The Italian Job! Italian league thread is here!

[ajt]

What a lovely intro! I like the the ultras photo  Looks like a nice team to choose, makes me a bit envious that I didn't start off with a lower league team.

That striker from Savona looks like he could play in Serie B from what I've seen, good luck for next season 

 

[john1]

Loving the write up @Creativity Hopefully you can carry on with that form into second part of the season  

[Werrett]

Frosinone Calcio

Been a hot minute since my last post updating you on the first half of the 2019/20 season where we left you amidst a battle for the top 6. Fast forward to today and I'm delighted to be able to let you all know that we clinched a top 4 finish on the final day of the season, the same game-week where we missed out on top 4 last season. Nothing but relief! Frosinone Calcio have qualified for the UEFA Champions League 2020/21! The second half of the season was amazing.

For those of you who don't want to read into much detail but want the screenshots, here's an overview of the competitions for the 2019/20 season. 

Serie A: A very impressive campaign which followed directly on from the foundations we put in place last season. Ironically, despite a switch to a slightly more offensive 442 system we scored less goals (45) than last season (46) but conceded only 24 in comparison to the 30 goals we shipped last year. The defensive core of this team is outstanding and is something I look to keep in place next year, familiarity is certainly key in this regard. Looking on the other end of the spectrum, going forwards I'd like us to be finding the net more often. We were very reliant this year on Pinamonti and Fernandez who scored 14 and 7 league goals respectively with few goals coming from the wings; as such this is certainly an area I would like to improve on. This is the second consecutive season where one player has carried us with goal-scoring ability, a successful habit, but a dangerous one. However, 19 wins, 13 draws and 6 defeats is an incredible season! Inter Milan retained their status as Champions.

Europa League: A strong 4-0 away win at Shakhtar Donetsk saw us overcome the 2-2 draw at home, which at the time was an extremely disappointing result. Following this draw we comfortably moved past Anderlecht before falling victim to familiar opposition in AC Milan, Divock Origi proving to be a right pain in our backside. Overall, I'm very happy with this level of progression, it was our first taste of European Football and I'm sure we did Frosinone fans everywhere very proud! Barcelona lifted the trophy, beating Manchester United 3-1 in the final.

TIM Cup: A 1st round knockout last year was outdone as we managed to battle our way right through to the semi-finals where we were hammered away at the Olimpico by AS Roma. This was the second competition we exited in the same week which was tough to take, but we kept our league form going and as such I can have no complaints here. Fingers crossed we reach a final next year! Inter eventually ran out cup and league double winners after beating Roma 1-0 in extra-time.

In terms of the playing squad, here is an overview of the players listed via position. Pinamonti was instrumental to our success having bagged 24 goals in all competitions while Fernandez topped the assist charts with 9. CCaptain Capuano maintained a 7.29 average rating across 34 appearances to cement himself as an absolute legend in my eyes; I love a solid central defender!

Looking forwards...

The board have set us an initial budget of £29.88m to invest in the squad, hardly a surprise when our finances look so healthy. We know that facility upgrades are coming but will look to improve in other areas; particularly staff as many of these contracts expire come the end of June. Last season we had a lot of loan signings (albeit fewer than the year before) and hopefully we can secure some of these players on long-term deals. Elsewhere we will simply be scouting far and wide to find the best and cheapest talent possible as we look forward to our first taste of the UEFA Champions League.

 

Tactical tweaks, signings and more to come in the next update. Forza Frosinone!

 

P.S. Here's a look at the goal that saw us past SPAL 2-1 on the Final day of the season. The Champions League goal!

 

[Constantine]

Having a few days off, so my boredom took its toll. Despite having a save already, one with Birmingham, i decided to start another one in Italy and switch between them. So i picked up mantle at Foggia Calcio. Serie B. Starting with a minus 6 points (financial mismanagement). And cherry on top, two of my best players are injured.

It's gonna be fun...

League Table

Squad

Iemmello and Deli

Some insane tactical setup (Talked it out with my mates, had to try it out in FM)

[Werrett]

Risks have been taken. The board set us 30m to spend but following a couple of sales and a couple of installment signings we've splashed almost 45m on new players. We can't afford to go back to being a top-half team and need to cement our position as a top 6 team. Will the gamble pay off? Only time will tell! 

 

Pinamonti was secured on another season long loan, this time with an optional 10m future fee.

Edited July 11, 2019 by Werrett

[Creativity]

On 10/07/2019 at 12:35, ajt said:

What a lovely intro! I like the the ultras photo  Looks like a nice team to choose, makes me a bit envious that I didn't start off with a lower league team.

That striker from Savona looks like he could play in Serie B from what I've seen, good luck for next season 

 

Cheers  Yeah, I like teams that a little bit of history but have failed to get anywhere near matching it. Casale FC is quite fun, money isn't crazy in Italy like England, so should stay challenging building them up.

Yeah he looks great, its a long shot tempting him though, hoping Savona don't go up. 

17 hours ago, john1 said:

Loving the write up @Creativity Hopefully you can carry on with that form into second part of the season  

Cheers man  

[ajt]

Nice one Werrett that goal is a proper screamer!

Enjoy Tonali I see he's gone for a ridiculously small fee as per usual

 

[andrewsgn]

I've never managed in italy before but am starting a save with Milan. What's the story with the U20/U18 teams? Milan has a lot of players at both levels but most of the U20 players are out on loan. What squad sizes do you recommend for each level? Will U20 and U18 both have fixtures? 

[Sysiphus]

AS Roma - season 1

Feeling a little bored of FM and the micro-managed lower league saves I've dedicated my time to in this years version, I got inspired by The Byline's AS Roma project. It felt like the perfect place for me to do my first Serie A save in years as the squad is filled with experienced, professional players and youngsters that are about 19-22 years old and not 16-17, so I could start using them immediately. Roma have a history of generational Italian talents being extremely loyal to the club, i.e. Gianluca Giannini, Bruno Conti, Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi. As Roma currently have a crop of players who are able to become exactly that (Alessandro Florenzi, Lorenzo and Luca Pellegrini, Nicolo Zaniolo, Alessio Riccardi), I wanted to continue the tradition while adding warriors and nifty talents around them to make Roma, based in Europe's most historical city, the European giant it deserves to be.

After selling some huge names over the last 3 seasons (Miralem Pjanic, Mo Salah, Antonio Rudiger, Alisson Becker, Radja Nainggolan, Kevin Strootman, Emerson Palmieri and Leandro Paredes) the club isn't at the level it should be. Many of their key players are old (Edin Dzeko, De Rossi, Aleksandar Kolarov and Federico Fazio) and, while able to perform in the short term, will need replacing over the next 2-3 seasons. The tactic I decided on was a custom made 4-1-2-2-1 (wingers) with rather few team instructions. I also made a defensive version of the same tactic with other TI's and the same roles but attack and support changed to support and defend, respectively, on some of them.

SK

CWB - BPD - CD - CWB

HB

AP - BBM

IF - - - - - - - - - - - - - - W

CF

I started with the first transfer window disabled. In January the coffers were boosted with roughly 19 millions and I had a clear vision of players to move on to get some cash in, which was much needed as the debt of the club is over 200 million pounds. I decided to move on Juan Jesus, my fourth choice DC to get his 70k p/w off the wage bill (which was in the red by about 90k). Javier Pastore was the only player in the squad bar Edin Dzeko on over 100k p/w, and with Pellegrini starting as the midfield playmaker, I decided to move Pastore on for 22 millions, the same amount he cost the club 6 months earlier. Rick Karsdorp, while an able backup to Florenzi, was in complain mode the whole first half of the season and was sold to Man Utd. United started to show big interest in Kostas Manolas, my far best DC, and were successfully unsettling him. I decided to try offering them Fazio as he was playing well besides Manolas, 31 years old and on big wages (80-90k p/w), and they bit. Over 300k removed from each week's wage cost and some healthy transfer money brought in as well.

The first 11 didn't need much attention this window transfer wise. I wanted a new goalkeeper and was scouring the market but nothing ideal popped up. The only first team signing I made was Nikola Milenkovic from Fiorentina for 27.5 (might rise to 32.5) millions to replace Fazio. Milenkovic has Fazio's height (both 195 cm) and weight (both 90 kg), the upper hand on other physical attributes and the room to outgrow Fazio big time in the mental department, but is lacking a bit in the ball playing skills I need to have beside the inept passer that Manolas is. I have hopes that Milenkovic can grow into a decent passer though. Replacing Karsdorp as my backup right back, Matteo Darmian came the other way from United on loan. Very economically tidy deal as I only had to pay him 15k p/w and no loan fee was required by Utd. I had already secured deals for Sandro Tonali from Brescia (never tried him on this FM, have to do so before the new edition comes out) and Kevin Bukusu (DC) from Leverkusen. My scout found Antony Angileri (DC, most of you in this thread probably know of him) who is the perfect youngster. Already a model citizen with 13 in leadership, he could become a real stalwart in defence for me and another player in the Italian core of loyal Roma players. Hopefully he develops as he should.

The league form was up and down all the way through the season and in the end we managed to snap the 4th place out of Milan's hands and secure Champions League football - a vital feat in our Roman revolution. I had set the target to get 2 points on average for each game as that is usually enough for a top 4 finish, and we did exactly that, with a very healthy goal difference to boot (68 for, 33 against). In the CL we were really unlucky as we were drawn in a group of the last year's finalists, Real Madrid and Liverpool (and Hoffenheim). After a bad first round (3 points from 3 games, only the win against Hoffenheim), we turned the ship around in an amazing comeback at Bernabeu, scoring twice in added time to secure a 2-3 victory over Real. In the end we qualified with 9 points and Real went to the EL with 7 points in the 3rd place (Liverpool had 16). Our drawing luck hadn't turned around though as we were drawn against Man City, who eliminated us with two 2-1 victories and are to play Liverpool in the final. We had a good cup run which ended in a 5-4 penalty shoot-out loss against Inter in the final, really gutting.

Overall I was pretty happy with the season and the squad. Kolarov, Pellegrini and Cengiz Ünder were the standouts for me, while I was also very pleased with young Kluivert and Riccardi. Players I expected more from were N'zonzi, Perotti and Dzeko, while I was also unhappy with Robin Olsen on more than few occasions.

Of concern to me is Zaniolo's injury proneness. His injury susceptibility is listed as below average and his medical reports says that he has no recurring injuries, but either he was very unlucky this season or I need to get a new set of physios and sports scientists. Twice this season he twisted his ankle, once he bruised his ankle and once he pulled his ankle ligaments - four ankle injuries in the space of 9 months. Unfortunately I can't see which foot it was each time so it's more difficult to assess if it's a recurring event. Along with his ankle troubles he strained and tore his hamstring and gashed his upper leg. The gashed leg was the only injury caused by a tackle, which concerns me as that suggests he hasn't just been unlucky with rough challenges.

I find this very distressing as he is amazing by all standards as a 19 year old, and the injuries are hampering his development into a superstar.

The board has given me another 20 odd millions to improve the squad in the summer, but no extra wage budget. I have a few players coming back from loan who might play a role in the squad next season (Luca Pellegrini, Ezequiel Ponce and Maxime Gonalons) and others that I might try to cash in on (Grégoire Defrel, Gérson, Bruno Peres). Diego Perotti is a player I want to get rid of, 31 years old on high wages (89k p/w) and injury prone, while players such as Dzeko, Iván Marcano and Stephan El Shaarawy only have their personalities and/or influence in the dressing room restraining me from cutting ties with them. The goalkeeping position will be revamped as I want to get rid of backup keeper Antonio Mirante at all costs (old, moaning, almost 30k p/w and zero games played (he is professional though)) and Robin Olsen will be joining Arsenal when the window opens for 8.75 millions. To replace him I have Keylor Navas coming in from Real Madrid for 24 millions, a class keeper I really rate. It was hard spending the entire season trying to unsettle the model citizen despite him not even playing in Europa League for Real, but worth it when they finally lowered their asking price from 64 millions to 24. Backing him up I might bring in someone with potential who could be tutored by Navas, or I could promote reserves keeper Daniel Fuzato to save some money. Fuzato's not good enough though and will probably never play for me.

[ajt]

12 hours ago, andrewsgn said:

I've never managed in italy before but am starting a save with Milan. What's the story with the U20/U18 teams? Milan has a lot of players at both levels but most of the U20 players are out on loan. What squad sizes do you recommend for each level? Will U20 and U18 both have fixtures? 

I try to keep a squad size of no more than 13 for each one, but I currently have fewer han this as I am focusing less on regens this save. You can also use your u20 fixtures to build up fitness for players in the senior squad. Both teams will have fixtures throughout the year with some gaps.

Edited July 12, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

46 minutes ago, Sysiphus said:

Of concern to me is Zaniolo's injury proneness. His injury susceptibility is listed as below average and his medical reports says that he has no recurring injuries, but either he was very unlucky this season or I need to get a new set of physios and sports scientists. Twice this season he twisted his ankle, once he bruised his ankle and once he pulled his ankle ligaments - four ankle injuries in the space of 9 months. Unfortunately I can't see which foot it was each time so it's more difficult to assess if it's a recurring event. Along with his ankle troubles he strained and tore his hamstring and gashed his upper leg. The gashed leg was the only injury caused by a tackle, which concerns me as that suggests he hasn't just been unlucky with rough challenges.

Excellent write up Roma will be a great save I reckon. As for Zaniolo I had him at Bayern on a long term save this year and he seemed fine in terms of injuries.

 

[interesti88]

I'm in the 4th season of my Inter save and still finding it tough.

Finished 3rd, 6th, and 3rd again but so far holding on to the 4th spot with some streaky results. I think my biggest problem is finding a striker that can score consistently or at the very least not waste so many chances. 

I'm playing a 4-3-3 possession style, my team is good at defending but awful on defending corners, great at creating chances but get the occasional counter goal scored against me.

[ajt]

1 hour ago, interesti88 said:

I'm in the 4th season of my Inter save and still finding it tough.

Well you're doing better than Inter in my save! They finished 8th last year even with Icardi.

[Sysiphus]

1 hour ago, ajt said:

Excellent write up Roma will be a great save I reckon. As for Zaniolo I had him at Bayern on a long term save this year and he seemed fine in terms of injuries.

 

Well that's good to hear, hopefully he'll be the same for me in the upcoming seasons. The plus side of him playing few games last season is that no one's bidding for him. On the other hand I'm getting high bids for Pellegrini, Ünder and Manolas which seems unrealistic to refuse so it will be a tough window replacing them.

[ajt]

13 minutes ago, Sysiphus said:

Well that's good to hear, hopefully he'll be the same for me in the upcoming seasons. The plus side of him playing few games last season is that no one's bidding for him. On the other hand I'm getting high bids for Pellegrini, Ünder and Manolas which seems unrealistic to refuse so it will be a tough window replacing them.

Just checked my save & Manolas and Under both left Roma in 2019. They went for very nice money though so hopefully you'll get enough to replace them 

[Sysiphus]

18 hours ago, ajt said:

Just checked my save & Manolas and Under both left Roma in 2019. They went for very nice money though so hopefully you'll get enough to replace them 

Yes, have sold them both by now, and they're not easily replaced. Got very good money for them so that's not an issue.

[quee]

On 05/07/2019 at 21:44, quee said:

I've started now, but taking it slowly. Almost into 3rd week of June and still no 'End of Season Awards' and my players are still not off to their holidays. (I'm still being asked about training each week). Bug?

Finally got back into it. I would also like to welcome the new members to the thread! Hope all your saves are going well in Italy!

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - JUNE UPDATE 2021

As stated previously, my players were still asking to train despite no fixtures. Turns out it was because the u18s still have fixtures to play (league playoffs and cup finals? Since I used 'the real name fix', not sure which competition those were). I hoped those full rest weeks instead of going on holiday won't hinder their ability that much (They only went on holiday in the 3rd week of June!). Was surprised my regen GK, Hyso, not selected in any of the matches, though.

It was a busy summer for some of my younger players. In the u20 World Cup, was surprised to get a message saying Hien Sie played in the Bronze medal match (He was on the bench in the prior games, so I forgot he was involved in the tournament). Ivonei led Brazil to the final, before losing to Colombia. Those regens from Colombia, eh?

I was wondering why some players were not involved in the u20 World Cup. The u21 Euros are more important, I guess. As of writing, Italy and Spain are in the semifinals, playing against Germany and France, respectively.

African Cup of Nations sees 6 of my players involved (I just realised I have lots of African contigent in the team). Still playing the group stage as of writing.

At the end of the first week in June, I decided to test the water again with Bastoni! In my last full update, I mentioned Inter wanting £40m+ for Bastoni. This time they quoted me at half of that, and with negotiations, it came down to just £13m! Easy choice and he's signed as my 2nd highest earner behind Gomez. My defensive leader sorted hopefully for the next 10 years. That's most of my budget gone, and I will focus the rest of my summer on renewing contracts for Stulac, Tonali, and Xadas. (All of them were professional last season after having a conversation with them about contract renewals, so I will reward them this summer). Luperto at £1.9m is still tempting, though! Even Cozza's Montpellier was relegated (so his price would have gone down) but I decided against pursuing him (too many players with Bastoni, Botturi, Senesi already there (will go out on loan again hopefully to Spanish club this time), and I preferred Luperto to Cozza at this time).

PARMA END OF SEASON AWARDS

As soon as the u18s fixtures were done in the 3rd week of June, these finally came up. Some surprising results like Olaza is not the Signing of the Season (I guess Pereira's run in the Coppa Italia played a factor here?). Decided to keep the pre-season short at 3 weeks due to the late holidays and last season's long season.

This always puzzled me. Lo Celso rarely plays for me this season yet he's quite popular in shirt sales. Must be because of his reputation? You would expect some of the popular players with the fans to get more shirt sales (like Stulac).

The board reminded me of the on-going upgrade happening.

Decided to follow up with a request of my own, which they initially rejected but after a few persisting, they agreed to this as well.

Thought about requesting to expand the stadium, but upon checking, Parma only sold-out 3 of our home games (Man Utd, Juve, and Fiorentina). Will try next year, especially since our participation in CL will hopefully help boost our fans numbers.

Parma is now 8th as Italy's biggest club, aided by the Coppa Italia triumph. Hopefully the stadium will sold-out more because of this.

Lots to sell, with only Ramos, Senesi, and Dao in my future plans at this time.

Good news, Ivonei will be finally be able to play next season!

One game to look forward to.. in China!

Next update, will be the rest of our summer activities. Hopefully can get back into the swing of things after stopped playing for 2 weeks.

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by quee
Removed duplicate images

[john1]

Another fantastic season there @quee 

[Creativity]

Cracking season there @quee Do Parma still have money issues like in the past?

[quee]

8 hours ago, Creativity said:

Cracking season there @quee Do Parma still have money issues like in the past?

As of 3rd July, it look like below. It says 'Rich' but I never seen the balance go that much higher than £20m+. My transfer budget is usually £15m - £20m+ since I started.

 

[zlatanera]

5 hours ago, quee said:

As of 3rd July, it look like below. It says 'Rich' but I never seen the balance go that much higher than £20m+. My transfer budget is usually £15m - £20m+ since I started.

 

Outside of the inflated world of the PL TV deal, I think £20m balance is very much 'rich'. Hell, they're worried that the new loan rules will just decimate the 3rd tier and below of Italian football because clubs can't actually afford to own their players at that level due to lack of funds. 

[quee]

59 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

Outside of the inflated world of the PL TV deal, I think £20m balance is very much 'rich'. Hell, they're worried that the new loan rules will just decimate the 3rd tier and below of Italian football because clubs can't actually afford to own their players at that level due to lack of funds. 

What's the new loan rules?

[zlatanera]

21 minutes ago, quee said:

What's the new loan rules?

I don't know if they actually happened yet, or if they're coming in from next year but FIFA/UEFA (can't remember which one) was really wanting to clamp down on the number of players a club could loan out - I think the most often mentioned limit was 7 - which obviously would hurt Italian clubs and Chelsea the most.

[quee]

1 hour ago, zlatanera said:

I don't know if they actually happened yet, or if they're coming in from next year but FIFA/UEFA (can't remember which one) was really wanting to clamp down on the number of players a club could loan out - I think the most often mentioned limit was 7 - which obviously would hurt Italian clubs and Chelsea the most.

Another chance for Italian clubs to create new loopholes then 

[john1]

6 hours ago, zlatanera said:

I don't know if they actually happened yet, or if they're coming in from next year but FIFA/UEFA (can't remember which one) was really wanting to clamp down on the number of players a club could loan out - I think the most often mentioned limit was 7 - which obviously would hurt Italian clubs and Chelsea the most.

I have heard that too, apparently it will be in place for next season. I think it will be great to see them being clamped down, as Chelsea tends to loan out 20+ players.

Edited July 17, 2019 by john1

[zlatanera]

8 hours ago, quee said:

Another chance for Italian clubs to create new loopholes then 

They’ll probably bring back co-ownership in order to prevent the whole thing collapsing into only Serie A and Serie B.

4 hours ago, john1 said:

I have heard that too, apparently it will be in place for next season. I think it will be great to see them being clamped down, as Chelsea tends to loan out 20+ players.

Is that when? Yeah, one thing I like about Man Utd being a bit backwards is we don’t do that.

I think it’ll further inflate transfer fees, as you see less of big clubs signing a guy off 15 good performances “just in case he’s good”, so if a big club does go in for someone the selling club knows they really want them and will ring every penny out of it, especially as loan-back deals become less common so an immediate replacement will be more of an issue.

[Creativity]

                

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The season has concluded, did we manage to continue our rampant league form and bring home the Serie D title and gain promotion? First let's have a quick reminder of my aims for the season, what I wanted to achieve by the end of the season; 

Italian Serie D Group A: Promotion

Italian Serie D Cup: Not overly bothered, money for winning might be helpful

Not overly difficult, considering our storming first half of the season, we should have won the league at a canter right? By the end of Christmas and the start of the January transfer window we were flying high at the top of the league and had only lost a paltry, single game. The numbers were good too, we had won 13 out of 16 games and only drawn 2. The defence was imperious, the stats were very impressive, conceding on average 0.3 goals a game and the attack looking pretty nifty averaging 1.9 goals a game. 

 

So, did we finish the job?

In a nutshell, yes. Howay, I wasn’t likely to give up that sort of lead. We continued pretty much in the same vein of form, wrapping up the title, whilst managing to go the next 18 games of the second half of the season without losing a single game. Of the 18 games we managed to win 14 and draw only 4. Our attacking play improved a fair bit as in the second half of the season we were averaging 2.2 goals a season, up from 1.9 in the first half of the season. Our defence got slightly worse increasing to 0.4 goals conceded a game from 0.3 in the first half of the season. The defence decrease is attributed to injuries and suspensions, whilst we had depth upfront to cope with rotation, defence we really didn’t and preferred to stay with a settled back-line. Any player coming into play was measurably worse than the player he was replacing. However, the average of 0.38 goals conceded over the season in the league is still a very good effort. As is our league average of goals scored per game over the season which stands at 2.17.

Looking back at the season, 3 games stood out throughout the season for various reasons, surprisingly for such a strong season 2 of the games weren’t wins. I learnt something very valuable about my squad, something which I alluded to earlier, that certain areas of my squad can’t handle rotation. The drop off of quality in certain areas is quite alarming, something which will need to be addressed next season when we are challenging in a much more competitive league. 

Firstly, the loss against Borgaro had spoiled a perfect start to the season. I had heavily rotated my team after 2 games already that week, we just weren’t at the races. We got off to a very strong start scoring within 3 minutes. However, the rest of the game followed a very familiar pattern of misplaced passes going out of play and players being caught in possession. By the time I decided to put some more experienced players onto the pitch, Borgaro had already pulled the game back to 2-1 in their favour. We got some control when we introduced our better players, but the game was already lost and my suspicions were already raised. Looking at the final table, Borgaro only managed to just stay above relegation, further proof of our poor showing. The second game was our third game following our loss to Borgaro. Again, I tried to plan ahead with another cup gaming coming up in a few weeks, we rotated our squad trying to keep key players fresh. The depth, or lack of was again showed to be lacking as we laboured to a draw with mid-table Fezzanese. We managed to avoid defeat but Fezzanese should really have won the game. The third game was a resounding win against Savona, who had battled us, alongside Lecco, valiantly, all season, the result was one of our best performances all season as we headed towards the close of the season. It was just a brilliant game to watch, one of those games where everything just clicked. We had a very tricky finish to the season, whilst we weren’t really in any danger of losing the league, I didn’t want the season to fizzle out to nothing. We had already won promotion the month prior and the Serie D title a few games earlier. I wanted to finish the season as comprehensible as possible. The final league table showed our dominance.

 

What about the cup? Did our league form have consequences?

We weren’t as devastating as we were in the league, but that's because I made a conscious effort to keep my main 11 as fit as I could for the league. I didn’t rotate 100%, but enough to keep key players fit, whilst also using subs for the players with the heavier match load. Promotion really was the be all and end all this season. So winning this cup was a massive bonus. Like I mentioned in my last post, the Delta Rovigo game was a tad lucky with us needing penalties to go through. Once I had a handle on my squad, which I spoke about before, I was able to rotate players much more effectively without compromising our results. The prize money was nothing to write home about, but on the grand scheme of things it did equate to paying a few months wages. 

The Serie D - Poule Scudetto was a new competition to me I must admit. It really did come at the wrong time for us, my squad was suffering from a long season. Many players in need of a break and carry knocks. The group stage of the tournament was relatively straight forward, though a 3 nil lead against Delta Rovigo becoming a 3-2 lead with 15 minutes to go had me sweating a little. The 5-0 against Mantova was another game like which I described the Savona game, everything just clicked, they ended the game with only one shot, which was from a free-kick. Drawing Cesena was unlucky, they were already a professional team and had a club value almost 30 times ours, we met our match and they showed their class. It should have been more than 1 nil in all honesty and again showed the job we had on our hands next season. We exited in the semi final, however we did complete a.... Double.

 

Anything important happened in the close season? What about next season? Plans?

The board offered me a new contract, which they would be fools not too. I did request that we turned professional though, this was a request to the board during contract talks. Thankfully they agreed and the message popped into my inbox informing us we have now turned professional. This is massive on two fronts, which now means we can offer full time contracts, but more importantly, I can now start to implement my philosophy on the team. We can now train on a full time basis. 

The board also set our budgets for next year, they should be sound enough. I don’t plan on paying any transfer fees, preferring to rely on loans and free transfers to help stabilise us next year. Hopefully in which time I can save a bit of budget to give promotion a proper crack the year following. 

Next year I want to keep our strengths, which was clearly our defence. I will be pursuing 2 new centre-backs and 2 new wing-backs. We’ve proved this year what a good defence can help us achieve, I do have my eye on goalkeeper, but I think he is going to a team in Serie B. Our striker we have been tracking all season, Ramon Muzzi, has decided to join another club. This doesn’t really affect my plans too much as I guessed the interest would really ramp up in him at the back end of the season. I do expect Testardi to bag the goals again this season, so I am really looking for a striker who can create space for him, not necessarily a goal scorer. This really helps me refine the type of player I am looking for, as a goal scorer at this level will be hard to find. The midfield I am happy enough with, I have few targets which I will pursue, but I won’t be breaking the bank for them as I feel we have enough strength in that area. We also have two regens who look relatively promising in the midfield area;

Pierangelo Petrillo - I did consider turning him into a wing-back, but I was worried about his work-rate and if it would limit his capabilities in getting up and down the wing. In the end I think he will offer some depth as a play-maker of sorts against lesser teams in cup competitions whilst I rest my first team players. His passing and creativity are his strengths which I will look to utilise against deep blocks. Not sure about how much of a future he has though long term.

Riccardo Galante - He looks a bit more rounded than Petrillo, which is why he looks a little uninspiring. His work-rate and very decent physical attributes for his age will make sure he has a place on the fringes of the first team this season. His technical ability is actually quite lacklustre, but a box to box role should ensure we make the best of his hard working nature. Again long term wise I’m not sure he will be here, he does have a role this year though and helps me by not having to go into the market letting me concentrate on other areas. 

So, definitely 4 players, could rise to as many as 7 if I get my first team targets. 

 

Numbers? Record broken? Stats? 

We pretty rewrote the history book in terms of records at Casale FC this season. We managed to set new records for lowest amount of defeats- standing at a single defeat. We managed a record amount of points in a league season, coupled with the clubs longest winning run which now stands at 11 and also the clubs longest unbeaten run which is now 35 games across all competitions. I don’t think so records will be broken for a long time yet. 

The players awards were also announced at the end of the season, I was a little shocked to see Nicola Cintoi win the fans player of the year over Testardi, though should I be with the form of our defence? He was part of 27 clean sheets in 41 games, maybe I shouldn’t be. I’m a NUFC fan though and I love my number 9s. Young player of the season was given too Matteo Di Giovanni, which was very much deserving, the young wingback played beyond his attributes and age at times and registered a very respectable 12 assists and 2 goals from the left wing back position. Finally, here’s a full break down of the squads stats for the season.

Edited July 18, 2019 by Creativity

[ajt]

Great season @quee. Agreed about the colombian regens   I always try and get Envigado as a youth feeder club if I can.

Congratulations on the promotion @Creativity. Very unlucky drawing Cesena in the cup, as you probably know they used to be quite a big club but went bankrupt. Would be a good starter club for a lower league save now I think about it (seems like there are loads of those in Italy though due to the financial problems).

 

[Andy Sava]

Hey guys,

Just started a Milan save, it's my favorite team and wanted to give it a go at bringing them back at the very top.

I'll be droping updates here, and you can also follow the progress in the Career updates forum.

So far, finished the first half of the first season, we are in 3rd place and qualified for the 1st KO round in Europa League. We did have a horrible Cup run going out in the first round with a defeat against Frosinone, at home even. Absolutely unacceptable. 

I started with the initial database, no winter transfers. So far i chose to restrain myself so i can check out the players before deciding to bring in new ones, i think Milan had quite a good team at the beginning of last season. I had to sell a few because they were causing issues in the locker room, but i still have a good depth. I'll start to search for what i need for the next season from now, to make sure i won't be left out.

I did run into issues with the squad as i created my manager with no experience or badges, hopefully it shouldn't cause me to lose my job as we are doing quite well at the moment.

I'm really excited for this one, it's a change for me since for the past two years i've only played with Dinamo Bucharest to try and win the Champions League, which i did! Hopefully this save will be as successfull.

[quee]

Welcome, @Andy Sava! Looking forward to your updates.

We have good numbers now playing in Italy, hope everyone saves are still active and on-going!

[john1]

13 minutes ago, Andy Sava said:

Hey guys,

Just started a Milan save, it's my favorite team and wanted to give it a go at bringing them back at the very top.

I'll be droping updates here, and you can also follow the progress in the Career updates forum.

So far, finished the first half of the first season, we are in 3rd place and qualified for the 1st KO round in Europa League. We did have a horrible Cup run going out in the first round with a defeat against Frosinone, at home even. Absolutely unacceptable. 

I started with the initial database, no winter transfers. So far i chose to restrain myself so i can check out the players before deciding to bring in new ones, i think Milan had quite a good team at the beginning of last season. I had to sell a few because they were causing issues in the locker room, but i still have a good depth. I'll start to search for what i need for the next season from now, to make sure i won't be left out.

I did run into issues with the squad as i created my manager with no experience or badges, hopefully it shouldn't cause me to lose my job as we are doing quite well at the moment.

I'm really excited for this one, it's a change for me since for the past two years i've only played with Dinamo Bucharest to try and win the Champions League, which i did! Hopefully this save will be as successfull.

Welcome  Ac Milan do have decent players in the squad  However, as few players need replacing due to their age.

I am tempted to start again but with different team, not sure yet!

[quee]

17 minutes ago, john1 said:

Welcome  Ac Milan do have decent players in the squad  However, as few players need replacing due to their age.

I am tempted to start again but with different team, not sure yet!

You know you want to! 

[dothestrand]

I started a new game with Roma. Again, I like to build a homegrown only squad, so that involves selling off all foreign players where possible by the end of the first season. First season was a 5th place finish, then began the selling spree. Managed to pick up some nice fees on the way; 50m for Nzonzi, for example. But a lot of teams tried to low-ball us, which usually meant out of spite I sold to the worst club. The bigger clubs wouldn't pay a fair price for Dzeko, so he was shipped off to Lille. Under and Kluivert didn't get takers, so I've loaned them out for the second season, and I'll sell them on next - hopefully they'll add a bit more to the transfer budget.

Incomings - Scuffet (9.25m) was brought in as the first choice GK. Defensive reinforcements included Barreca (10m), Conti (6m), Tonelli (3m), Ferrari (9m, from Sassuolo) and Anglieri (1.6m and probably my third choice CB already). In midfield, we bought Gagliardini (15.75m), Tonali (12m) and Iglio (4m, a talented CM from Monaco). And lacking top grade talent and with money to burn, we went BIG - Chiesa for 54m and Pellegri for 63m. The wage budget is way, way under, so we have room to add to the kitty.

Second season expectations were CL football, but we finished 5th and won the Coppa Italia, which was enough to get a new contract. Udinese made the CL places (and Inter won the title), so with some astute investments then CL football should be achievable next season.

[ajt]

Season 2021/2022

Competitions  _    Player Stats _ Youth Intake

Transfers  _    Finances  _    Facilities

 

This season was up and down. At the Qatar world cup break we were flying at the top of the table but then started losing games we should have at least drawn. Our loss to a mid table Perugia sums up that period of time. Spalek broke his leg playing for Slovakia in March and I thought the season was a write off. We went on an 8 game unbeaten streak to end the season (including a 3-1 win vs Juventus). Unfortunately Atalanta won the Coppa Italia so we missed out once again on the Europa League. I am pleased overall though since we managed to score 15 more goals this season compared to last. I once again won manager of the season, which I would happily trade for some european football 

In other news the owner decided to sell the club, which is a bit of a shame as he always accepted my board requests with a bit of persuasion. It's not all bad though as the new consortium pumped 32million straight into the club upon takeover. Just after the end of the season I got an awesome announcement as the clubs new 30,000 seater stadium is confirmed. It will take 2 years to build and cost £55 million with a £27.5 million stadium sponsorship secured. The loan repayment isn't too bad so I should be able to handle that without issue. I also finally got my State of the Art training & youth facilities so the club will have less expenditure going forward.

My main squad problem was Sandro Tonali, as his contract had 3 years left and he has wanted to move to a bigger club for 2 years straight. In march he dropped his concern and asked for a bigger contract, so I have been able to extend his stay at the club until 2027 (without a minimum release clause). He has now played 8 times for Italy and started in midfield for them in the 2022 world cup.

Financially Brescia are one of the only clubs in Serie A turning over a decent profit. According to my skin our estimated value is 4th highest in the league, more than 100m above Inter, Lazio & Napoli. It's getting to the stage of the game where the AI is beginning to make poor decisions in the transfer market. As expected Serie A is spending much less than PL/Bundesliga on transfers. This is not so bad though as it means that more Italians are developing, which helps my aim of keeping my squad domestic based.

 

signings

Matheus Pereira – This guy has had an amazing debut season as my starting left IF. Similar to Spalek in that he doesn't have the best attribute points but puts in great performances. Scored 2 long range efforts when we were 1-0 down to Genoa (after we'd lost 3 out of 5 games mid way through the season). Unfortunately he tore his back muscle and missed 5 weeks from the beginning of March which really impacted our season. He isn't an injury prone player though so I'm not concerned for the future. It wasn't a coincidence that our form dramatically improved upon his return in April.

Jhon Murrilo – Free transfer from Tondela. No idea how he ended up playing for them but this guy is pretty good for a mid table club. Played opposite Pereira and struck up a good partnership with my left back Dimarco. Sadly due to transfers coming in at the start of next season (and needing to cover the bank loan for the new stadium) he will likely be sold to bring down the wage budget.

Filippo Romagna – Managed to sign him on a free transfer from Cagliari. Very well rounded central defender who has performed consistently well this season.

Yacine Adli – Cheap transfer from Bordeaux. Didn't start many games but his usage will likely increase more next season as I look to rotate my midfield more.

 

regens

 

Abdellah Afkir – Regen wonderkid signed from Lyon for £3.1m upfront. Initially he wasn't in the first team, but given my awful injuries towards the end of the season I put him as my starting AF and he has been doing some insanely quick dribbling. I need to get him to train quite a few more PPM's but this guy could develop into an absolute monster. The only negative is that he only has a balanced personality. I have put him in a mentoring group with Spalek who is Resolute so hopefully it improves over time.

Matej Degoricija - He hasn't actually joined the team yet but I am extremely excited by the starting attributes of this regen. I expect he will play some senior games next season.

 

next season aim

Getting into the Europa League seems to be the bane of Brescia right now so I'm not sure I even want to aim for it. That said I'm pretty happy being a top 10 club at the moment, so another 7th place finish would be alright.

Edited July 21, 2019 by ajt

[quee]

3 hours ago, ajt said:

Season 2021/2022

Competitions  _    Player Stats _ Youth Intake

Transfers  _    Finances  _    Facilities

 

This season was up and down. At the Qatar world cup break we were flying at the top of the table but then started losing games we should have at least drawn. Our loss to a mid table Perugia sums up that period of time. Spalek broke his leg playing for Slovakia in March and I thought the season was a write off. We went on an 8 game unbeaten streak to end the season (including a 3-1 win vs Juventus). Unfortunately Atalanta won the Coppa Italia so we missed out once again on the Europa League. I am pleased overall though since we managed to score 15 more goals this season compared to last. I once again won manager of the season, which I would happily trade for some european football 

In other news the owner decided to sell the club, which is a bit of a shame as he always accepted my board requests with a bit of persuasion. It's not all bad though as the new consortium pumped 32million straight into the club upon takeover. Just after the end of the season I got an awesome announcement as the clubs new 30,000 seater stadium is confirmed. It will take 2 years to build and cost £55 million with a £27.5 million stadium sponsorship secured. The loan repayment isn't too bad so I should be able to handle that without issue. I also finally got my State of the Art training & youth facilities so the club will have less expenditure going forward.

My main squad problem was Sandro Tonali, as his contract had 3 years left and he has wanted to move to a bigger club for 2 years straight. In march he dropped his concern and asked for a bigger contract, so I have been able to extend his stay at the club until 2027 (without a minimum release clause). He has now played 8 times for Italy and started in midfield for them in the 2022 world cup.

Financially Brescia are one of the only clubs in Serie A turning over a decent profit. According to my skin our estimated value is 4th highest in the league, more than 100m above Inter, Lazio & Napoli. It's getting to the stage of the game where the AI is beginning to make poor decisions in the transfer market. As expected Serie A is spending much less than PL/Bundesliga on transfers. This is not so bad though as it means that more Italians are developing, which helps my aim of keeping my squad domestic based.

 

signings

Matheus Pereira – This guy has had an amazing debut season as my starting left IF. Similar to Spalek in that he doesn't have the best attribute points but puts in great performances. Scored 2 long range efforts when we were 1-0 down to Genoa (after we'd lost 3 out of 5 games mid way through the season). Unfortunately he tore his back muscle and missed 5 weeks from the beginning of March which really impacted our season. He isn't an injury prone player though so I'm not concerned for the future. It wasn't a coincidence that our form dramatically improved upon his return in April.

Jhon Murrilo – Free transfer from Tondela. No idea how he ended up playing for them but this guy is pretty good for a mid table club. Played opposite Pereira and struck up a good partnership with my left back Dimarco. Sadly due to transfers coming in at the start of next season (and needing to cover the bank loan for the new stadium) he will likely be sold to bring down the wage budget.

Filippo Romagna – Managed to sign him on a free transfer from Cagliari. Very well rounded central defender who has performed consistently well this season.

Yacine Adli – Cheap transfer from Bordeaux. Didn't start many games but his usage will likely increase more next season as I look to rotate my midfield more.

 

regens

 

Abdellah Afkir – Regen wonderkid signed from Lyon for £3.1m upfront. Initially he wasn't in the first team, but given my awful injuries towards the end of the season I put him as my starting AF and he has been doing some insanely quick dribbling. I need to get him to train quite a few more PPM's but this guy could develop into an absolute monster. The only negative is that he only has a balanced personality. I have put him in a mentoring group with Spalek who is Resolute so hopefully it improves over time.

Matej Degoricija - He hasn't actually joined the team yet but I am extremely excited by the starting attributes of this regen. I expect he will play some senior games next season.

 

next season aim

Getting into the Europa League seems to be the bane of Brescia right now so I'm not sure I even want to aim for it. That said I'm pretty happy being a top 10 club at the moment, so another 7th place finish would be alright.

Nice update! You're ahead of me now. I'm still in the summer of 2021, and liked you Tonali just signed a new contract. I decided to include a £120m release clause for him, as I feel it would be interesting to see if anyone would match it and if I can find a different, hopefully better player instead.

Did Spalek started as 'Resolute', you remembered? He's 'Spirited' on mine. Hopefully I get to post some updates tomorrow, I'm just about to finish the summer window now.

[john1]

4 hours ago, ajt said:

Season 2021/2022

Competitions  _    Player Stats _ Youth Intake

Transfers  _    Finances  _    Facilities

 

This season was up and down. At the Qatar world cup break we were flying at the top of the table but then started losing games we should have at least drawn. Our loss to a mid table Perugia sums up that period of time. Spalek broke his leg playing for Slovakia in March and I thought the season was a write off. We went on an 8 game unbeaten streak to end the season (including a 3-1 win vs Juventus). Unfortunately Atalanta won the Coppa Italia so we missed out once again on the Europa League. I am pleased overall though since we managed to score 15 more goals this season compared to last. I once again won manager of the season, which I would happily trade for some european football 

In other news the owner decided to sell the club, which is a bit of a shame as he always accepted my board requests with a bit of persuasion. It's not all bad though as the new consortium pumped 32million straight into the club upon takeover. Just after the end of the season I got an awesome announcement as the clubs new 30,000 seater stadium is confirmed. It will take 2 years to build and cost £55 million with a £27.5 million stadium sponsorship secured. The loan repayment isn't too bad so I should be able to handle that without issue. I also finally got my State of the Art training & youth facilities so the club will have less expenditure going forward.

My main squad problem was Sandro Tonali, as his contract had 3 years left and he has wanted to move to a bigger club for 2 years straight. In march he dropped his concern and asked for a bigger contract, so I have been able to extend his stay at the club until 2027 (without a minimum release clause). He has now played 8 times for Italy and started in midfield for them in the 2022 world cup.

Financially Brescia are one of the only clubs in Serie A turning over a decent profit. According to my skin our estimated value is 4th highest in the league, more than 100m above Inter, Lazio & Napoli. It's getting to the stage of the game where the AI is beginning to make poor decisions in the transfer market. As expected Serie A is spending much less than PL/Bundesliga on transfers. This is not so bad though as it means that more Italians are developing, which helps my aim of keeping my squad domestic based.

 

signings

Matheus Pereira – This guy has had an amazing debut season as my starting left IF. Similar to Spalek in that he doesn't have the best attribute points but puts in great performances. Scored 2 long range efforts when we were 1-0 down to Genoa (after we'd lost 3 out of 5 games mid way through the season). Unfortunately he tore his back muscle and missed 5 weeks from the beginning of March which really impacted our season. He isn't an injury prone player though so I'm not concerned for the future. It wasn't a coincidence that our form dramatically improved upon his return in April.

Jhon Murrilo – Free transfer from Tondela. No idea how he ended up playing for them but this guy is pretty good for a mid table club. Played opposite Pereira and struck up a good partnership with my left back Dimarco. Sadly due to transfers coming in at the start of next season (and needing to cover the bank loan for the new stadium) he will likely be sold to bring down the wage budget.

Filippo Romagna – Managed to sign him on a free transfer from Cagliari. Very well rounded central defender who has performed consistently well this season.

Yacine Adli – Cheap transfer from Bordeaux. Didn't start many games but his usage will likely increase more next season as I look to rotate my midfield more.

 

regens

 

Abdellah Afkir – Regen wonderkid signed from Lyon for £3.1m upfront. Initially he wasn't in the first team, but given my awful injuries towards the end of the season I put him as my starting AF and he has been doing some insanely quick dribbling. I need to get him to train quite a few more PPM's but this guy could develop into an absolute monster. The only negative is that he only has a balanced personality. I have put him in a mentoring group with Spalek who is Resolute so hopefully it improves over time.

Matej Degoricija - He hasn't actually joined the team yet but I am extremely excited by the starting attributes of this regen. I expect he will play some senior games next season.

 

next season aim

Getting into the Europa League seems to be the bane of Brescia right now so I'm not sure I even want to aim for it. That said I'm pretty happy being a top 10 club at the moment, so another 7th place finish would be alright.

Decent season   Shame you have to sell players to bring the wage budget down  link to Afkir, doesnt work  Degoricija looks very promising  

[ajt]

 

17 hours ago, quee said:

Nice update! You're ahead of me now. I'm still in the summer of 2021, and liked you Tonali just signed a new contract. I decided to include a £120m release clause for him, as I feel it would be interesting to see if anyone would match it and if I can find a different, hopefully better player instead.

Did Spalek started as 'Resolute', you remembered? He's 'Spirited' on mine. Hopefully I get to post some updates tomorrow, I'm just about to finish the summer window now.

Yeah I actually don't mind if I end up having to sell him in the future because he should easily go for 60m+ and that would be a lot of squad players  Just checked and Spalek started off as fairly determined. I didn't use any mentoring groups up until this season but I had a lot of influential players (squad dynamics) who were resolute/professional so maybe that had an impact. I haven't had as much time to play recently (since the sun came to the UK) but I get through seasons quicker now when I do play since I changed from comprehensive to key highlights 

 

16 hours ago, john1 said:

Decent season   Shame you have to sell players to bring the wage budget down  link to Afkir, doesnt work  Degoricija looks very promising  

It's not really that I have to sell, I just I have a habit of accumulating a lot of money in pretty much every save (my game should be probably be called financial manager ). This time I'm trying to spend it on interesting Italian players rather than just get taxed.

Cheers for pointing out the link, had to use a new imagesite since my old one wasn't working. I have a really interesting 18 year old Italian regen striker too who I signed a few seasons ago. He isn't fast but his "attribute overview" matches up pretty well with Icardi's (except he can't head the ball or jump).

[john1]

1 hour ago, ajt said:

 

Yeah I actually don't mind if I end up having to sell him in the future because he should easily go for 60m+ and that would be a lot of squad players  Just checked and Spalek started off as fairly determined. I didn't use any mentoring groups up until this season but I had a lot of influential players (squad dynamics) who were resolute/professional so maybe that had an impact. I haven't had as much time to play recently (since the sun came to the UK) but I get through seasons quicker now when I do play since I changed from comprehensive to key highlights 

 

It's not really that I have to sell, I just I have a habit of accumulating a lot of money in pretty much every save (my game should be probably be called financial manager ). This time I'm trying to spend it on interesting Italian players rather than just get taxed.

Cheers for pointing out the link, had to use a new imagesite since my old one wasn't working. I have a really interesting 18 year old Italian regen striker too who I signed a few seasons ago. He isn't fast but his "attribute overview" matches up pretty well with Icardi's (except he can't head the ball or jump).

You're not the only one  I always tends to make sure I have plenty of room with wages budget, like on My Torino save, I am like 4M under the budget

[lblanc]

Thinking about an Italian save. Not 100% on who though always enjoyed an Inter save but the challenge to bring glory back to AC Milan is strong. Also the two capital clubs offer an interesting one. 

Perhaps a Torino save trying to topple the city rivals 

[quee]

38 minutes ago, lblanc said:

Thinking about an Italian save. Not 100% on who though always enjoyed an Inter save but the challenge to bring glory back to AC Milan is strong. Also the two capital clubs offer an interesting one. 

Perhaps a Torino save trying to topple the city rivals 

Do it. Bored of your Sporting save?

Also, anybody know what happened when you removed leagues from your save? I want to reduce my selected leagues so my game can run a bit faster.

[lblanc]

1 hour ago, quee said:

Do it. Bored of your Sporting save?

Also, anybody know what happened when you removed leagues from your save? I want to reduce my selected leagues so my game can run a bit faster.

Nah that's still going just looking to take a bit of a break from it.

Looking through squads, Torino actually might be an exciting one, Belotti and Zaza up front, seems to work with a 3-5-2 type formation too which I've wanted to try.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

@lblanc I reckon Sampdoria would be a good save for you as they are different then other teams with a bit of history as well.

[blue heron]

So I finally found time and energy to finish my fourth season in charge of Fiorentina. After finishing 2nd in season 3, I wanted to get rid of some deadwood, bring some youngsters through and find a signature signing to inspire a new tactic. I've found it very hard to get rid of players. Bennassi and Pezzela were in their last year of contract and demanding ridiculous wages for our level (since we're in the Champions League, everyone expects at least 120k/week) but there where no takers for them the entire summer. I wanted to get rid of Malcom also, but offering him for 15M (while his value was 40M+) only got me 1 party interested, whom he rejected. I might have made a mistake signing him (or at least the gamble didn't pay off) but that's another 5M euros in wages this season I should have spent differently. Thank god I managed to sell Otavio and Saponara, giving me some extra money on top of my budget.

Main target for the new season was a good right back, since I only had Hugo Mallo there and his absence due to an injury was felt in the previous season. In the end I found Depaoli from Sampdoria to be a good candidate: he performed well in Serie A and didn't cost too much money. With some of the youngsters signed the years before coming through and Caio Cesar - who my scouts where very enthusiastic about - becoming available I made the decision to switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation and try something differently.

Transfer dealings

 

As for the competition, we used preseason and the first few matches to tweak somethings and then we went flying. The first half of the season was amazing, winning almost every game and conceding about 5 goals in total. After New Year we had a more difficult period, and I needed to tweak my tactics more and more. We didn't win the Coppa Italia this year, getting knocked out in the quaters by Lazio. In the Champions League we went top of our group, but found that Barcelona was too much for us in the Quarter Finals - still a good results, given where Fiorentina is coming from.

The league was ours however, after a spell of losing and drawing in January, we turned it around and kept our distance from Milan, winning the league with 6 points more than them. Bonus was Fiete Arp becoming the league's top scorer with 24 goals. This win makes it 2 league titles in the last 3 years, so expectations for next year are set!

 

League table

 

As for next year, I'll be missing Pezzela, who accepted another team's offer and will go there an a free. I'll need to get replacement in for him. Also, with me snatching Vanderlei up when Arsenal started bidding on him, I have two great prospects for the AMC position and feel like these are the guys I need to build the team around. Hopefully this summer clearing out rest of the deadwood will be possible. With my current wage budget, I have a transfer budget of around 38M euros, so there isn't as much money to play around with as I'm used to in England. What's been very disappointing is that none of the big, rich English and Spanish clubs have been enquiring about my star players. They've been tearing up the league, but the game doesn't seem to generate interest in them. How does this work for everyone else?

 

My two newgen AMCs

 

 

[quee]

47 minutes ago, blue heron said:

So I finally found time and energy to finish my fourth season in charge of Fiorentina. After finishing 2nd in season 3, I wanted to get rid of some deadwood, bring some youngsters through and find a signature signing to inspire a new tactic. I've found it very hard to get rid of players. Bennassi and Pezzela were in their last year of contract and demanding ridiculous wages for our level (since we're in the Champions League, everyone expects at least 120k/week) but there where no takers for them the entire summer. I wanted to get rid of Malcom also, but offering him for 15M (while his value was 40M+) only got me 1 party interested, whom he rejected. I might have made a mistake signing him (or at least the gamble didn't pay off) but that's another 5M euros in wages this season I should have spent differently. Thank god I managed to sell Otavio and Saponara, giving me some extra money on top of my budget.

Main target for the new season was a good right back, since I only had Hugo Mallo there and his absence due to an injury was felt in the previous season. In the end I found Depaoli from Sampdoria to be a good candidate: he performed well in Serie A and didn't cost too much money. With some of the youngsters signed the years before coming through and Caio Cesar - who my scouts where very enthusiastic about - becoming available I made the decision to switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation and try something differently.

Transfer dealings

 

As for the competition, we used preseason and the first few matches to tweak somethings and then we went flying. The first half of the season was amazing, winning almost every game and conceding about 5 goals in total. After New Year we had a more difficult period, and I needed to tweak my tactics more and more. We didn't win the Coppa Italia this year, getting knocked out in the quaters by Lazio. In the Champions League we went top of our group, but found that Barcelona was too much for us in the Quarter Finals - still a good results, given where Fiorentina is coming from.

The league was ours however, after a spell of losing and drawing in January, we turned it around and kept our distance from Milan, winning the league with 6 points more than them. Bonus was Fiete Arp becoming the league's top scorer with 24 goals. This win makes it 2 league titles in the last 3 years, so expectations for next year are set!

 

League table

 

As for next year, I'll be missing Pezzela, who accepted another team's offer and will go there an a free. I'll need to get replacement in for him. Also, with me snatching Vanderlei up when Arsenal started bidding on him, I have two great prospects for the AMC position and feel like these are the guys I need to build the team around. Hopefully this summer clearing out rest of the deadwood will be possible. With my current wage budget, I have a transfer budget of around 38M euros, so there isn't as much money to play around with as I'm used to in England. What's been very disappointing is that none of the big, rich English and Spanish clubs have been enquiring about my star players. They've been tearing up the league, but the game doesn't seem to generate interest in them. How does this work for everyone else?

 

My two newgen AMCs

 

 

Welcome back! Good season in the league!

Depaoli is a player I'm interested in as well, he always played well against me. How did he do for you?

In regards to generating interest for star players, same here as well. I wanted to sell Palacios, by far my best midfielder BUT not an important, integral player in my system. Nobody was interested except small clubs who could only offered £7m (valued at £24m). I think someone said it before and mentioned it well, a good player for you might not be an interesting player for other big clubs. I would imagine nobody would want to offer crazy money for my Stulac, as an example he's my 2nd highest valued player at the club behind goalscoring-Maxi Gomez (not that I'm selling, he will retire with me if I have my way).

[lblanc]

12 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

@lblanc I reckon Sampdoria would be a good save for you as they are different then other teams with a bit of history as well.

I was pondering Samp alright. 

Is that mad looking guy still the owner. 

Perhaps a return to Sampdoria for Gianluca Vialli may be on the cards

[zlatanera]

3 hours ago, lblanc said:

I was pondering Samp alright. 

Is that mad looking guy still the owner. 

Perhaps a return to Sampdoria for Gianluca Vialli may be on the cards

Yeah Massimo Ferrero's still in charge. They're quite interesting in that they do a lot more scouting in Eastern Europe than most Italian sides, having a few Polish and Czech players on the books. I'm intending to go back to them eventually, had a good 2/3 of a season emulating Giampaolo's style. 

If you play on 3D highlights another bonus is they have some of the best kits in the game!

[quee]

35 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

Yeah Massimo Ferrero's still in charge. They're quite interesting in that they do a lot more scouting in Eastern Europe than most Italian sides, having a few Polish and Czech players on the books. I'm intending to go back to them eventually, had a good 2/3 of a season emulating Giampaolo's style. 

If you play on 3D highlights another bonus is they have some of the best kits in the game!

Jakhto any good? Been interested in him but his wages are just too high.

[zlatanera]

19 minutes ago, quee said:

Jakhto any good? Been interested in him but his wages are just too high.

Very well-rounded player, my somewhat sterile style of play mostly got the best out of of my forwards but he still chipped in with a few as a Mezzala, I think something like 5 in 25 games. 

[lblanc]

I've decided to go with Napoli.

An amazing football crazy city, Who haven't won the league is 89/90

Some great players such as Insigne, Milik, Koulibally, Meret, Fabian Ruiz, Zielinski.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - 2021/2022

SUMMER OF FOURTH SEASON

JULY UPDATE

In my last update, June was a long month due to the (bug?) late start of our holiday. Now that's sorted, we can focus on what's next in the summer.

Affiliate

Finally got some success here. The board came back with 4 options, and Sochaux was clearly the best choice for us. Still hoping for a Spanish club as an affiliate.

Contracts

Stulac (£25k > £45k), Xadas £17.5k > £40k), Tonali (£23.5k > £40k with £120m release clause), and Da Graca all renewed in July. The first three players as rewards for not pushing it last season, unlike Spalek (3 times) and En-Nesyri. Da Graca had 12 months left. In August, Olaza (£25k > £40k) also requested a renewal, and since his excellent form last season was deserving for a new contract as well. The reason I included Tonali's release clause is I'm open to him leaving in the future, as I feel I want to try other player in his position (also because as in most people's saves, they have a Tonali in their team). Hopefully that will be a few more season yet.

I rejected a £28m offer for Birindelli from Leipzig, and now he wants a new contract as well. But after speaking to him, Coetzee, and Diakhate, all three of them backed down and don't mind waiting for it. Will revisit at the end of the season depending on form.

Internationals

Tonali and Da Graca both won the u21 Euros. Da Graca scored both of his goals in a 2-1 extra time win over Germany in the semifinal. He only played in 3 of Italy's games, though, and didn't appear in the final.

Of my African contingent, Dao (regen) went furthest and got the bronze medal for Ivory Coast. Diakhate's Senegal lost to them in the quarterfinal. Below is Dao. What do you guys think of him?

Transfers OUT

Spalek requested a new contract, again, the 3rd time he had done so since joining Parma. Reluctantly, decided to sell him. He's a really similar player to Sprocati, so was a perfect backup in a sense. Will have to find a replacement for him. Finally able to find a buyer for Krajnc and I was able to at least negotiate his value as his price. Pepe was a free transfer, so a tidy profit on a player I would have liked around my squad if I didn't favour others already. He's professional as well.

Of all the loanees out, Ramos, Marcos Paulo, and Matias Palacios will hopefully come back and challenge for a spot in the squad. The other Palacios, I wanted to sell but no buyer. Juventus loaned a player they sold to me just a year before, with an optional fee of £40m (so far none of my included-optional fee has been activated and mandatory fee are never accepted to be included). He's valued at £24m, and the best offer was £7m from Gladbach, I think. Dao's a player I have no plans to use in my team actually, so loaned him out again but disappointingly only Stuttgart was interested (on deadline day). I just preferred Ivonei and Mahlonoka at the moment, since they are real players haha it's too early to be using regens for me. 

Carriero have been attracting interest from Juve and Milan, who made £10m+ offer this summer and last, which I rejected. Palermo then came in with a loan offer and for a 17 years old to be playing Serie A is a good option, so decided to loan him out. Usually, I liked to keep my own regen at the club, just incase they can become a "one club player" but he's been making noise that he's unhappy he's not allowed to leave. Zanoli was my first and only "good" regen in the first season, decided to loan him out since he hasn't really push on and improved that much.

Verdict: Disappointed that I couldn't moved on permanently Mauri, Guga, and E. Palacios. Whilst there are no interest for Rafael Leao, zero. Will miss Spalek as I liked him.

Transfers IN

4th season and I really should stop making Bosman signings in advance as the situations always changing compared to anticipation. Friedl's actually an interesting player who can take good setpieces but Olaza and my preference for Minelli will make it hard for him to get some minutes as there were no clubs interested in taking him on loan. Matias Palacios reminded me of Agoume, naturally better at AM but can play in CM as RPM. Loaned him out to Leganes for 2 seasons to get that EU passport. I wished Leganes is my affiliate, since they have Farinez, Marcos Paulo, and M. Palacios now. Mangiarotti was released by Inter, though I would try to develop him in my u20s for a couple of years and see if he can turn out well.

As mentioned in my previous update, Bastoni was my main target this season and was happy to get him for a good price. But somehow the board think the deal was financially poor  (I was initially quoted £40m+).

Now, previously I mentioned that I was really interested in signing Despodov from Cagliari since he's a goalscoring winger. My initial plan was to sell En-Nesyri but since Spalek was sold instead, I decided to keep the former. The problem was.. during my focus on signing Bastoni, it escaped my attention that Despodov had signed a new contract in June. So, I had to get my 2nd choice, the much younger but more of a creator than a scorer, Vignato. He's my 2nd signing from Chievo, after Kiyine. I met his release clause for clubs in CL.

As I had loaned out E. Palacios, I had a spot open in my midfield rotation. In real life, Bennacer was rumoured to be going to Milan and he was 'Player of The Tournament' for the recently-ended African Cup of Nation. My interest was piqued and this might be my best chance to sign him since he's unlikely available to Parma in FM20. I'm planning to use him as understudy to Stulac as the RPM or to Tonali as the Regista. Might even be an option for the Mezzala role. Bennacer had a release clause similar to Vignato (to CL clubs) but I was able to negotiate it down with Empoli, where as Chievo wasn't having any of it.

Verdict: Overall, happy with my signings. Some 1st choice options will be pursued next season if possible.

Youth players of interest

This season I'm hoping to involve Ivonei, Mahlonoka, Casarini, and Smajlaj more.

Registration for non-EU players

In my previous update, Mahlonoka will take the non-EU slot this season. Then, what about Ivonei? Releasing a youth non-EU player already at the club before I arrived apparently allowed Ivonei to be registered (see Kone's attached image below). Even more surprising was that I am also able to register Senesi AND Dao. So that's 4 new registrations for non-EU players this season, on top of previously registered Brazao, Coetzee, and Farinez. How could this happen? My theory and what I think allowed this was Senesi and Dao went on loan to Italian clubs last season (Atlanta and Empoli). When they came back to Parma, they are treated as signings from same nation instead of abroad? This is all by chance, so I'm not sure if this is the case. But it does open up the possibility of exploiting the situation to circumvent the non-EU rules.. (something I don't want to do). So, from now on, I won't make advance non-EU signings until a slot is available or I can be sure I am able to send them to Spanish affiliate club. FM20 will be more fun since I know and experienced the non-EU rules already. Non-EU signings won't be my focus in FM20, not as much as I was doing now anyway. Senesi's availability to be registered and inability to get loan offers means I had to forego my interest in Luperto.

My First XI

GK: Brazao/Joel Pereira/Fabio

RB: Birindelli/Hoever

RCB: Coetzee/Ribeiro/Peda

LCB: Bastoni/Senesi/Botturi

LB: Olaza/Minelli/Friedl

DM (REGISTA): Tonali/Hiekkanen

RCM (RPM): Stulac/Bennacer/Agoume

LCM (MEZZALA): Kiyine/Diakhate/Ivonei

RW (A): Sprocati/Vignato

LW (S): Xadas/En-Nesyri

SC (PF): Gomez/Inglese/Da Graca

Leao is still around but I'm not planning to use him much unless necessary.

START OF SEASON

25-1 odds, predicted 7th. Will be a challenge, especially with Champions League football to juggle as well.

Gomez was 7 goals behind Icardi last season, and he got injured already this season before the final friendly match against Atletico.

Guess they have forgotten Olaza last season.. 

JULY

Started with playing against my u20s before flying to the US, hoping to boost my profile there. (Does that still work? It used to be in previous version). Since I only started pre-season on the 19th of July, performance was slow in the US. The first 2 games could have been a draw since both Atlanta United and NYCFC more than matched us throughout. Galaxy was a bit better but they still caused us problems in the game.

Verdict: Profile boosting mission. Fitness will come. Tonali 

AUGUST

Started sluggishly against Pro Vercelli but came back from 0-1 down to assert more dominance despite mainly using my 2nd team. The match against Atletico was more even before Lemar got sent off in the 31st minute. It was one way after that. Not the match I was hoping and needed as preparation, to be honest.

With all the friendlies out of the way, I couldn't wait to start the season proper. Bennacer scored on his debut and created the goal for En-Nesyri in a dominant first appearance for the Crociati. Stulac and Birindelli were suspended against Sampdoria, with Stulac returning to the starting lineup against Sasuolo. Still experimenting between Stulac and Bennacer to play in the regista role, whilst Tonali is out. Bennacer seemed to be better suited in the DM role only, whilst Stulac can do both DM and CM, but not spectacularly as the regista (6.9 performance). I feel FM heard my thinking and planning regarding Tonali's future .

2 wins in my first 2 games. Going well, right? That is until I realised the Bundelisga's transfer window is still open. First, Mainz's bid unsettled Joel Pereira. Then Leverkusen offered £25m for Brazao. Instant reject. But now Brazao wanted a new contract, which he just recently signed 4 months ago. Told him no, and he's unhappy now. This was a day or two before the Milan game. I wanted to sit out Brazao because of the distraction, but his backup was also in the same boat. First half we dominated Milan, 2nd half a harmless corner and a tame header by Bakayoko was pushed to the post and goes in by Brazao.. It was my first lost in 13 Serie A matches (14 including Coppa Italia Final) and first goal conceded in 12 Serie A matches. The Milan match was also Brazao's 101st appearance for Parma at 20 years old.. Birindelli injured himself in the match and will be out for the next 2 weeks, luckily the International break is to follow this match.

Verdict: I still believe in you, Brazao. We start again.

Positive note - 18,600 season tickets, my first 2 home games are sold out already. Compared to only 3 the whole of last season.

UEFA Champions League Draw

Could be worse? 

SEPTEMBER

Verdict: Will be a long, hard month.

SERIE A - END OF AUGUST 2021

VERDICT SO FAR

Impressed by Bennacer so far, Tonali is not missed. Sprocati started the season poorly, and as I mentioned, Viganto is not the same type of player. Diakhate is still finding his form, still unable to replicate the form during the first half of last season. Gomez hasn't started a game due to injury, En-Nesyri given a chance up front and doing well enough. Coetzee and Bastoni resuming their strong partnership. Xadas and Kiyine are the other players to start the season in excellent form.

Welcome any comments and feedbacks. Would be interesting to see other Parma saves as well.

Will post the next update either in January or at the end of the season.

Edited July 23, 2019 by quee
Edit the season to 2021/2022