The Italian Job! Italian league thread is here!

[Trent71]

My January transfer window with Palermo had to be one of the most turbulent I've ever played - normally, I don't do much business then, if at all (2-3 deals at most), but we needed some fresh faces, as we weren't as consistent as I wanted. And with one-two of those new faces in the team, we made a spectacular performance against Fiorentina - losing 1:0 at half-time and with Chochev red-carded in the 41st minute, we went on to turn the game around 1:2 thanks to goals from Ruggiero and Bessa, but a penalty and 94th minute strike from Andre Gomes sealed the win for La Viola. At half-time I told the players they were unlucky and after the game I said I was pleased with their performance - and everyone reacted well. Sadly, our top left back A. Gallo picked up a 3-month injury in that game, making our roster a bit weaker for the 2nd part of the season.

But first, on to the deals! 

 

I first started offloading before buying - Filippo Rannochia (Chievo, loan 100K), Danilo Ambro (Livorno, loan 76K), Cosimo de Graca (Parma, loan 300K), Davide Ghislandi (Viterbese, loan), Andrea Accardi (Empoli, 2M), Haitam Alesaami (Chievo, loan 300K), Nunzio Montapetro (Empoli, 50K), Mirko Gallo (Alto Adige, loan), Ilija Nesterovski (Chievo,loan 375K).

 

That opened up slots for:   

Marcelo Trotta (Sassuolo, 475K), Raoul Bellanova (Milan, 25K loan), Daniel Bessa (Verona, 2.5M), Riccardo Saponara (Fiorentina, 200K loan), Andrea Favilli (Juventus, 1.1M), Alessandro Murgia (Lazio, 400K loan)

 

Trotta managed to opened his goalscoring account with 2 goals in 5 games, while the big man Favilli is yet to score in 7 games, but I'm not giving up on him yet. Raoul Bellanova came from Milan on loan to provide cover on the right back, while Bessa and Murgia come with a very vital part in midfield. Saponara is probably going to be a full-time Palermo player next season, as he's scoring for fun, regardless if I use him on the wings or up front!

 

On transfer deadline day, Inter met the 11.25M release clause that Angileri had, but I offered him a massive contract increase, and he renewed his deal with us. Also Roma stole our AssMan for 875K, so enter Davide Succi as his replacement.

The youth intake wasn't as impressive as last year, and only Carlo Volpes and Filippo Iovino were the standout prodegees. 

 

The league table looks like this. Roma, Juventus and Milan all changed coaches, but only Zidane at Juventus has seen an improvement. Fixtures-wise, we are enjoying a steady spell which sees our team actually fighting for a EU spot! 

[JohanCruyff#14]

My career at Genoa was shortlived resigned in Dec 2019 just shy of a year in charge. Chairman made it clear leave of be pushed so I chose to bow out gracefully. It's April 2020, and I'm almost a month into my new role at Lazio. Sitting 10th and unbeaten my first 3 games. Riding out the rest of the season as best I can so I can overhaul the squad, which is resembling an old folks home at the moment. Hopefully some of the youth prospects are worth bringing through. 

[Trent71]

Two points difference across 6th and 11th place...how's that for hot pursuit for the EU places?

While the rich are getting poorer (are they really?), the small clubs like ourselves and Pescara enjoy quite a good boost. Juventus, Lazio and Roma are quite on the downhill.

It was a season for awards and the future is not just bright, it's spectacular! Magri claimed U17 defender, A. Gallo U19 Best Defender, D'Amico U19 best midfielder and Da Graca U17 best forward!

The race for the EU places came down to the last match - as it was the champion title for that matter! We went away in a tough match against Udinese, and even though our team was impacted by international callups (5-6 players were away with the Italy U20 team), the remaining players collected a spectacular 0:3 win, but only for us to realize... We have played and completed our season, but half of the Serie A has NOT! This is completely shambolic! In the end, Napoli managed to maintain their first position ahead of Juventus, becoming champions - Pep Guardiola really did well. 

It was a nervy week to wait for the final table, but we qualified for the EURO Cup!

The budgets for next season and we were also voted best team in Serie A!

 

Chochev was the first player with a contract deal at 20K, as he's been the most consistent performer for our team and Balogh followed with a new deal at the end of the campaign. 

 

As with many other clubs, the loaned out/sold players list was quite impressive...

 

 

Puscas (Rostock, free), Corentin Fiore (Foggia, free), Radoslaw Murawski (Parma, free), Agustino Rizzo (Cosenza, 200K loan), Raimondo Lucera (Ascoli, 220K loan), Samuele Guddo (Padova, 200K loan),  Francesco Bonfiglio (Salernitana, 110K loan), Erik Gerbi (Siena, loan), Andrea Favilli (Crotone, 200K loan), Josip Posavec (Bologna, 2.5M loan), Ciro Sicuro (Cremonese, 200K loan), Gabriel Buorganzoni (Citadella, 200K loan), Danilo Ambro (Spezia, 200K loan), Calogero Minacori (Potenza, loan), Antonio Fiordilino (Cagliari, 6M Euro), Ivan de Stefano (Empoli, 200K loan), Victor de Lucia (Padova, 205K), Andrea Rispoli (Chievo, 1.5M), Ilija Nesterovski (Osijek, 1.3M), Andrea Adorante (Alto Adige, loan), Ze Maria (Maritimo, 400K loan), Davide Ghislandi (Vicenza, loan), Mattia Zaccagni (Crotone, 600K loan), Haitam Aleesami (Hacken, 375K).

 

Basically, we gave out a lot of youths on loan, most of them for our financial benefit too, and we managed to sell off players that weren't as good last season - Fiodrilino doesn't really have what it takes to get to the next level, so we sold him to Cagliari, while Rispoli doesn't make the grade for Serie A and was bang average last season, hence his move to relegated Chievo. Nesterovski and Aleesami also weren't of use to us anymore, as I further infest the team with Italian-born players.

 

Transfers In: 

Alessandro Rossi (Lazio, free) - the talented forward can help on any side of the wings and the center, so he can be quite useful.

Emanuele Suagher (Atalanta, free) - quite the useful defender came for free after his contract expired. 

Guilio Maggiore (Spezia, free) - one of the young key players in Spezia's side wanted to move on to bigger and better things and hopefully he can make the jump to Serie A.

Riccardo Saponara (Fiorentina, 2M) - he impressed on his loan, so it was a no-brainer to buy him out permanently.

Emanuel Vignato (Chievo, 8.75M) - with Chievo relegating, his release clause activated, so even though I'm rarely one for big buys, I felt like we needed to make this deal. One of the brightest talents in Italian football.

Alessandro Confente (Chievo, 2.2M) - another player with a relegation release clause, for some reason he was backup! Will be used rotation system with Alastra. 

Raoul Bellanova (AC Milan, loan 50K) - Raoul really enjoyed his loan spell with us and we became a fav team of his, so obviously he's back once more to provide depth at the right back.

Paolo Ghiglione (Genoa, 2.4M) - the right back comes at a knock-down price due to him being transferlisted. Hopefully he'll be more impressive than Rispoli was.

Marco Perrotta (Pescara, 2M) - the central defenders is going to be back up on course of the season. 

 

 

That brings us to...Palermo, season 2020/2021:

Goalkeepers: Fabrizio Alastra, Alessandro Confente

Defenders: Paolo Ghiglione, Ivo Quaranta, Antony Angileri, Antonino Gallo, Marco Perrotta, Guilio Magri, Emanuel Suagher, Raoul Bellanova

Midfielders: Daniel Bessa, Gennaro Ruggiero, Ivaylo Chochev, Guilio Maggiore, Filippo Rannochia, Luigi Mendola, Romaric

Wingers & Forwards: Norbert Balogh, Riccardo Saponara, Emanuel Vignato, Simone Lo Faso, Alessandro Rossi, Cosimo Marco da Graca

 

Hmm...this could be BIG IF TRUE!

 

[Bigpapa42]

Haven't managed in Italy in a really long time, so I decided to give it a try on FM19. First attempt was Atalanta - they seem like a fun club, but I was overwhelmed by the amount of 4-5 star prospects they have, and I made it worse by adding a couple more. Then I started up a save with Fiorentina and it started reasonably well, but felt like they were too stacked with talent and it was making it a bit too easy. So then for no particular reason, I tried out Genoa. 

Made it to mid-November and we are sitting near the top of the table, but that's helped by having played only a couple of the big clubs. The real problem I'm running into is the sheer number of players on First Team status. Which has led to a lot of them complaining about playing time. I tend to rotate but actually feel like I've given less matches to the younger players than I typically would. But the vets are being greedy. And it doesn't help that so many of them are on big money (for the club, at least) contracts, many of which run for another couple of years.  Yet the players are already on decline and demanding more playing time. Not saying its totally unrealistic or wouldn't happen, but its just worse than I typically face at most clubs and its undermining my interest in the save. 

Think a post-update Genoa might be more interesting. 

[Trent71]

Well, this changes things

[Gungner]

Was just wondering... Isn't there a transfer-rule in Serie B? Quite sure there is, but can't remember what it is? Something like Serie B teams are not allowed to sign players from abroad?

[ParanoidBuddha]

4 ore fa, Gungner ha scritto:

Was just wondering... Isn't there a transfer-rule in Serie B? Quite sure there is, but can't remember what it is? Something like Serie B teams are not allowed to sign players from abroad?

They can't sign players non-EU (then not all strangers) that don't play already in Italy with a professional contract

[Gungner]

So, they can't sign non-EU players from abroad? Thanks 

[ParanoidBuddha]

52 minuti fa, Gungner ha scritto:

So, they can't sign non-EU players from abroad? Thanks 

Exactly  If nothing changed last couple of months should be like that

[Kevmcc87]

Finally caved in and bought the game. I swear this game is more addictive than crack. Decided on Inter for my first save after not having managed them on the past few editions. Martinez was a big reason for this, he was one of my go-to buys the past few years and since he signed for Inter, it seemed like a good starting point. Having him and Icardi in the same team, I didn't want either sitting on the bench so wanted 2 up top. Having no experience of the ME, I am using a plug and play 424 tactic from knap so all my success is really down to him. I just don't really have the time anymore to develop my own tactics anymore unfortunately. Gone are the days when I can spend 7 or 8 hours a day on FM. Real life sucks.

So here's the tactic I'm using atm.

And the results have been nothing short of spectacular 

The goals are flying in and not just from the strikers, everyone is chipping in. Candreva has been an absolute beast for assists averaging an assist per game pretty much.

Only made 2 signings at the start of season, Marin and Tonali. Marin has been getting some game time but Tonali went back to Brescia on loan. Due to how well we are performing, I can see me getting bored of this save pretty quickly especially as according to financial projection I'm gonna have 50mil+ to spend in the summer. For that reason, I've decided to put a restriction on my signings. Only Italian and Argentinian players will be getting signed. Hopefully by the end of the 3rd season I'll have a fully ItalArgy team. Will do another update at the end of the season. 

[Trent71]

Kevin Cannavo, the kid we sold to Roma, wasn't really going anywhere, so when this clause became available to buy, I didn't hesitate to go for it. Santoro has been a similiar case, rotting away in their reserves, so I gladly took some more money off their hands.

 

Here's the tycoon introduction!

And how the transfer window went overall - Inter, as always, sucked on the transfer market, losing Skriniar and Icardi and signing Ziech (42M) and Benzema (43M) instead. We made one last bit of business Federico Dimarco was available for the mere 1.2M and I quickly moved to rob Inter off him. With three options now at the left back, Magri moved to Empoli on loan for 400K - in just one season he'll cover the 300K we spent for his initial transfer!   Guiseppe Caponi was the first deal during our tycoon days, as we got the newgen from Perugia for 400K. Marcelo Trotta was loaned out to Bologna for 700K and Mario Correnti went to gain experience at Ternana.

 

One of my top priorities - Davide Calabria had an offer from Bayern for 21M, so we matched the bid and arranged his transfer for the end of the season, which will make him the highest payed (for now) Palermo player at 55K Euro per week. On course of the season I'll continue to make a few more deals for the next campaign to bolster the squad and take full advantage of our new spending power.

 

Results-wise we've been steady and we're looking good in the league table also - on course for the Europa League places 

 

Vignato has been great spearheading the attack, with Rossi and Saponara equally impressing on the flanks. Chochev and Bessa have formed a great partnership in midfield, while Dimarco's stats are nothing short of spectacular - 6 games, 3 goals and 3 assists, including one very important screamer against Sparta Prague that sealed our qualification to the group stage. 

 

And we arranged one more name for next season, as Atalanta's Gianluca Mancini will join in a 9M Euro deal! 

 

[bangkonggedek]

Bloody hell, just realized that Santoro is 104kg there! That's a bit, uh... fat I guess

[Trent71]

1 hour ago, bangkonggedek said:

Bloody hell, just realized that Santoro is 104kg there! That's a bit, uh... fat I guess

Haha, realized the same! Went to the first screenshot at the start of the game to see he's 100kg there, so obviously in his Roma days he's...improving

 

Btw, anyone else get a Freddie Mercury-vibe from Palermo's HoYD? Or is it just me?

 

[Kevmcc87]

Probably never get a better chance at winning the Champions League than this

[Vizzini]

Just took over at Juventus for what seems to be quite the rebuild. I agreed a contract to take over in June 2023, and during the summer I added namely a first choice CB (regen Zoppi) from Lazio for around 50 million pounds.

As you can see Sandro, Pjanic, Dybala and Costa's contract is up in the summer and all of them except Dybala (who has refused to sign a new contract) are about to go past their prime. Obviously I will not have the money to sign replacements for all of them at once, so my plan is to phase them out slowly over the next couple of seasons.

The reserves are lacking in talent so I will have to employ my scouts to find replacements. Lefebre will probably replace Douglas Costa in the attacking areas, but I will have to shop for a new LB (WB-S) and MC (DLP-S). Hopefully I can keep hold of Dybala, but time is running out, and right now it is a game of poker in terms of who flinches first.

Edit: First international break and Dybala wants a meeting...

...Anyone been successful in convincing a player to stay after getting this message?

Edited February 21, 2019 by Vizzini

[JohanCruyff#14]

Made it through to the end of the season with the Biancocelesti, and set about overhauling the team. The biggest problem with Lazio in the summer of 2020 is that the majority of their key players are the wrong side of 30, and the squad requires a major overhaul. But before I began that process I had to factor in the club philosophies that I had agreed to. 

Club Philosophies

• Play attacking football
• Develop players using the youth system

Milinković-Savić had already been moved on prior to me taking over with the too best assets remaining being Luis Alberto and Ciro Immobile. With interest in both, I decided to sacrifice one of them. In the end it was Luis Alberto who secured a potential $50million move to Juventus. The rest of my efforts have been centered around trimming as many of the over-30s as possible. Dusan Basta retired and joined the U-18s coaching staff. Most of the others have been listed or moved on already, with the exceptions of Senad Lulic and Stefan Radu who given 1 year extensions so they would be available as mentors, as was Lucas Leiva. Francesco Acerbi is the only player who has raised any hell about being listed and there was some minor dissent that was quelled during a team meeting.

So far only players have been brought in. Mateo Musacchio and Santiago Arias from Milan and Atletico Madrid respectively arrived on pre-arranged deals that were part of their loan agreements. Both fit the general mould of what I look for in every signing, (strong Determination, Teamwork, and Workrate) so they'll suffice in the short term. I also brought in Thiago's brother Rafinha on a free from Barcelona, which was a steal.

The board have kept up their end of the bargain in regards to the Youth Development by funding improvements to youth facilities, increasing the junior coaching budget, and expanding youth recruitment so it's up to me to begin introducing some of the better prospects into the first team. The following showed a lot of promise in pre-season, so it will be interesting to see what some competitive exposure will do for them.

Alessio Furlanetto

Nicolo Armini

Donatello Borghi

Giuseppe Castagna

The two newgens have me particularly excited so it will be interesting to see how they develop. 

I still have a few of the old timers to offload, and am not too hopeful of getting that done prior to the end of the transfer window, but we'll see, also hoping to bring in a centerback and a striker as we're a bit light in that department.

 

 

[Gungner]

On 20/02/2019 at 20:52, Trent71 said:

Haha, realized the same! Went to the first screenshot at the start of the game to see he's 100kg there, so obviously in his Roma days he's...improving

 

Btw, anyone else get a Freddie Mercury-vibe from Palermo's HoYD? Or is it just me?

 

I'm getting more of a Jeff Goldblum vibe there :P

[Gungner]

Decided to start up a Roma save, and my first four league fixtures are: Juventus (A), Inter (H), Lazio (A) and Milan (A) 

Wonder if I'll get fired with 0 points after 4 games?

[Kevmcc87]

End of Season Review

 

So my first season with Inter has ended and by and large, it's been an absolutely stupendous success. Had to do some loans in December for backup so here's the winter transfer dealings.

Won Serie A at a canter. No one could stand up to the 424 and the combined prowess of Icardi and Martinez who scored a combined 59 league goals. It's the first time in years that I've played with 2 up top and it worked wonders all season long. Candreva should also be mentioned as his 30 assists in all competitions was a key reason my strikers scored so much. Nainggolan, Peresic and Candreva all got into double figures for goals as well which delighted me.

Got to the final of the Champions League after dispatching Real Madrid, Bayern and PSV on route to come up against Real's neighbours in the final. After winning the Serie A and Coppa Italia, could I match Mourinho and win the treble. Turns out, no.

Gutted doesn't even begin to cover it. The reason Icardi was still on the park after such an abject performance was for his penalty skills, which unfortunately never entered the equation. Always next year though.

So, onto next season. I know in my previous post I said I was only going to sign Italian or Argentinian players but I have decided to add Croatian players to the group also. 2 reasons for this, 1. Inter has had a history of good Croatian players like Perisic, Brozovic, Kovacic, Dario Simic etc, and 2. I really, really want to make Vrsaljko's stay permanent. i also signed Marin at the start of the first season before I decided on restrictions and this legitimates that. Kinda, well in my eyes at least lol. Vrsaljko will be joined next year by my 2 marquee signings.....

Only problem I have right now is decided what to do with this man....

He had my highest average rating of all players last season, but he's 30 now so do I cash in or get rid of Dalbert? Dalbert imo is good enough for Serie A and DiMarco is coming back to the club to be understudy to one of them and I just feel this would be the last chance to get serious money for a 30 yo player who arrived on a free last season. Does anyone have any experience selling him and what kind of price I could be expecting?

Edited February 22, 2019 by Kevmcc87

[Trent71]

3 hours ago, Gungner said:

I'm getting more of a Jeff Goldblum vibe there :P

Haha, could be!

 

7 minutes ago, Gungner said:

Decided to start up a Roma save, and my first four league fixtures are: Juventus (A), Inter (H), Lazio (A) and Milan (A) 

Wonder if I'll get fired with 0 points after 4 games?

Both Milan and Roma languished in the bottom part of the table for about 15-18 games before switching coaches in the past season, if that helps 

 

One thing I forgot to mention is that once the tycoon took over, I was swift to renew all the key player's contracts - Ruggiero, Chochev, Lo Faso, Angileri all signed new lucrative deals, and after Vignato scored 8 goals in 10 games, so did he, as his contract was boosted from 13K per week to 30K per week! 

 

I was expecting somewhen in November/December the tycoon to give us a bit more spending power and he did, but he was a bit cheap about it. 

 

Across the competitions, we're going steady and on course. I'll look to trim the squad in January of 2-3 players and bring new faces, but it's going to be much less drastic than last year same time. Here are the fixtures. Our top performances were a 3:0 trashing of Roma, a 2:0 win against Napoli (against whom we're 3 for 3!!!) and our worst has to be the 0:3 home defeat against Fiorentina, when we just couldn't get going at all. 

 

Newgens Vitagliano, Billi, Moroni and Manfre have all been introduced to the first team squad on course of the season and have been getting into action, specially in the Euro Cup games. All look promising and I'm upbeat about their development. For Billi especially, I was rejecting 10M+ Euro offers even before he made an official appearance!

[Trent71]

In the January transfer window, we brought a handful of reinforcements for the youth teams - Gianluca Di Pietro from Atalanta for 1.1M Euro, De Bernardo (Salernitana, 200K) and Endro Panelli from Samp for 2M.  The first team was boosted by the familiar face of Murgia who once more came in on loan with the option to buy, along with Nicola Sansone, who joins from Atalanta on loan to bolster our options on the wing.

 

Norberth Balogh departed for Middlesbrough for 7M Euro, as his return of 1 goal and 2 assists in about 20 games was pretty abysmal, while Luigi Mendola finally joined Roma for the hefty sum of 5.75M. I dunno why Roma kept their interest in Luigi all this time, his performance was average at best and he never amounted to anything. Romaric was loaned out to Genoa and Filippo Rannochia joined SPAL on loan.

 

Before brining in Sansone, I wanted to get Orsolini from Juventus, but I suffered a heartbraking reject, as Udinese offered him 25K above the wage I proposed! Meanwhile, Chochev became an Italian citizen (not really sure what's to gain from that?), and we came crashing out of the Europa League in the most outrageous fashion...

 

We managed to rally after bowing out of Europe and we defeated Milan in the Semifinals, with none other to be the key man, but for the Milan prodegee himself! A bit of poetic justice, I suppose

Then the youth intake came along, not being all much impressive, but still - Carini, Luca Bruno and Davide Persiani could possibly make the grade one day.

 

And as the season progressed, we found ourselves battling out for 2nd place with Inter! It also came along with a few changes in the squad, as Bessa wasn't doing much in midfield, while Maggiore, the kid who came from the 3rd tier, not only provided assists, but scored quite a few goals from midfield too! I'm still not quite convinced on Lo Faso, as the homegrown winger can remain quiet for a lot of games - still, he shows glimpses of his quality, hence why he's still part of the team. Since joining, Sansone has slotted straight away and is impressing, but I'll be thinking over in the summer if the 29yo deserves to be signed full-time. 

 

The league table looks really good, specially since it comes of the back of a 4:0 trashing of Juve, as Ronaldo saw red after half hour! 

 

 

[JohanCruyff#14]

Well back to the drawing board it is, fell victim to a corrupt save game. Definitely going to fire up another Italian save, but was enjoying the game I was playing. But do I fire one up immediately or wait until the transfer window update gets released?

[Gungner]

That's up to you... I never play with updated transferwindows, as I feel they're unrealistic. January transfers magically appears before the season. Don't like it. 

[Gungner]

So my AC Milan save went corrupt, and I started another one. Last time I asked more money for wages, and they accepted. This time I asked again, using the exact same reasons, but was rejected... What's up with that? Is it pre-determined when the save is being created?

[ParanoidBuddha]

5 ore fa, JohanCruyff#14 ha scritto:

Well back to the drawing board it is, fell victim to a corrupt save game. Definitely going to fire up another Italian save, but was enjoying the game I was playing. But do I fire one up immediately or wait until the transfer window update gets released?

I'm waiting even because there will be even attributes updates!

[JohanCruyff#14]

7 hours ago, ParanoidBuddha said:

I'm waiting even because there will be even attributes updates!

That was my thinking

[ParanoidBuddha]

1 ora fa, JohanCruyff#14 ha scritto:

That was my thinking

Just 1 week left more or less  

[Gungner]

Can you still select not to use the update when starting a new save? 

[Marius_R]

4 minutes ago, Gungner said:

Can you still select not to use the update when starting a new save? 

Yes, just select the database you want.

[Trent71]

We made a great 16-match unbeaten run, and it's great news that we are the most profitable Italian club, while Roma and Juventus are on the other end of the scale. 

 

The cup was ours after a hard-fought final against Juventus, which we won 2:1! The financial benefits from winning it were pretty good too! In the league, we finished at solid 4th and I guess Arsene Wenger would be proud, as we achieved a Champions League place. Last year's champions Napoli had a horrendous season and missed out on the EU places altogether, while Torino relegated and we scooped no less than 4 of their players, but more on that later.

 

The player stats can be seen here, there and also in this bit. Chochev recieved the Serie A Player of the Year award, which is a great feat for the team leader. It's also worth noting our budgets for next campaign. 

 

Berardi was another big-name signing for Palermo in the beginning of season 2021/2022

 

 

For the first team, we now made significant improvements with the signings of Marco Tumminello (Atalanta, free), Stefano Sturaro (Juventus, free), Daniele Baselli (Torino, 3.2M), Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo, 15.75M), Gianluca Mancini (Atalanta, 9M) and Davide Calabria (AC Milan, 18.75M). 

The U20 and U18 teams were also boosted with talent, as Federico Somma (Torino, 2.6M), Isame Repetto (Entella, 800K), Luca Biglieri (Torino, 625K), Guiseppe Russo (Chievo, 900K), Simone Scavo (Torino, 750K) and Ivan Michelotti (Chievo, 1.5M) all joined. 

 

With 6 new players in the first team, this is the expected look of our starting 11 for the upcoming season. Pretty exciting days ahead! Cosimo Marco da Graca moves on the right wing to make way for Tumminello, as Cosimo continued being inconsistent spearheading the attack - a move on the right seems logical, considering his bags of pace. 

 

The offloaded players list will be in the next post, but I just wanted to mention how nice it is to take easy money from loan deals...  

[zlatanera]

So, a brief look at my saves on FM19 so far...

River Plate - quit mid-way through 4th season

Man Utd - quit mid-way through 3rd season

Dortmund - quit early 3rd season

Ajax - quit at end of 3rd season

Conclusion - my saves have the same lifespan as a Jose Mourinho regime at a football club. 

So, I've decided to go for a 3 season save with Inter. I'll be using my Jardim 442 tactic in order to get the best out of Icardi up top, I've disabled first window transfer budgets as I'm not familiar with the squad due to all the player turnover at Inter since the aforementioned Portuguese manager left. 

[zlatanera]

So...got all the way to the first day of the season, Mauro Icardi out for 6 months. Screw that. 

[Trent71]

Before the transfer window shut, we loaned in Emerson from Arsenal, at the rather cheaply price of covering only 19k of his wages! I'm not all that fond of his speed, though, so he'll be performing in midfield, even though he doesn't have the knowledge for it - I'm hoping he'll gain it on course of the season, as I'm pretty happy with the talent on the wingbacks. We also got Davide Gabrielli from Udinese for 625K, as Torino looked to spend the millions we gave them for their players, but we managed to beat them to get the talented Davide

 

The outgoing deals can be seen here, with a vast majority of the loans out and then some more loans. 

 

The season started in the most bizarre of fashion - Calabria was bang average, Berardi has been spending all of his time in the doctor's office - all in all until November - 1 game and 3 injuries! Absolutely devastated with this. Berardi's understudy - Vitagliano has played in 10 games and scored 4 in his stead. Vignato didn't feel like scoring in about 7-8 games, which left me stranded for goals, We also have a bit of a dissappointment in Stefano Sturaro, as he's just about average with the only certaintly of his performance being a yellow card. Also this news outlet was an interesting bit when Alastra got injured. 

 

With that being said, after a shaky start of results, we finally got a grip, as we're currently on a run of 6 games without conceding in Serie A, as the league table stood like this and our CL group seemed rather tough. Luckily for us, we made some blistering magic against Bayern, winning 3:0 in Italy and scraping a goal in injury-time in Germany, as we were even down to 10 men on the pitch!  Those four CL games played made sure that we're the first team to qualify for the knockout stages. Special mention this campaign has to go to Alessandro Rossi, who started with 6 goals in 9 games from the right wing, which is pretty impressive, specially since last season's top striker stop scoring! 

 

[john1]

On 22/02/2019 at 06:07, Kevmcc87 said:

End of Season Review

 

So my first season with Inter has ended and by and large, it's been an absolutely stupendous success. Had to do some loans in December for backup so here's the winter transfer dealings.

Won Serie A at a canter. No one could stand up to the 424 and the combined prowess of Icardi and Martinez who scored a combined 59 league goals. It's the first time in years that I've played with 2 up top and it worked wonders all season long. Candreva should also be mentioned as his 30 assists in all competitions was a key reason my strikers scored so much. Nainggolan, Peresic and Candreva all got into double figures for goals as well which delighted me.

Got to the final of the Champions League after dispatching Real Madrid, Bayern and PSV on route to come up against Real's neighbours in the final. After winning the Serie A and Coppa Italia, could I match Mourinho and win the treble. Turns out, no.

Gutted doesn't even begin to cover it. The reason Icardi was still on the park after such an abject performance was for his penalty skills, which unfortunately never entered the equation. Always next year though.

So, onto next season. I know in my previous post I said I was only going to sign Italian or Argentinian players but I have decided to add Croatian players to the group also. 2 reasons for this, 1. Inter has had a history of good Croatian players like Perisic, Brozovic, Kovacic, Dario Simic etc, and 2. I really, really want to make Vrsaljko's stay permanent. i also signed Marin at the start of the first season before I decided on restrictions and this legitimates that. Kinda, well in my eyes at least lol. Vrsaljko will be joined next year by my 2 marquee signings.....

Only problem I have right now is decided what to do with this man....

He had my highest average rating of all players last season, but he's 30 now so do I cash in or get rid of Dalbert? Dalbert imo is good enough for Serie A and DiMarco is coming back to the club to be understudy to one of them and I just feel this would be the last chance to get serious money for a 30 yo player who arrived on a free last season. Does anyone have any experience selling him and what kind of price I could be expecting?

Fantastic season Shame Asamoah got sent off in CL Final  

[john1]

Great to see this thread getting stronger  Haven;t been playing FM due to work being busy  Going to fire up my Torino save

[mrgreenze]

Yep, once the winter transfer patch is available I'm off to Sampdoria. 

[Gungner]

8 hours ago, Trent71 said:

Before the transfer window shut, we loaned in Emerson from Arsenal, at the rather cheaply price of covering only 19k of his wages! I'm not all that fond of his speed, though, so he'll be performing in midfield, even though he doesn't have the knowledge for it - I'm hoping he'll gain it on course of the season, as I'm pretty happy with the talent on the wingbacks. We also got Davide Gabrielli from Udinese for 625K, as Torino looked to spend the millions we gave them for their players, but we managed to beat them to get the talented Davide

 

The outgoing deals can be seen here, with a vast majority of the loans out and then some more loans. 

 

The season started in the most bizarre of fashion - Calabria was bang average, Berardi has been spending all of his time in the doctor's office - all in all until November - 1 game and 3 injuries! Absolutely devastated with this. Berardi's understudy - Vitagliano has played in 10 games and scored 4 in his stead. Vignato didn't feel like scoring in about 7-8 games, which left me stranded for goals, We also have a bit of a dissappointment in Stefano Sturaro, as he's just about average with the only certaintly of his performance being a yellow card. Also this news outlet was an interesting bit when Alastra got injured. 

 

With that being said, after a shaky start of results, we finally got a grip, as we're currently on a run of 6 games without conceding in Serie A, as the league table stood like this and our CL group seemed rather tough. Luckily for us, we made some blistering magic against Bayern, winning 3:0 in Italy and scraping a goal in injury-time in Germany, as we were even down to 10 men on the pitch!  Those four CL games played made sure that we're the first team to qualify for the knockout stages. Special mention this campaign has to go to Alessandro Rossi, who started with 6 goals in 9 games from the right wing, which is pretty impressive, specially since last season's top striker stop scoring! 

 

Any reason you're only buying italians? Not a critisism, just wondering, as I would never be able to go down that route 

[ParanoidBuddha]

Who do you expect/want will get an update?

[bangkonggedek]

9 minutes ago, ParanoidBuddha said:

Who do you expect/want will get an update?

Well, there's a boatload of comically overweight players in the Italian database that might need to be looked at, which I refuse to believe to be accurate

[ParanoidBuddha]

5 minuti fa, bangkonggedek ha scritto:

Well, there's a boatload of comically overweight players in the Italian database that might need to be looked at, which I refuse to believe to be accurate

Ahahah Yes, I reported it already in the beta and in theory it should be fixed  The funniest is Hamed Junior Traorè that in reality is skinny but in fm he weights 100kg  

[Kevmcc87]

2 hours ago, john1 said:

Fantastic season Shame Asamoah got sent off in CL Final  

Cheers. Yeah, Asamoah getting sent off was one of the reasons I let him go. That, and getting £75 mil for a player we signed on a free a year previously. This is basically my first save of this game but it seems like top teams are paying crazy money for players in their 30's. Is this happening in other peoples saves as well. 

[ParanoidBuddha]

52 minuti fa, ParanoidBuddha ha scritto:

The funniest is Hamed Junior Traorè that in reality is skinny but in fm he weights 100kg  

Solved  

[Trent71]

2 hours ago, Gungner said:

Any reason you're only buying italians? Not a critisism, just wondering, as I would never be able to go down that route 

In my teens, on earlier CM/FMs, I always went on such sprees that I'd eventually get about 4-5 equally strong players for each position, which often led me to being disillusioned and uninterested in pursuing the save further. As years went by and the YDWAWK challenge started (or at least I came to learn about it), I embraced that philosophy, along with the homegrown approach. It brings additional joy to my savegames, and it quickens the pace of it, as it tones down transfer dealings to a list of 60-70 prospects and I no longer wonder if I should sign that insane Brazilian or Serbian newgen on a free.

[Gungner]

So you never sign  anyone that's not Italian?

[Trent71]

@Gungner In this save atm, no. At one point I can decide to limit myself to three foreigners in the squad, should Italy fail to provide decent enough talents - but with newgens each year and quite a decent pool of players to begin with, I hardly think that may be necessary.

 

I go for local players in every nation I manage, almost all of my saves  

[Gungner]

@Trent71 That's fair enough  I could never play that way, as I'd find it extremely boring to be limited... But luckily we all play the game differently, and that's why it's fun to hear everyone else's stories

[ParanoidBuddha]

Romero got a very huge attributes upgrade. Did you notice some other player (in Italy) that improved a lot with this update?

Edited March 1, 2019 by ParanoidBuddha

[john1]

3 hours ago, Trent71 said:

@Gungner In this save atm, no. At one point I can decide to limit myself to three foreigners in the squad, should Italy fail to provide decent enough talents - but with newgens each year and quite a decent pool of players to begin with, I hardly think that may be necessary.

 

I go for local players in every nation I manage, almost all of my saves  

That's impressive! I tends to say I will do only nationally players from team I am managing in same country but it goes out of the window when I see decent players from different countries and ends up signing them.

[zlatanera]

6 hours ago, Trent71 said:

@Gungner In this save atm, no. At one point I can decide to limit myself to three foreigners in the squad, should Italy fail to provide decent enough talents - but with newgens each year and quite a decent pool of players to begin with, I hardly think that may be necessary.

 

I go for local players in every nation I manage, almost all of my saves  

That's similar to how I often play. For example, on the last FM I was Milan and tried to instigate the three foreigners rule. When managing Sassuolo a while back I latched onto some comments from De Francesco about how they only signed foreigners when they couldn't find an Italian player who was just as good - ended up with a very Italian squad too.

On the other hand, if I'm managing Inter I'd try to sign as many foreigners as I can get away with under CL registration limits.

[bangkonggedek]

7 hours ago, ParanoidBuddha said:

Romero got a very huge attributes upgrade. Did you notice some other player (in Italy) that improved a lot with this update?

Acerbi finally got his long overdue boost to his Natural Fitness, Pavoletti now pretty much the master of accurate headers, Zaniolo have improved very nicely overall and a much more combative presence in the midfield, Quagliarella now is a Born Leader (20 Determination and Leadership) as well as 3 points boost to Decisions (which should means his CA has been bumped up quite alot)

...and Lykogiannis got a whooping 10 points boost to his Crossing (it was only a diabolical 3 before, lol).

By the way, at long last they've corrected Koulibaly's height