also didn't like to lose the italian cup final, ruining an 100% perfect record in all competitions, but winning 5 of the 6 we were in wasn't bad. We proved we are the best side in the world by retaining the Champions League, this time against proper opposition, and through winning the Club World Cup.

It may seem like I had nothing more to win, but still had plenty of challenges left in here. I wanted to collect national titles, I've never won the Premiership, La Liga, or the Bundesliga in any FM/CM. I wanted to go back to Portugal and take my FC Porto to european glory. I wanted to have a go at the Libertadores as I've never managed in Latin America. And then the very last challenge if everything else was achieved, was to win a Champions League with an eastern european side, preferably using only eastern european players. I had enough in here to entertain myself for another 22 seasons.

However I now have FM12 and am itching to start another epic journeyman story. Thanks to everyone who followed this, but there's no way you had as much fun reading this as I did playing it!

Career overview (Club)

[b]Season   Club (nation)         League (tier)                          Notes[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/11    Praiense (POR)        2ª Divisão Sul (3) - 4th
11/12    Praiense (POR)        2ª Divisão Centro (3) - 1st            Lost in promotion playoff
12/13    Kettering (ENG)       Blue Square Premier (5) - 7th           
13/14    Kettering (ENG)       Blue Square Premier (5) - 22nd         Resigned mid-season
        Venezia (ITA)         Seconda Divisione Girone A (4) - 15th  Won relegation playout
14/15    Venezia (ITA)         Seconda Divisione Girone A (4) - 4th   Lost in promotion playoff
15/16    Venezia (ITA)         Seconda Divisione Girone A (4) - 3rd   Lost in promotion playoff
16/17    Venezia (ITA)         Seconda Divisione Girone A (4) - 1st   Promoted, Serie C Cup winners
17/18    Venezia (ITA)         Prima Divisione Girone A (3) - 6th
18/19    Dresden (GER)         3.Liga (3) - 8th
19/20    Dresden (GER)         3.Liga (3) - 13th                      Resigned mid-season
        Belenenses (POR)      Liga Orangina (2) - 10th
20/21    Belenenses (POR)      Liga Orangina (2) - 2nd                Promoted
21/22    Belenenses (POR)      Liga Zon Sagres (1) - 4th                 
22/23    Belenenses (POR)      Liga Zon Sagres (1) - 4th              League Cup winners
2023     Krylya Sovetov (RUS)  Prem'er Liga (1) - 10th                 
23/24    Celta (SPA)           Liga Adelante (2) - 4th                Lost in promotion playoff
24/25    Celta (SPA)           Liga Adelante (2) - 1st                Promoted
25/26    Celta (SPA)           La Liga (1) - 6th
26/27    Celta (SPA)           La Liga (1) - 7th                      Europa League winners
27/28    Roma (ITA)            Serie A (1) - 3rd
28/29    Roma (ITA)            Serie A (1) - 1st                      Italian champions, Champions League finalists
29/30    Roma (ITA)            Serie A (1) - 1st                      Italian champions, TIM Cup winners, Supercoppa winners
30/31    Roma (ITA)            Serie A (1) - 1st                      Champions League winners, Italian champions, 
                                                                     TIM Cup winners, Supercoppa winners
31/32    Roma (ITA)            Serie A (1) - 1st                      Champions League winners, Club World Cup winners,  
                                                                     Italian champions, Supercoppa winners,
                                                                     TIM Cup finalists

Career overview (international)

[b]Years         Nation                Competitions[/b]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021-2022     Portugal Under 19s    Qualified for UEFA U-19 Championship, lost in Group Stage

2028-2030     Portugal              FIFA World Cup winners, Confederations Cup semi-finalists

Achievements

• Portuguese 2ª Divisão Centro champion 2011/2012 (Praiense)
  
• Seconda Divisione Girone A champion 2016/2017 (Unione Venezia)
  
• Promotion from the Seconda Divisione Girone A 2016/2017 (Unione Venezia)
  
• Coppa di Lega Pro champion 2016/2017 (Unione Venezia)
  
• Promotion from the Liga Orangina 2020/2021 (Belenenses)
  
• Bwin Cup champion 2022/2023 (Belenenses)
  
• Qualification for the UEFA Under 19 Championship 2022 (Portugal Under 19s)
  
• Liga Adelante champion 2024/2025 (Celta)
  
• Promotion from the Liga Adelante 2024/2025 (Celta)
  
• UEFA Europa League champion 2026/2027 (Celta)
  
• Serie A champion 2028/2029, 2029/2030, 2030/2031, 2031/2032 (Roma)
  
• TIM Cup champion 2029/2030, 2030/2031, finalist 2031/2032 (Roma)
  
• Supercoppa di Lega Pro 2029, 2030, 2031 champion (Roma)
  
• UEFA Champions League champion 2030/2031, 2031/2032, finalist 2028/2029 (Roma)
  
• UEFA Super Cup 2031 champion (Roma)
  
• FIFA Club World Cup 2031 champion (Roma)
  
• FIFA World Cup 2030 champion (Portugal)

Managerial awards

• Seconda Divisone A Miglior Allenatore dell'Anno 2016/2017 (Unione Venezia)
  
• Liga Zon Sagres Manager of the Year 2021/2022, 2022/2023 (Belenenses)
  
• Liga BBVA Mánager del año 2025/2026, 2026/2027 (Celta)
  
• Associazione Italiana Calciatori Miglior Allenatore dell'Anno 2029/2030, 2030/2031 (Roma)

[noikeee]

Now time for the final episode in this series to finish the thread:

Top 20 players I've managed - 4 to 1

4. Filipe Tavares (Praiense 2010-2012)

I may have reached the dizzying heights of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Champions League, but I didn't forget my humble beginnings in the Azores. And what a player Filipe was for my side, reaching amazing levels of performance for a 34 year old winger. Scored 11 goals in my first season in the Azores then went completely wild scoring 16 in the second season. Despite being a winger with theoretically poor finishing skills. Despite being practically a grandad. No player fit the Barcelona tactics as well as he did for the 3 and a half seasons I used it (Praiense and Kettering).

3. Steven Pereira (Portugal 2028-2030)

I only managed him for 2 years at international level - never for any club - and he only really performed for me in a Summer, but what a Summer. He won the FIFA World Cup for us. Top scorer on 9 goals, including 2 in the final against iberian rivals Spain. 2nd best player of the competition, just a superb target man hitting form at the perfect moment to get me my biggest achievement in my whole career. I've regularly played against him with my Roma side as he's been on Fiorentina's squad for 4 seasons now, and is their best player.

2. Kévin Duval (Roma 2027-present)

When Kévin arrived in Rome in the Summer of 2027 he wasn't my #1 not even #2 intended option for the AMC position, rather a possible backup winger. He did seem an impressively cheap signing as I got him for a mere 4.9M€ from Bayern, but I didn't expect wonders from him. How wrong was I. He slowly asserted himself as a key player during my debut 2027/28 season in Rome, then reached impressive highs the following year with 23 goals and 10 assists. I thought I'd seen him peak, nope he had even more in him. In the 2030/31 season we won the Champions League for the first time and he was the star of that side with 26 goals and 27 assists. Later that year he got the FIFA Ballon d'Or - a first for any player I've managed in any FM/CM - and would back it with another supreme season, 27 goals and 30 assists on my final year for Roma.

1. Dahamane Bagayoko (Roma 2029-present)

It was again a coin toss between him and Kévin, both players made for an incredible partnership. Bagayoko wins it because goals are goals. I spent a record 55M€ on him in the 2029 Summer and knew that while that was a pile of money, it was a pile of money well spent. He backed it with the most unbelievable season I'd ever seen from any player, 53 goals scored, 46 of them in the league. The following year? Not as good but most players would kill for a record of 39 goals and 17 assists. And then this last season he scored 53 again. That's a total of 145 official goals scored for Roma in 3 seasons alone. Insane! Even more insane is his record for the french national side - 119 goals in 84 caps. A total FM legend that I'll remember for a long time.

THE END

[bjoggi33]

What an amazing career! Will be following your FM12 career, good luck!

[B.W.G]

Absolutely sensational career

[deltablue]

It's been great stuff

[AK22]

A terrific career. I look forward to your next!

[kingjericho]

Glad you didn't choose to take Porto to european glory I followed this thread since the beginning and it was one of a kind! Best of luck in FM12

[noikeee]

Thanks folks, the new FM12 career is now up and running: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/301474-FM12-The-complete-world-encyclopedia-of-insults-thrown-at-virtual-football-players

[prigrajf]

Hi there

great read mate:applause: I'm interested with your 4231 symetrical tactic. Always strugling with it Would apreciate it if you could upload it, if you still have it.

[noikeee]

Holy thread digging! Glad you liked it, but you do realize this is FM11 and I haven't played this since 1 year ago right?

Anyway you're lucky that I still have the files, here they are - http://www.noikeee.com/fm11tactics.rar , I've included the 3 most recent 4-2-3-1 tactics I had for Roma, am afraid however I don't remember how I used them or what were the differences between them, been a long time ago...

[prigrajf]

Yea I know it's FM11 I still play this version Thank you very much for your upload