[FM19] Parma Calcio 1913 - For Crociati's Sake!

[quee]

I've been doing my Parma updates in 'The Italian Job! Italian league thread is here!' thread on the GP&TG Forum, decided to transfer my previous updates into one topic instead. Will be making new updates here from now on as well.

I might use this thread for my FM20 save as well in the future, will see how it goes.

As of writing, I'm currently in my 7th season with Parma. New updates will be for April 2025 onwards.

[quee]

Before I start, I would like to write down a message of what I would like to do for my FM20 save. Just highlighting things I would do differently and what I'm planning (in my head!) how I would go about things next time.

1. Paying attention to the non-Eu rules. My squad building was affected because I tried to buy new players in advance and it doesn't really work when it comes to the next season's squad registration. Hence too many players brought in that can't play.

2. Reduced the numbers in the squad. In my earlier seasons, I usually used almost 40 players in the league!

3. In FM19, I tend to favour South Americans and Africans players a lot. In FM20, I might try to base my squad more on Scandinavians players, with a few SA and Africans mixed here and there. Just to reflect real life Parma, who have 3 Scandinavians players at the moment (Gagliolo, Kulusevski, and Cornelius).

4. I won't buy Tonali, Xadas, and Coetzee in FM20. This is for certain as they are FM19 more popular players and I don't want to keep using the same one all over again. Everyone else in my current save I might consider again.

5. Hidetoshi Nakata was one of my favourite player growing up, and his Parma connection was one of the latter reason why I followed Parma even more back then (I started following a few years before him joining). I might do signing an marquee Asian player as one of my FM20 save project. This is why Minamino signing for Liverpool excites me, as he will surely gets a stats boost, whilst he is closest in playing position (Nakajima is a winger, for example) and potentially be the player to follow in Nakata's footsteps. Failing that, I might also consider Lee Kangin as an alternative. Will see who else will appear as my option after scouting in FM20.

6. For my FM19 save, I had a much publicised failure in trying to get Buffon back, first as a player then as a coach. He ultimately retired in game. I would like to try this again for FM20, though I think it will be harder and more impossible as a player.

7. Usually on FMs, I liked to have brothers playing for my team, something that I haven't done in FM19. In FM20, I have already earmarked the Thurams brothers for this part of my project. Marcus was born in Parma as well, though not homegrown club (only found out about them in FM19 scouts reports). I still haven't given up hope of bringing Chiesa to Parma in FM19 (even he is close to retirement in the future) as another Parma's connection. Will look to repeat this as well in FM20. Not sure who else are in-game who have that connection to Parma's past?

8. Players that I would like to keep as long as possible and until their retirements in FM20 are Bruno Alves, Darmian, Iacoponi, Gagliolo, and Inglese. Hernani, Gervinho, Karamoah, and some of the others might be part of my long term squad depending on how they are in my first season.

9. Now, the most important part. I will do everything I can to make Kulusevski's stay at Parma permanent! This might be impossible in the next update, though, so I will look to bring him back sometimes in the future. I will break my transfer record and pay high wages breaking my self-imposed limit if I have to! 

10. Buy FM20! 

[quee]

[Reserved to be updated later - Introduction to Parma (FM19)]

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 1.0

START OF FIRST SEASON

Parma is my favourite Italian team. Buffon, Cannavaro, Thuram, Nakata, Crespo, Veron.. Grew up watching so many great players and the club has seen better times then. First transfer window off, so will have to get to know the players before the January window. Decided to give Brazao the starting spot because I want to create another Buffon-like legacy for the club. Kucka unfortunately got injured in preseason and went on to miss lots of the season due niggling injuries. He would have been a starter. But his absence opened up the chance for me to trust Stulac as the main player in midfield and it was one of my best decision yet.

Youth players of interest - Apart from Brazao, I'm looking to involve Botturi and Hiekkanen in and around the first team squad this season. Hoping to have the 3 of them as Home Grown Club players in 3 years time. Diakhate will be a squad player and he will feature frequently. 

My First XI

Brazao

Iacoponi, Bruno Alves, Gagliolo, Gobbi

Rigoni

Stulac, Barilla

Sprocati, Gervinho

Inglese

WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW

Only given £1m budget if I remember correctly. Decided to go after Xadas as I liked a left footer in that left winger position and as a replacement for Gervinho next season. Coetzee will get the non-EU spot from Gervinho next season. Tried raising some cash by selling some players who is running out of contract. Surprised that I got any money at all, to be honest. In previous FM, they would just get them on a Bosman instead. Pereira added much needed quality from midfield, loaned until end of next season. As a reflective note, the reason I went for Coetzee was because of the price and I had expected to be fighting for middle of the table/top half only this season and the next. I also made a few Bosman signings in this window and later on. In my next post for the 2nd season, I will indicate what I would do otherwise if I had known what the end result would be like.

My First XI

Brazao

Iacoponi, Bruno Alves, Gagliolo, Gobbi

Rigoni

Stulac, Pereira

Sprocati, Xadas

Inglese

Bastoni started to play more as well after coming back from injuries, replacing Bruno Alves or pushing Gagliolo to left back. Not a fan of Di Marco, he only get minimal minutes. Brazao was called up for South American u20 Championship, so he was missing for a bit. Sepe came in and did quite well.

END OF SEASON AWARDS

Parma

Serie A

End of Season Review and Thoughts

As the league positions chart shown above indicated, I overachieved. This surprised me too much. Part of the reason was the top 4 kept losing to each other and those below them, bringing those in the top half of the table closer and closer each time. In fact, a few games towards the end, I was level on point or a couple of points behind Napoli. Only for me to drew all my games in May. Nerves and inexperience played a part, and also I think I lost 3 of my midfielders to injuries as well.

Overall, better than expected, better than I could have wished for. Stulac was amazing for me, scoring important goals. His free kicks saved me in some of the games. He got 3 Goal of The Months as well. But the signing of Pereira helped to push us into the Champions League spot. I didn't expect to be in this position and some of my transfer decisions in January reflected this. Had try to renew Bastoni and Inglese on loans, to join Pereira next season. But Inter and Napoli said they wanted to try them for their first team next season.. Added more Bosman transfers because of this just after January.

KEY PLAYERS

Brazao (got into Serie A team of the season), Gagliolo (best defender for me this season), Stulac (player of the season), Inglese (reliant on his goals)

FUTURE PLANS

Are we ready for the Champions League? Will update the 2nd season later today.

Below are my only promising youth intake (I didn't take a group screenshot for all of them).

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

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 2.0

SUMMER OF SECOND SEASON 2019 - 2020

Some shocking news during the summer, Bruno Alves and Gobbi both announcing their retirements, in November.. Bruno Alves was still in my plans, whilst Gobbi was to provide cover. They were Captain and Vice Captain, so will be missed. That means, new captains were needed. I chose Stulac as my captain and Zeca as my vice captain. Not many options due to the age of some of my players and the number of loan players as well in the starting lineup.

Coetzee will now replaced Alves, was planning to slowly introduce him to the first team. Without Gobbi, I don't have a first choice LB, so I may have to start Gagliolo more in that position. Inglese's goals will be important again (extended his loan).

Transfers IN

Now I mentioned that I made some Bosman signings without knowing that I will be playing CL football. This caused me problems as it overloaded my squad with players I was expecting to use to fight against relegation/middle of the table/top half of the table, but not for European games. Sprocati was a pre-arranged transfer before the game started, I'm happy he's coming back as he contributed a lot to our attacking play. Would I sign him personally? Maybe not but since he's here and had a great last season, I will be hoping for him to keep up his good form.

Out of the 7 Bosman signings, 2 were for the futre and will go to the u20s (Ercolani and Johansson). Out of the other 5, I had initially plan to use Monte as rotation option to Bruno Alves (he was labelled as the next Bruno Alves) but he came to Parma injured, so Coetzee pushed ahead of him straight away. Krajnc was to replace Bastoni, since I couldn't get him back on loan at this time, as another option for left sided CB alongside Gagliolo. Piazon was signed with the idea he will challenged Xadas for the LW position, as I was toying with the idea of using Xadas in CM or changing my tactic by including an AM. Leo Suarez and Kleber were signed as squad players, backup in their positions. Lots of players, right? Not yet done..

.

Now, the above signings were made before the summer, before I knew I was in a strong chance to finish in European position, before the reality of Parma qualifying for the CL.. Below was what I used with the new budget I got (I forgot how much it was, didn't screenshot it).

I forgot how I got Da Graca to come as cheaply as this, but I think I was just randomly bidding for him after I saw a scout report with that estimated value for transfer. Initially I had no plan to buy Tonali as he is too popular of a signing in this FM, but when I saw that he was bid on, I just tried to match the bid and it was accepted. Birindelli and Lucas Ribeiro were recommended by my scouts, never heard of them before but I liked what I see for the prices given. Birindelli was to provide cover for RB, whilst Ribeiro will provide cover to Coetzee since Monte was injured. Bought Nandez as I wanted a combative presence in midfield, hoping he can be the next Lucas Torreira. En Nesyri was to challenge Ingles up front, and on both wings. I have high hope for him. Signed Mauri as he was HGC for Parma, to provide cover to Stulac.  I got Valery on a 2-years loan after he scored that wonder goal against Man Utd in real life (My first 2 seasons were a while back) and he will be the new first choice RB for me. My scout recommended me Zeca for the LB position, and decided to splash the cash as I never had a CWB before. Gagliolo can now go back to center.. that is until Bastoni was made available on loan again late in the window. This time he agreed to come back for 2 more seasons (with 0% wages too since Inter is affiliated with Parma). Starting to see where my overloading problems came from? I bid to loan for Lo Celso without expecting him to accept but he agreed to join. One more player then. Chao, Fojticek, Justiniano, and Kovar were other signing for the u20s. With all these signings, some of the Bosman signings were pushed down the pecking order. I can already see I would have problems giving all of them sufficient minutes.

Transfers OUT

Kucka had to be sold due to his niggling injuries and my highest earner (£40k p/w). Gervinho sold abroad to make space for Coetzee. Wanted to keep Barilla but will all my new signings, I wouldn't have space for him. So had to move him on as he's 30+. Iacoponi was my starter last season but his form deteriorated badly. Dezi was a flexible squad player but had to sell him as well. Others were players returning from loan and no space for them in the squad or over 20s players not having a future at the club. £27m in, £29m out.

Youth players of interest

Brazao established himself as my number 1, Diakhate was a good rotation option but still couldn't figured out his best position or role. Botturi played 5 games last season and Hiekkanen played 9 games, will be hoping for them to push on more. Alessandro Minelli returned from loan and will have a place as a future squad player at LB. Cristian Casarini in the u18s is progressing well and will look to develop him as well. Nico Schiappacase wanted to cancel his loan (he's already here before I arrived, from Atletico Madrid for 2 seasons loan) but I decided I wanted to use him more as an option off the bench.

My First XI

Brazao

Valery, Coetzee/Ribeiro, Bastoni/Gagliolo, Zeca/Gagliolo

Tonali/Nandez

Stulac/Mauri, Pereira/Lo Celso

Sprocati, Xadas/Piazon

Inglese/En-Nesyri

WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW

Spalek had been tearing Serie B and my scouts repeatedly recommended him. Planned to use him to challenge Sprocati. Found Guga who is similar Zeca, decided I wanted to mirror him for the RB position as Birindelli was not yet ready to challenge Valery.

My First XI

Brazao

Valery/Guga, Coetzee/Ribeiro, Bastoni/Gagliolo, Zeca/Gagliolo

Tonali/Nandez

Stulac/Mauri, Pereira/Lo Celso

Sprocati/Spalek, Xadas/Piazon

Inglese/En-Nesyri

As expected, some players barely played. Had to do heavy rotation, more than I would like. Tried to offer out on loan but no interests. Some players were affected by the non-continuity in their minutes like Piazon and Nandez. Everytime I gave them a chance, they didn't impress. One player who didn't lack any minutes was Lo Celso, but unlike Pereira, he didn't performed anywhere near his ability should. Though whilst Pereira was scoring goals, I found that he doesn't really make the team play better. Lessons learned. Always take off "cannot end loan" and Bosman signings should wait until the end of the season. If I remembered correctly, at this stage, Bastoni, Stulac, Sprocati, Xadas, Inglese were the best performers.

END OF SEASON AWARDS 2019/2020

Parma

Serie A

End of Season Review and Thoughts

Whereas in the first season we overachieved, in the 2nd season was a bit of a jumbled mess. The transfers situation and overloading of players played a huge factor in the inconsistent season. We didn't confirmed our Europa spot until the last game. What could have been a season of progression turned out to be taking a step back kind of season. On the other hand, I feel this is still our level. Even getting the Europa spot was a challenge. Must be a reason why I chose 'finishing in the top half' as my expectation earlier in the season. But I feel we will be stronger because of the experience this season.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2019/2020

Taught a lesson by PSG and Shakhtar in the first 2 games, showing our level. The home draw against PSG was a great game. Not a rearguard action, but actually creating chances to score as well. PSG was missing Neymar, I think. Part of the reason why I loved Stulac, that 93rd goal to put use through to the next round. A captain's performance. Liverpool was and still is the scariest team I had played against. The speed and the way they attack my defence was unbelievable. Even in the away leg I was expecting a hammering as they went 2-0 up in the first 28 minutes. They got complacent, I think, with progression secured. It was a great experience, a competition we want to go back into as soon as we can.

In hindsight, can't be too critical. I learned a lot about the game this season. Better planning and managing expectations to reflect that is key. Lucas Ribeiro overtook Coetzee towards the end with strong performances, Bastoni also grew stronger as the season went on. Whilst Pereira got more goals than Stulac, Stulac made the team play better and provided more assists as well. The reason his average rating is lower was I had to play him the DM position in some games to accommodate both Lo Celso and Pereira together in midfield. Inglese was the best performer this season. I was happy with the addition of Spalek, he added a different threat when he joined the team, and some of his goals were importat as well. Below are comparisons of their performance in 2019/2020 vs 2018/2019 (which I didn't include previously).

KEY PLAYERS

Brazao (getting better and better, so comfortable on the ball), Ribeiro (best defender for me this season and great signing for £1.2m), Stulac (captain performances in lots of games), Inglese (still reliant on his goals)

FUTURE PLANS

Lucky to be even in the Europa League next season, but signings will be made to be better prepare for it. First, I need to moved on ALL the players that are not in my plans. So, signings might depend on how well I can do that. Hoping to reduce the players used next season (37 this season) and wanted better players registration planning this time.

Lo Celso will be in his 2nd loan season with us but I'm not planning to use him much. Bastoni will also be back for the 2nd of his loan season (3rd season in a row) and he will hopefully be the leader of my defence. Not sure how I could afford to sign him permanently, though. Pereira is going back to Man Utd, and at this time I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue offering to loan him again. Inglese also going back to Napoli and my offer to extend was rejected as they planned to use him in their first team.

Better youth intakes this year. Should have arranged the list by PAs. As of now, I'm in November of my 3rd season. During the summer, Juventus offered £12m+ for Carriero, whilst Milan offered £10m+ for Pandini. Both are duly rejected. If you noticed, lots of my signings are not local so far. This is because I'm planning to use my youth players to provide the Italian backbone down the line. (Lots of the quality Italian players are expensive as well for Parma). Zanioli from my previous intake will play for the u20s next season.

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

Will post the next update when I got to the Winter Transfer Window in my 3rd season, 2020/2021.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 3.0

SUMMER OF THIRD SEASON 2020/2021

The main theme for this summer would be trying to move as many of the players not in my plans. Again, I forgot how much transfer budget I was given (will need to screenshot it from now on). Napoli rejected my offer to extend Inglese's loan, so my main target would be a new front man. Da Graca is not yet ready and En-Nesyri seems to play better at the moment from the wings. My main question from last season was wether to extend Pereira's loan or not. Decided to make an offer anyway and I will decide later depending if I can bring in a more permanent options in midfield. Razvan Marin is at Man Utd and transfer listed, tried to get him on loan instead of Pereira but he rejected my offer. Still trying to find that 3rd midfielder to balance out with Tonali and Stulac. Lots of ins and outs in the backroom as well, but the most notable change was the return of Gianfranco Zola, replacing Andrea Tarozzi as my Assistant Manager. It is a bit of a mixed feeling as I feel I trusted Tarozzi's input but I decided to change things up and see I can benefit from new ideas.

Transfers OUT

Lots of youngsters and overaged u20s players leaving. From the players I signed on a Bosman last season, I managed to shift out Kleber, Piazon, Monte, and Suarez easily but there was not much interest in Krajnc. So far so good. I wanted to keep da Cruz (because he can covers both wings), Nandez (combative midfield presence), and Gagliolo (last of the older team leader) but decided to let them all go with good prices (Only Nandez was below value £6.5m going for £5m). I actually gave Nandez a chance to impress me in the friendlies but both games he was 6.7 and below. One transfer that I had to think long and hard was Zeca. Burnley came in with an offer matching his values. I left the decision hanging for about a week then I tried to negotiate double his value. When they came back with a good offer, decided to accept it. Justified this by saying that he cost us some games last season through silly redcards and not being good enough defensively. Also, since he's not naturally left footed. Making a profit on him was a big plus (I would have sold him around his value, I think). So, will need a new left back to replace both Zeca and Gagliolo.

Loaned out all 3 of my young goalkeepers, so I will need to sign backup as replacements. Krajnc got a loan offer which I had to accept as there was no other interest in him. Had to loan Farinez as well as per my initial plan. I had planned to sign Fabio and Joel Pereira before I got a message about his eligibility this season (3rd non-EU player allowed to be register). I actually kept him around until the first game of Serie A, where he made his debut. Was hoping him leaving would open the slot for Ivonei, but no luck.

Transfers IN

Signed Fabio as backup and for mentoring purposes. Brazao is also touted as the next Fabio, so I don't think it could hurt. Decided to add Joel Pereira as a long term backup despite him being currently better than Brazao. Used most of my budget on Gomez to replace Inglese, only then once the transfer window reopens, Inglese was transfer listed and I made an offer to loan him to challenge Gomez for the starting spot (at 30% of his wages too). Gomez is now my highest earner at £65k p/w. Olaza came in as the new starting left back. I feel I made good business here selling Zeca for £20m and getting him for £2m+. His free kick ability put him to the top of my list (within my budget constraints, of course).

Now, for my midfield. Kiyine impressed me everytime he played against me. Decided to try make an offer and if it was within my budget, I would cancel my loan offer for Pereira. He was cheaper than expected! That there's even enough budget for me to try and buy Palacios from Juve. Can't believe I could get Palacios for almost half his value. So, that's my midfield sorted for now. Pepe (Portuguese DM) had been on trial for me, since I was missing lots of players due to the Olympic qualifiers. He impressed me enough in the friendlies that I signed him as backup. Marcos Paulo is signed to give me options from both wings (to replace da Cruz). Pavon was transfer listed at Barcelona and I attempted to sign him on loan, but Monaco came in and bought him for £40m.

Youth signings - Ivonei, was hoping I could loaned him out to a Spanish club, but unfortunately no club was interested. Agoume was signed because of roaming playmaker role, as that's the role I'm using for Stulac. Will be one for the future. Mahlonoka had an offer from Perugia for loan but decided to keep him for now, despite him not able to play due to non-EU limit. Same as Mamadou Dao (Ivorian regen). Schiappacasse, signed him because I need more potential Italian player coming up and he did well in some games last season, but he will go out on loan this time around.

 

Youth players of interest

Brazao will be a club legend if I have my way. Diakhate was disappointing last season, not consistent enough but I attributed that to the heavy rotation. Will look for him to push on this season. Botturi played 11 games last season and Hiekkanen played 17 games, so they are progressing in the team. Minelli played 12 games last season, but he is still finding his feet. Will be back up to Olaza this season. Casarini is now in the u20s, first team action might be too soon but will try to give him chances if possible. Smajlaj is a young centre back, who is developing nicely in the u20s. Definitely will be involving both Casarini and Smajlas to train with the first team.

My First XI

Brazao/Joel Pereira/Fabio

Valery/Birindelli/Guga, Ribeiro/Coetzee, Bastoni/Botturi, Olaza/Minelli/Guga

Tonali/Hiekkanen/Pepe

Stulac/Mauri/Lo Celso, Palacios/Kiyine/Diakhate

Sprocati/Spalek/Marcos Paulo, Xadas/En-Nesyri/Marcos Paulo

Gomez/Inglese/Da Graca

 

Happy with the signing of Gomez, as he will add more aerial presence than Inglese. Excited by Kiyine's arrival as I liked the way he play against me. Olaza and Palacios are a bit of an unknown as to how they will adapt to Parma (Palacios didn't play much at Juve).

I was missing lots of players due to the Olympic qualfiers (Brazao, Coetzee, Bastoni, Tonali, Da Graca), that my starting eleven in the early months shaped my choices. Ribeiro kept his place and played the most minutes, Botturi was covering well for Coetzee and Bastoni. Only a red card allowed Coetzee to take his place alongside Ribeiro (Bastoni was injured after the Olmypics Qualifiers). Hiekkanen played really well early in the season, that his CA and PA had grown by half a star. Overall, happy with my dealings and my squad. Only wished was that I can cancel Lo Celso's loan. 

START OF SEASON

JULY

Potential problem early on was I didn't know how to set my preseason training. I haven't really personalised  the training schedule yet, it is something I'm looking to do in the near future. Complacency played a part as I drew at home in the first Europa League qualifier after conceding in injury time. Had planned to use a weaker team in the 2nd leg, but I didn't leave anything to chance. Gomez hasn't kick the ground running as well, without much contributions. Still adapting. He also missed a penalty in the 2nd leg. 

Verdict: Harder than necessary.

AUGUST

On the other hand, Olaza has been performing really well, averaging close to 8 in ratings and have made a quick understanding with Xadas infront of him. Great signing so far. Broke Parma's biggest win record in the 2nd leg against Valeranga. Kiyine as had hoped and predicted, fitted seamlessly into my midfield. I liked the fact he's gliding across midfield and as opposed to Pereira, he's using that attributes to make the team play better. Delighted with his performance. When Xadas was out of form, he even filled in at LW position and still contributing as much as he did from central midfield. Best performance was my first win against Napoli, with Diakhate announcing himself as a real first team contender! Gomez scored his first league goal, coincided with an upturn in form from him after this. 

Verdict: Finding good things about some of the players. Happy.

 

SEPTEMBER

In the Europa League, I was drawn alongside Monaco, Hoffenheim, and Heerenveen. With only 4 games this month, I was hoping the players would be able to regain their fitness conditions after a poor preparation fitness wise in preseason. It was showing in the results around Europa League game and especially goals I usually conceded from now on (Bologna equalised in the 92nd minute). We were poor against Hoffenheim away and began my first doubt wether we are ready for this. Against Cagliari, it was my 100th game for Parma.. and we, of course, lost it. Thanks, players  Gomez got himself taken off the first penalty taker list after missing his 2nd penalty kick against SPAL. 

Verdict: Forgettable month.

 

OCTOBER

The game against Heerenveen have the added pressure after our first lost, as we can't afford to lose to them, not with Monaco to play as well. It was closer than it should be after an own goal by Olaza and a late goal threatened the game. We managed to hold on for an important first win. Our 2nd big win of the season came against Inter away from home, with Diakhate again playing an important role in the win. This follows up his impressive hattrick against Napoli. He's developing into an important player, and all I had to do was change his role to Mezzala (Support) from Box to Box Midfielder. We played okay-ish against Monaco, with picking up a point was a fair result. Then the problems starting to arise, some of the first team players are now in the low 80% condition-wise. I had to rest Stulac, Olaza, Tonali, Xadas, and Gomez due to fitness concerns. Even Guga had to play because both Valery and Birindelli were exhausted/recoviring from injury. Considering the situation, was delighted with the draw against Juventus, but equally disappointed with the draw against Palermo. I did, however, used some youngsters against Palermo. Da Graca starting, Casarini and Agoume making their debuts off the bench. This turned out to be the starting points of me unable to juggle both Europa League and Serie A matches back to back with my strongest lineups. Starting to concede lots of late goals as well as fitness deteriorated.

Verdict: Can see the problem, not sure how to fix it?

 

NOVEMBER

At this point, Diakhate has cemented his place alongside Tonali and Stulac in midfield, with Kiyine rotating with him and Xadas. Another big win against Jose Mourinho's Roma, who was unbeaten I think at the top of the league at this stage. Olaza got his first goal, good thing I removed Gomez from the penalty duty. Kiyine has been impressive the past few games that he was starting at LW over Xadas at this point. Until he got an injury against Hoffenheim and is out of action for 6 weeks+. The lost against Monaco put us in a difficult position to qualify for the next round. The match against Empoli was heading for a draw, after getting a 2-0 lead, Empoli equalised. Step up, Da Graca from the bench, who scored his first two league goals for Parma. Lucky win.

Verdict: Start of poor form, poor month.

 

DECEMBER

The positive result against Hoffenheim at home last month gave us an outside chance to finished 2nd. Monaco need to beat Hoffenheim away and we need to beat Heerenveen to progress. 60+ minutes without any goal and playing poorly, I introduced Xadas, En-Nesyri, and Inglese in the 70th minutes. Changed the game completely. Saw a notification when Inglese scored that Monaco was winning 3-1! Yes! Things are looking up.. or is it?

Gomez lost his form this month, so Inglese started most games over him. Whilst Inglese was scoring goals, his contribution to how we played was less than Gomez. But still glad I have 2 good options, instead of just one. Marcos Paulo started his first game against Atlanta and scored his first 2 goals, he was coming back from injuries. The next game? He got injured again. Benevento game summed up our season so far. A bit lethargic, poor defensively, conceding goals late in the game. They equalised in the 89th minute for 2-2, the Captain Stulac, his first game after coming back from injury, scored his trademark free kick in the 92nd minute. Only for Benevento to score in the 95th minute for 3-3, after I went down to 10 men in the 93rd minute as En-Neyri got injured and had to leave the field.

Verdict: Inconsistent month, injuries starting to pile up. Will be glad for the winter break to regroup.

 

WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW PLANS

Not sure if I need any signing to come into the team now, will need to look at who's available. I need to start thinking who to sign to replace Valery next season, as he signed a new contract with Southampton, and Bastoni, who I feel unlikely will be allowed back for the 4th season straight. So, new signings might be new right back and left footed centreback. Marcos Senesi is transfer listed for £2.6m but my non-EU quota is over the limit. I might still sign him and send him to a Spanish club on loan. Wish I have an Spanish affiliate already.

Signings wise - happy with Kiyine and Olaza in terms of performances and contributions. Gomez can do much better considering his fees and wages but he is contributing still. 

Performance wise - Delighted with Diakhate, who has established himself in the first team now. The board is unhappy as I only had scored on free kick this season, despite adding Olaza to the team. I have 'Goals from Set Pieces' as one of the club philosophies. I guess I can look to find one more freekick specialist to add to the team as well.

Injury wise, Kiyine is coming back and he was sorely missed. I'm giving the whole first team a week rest this time around, compared to warm weather training last season. I have a Man Utd tie to look forward to, as well.

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

Will post the next update either monthly or at the end of my the season.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 3.1

WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW OF THIRD SEASON (2020/2021)

At the half way point, still in contention for European places, only question at the end of the season would be which one. At this point, Diakhate is player of the season and Olaza is signing of the season. Gave the players a week rest and arrange no friendly. Hopefully we can recover some of our freshness. After a lengthy thought and being hassled by Tuchel 3 times, I've decided to reintegrate Lo Celso in to the team. So, will need to loan out some midfielders.

Side note: forgot to mention this in my previous update, but with Zeca leaving, I chose Brazao as my Vice Captain. Slowly building him into a club legend!

TRANSFER OUT

Mauri had been unhappy with Palacios arrival, and despite me giving him lots of minutes, nothing changed. Loaned him out, with an optional fee of £7.5m, which I don't think they will exercise the option. Loaned Pepe and Guga to give them more actions. Decided to loan out Dao as he's only going to become Home Grown in Nation, whereas Ivonei and Mahlonoka can be Home Grown in Club. Even Juve wanted to loan Dao as a squad player! Got Senesi in and tried to offer him to Spanish clubs, but no interest. Loaned him to Atlanta just to give him some actions until the end of the season.

TRANSFER IN

Whilst searching my options for a new right back and another free kick taker, I came across Hoever. Liverpool wouldn't sell him, so arranged a 18-months loan. If he does well in the matches I'm going to play him this season, I might not need a new right back to challenge Birindelli. My scouts highly recommended Peda to me (18 years old Polish central defender) and his stats are great for his age. Decided to sign him as Serie A recently have a track record of identifying and developing defenders from Eastern Europe. Only downside is he's not a left footer, hence me still signing Senesi for his Foreign Club release clause. Lupoli is an 18 years old Italian central defender, on a 18-months loan. If he developed well, I can sign him for £1m. Rafael Leao, to be honest, is a panic buy or a 'I have nobody to buy' transfer. When I saw he was available for that cheap, decided to give a gamble. Will be using him along the wings to utilise his speed, when he have opportunity to play that is. He will be back up for now.

In my early search for a new left footed centre back to replace Bastoni, I have arranged the transfer for Friedl from Bayern on a free in the summer. Low gamble and potential to loan out if I can get someone better. The Board gave a last minute cash injection, wished it was earlier, since if combined with Leao's transfer fess, I would have around £5m+ to play around with.

My First XI

Brazao/Joel Pereira/Fabio

Birindelli/Valery/Hoever, Ribeiro/Bastoni/Peda, Coetzee/Botturi, Olaza/Minelli

Tonali/Hiekkanen

Stulac/Kiyine/Lo Celso, Diakhate/Palacios

Sprocati/Spalek/Marcos Paulo, Xadas/Kiyine/En-Nesyri/

Gomez/Inglese/Da Graca

 

Got a weird question from the journalist, since Brazao is my number 1..

JANUARY

Decided to use my youngsters in the cup this season, with backup players filling in the rest. In the first game against Udinese, Birindelli, Smajlaj, Botturi, Minelli, Hiekkanen, Agoume, Casarini, Da Graca are all under 21, with Joel Pereira, Lo Celso, and Sprocati filling in the other spots (Marcos Paulo was injured). I used the same lineup against bottom place Perugia, due to fixture congestions coming up and some senior players still carrying injuries. Agoume shown he is ready for first team football and will be involved a lot more from now on. Of the new names, Smajlaj did well and Casarini was great playing in the left wing position (he's a left back). Against Lazio, Hoever came in for Birindelli, Peda for Smajlaj, Spalek for Sprocati, and En-Nesyri for Casarini (he was injured).

Game against Napoli was even at 1-1, before Milik scored his 2nd around the hour mark. Cutrone killed of the game in injury time during a counter attack when we were pushing forward for the equaliser. Bologna was the worse home defeat so far, I think. The fans and the Board were unhappy with the performance and results. Gomez ten matches without scoring is the first draught I have in 3 season..

At this rate, qualifcation for the Euro Cup is the target again. A bit too inconsistent each month.

Verdict: Too fresh, that some players are out of form and practice. Mistake.

FEBRUARY

Despite being in the semifinals, I decided to continue using most of youngsters in the starting eleven. In the first leg against Fiorentina, I played Joel Pereira; Hoever, Peda, Botturi, Minelli; Hiekkanen; Agoume, Kiyine; Marcos Paulo, Casarini; En-Nesyri. A great result getting a scored draw for the return leg at Ennio Tardini.

In the return leg, Palacios and Da Graca came in for Kiyine and Marcos Paulo. Joel Pereira saved a penalty from Vertout and went on to become man of the match with 8.6 rating. All of the defence played well until the end. So, that's my first final with Parma! Considering I'm using lots of youngsters, this is a great competition to be in this season. According to the Cup's history, the last time we made it to the final was in 2001/2002 season, when we lifted the trophy over Juventus. Parma had won the Italian Cup 3 out of the 5 finals they had been in, spanning over a successful 11 years period (1991-2002).

This month also see 7th-place Parma beat 8th-place Cagliari 7-0, with Gomez scoring 4 goals to break his 10 matches draught. Diakhate scored his first goal this calendar year and it was beauty. That win broke the record for the biggest win in Serie A.

In the Europa League, an unchanged starting eleven was named for the Man Utd first leg at home, carrying over the buzz of a 7-0 win. And Parma played really well in the first half, more than matching Man Utd, who were limited to corners and free kick. That is until in injury time when Olaza, who had been the most dangerous attacker, pulled off with an hamstring injury. In the 2nd half, we couldn't recover our attacking play due to Bastoni replacing Olaza at left back. Man Utd targeted him in the 2nd half but it was mainly an even contest, up until the 82nd minute. Veratti delivered a free kick to an unmarked Karamoh to head home. As mentioned previously, Kouame is one of the players who always troubled me, Karamoh was another when he was at Inter. Others like Icardi and Paloschi always scores against us, but they are not scary like Kouame and Karamoh.

Before the 2nd leg, I used my 2nd team for the draw against SPAL, a game we were lucky to get away with a point. At Old Trafford, Man Utd were attacking from the whistle, but we get the lead through a volley from outside the box from Xadas. We played well again in the first half, before Martial scored from a rebound around the hour mark. With another away goal can put us through to the next round, we went very attacking from that point. In the 89th minute, from a corner, Veratti chased down a long ball and crossed to the unmark Rashford to end our chance. The downbeat atmosphere carried over into the next match, another lost, this time to Chievo.

After the high of getting into the final, we wanted to get back on track with a win against Spalletti's league leaders, Inter. As mentioned above, the previous game to this was the 2nd leg semifinal against Fiorentina, where Joel Pereira got a 8.6 rating. I decided to start him against Inter, hoping his form continues. Alas! His previous heroics turns into a nightmare. Coetzee passed the ball back to him, Joel then decided to bring it out and pass it short to Ribeiro. Unexpectedly and not ready, Joel received the ball back from Ribeiro since he was pressured by Icardi. Joel tried to dribble the other way.. before getting tackle by Icardi, who put the ball into the empty net from 20 yards out. Even the 2nd goal conceded by Andre Gomez was a mistake by Joel, the ball hitting his leg before going in. Now, Joel will forever be the backup keeper. Despite the mistakes, Tonali and Stulac dominated the midfield but unable to change the course of the game. In 8 days, we will play Juventus in Turin.

Verdict: Mixed month. Youngsters showing the way by getting to the final!

 

 

 

THOUGHTS & REVIEWS FOR THE COMING MONTHS

With elimination from Europa League and the Italian Cup only have one final game left, we can focus on improving our league position. It will look like another fight to finish in the Europa League qualification spots. It is a tournament I would like to win, due to Parma's previous history in the competition. Hopefully, next season we can go further and challenge for the trophy. But, the league. Not an easy task as others around us are improving as well.

Poor results has seen us dropped to 9th, but still within those above us. It will be harder as we can't make any more mistakes. Ideally, I would like to avoid another early preseason. I have away games against.. Juventus, Roma, Milan, Lazio, Atlanta, and Genoa left. An even harder challenge as it is.

Players - Birindelli has been brilliant since the new year, keeping Valery out of the team. Diakhate lost his form, but Stulac and especially Tonali is coming into forms nicely in midfield. With Olaza out, Minelli has impressed. Bastoni couldn't regain his place, as everytime he plays, we lost and he played poorly. Even Botturi played better than him. Decided to keep Ribeiro and Coetzee together. Brazao actually played well, currently averaging 7 in ratings. (30 games, 38 conceded, 10 clean sheets). In his first 2 seasons, he only got 9 clean sheets both times. Still waiting for him to get that 3rd star on his CA.

Verdict: The most fun I have had in an FM in a while. Usually within 1-3 season, my saves would challenge for the titles and so on. Taking time as it should be like in real life is more rewarding and challenging. I can see this being a long term save, step by step.

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

Will post the next update monthly or at the end of the season.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 3.2

2020/2021

March

Difficult month in February. This months sees us only have 3 games to look forward to, a chance to play a consistent team due to the upcoming international break. Juventus (A), Palermo (H), Roma (A). 2 difficult away games, against an historic rival who's in third and against Mourinho's Roma, who's fighting it out with Inter for the title. The media called Palermo's season as the good story of the season, and they will be also a difficult form team to play against. We started the month with our new youth intakes. And finally, 2 days into March, Brazao got his 3 stars CA! Pleased with his progress and feels like he's getting stronger each match.

Youth Intakes

Not as good as last season's intakes, but we got a promising Albanian goalkeeper, who's a good distributor of the ball. Perfect as a long term understudy to Brazao. Not sure if I would like a youth goalkeeper this early in the first team, though, as Brazao is only 4 years older. Is it me or does the Youth team always beat your u18s for this? Anyway, signed 5 of the potential players. Of the others, wanted to give Molteni a chance despite his low PA, as his mental attributes are good, but his poor performance during the trial delayed my decision. I did signed him at the end of the month (as his PA is now 3 stars instead of just 2.5 earlier), along with Bruno, who can cover across all defensive positions. What I liked about this intake is that all of them have good mentality, with Hyso's a driven character.

 

FIXTURES

The last time we got less fixtures was in September, which was a forgettable month with 2 loses, a draw, and a win. Hoping to have a better month this time around and well, we did it!

We started on the back foot against Juve, who came at us strongly, and it was no surprise that they scored in the first 10 minutes through Ronaldo. The key turning point was, we scored in our next attack to regain a bit of composure and we started to battle Juve better. In the 2nd half, we improved a lot by creating some good chances and it was Kiyine who scored just after the hour mark. Juve threw everything at us and for the first time this season, I felt comfortable with my defence and saw them soaked up the pressure well. The big decision was giving Bastoni another chance, after Ribeiro's poor performance in the last game. He repayed my faith and this was to be his turning point this season.

Without fixtures congestion, I was able to keep mainly the same lineup against in-form Palermo side. Only changed was the absence of Bastoni, who got a small knock in training. The highs of winning in Turin was brought back down a notch down with an okay performance, but we could have easily drawn the match. Still a good momentum to carry over into the international break.

Without any injuries from the international break and a good 16 days of training, our preparation for the Roma game was as good as we could get. Again, was able to play almost my strongest starting lineup at the moment, with a couple of changes compared to the Juve game. Palacios replacing Diakhate, who is out of form, and Xadas (coming back from injury) replacing Kiyine. Bastoni made his returned after missing the Palermo's game with a knock. For an away game, I think this was the best performance I can remember. We limited Roma's shots on goals, and we created good chances whilst maintaining our defensive structure. This is the first game I had changed Coetzee's BPD Defend to a BPD Cover, and he played really well. But the biggest call I had to make was wether to reinstate Olaza into the lineup after his injury or keep trust with young Minelli. Decided to trust Minelli due to his strong form recently (image below since Olaza's injury against Man Utd), and I was vindicated with a strong Man of the Match performance. He created the goal, and was imperious in defence. A great win!

Bonus: Hyso made his first appearance on the bench due to Pereira's virus and Fabio's knock.

Verdict: 2 big decisions justified, with giving Bastoni another chance for Juve's game and keeping trust with Minelli for the Roma's game. Great month!

THOUGHTS & REVIEWS FOR THE COMING MONTHS

The best month I could wish for, and it set us up to have things in our own hand for the rest of the season. 8 (9 if Palermo can push on) teams fighting for the rest of European qualifications means we cannot let up and allowed any mistakes. Title race is between Inter and Roma, with Juve and Milan just out of the reckoning, I think.

Players - Birindelli maintaining his good form, Minelli been impressing since Olaza's injury and getting better and better, Bastoni finally turning up and settling to play his game after injury hit season and poor performances, Stulac starting to regain some of his season 1 and 2 form, supported by Tonali, and the goals of Sprocati. Downside: Diakhate is losing his form, and Gomez is not scoring and contributing in games.

Verdict: Can we carry this over in April?

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

Will post the next update monthly or at the end of the season.

Questions: Anybody think 'knock ball past opponents' is a good trait?

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 3.3

2020/2021

April

Great month in March, finally feel like we are hitting form. Heavier month this time around, with difficult game against Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and of the course the most important match so far in my career, the Coppa Italia Final! Our u20s won their Coppa Italia, can we repeat the feat for the senior side? I even made my young first team players available for 20 mins for the u20s Final, to get a taste of winning a trophy.

In house news: Brazao and Minelli requested new contracts after their great recent form, happily obliged. Brazao got 5 times his previous wages, and is on his 2nd renewal since coming with the club. Minelli's demand is a lot more modest but well deserved.

FIXTURES

WHAT.A.MONTH! I was sceptical before our matches against Milan, Fiorentina, Milan again, and Lazio. But we managed to win all of them! Since conceding against Juve last month, Brazao has managed to keep 6 straight clean sheets! That means 6 straight '1-0 is enough', a word by the great, club icon, Arrigo Sacchi never been truer in these instances. So, what changed for our form to be these consistent? I think I figured it out. Before March, a few of the youth defenders were complaining 'lack of attention to core units' in training. Now, I've seen the 'too much strength training' etc., so I never really pay attention to fixing these notifications (no strength training is assign but still complaining...). But curiosity got the better of me, and when I googled it, I can fix it by just adding that core unit's training. So, I added more defending training than I ever had previously, along with more focus on goalkeeping specific and set pieces training (I assigned these two here and there since season 1). Training performances improved greatly (not many were performing poorly each week) and somehow that translated into our matches. On the downside, whilst we are defending better, our scoring took a hit. It is something I never minded when playing in Italy, as is the old Italian way!

Only scoring 1 goal against Empoli (19th) reflected our form well. Away in Milan, I had thought a draw would be a good result. We defended well throughout, whilst not creating too many clear chances. We did keep the ball away from Milan. A strong win. Bastoni continues his imperious performance.

Before the game against Fiorentina, got a message from Zola saying we should use 'Attacking' mentality against them. Wait, against Fiorentina? This would be the first time we are favourites going against more perceived bigger team than us. So, it was a bit unusual. Can't say much about the game. I did rested those I expected to play in the Final in the next game (Birindelli and Minelli). The game against Lazio, I also got the same message from Zola. Playing away, I toned it down a bit than suggested, but I think our form and reputation is showing that we are going into games against previously stronger and bigger as favourites. Will take time to get used to this.

COPPA ITALIA FINAL

Of course it has its own section! A bit of a disappointing expected crowd, first I've experience for a final. Playing in Rome instead of Parma or Milan definitely doesn't help. Both clubs have history in this competition, with Parma longing for that success again.

Milan was missing their best player, Lucas Paqueta, through injury. Whilst, Kehrer was suspended for them. But it was their strongest lineup available.

For Parma, I had a few things to consider. Who would be captain for the match? Whilst the starting lineup is straight forward enough by keeping trust with the previous players I mainly used, it is the sub where I struggled who to leave out. In the end, decided to leave out all my loan players (Bastoni, Valery, Lo Celso, Inglese). Botturi got the armband despite low attributes for both leadership and teamwork. He is closest to Bastoni in term of being that defensive leader. Peda have great mental stats but since he is a new signing, decided against it. He might be a candidate for future captain, though. Smajlaj just missed out to him, but I would make sure to play him in the game as well. Joel Pereira retained his place as the Coppa keeper, with Brazao on the bench. Club captain, Stulac, is also on the bench for the big game. Will he get a chance to come on and lift the trophy?

We did it! I would say this was a game of two-50+ minutes. In the first 50+ minutes, we were playing with great confidence! Defence was solid, and midfield was creative and hard working. In the 2nd minute the deadlock was broken after a fine team move. The goal started from Birindelli to Agoume to Da Graca to Casarini, who then put a through ball beyond the defence for the on-rushing Agoume in the box to blast home his first goal for the club. That goal helped the youngsters to settle their nerves, if any. Then out of nowhere, Bonaventura cut in from the left and curled in a wonderful goal to the far post. I attributed to this lost of control when Kiyine went off with a pulled calf injury 15 minutes before the equaliser, with Diakhate coming on to replace him. We were shocked into silence and doubts beginning to appear in some players. I reacted to the equaliser by bringing in Smajlaj for Hiekkanen, with Peda moving into midfield as a half back. Gomez got his first minutes in the Coppa by replacing Casarini, with Da Graca moving to the left. For the rest of normal time, Milan was the most likely winner.

We then lost our captain for the day Botturi to an ankle knock in injury time, in the 97th minute. Despite him wanting to continue on, his low conditions made him susceptible to further injury. I decided to bring on Stulac to replace the outgoing but roaring day-captain. Luckily I had read the Coppa tournament rules as I would have been unaware of the 4th allowed substitution in Extra Time Period. It was a relief when the whistle for the end of normal time was heard. It was a chance for us to regroup and get it together.

With Stulac coming on, I reshuffled the defence again, with Smajlaj moving to the left side to replace Botturi's position, whilst Peda returned to his initial starting position. Stulac slotted to his strongest position in defensive midfield as the deep-lying playmaker (normally I liked to play him higher as the roaming playmaker due to Tonali's option in DM).

We regained a bit of our shape and ability on the ball but Milan was by far the dangerous side, with Joel Pereira having to be on his best. The half time during extra time helped break down Milan's momentum again and we started to play forward more. This time Diakhate won a lose ball in the box before setting up Agoume from outside the box for his second goal of the game and for the club! The scenes!

As we were holding on, Milan crossed the ball in to the box but Joel Pereira went high and claimed it. Instead of passing it short like my goalkeepers usually do, he decided to punt it up the field! Milan gained  the ball back for a few moments.. then Diakhate slide tackled to win the ball in midfield! Stulac received the loose ball and play a pass to the right of midfield to Spalek! Spalek then play a ball forward to the overlapping Birindelli..! Birindelli then crossed to the far post! Da Graca with the header.. Oh no! It hit the post! But wait, Gomez was there to turn in the rebound! We scored in the first 2 minutes and in the last 2 minutes of the game! The players are buzzing now, clearing and tackling anything that came near our goal. Final whistle! Coppa Italia winner! First in 19 years!

Whilst it was great to win the Coppa, I think I would have preferred if Gomez didn't scored the third goal.. Why? Because Agoume would have an "Scored Winning Goal in Final" entry in his history (See Casarini's history below) 

Everybody did their parts for the 120 minutes! More so Man of The Match, 19 years old Agoume, scorer of his first 2 goals for the club! In a final! All of the defence were excellence, from Joel Pereira to Birindelli to Peda leading the way defensively to Captain for 97 minutes' Botturi to Mr. Consistent Minelli and even young Smajlaj not daring to miss out in the contributions!

Finally, it was time for.. Stulac to lift the Coppa!

Verdict: Drinking from the Coppa!

THOUGHTS & REVIEWS FOR THE COMING MONTHS

First trophy of my career! With Botturi going off with a knock, allowing Stulac to get on the pitch and take the armband from him.. Destined, no? 

To be able to do it with mostly young, backup players were amazing. Even Mancini is considering calling up Birindelli for the Italian squad. Of my current squad, only Inglese got anywhere near the National team recently, being called up 6 times but never got his elusive first cap. He hasn't made the squad since the third season due to playing second fiddle to Gomez now. My only regrets were having to leave out the likes of Bastoni and Inglese from getting their Coppa Italia medals.

Achieved my minimum target of qualifying for the Euro Cup again.. but... with 4 games left...

(please refer to the current table below)

Players - Brazao, Birindelli, and Minelli were the best performers, continuing their consistent and improving performances. I have a selection headached as I'm wondering when can I give Olaza some minutes as well to help his cause to win Serie A Player of The Year Awards. Despodov has been immense, though, I think scoring 3 hat-tricks in his past few games.

Verdict: One last push, for Crociati's sake?

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

Will post the next update at the end of the season.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 3.4

2020/2021

May

Final stretch of the season is here! In good form and hoping to finish the season strongly. Buoyed by the Coppa Italia success, the players are raring to go!

In-House news: 3 players selected for the u20 World Cup, disappointed to see some players not going like Da Graca. It would be a good chance for Ivonei to get u20 caps in order to hopefully allowed him to be registered next season. The u20s also did their Coppa and League double. Promising future!

FIXTURES

Would you believed it? A further 3 '1-0' victory, to make it 9 straight of such win! Not sure if I should be pleased (I am) or worried that our goals are drying up (I am also). With Gomez not playing well against Udinese, Inglese came in for the game against Atlanta and got the required goal. Was planning to keep choosing Inglese for the rest of the season but he got a 7 weeks injury to end his season after twisting his ankle in training before the game against Genoa. After the win against Atlanta, we got the messages below, about to beat our previous record of 10 straight win and about to set a new consecutive clean sheet record. Excitement and nervousness in equal measures! Roma lost to Cagliari, so Inter retained their Seria A title with 2 games to go.

So, can we do it? The news officially came together at midnight after yet another 1-0 win against Genoa! Of the 3 games so far in May, Genoa caused us the most troubles and the whole defence had to be at their best to keep the clean sheet. Ecstatic to get it! The clean sheet record might stay for a while once it's over. We have also confirmed our Champions League place together with Inter and Roma.

Our last game of the season was against already relegated Benevento at home. Can we continue our '1-0' victory sequence? All the games leading up to this I've been using a positive mentality. Since this is the last game at home, I decided to let the players loose and enjoy themselves. It is also a chance to give something back to the fans. With an 'Attacking' mentality, we stormed to a 5-0 victory, breaking our '1-0 Parma' tag. Was I disappointed not to get another 1-0 win? In a way yes haha as it is unique situation for me as I've never experienced anything like it before. Despite the big win, Benevento caused us some trouble defensively and I was worried that we might finally concede (I'm sure they will come back up at the first time of asking). But Brazao and the defence doesn't seem want the run to end and put in a concentrated effort, especially in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Verdict: 1-0 is definitely enough, if you are this Parma! What an end to the season!

END OF SEASON AWARDS

Parma

Usually, the day after my last game I would get a message regarding Parma's End of Season Awards but it is not appearing? A bug?

Serie A

Olaza got his' Player of the Year' award! Great first season from him. Brazao, Birindelli, and Olaza got into the 'Team of the Year'. But Brazao is second for 'Goalkeeper of the Year'? How does that work? The fact that 3 of my defenders are in the top 3 for Defenders of the Year' reflected our season well. Xadas's consistency helped him got the 'Midfielder of the Year' over Despodov, who had a great goalscoring season. I'm considering him as a transfer target (see below).

Botturi and Da Graca got their respective u19s awards. Gomez someway behind in the Topscorer rankings, with him finishing on 13 goals and Ingles on 7 goals. Fatih Terim got my vote as 'Manager of the Year', just missing out on a Champions League place on the final day of the season. Genoa, Cagliari, and Palermo all had a great season finishing in the top half of the table. Cagliari just missed out on Europa League on the last day of the season as well.

END OF SEASON REVIEW & THOUGHTS

As I mentioned above, I still hasn't received Parma's End of Season Awards. A bit weird?

Anyway, first time in my Parma career that we are able to finish strongly in the season. The improved defence did their part and I'm happy with how everything have unfolded since our lost to Man Utd. Wanted another crack at Europa League next season but got Champions League. Finishing above Roma is unexpected as Jose Mourinho's team don't usually collapsed after leading the table for most  weeks of the season. Napoli was the other end of season form team, just pipping Genoa, Milan, and Juventus for the final CL spot.

Players - Where to start? Brazao (18 clean sheets), Birindelli (knocking on Italy's door now), Olaza (for me signing of the season and giving so much balance defensively and offensively on the left hand side), Tonali (starting to feel important now, especially in the big games, as his presence on the ball allowed us to be braver in the middle of the field), Xadas for all his assists and goals, Sprocati for all his goals. I also feel both Gomez and Inglese contributed their parts, but I am expecting better from them next season.

Special mentions - To Minelli for filling in for Olaza admirably over a stretch of 2 months, more than enough to cement his future at the club. To Bastoni for recovering his form and remembering how to play just in time to kickstart our run of winning and defensive sequence. You will be missed!

Diakhate had a tale of two half-seasons. Majestic in the first half, and the pressure getting to him in the second half. But he's a promising talent and will be a fixture in our midfield for many years. Stulac on the other hand, has not reached the heights of his first 2 seasons. Mainly due to exhaustion and niggling injuries in the first part of the season, before recapturing some of his form later on. The fact that he scored all his 3 goals in the early months of the season suggested how everything caught up to him physically. But he still ended up with 8 assists towards the end. Disappointingly though, he only scored one free kick this season (the injury time goal against Benevento 3-3).

FUTURE PLANS

The board set aside £22m+ of transfer budget, I think a bit lower than previous season (as I bought Gomez for £25m). Still, not many positions that jumped at me that I would like to get in within the budget. Before I started the game, my transfer targets were Pavon, Lozano, van de Beek, Rodrigo Caio, Tagliafico... All of them have wages demands beyond our means and as in the  case of Pavon and Lozano, they already made high profile transfers (Pavon went to Barca then Monaco, whilst Lozano is at Liverpool). Whilst others are still at their original club and their transfer fees are within budget, but their wage demands would make them the best paid players at the club above Gomez. This is unsuitable for us as I also have Stulac, Xadas, and Tonali who wanted new contracts all season but backed down after having a conversation with them and being a pro about it. I can imagine all 3 will double or triple their wages with the forthcoming new contracts already. I have since dropped my interest in Tagliafico due to Olaza and Minelli. Rodrigo Caio is still of interest, as I'm considering if he can replace Bastoni instead. But I decided I still want my balance with a left footer there. 

Possible Transfers Out

 I don't have anyone I'm actively want to sell at the moment but they are some who I might considered selling. En-Nesyri and Spalek demanded new contracts and I didn't give in as they're already on good wages and they're not first team players. They were unhappy for a bit before dropping it but now they think of me as their adversary. If I can get Vignato I might consider letting Spalek go, same for Despodov who can cover both of En-Nesyri and Spalek positions. Palacios is another name that I might considered selling if I have good offers for him. Whilst on paper he is my best midfielder, but his contribution to how my team plays is minimal (just like Pereira previously, but at least he scored lots of goals). van de Beek might be a good replacement for him.

Possible Transfers In

As you know by know, my main concern would be the starting left sided-CB position. In the beginning of May, I made an offer to extend Bastoni's loan but was rejected. When I made an enquiry, I was given £40m+ as a number. I could structured the deal in order to get him but I preferred not use instalments as I think that will make the game too easy as you can get more players in. I have 2 strong candidates that I'm considering at the moment to come in. Luperto (Napoli) and Cozza (Montpellier). Whilst Luperto is a much a better player than Cozza, he's still below Bastoni's quality. 

Some things I need to consider when it comes to Luperto vs Cozza - £1.9m transfer listed vs estimated £7.5 non-transfer listed value, 2 years older but closest to Bastoni in style, Cozza have the interesting option of playing as a Libero but he is also not dominant in the air. I will give Bastoni another try in early June then if that failed, I will have to decide between this two players (Botturi will be the backup). Though, for that price, Luperto is still an attractive addition even if I managed to get Bastoni in somehow. Decisions.

Loans

Bastoni, Valery, and Lo Celso will end their loan stints at the club. I would have liked to get Valery but he just signed a new contract and was quoted £66m when I enquired. Lo Celso's contract is ending with PSG but I won't be interested in taking him on. Inglese have another season of his loan deal (at 30% of his wage). Hoever also have another 12 months of his loan to run, and he will provide backup to Birindelli. So, I don't have to get in a new right back for now. No further loan deal will come in at the moment.

Of those out on loan, Krajnc is a definite sell (he have an optional £1.5m but not sure if it will activated as he rarely played), same with Mauri's £7.5m optional fees. Guga I might keep around in the squad, just incase Hoever is unable to provide the needed cover. The rest will go out on loan again or will be sold if there's any offer for them. Interesting to note that Dao, Krajnc, Guga are all relegated this season.

Will look to loan Senesi to a Spanish club next season and Farinez have another season on loan at Leganes, who just survived relegation. Before my last game against Benenvento, I got a message below saying they just beat Barcelona (when I checked that result it costed Barca the league with Madrid winning on +4 goal difference on the last day, whilst securing Leganes season). Farinez will challenge Joel Pereira to be the understudy to Brazao after that, with whoever ended up as the 3rd choice being sold to make space for my regen Hyso.

Verdict: Great season, now to prepare for a better, but harder European campaign. It will be a season of stability next, with focus on renewing contracts and minimal additions to the squad as needed. Our finances are still meagre compared to other more established clubs, as we only have £21m+ in the bank balance. Prudence will be key to make this a long enjoyable save.

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

Will post the next update when I got the End of Season Awards for Parma (hopefully it will come).

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 3.5

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.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 4.0

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.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 4.1

2021/2022

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER OF FOURTH SEASON

SEPTEMBER

Started the month with a big away win against Napoli, everybody loves that last minute goal, with Vignato scoring his first goal for the club. Inglese missed a penalty in the 71st minute, though.

Our first European nights of the season see Man Utd coming for a 2nd to visit Ennino Tardini, after our previous matches in the Europa League last season. We lost both of those matches. This time around it felt we were better prepared, we did lots of defending training, including corners and free kicks, leading up to the match. Man Utd dominated the early exchanges before we started to get a hold of the midfield in the 2nd half. Those preparations were worth it as we dealt with Veratti's setpieces well and looked comfortable. After Xadas' goal though, Man Utd were more dangerous on the counter attack. Bastoni was immense dealing with those quick break away, his positioning stopped lots of dangerous situations. Great start in what is a highly difficult group.

I decided to keep mainly the same XI against Atlanta as the players fitness are better this year despite a short pre-season (or maybe because of it?). Diakhate finally played himself into form and this match kickstart his run of good games.

Against Juve, Coetzee got a knock just before the game. Usually I would play Ribeiro, but Peda got the nod due to his good form, who had been filling in at RB due to Birindelli's injury. He repaid my trust in him with 2 big goals, his first two for Parma. It looks like I found my potential threat from set-pieces as my other CBs doesn't score that often. Despite leading Juve 4-1 at HT, Juve almost snatched the game from us in the 2nd half with early goal from Bonucci and a late Mayoral goal. I was really nervous but in the end exhilarated in this game, the kind of feeling  you get from playing FM.

Where we played well against Man Utd, we played a really bad game against Schalke. They were the better side on the day. Their winning goal came after Peda got a knock in the 80th minute, and Yussuf Poulsen towering above him to score the winner in the 84th minute. Peda was in the RB position after Coetzee slotting back in central defense and Birindelli's continued absence. 

Verdict: Definitely better than expected! We are playing well at this stage.

Diakhate got Top 3 Goal of The Month for September. Surprisingly, this was my first entry since the 2nd season. Stulac and Andrea Pereira used to be regular fixtures in these awards.

OCTOBER

On paper, this looked a better month, with 2 difficult back to back games to worry about. In reality, Udinese was in 4th place and Genoa was in 5th place when we played them.

I made some changes for the Udinese game, with most of them lacking match fitness. It backfired on me as we were run ragged from the beginning. Only our midfield of Kiyine and Bennacer played well.

With Real game coming up, I decided to still rotate my team for the game against Genoa. Senesi and Friedl made their debuts, coming in for Botturi and Minelli. The decision payed off as the was more solid and we played a safe game for the win.

I felt nervous before the Real game. But we actually started the game really well and we handled Real's attacks comfortably. Big-game Xadas again scoring a big goal to give us the lead. Just when we thought we will go into HT in the lead, Martialequalised in injury time, 45+2 minutes. To make matter worse, Bale headed them in front in the 48th minute. At this point we were pegged back a lot, with only some counter opportunities. In the 84th minute, Xadas was fouled in the box and we got a penalty! I was expecting Olaza to step up and scored his 2nd CL penalties this season.. But Inglese picked up the ball instead. I had forgotten I had subbed him in for Gomez, who was taken off penalty duty last season after missing 2 straight penalty kicks. Inglese followed up his missed penalty against Napoli.. He will be taken off penalty duty as well for Olaza. Inglese made up for it, though, after converting a beautiful Xadas' pass to equalise with 3 minutes to go. A big point for us from the Bernabeu.

Another difficult away game followed but I decided to keep the same XI against Inter. Injury wise it backfired again on me, as Olaza (27th minute) and Kiyine (90+1st minute) picked up big injuries. Olaza out for 7 weeks and Kiyine for 5 weeks. Correagave the lead for the home side in the 9th minute. Peda got a red card in the 35th minute for his 2nd yellow cards. Despite playing with a player down, we managed to equalise in just after half time. Gagliardini got his marching order after his 2nd yellow card in the 64th minutes. Both teams tried to get a winner but a draw was a fair result. Before the game, I was told during the press conference that Icardi had scored 7 goals in 7 games against us, so it was a good job by the defence to keep him quiet. This was also Stulac's 100th league appearances for Parma.

For the game against Chievo, I rotated heavily with Botturi making his 2nd and Hiekkanen his 1st appearances of the season. I have found it harder to play them this season (because of Senesi, Friedl, and Bennacer's addition). 3-0 lead at HT and again we let the opposition came back into the game in the 2nd half. Ivonei's first goal for the club made it safe in the 74th minute. Mahlonoka made his senior Parma debut after coming on as a substitute.

Verdict: Difficult results through-out but overall pleased.

Such a weird thing to say there, Juric..

NOVEMBER

Before the return fixtures in the CL, all 4 teams were on 4 points. All of us were taking points off each other.

We welcomed Real to Parma with good confidence after drawing the away game. Just like Martial scoring in HT injury time, En-Nesyri scored a big goal in the 45+1 minute! In the 2nd half we played extremely well to control the game and Sprocati finally scored his first goal of the season. He started the season poorly and him coming into form now was a great relief for me as Viganto is still adapting to the club. For comparison, Sprocati had score 28 goals in his first 3 season with us. Xadas made his 100th career appearance for Parma in this game.

At this stage, En-Nesyri started to play his way into the starting lineup a lot, either as the striker, or on the left wing or right wing. Wherever he plays, he's always contributing with assists and goals. He came up with one in a comfortable victory against SPAL, which we should have won by more. Unfortunately, Xadas suffered an injury and will be out for 4 weeks.

Sprocati went out of the blocks in the game against Palermo by scoring twice in the first 5 minutes, his first clocked at 44 seconds. My fastest goal was by Inglese against Inter in the first season, at 15 seconds.

We faced a daunting trip to Old Trafford for our penultimate CL group game. We went ahead with a Diakhate goal before Lukaku equalised in the 46th minute. Conceding just before or straight after HT is starting to become a problem for us. Pogbawas sent off in the 64th minute but we couldn't take advantage as the game became a midfield battle. His red card was interesting as it was the first time I saw an off the ball foul. Initially I thought it was a mistaken identity as it was Verratti who made the sliding challenge, but Pogba was nowhere near the ball. Turns out he kicked Bennacer in front of the referee. Is there a way to upload video here on the forum? Anyway, Bastoni was imperious in this game.

Verdict: Two great results sandwiching two straight forward ones.

Coppa Italia First Round saw us pitted against Udinese, who beat us earlier in the season.

DECEMBER

I just realised what a busy month December can be! Lots of games to play, luckily our injured players are starting to come back as well.

Another difficult game after a hard CL match, at least this time Roma was the visitor. En-Nesyri continues his great form, keeping Gomez and Inglese off the team. Another HT injury time goal, this time scored by us to go into the break leading 3-1. Bastoni scored his first of the season, following his strong performance against Man Utd in the previous game. 2nd half was made harder after Morelos scored his 2nd goal in the 62nd minute (his first was in the 35th minute). Only an injury time goal by the returning-Kiyine made the game safe.

After the last round of CL matches, Parma and Man Utd were on 8 points, whilst Real and Schalke were both on 5 points going into the last round of games. So all to play for, with any of the 4 teams can still go through. Schalke beat us in the away game, so was hoping to get revenge here at home. The game petered out into a slow, even game with Schalke's fullback dominating the game. Until in the 81st minute when Peda fouled Plattenhardt, the Man of the Match fullback. If Schalke had scored, we would have missed out on progression unless we found an equaliser. Brazao's big save prevented any of that and we were happy with a point to secure top spot as Real beat Man Utd in the other game. Was disappointed couldn't get the revenge we wanted, especially at home. But what a great CL campaign so far!

Happy with the draw, gave us a chance at least.

Torino marked Olaza's tenure as the first choice penalty taker and he confidently slotted it in after Agoume was fouled during a corner. Brazao had another good game, making 5 saves to follow his heroics in the previous game. Senesi got injured for the 2nd time within a month in this game.

Decided to keep using young players for the Coppa Italia, besides we won it last season using mostly these same players. Joel Pereira was making noises about leaving again, so I had a decision to make whether to start him or give Hyso (regen) his first debut. Since he just signed a professional contract last month, decided to take a chance against a strong Udinese side. What a results it turned out to be! Da Graca with the hat-trick, Casarini, Vignato, and Peda adding the goals to make it a comprehensive victory. This justified my decision to start the young players. Below are the team who played and their age. Only Di Mario didn't get a chance to play, whilst the rest of the subs were older players making up the numbers. Botturi led the young team very well.

Trezza and Togola also made their debuts for Parma. Hyso finishes the match with a 7.5 rating. Not bad for a 17 year-old Albanian regen, the first regen I used in this save. 

A somewhat much more difficult Quarter Final, away to Lazio, who was third in the league.

Lazio also happened to be our next opponent. Sprocati continues his revival against his old club and Da Graca got a chance as a sub in the league after his hat-trick in the last game.

For the game against Foggia, I decided I wanted to give most of the players from the Udinese game another chance to impress me, so it was a much younger lineup with some backup players getting much needed minutes. A disappointing result and an equally disappointing performance. The fact that my defence was the best performers shows how much Foggia troubled us in this game. I regretted underestimating them.

My initial plan was if the players who came in against Foggia did well, they would also start the last game of the year before the winter break. Unfortunately, they didn't take their chances, so it was back to the my strongest lineup against Bologna. A strong performance, dominated by Man of the Match, Diakhate, and returning to form after injury, Kiyine. En-Nesyri's form made sure Gomez was complaining about lack of game time after another good goal.

Verdict: A good and busy month. Only 3 goals conceded in 7 games, our defence have really improved so much.

SERIE A - END OF DECEMBER 2021

VERDICT SO FAR

The 2 Moroccans are impressing so far and leading the team in goals. Diakhate starting to regain his form and he's added a new dimension to his game, instead of just goals, he's also adding assists. Very happy with the development.

Breakthrough Season - Peda for providing astute performance in an unfamiliar RB position, and the revival of En-Nesyri.

Best player so far - Bastoni, highly consistent and committed with an average rating of 7.30 in 17 games.

Could do better - Gomez only has one goal to his name but at least he's creating for others with 4 assists. Definitely need to be better since he has come to me unhappy and demanding more game time. Tonali isn't the same player as he was before his broken foot injury. He's a bit too safe now compared to before. Hopefuly he will recover his intensity as before.

Young players - Apart from Peda, Agoume and Ivonei have impressed when given the chance. Botturi and Hiekkanen have seen their game time drastically reduced so far.

THE MANAGER AND THE CLUB - OFF THE FIELD

Didn't even realised I was in the final year of my contract until the Board came and offered me an extension. Used the chance to request for another new affiliate (had to persuade them) and expand the stadium as well.

I think the expansion request was justified as we sold out 10 out of 13 home games so far this season, including the first 5 games of the season. Surprised to see we didn't sell out against Roma, considering they are Mourinho's title challenger.

The new capacity will actually be 25,638, with 3,286 new seats added. Costing £4.8m and to be completed on 31/07/22. The image below was my first try at it before I had restarted as I had thought I made an error when requesting the new affiliate (wanted youth setup but got senior affiliate both tries), turns out it's a bug or something? I forgot to take a screenshot of the new expansion message (but somehow I remembered the details haha). 

I think this is the last upgrade for our youth facilities to become 'State of the Art'. Looking forward to the benefits.

Affiliate

No wonder I never had success before Sochaux, the choices below never appeared to me until now.

Decided to choose Feirense as they were leading the Portuguese League at the time, just like Parma in Serie A  

Might be useful as well to send Leao out since nobody wants him 

Though, looking at the squad, I don't really have someone in mind to have a first option on.

Contracts

Kiyine and En-Nesyri wanted new contracts and became unhappy when I refused. Their form have shot up since then and I will look to give them a new one given a chance. Kiyine's request has also went up proportional to his form and he's requesting more than £75k per week. I don't want to break my wage structure yet, so will wait it out until the end of the season. Gomezthe highest at £65k since he's supposed to be the main goalscorers, Bastoni at £50k as the defensive leader, Stulac at £45k as the Captain and lynchpin of the midfield, and the other important first team players at £40k (Xadas, Tonali, Olaza).

Brazao dropped his unhappiness around middle October, and it coincided with his upturn in performance.

Coetzee, Birindelli, and Diakhate all backed down after having a chat with them about new contracts. My kind of players! Will reward them in the summer.

Internationals

Three new internationals this season, Peda (Poland), Smajlaj (Albania), and Fojticek (Slovakia). Fojticek is on loan at Slovan Bratislava, the Slovakian Champion.

Bastoni been involved with the Italian past few squads but hasn't made his debut yet. Birindelli's injury and poor form means he's unlikely he will get a call up soon, whilst Sprocati will be the outsider choice, just like Inglese previously. Still waiting for first Italian cap for a Parma player under me.

Finally! Brazao is starting to get notice by Brazil. Only a matter of time, I feel. 

One of my favourite story this season. From planning to sell him to being undroppable and making Gomez unhappy. Definitely will keep him around. A bit of background story, the reason I signed him in the first place was because he impressed me in the last World Cup and when he scored against Spain in the group stage. I think the addition of another Moroccan is helping his form, as lots of his goals came from a Kiyine's assist.

REGENS

Hyso will be part of Parma future. I hope he will represent Albania instead of Italy, as I liked smaller nations players in my team as well  Of the 3 regens out on loan, only Carriero and Dao worth keeping tabs on for now.

Hyso will act as my 3rd choice, after the retirement of Fabio at the end of October. Might be promoted to 2nd choice if Pereirawants to leave in January.

Carriero improved immensely, especially at the beginning where he was starting and playing quite well. 17 and in Serie A. Lately, he's been out of the team, though, hence his declining attributes.

Dao took his time, not getting any action in the first month or so. He's picked up his form and are improving in ability and values.

My First XI

GK: Brazao/Joel Pereira/Hyso

RB: Birindelli/Peda/Hoever

RCB: Coetzee/Peda/Ribeiro/

LCB: Bastoni/Senesi/Botturi

LB: Olaza/Minelli/Friedl

DM (REGISTA): Stulac/Bennacer/Tonali/Hiekkanen

RCM (RPM): Kiyine/Bennacer/Agoume

LCM (MEZZALA): Diakhate/Bennacer/Ivonei

RW (A): Sprocati/Vignato

LW (S): Xadas/En-Nesyri

SC (PF): En-Nesyri/Gomez/Inglese/Da Graca

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

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

Will post the next update in January for the Winter Transfer Window.

[quee]

Mini-Update

Summer transfer window in real life, always made you think of the next FM. I'm actually excited for FM20!

Saw this list of Parma squad on tour. Noticed Stulac is missing and upon googling, finding out he's about to complete his transfer to Empoli. 

That's Brazao and Stulac now that won't be there for when I start a Parma save on FM20. Two of my indispensable in my current save. I know buying them in-game always an option, but it's not the same compared to having them there when you start your game 

Excited for Cornelius, Hernani, Karamoh, and Kulusevski though. Karamoh always troubles me in my current save and I just found out about Kulusevski, interesting young player!

One thing I will definitely do is based my team around Inglese in FM20 (Brazao this FM, Stulac I didn't know he would be that good for me when I started). I just read a news on Parma website saying that Inglese did everything in his power to make his return to Parma happened this season. I won't sign someone to replace him as long as he performs (like his first 2 seasons in my current save, which then I signed Gomez to replace him). Will sign someone to compete with him instead.

Choosing a story for your save will always make it interesting and hopefully last longer! 

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 4.2

2021/2022

JANUARY OF FOURTH SEASON

WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW

One position I would love to strengthen is the RW position, with Despodov from Cagliari as my number 1 choice. He's already on £61k per week though, not sure I would be willing to break my current wage structure for him. It's unlikely I will move for him this window anyway as I only got this for my extra budget.

TRANSFERS OUT

Leao finally got some interest! Mahlonoka have not improved in the past 6 months, so decided to offer him out on loan. He will miss out on HGC status for Parma. Roma came in with an offer for Senesi (I didn't offered him out), after deciding he will get more football there, decided to accept the loan offer for 18 months. Roma did try to include £3.3m fees after 5 games, which I didn't know means for buying the player. Removed it instantly. Alborghetti and Adorni are 2 of my youth goalkeepers, who despite going out on loan as 'rotation' option, they're getting zero first team action. Adorni was unable to secure another loan after the recall. £100k loan fee is the maximum other cubs seems to offer me so far (apart from E. Palacios).

TRANSFER IN

No major additions, just 2 'Perfectionists' mentors for my younger players. Unlikely to see any actions. Ruffier is retiring next season, unable to persuade him to  change his mind. With Hoever going back in the summer, Schelotto might be enough as the emergency cover for RB position for Birindelli and Peda.

 JANUARY

After my last game on 26th December, I decided to give the players one full week of rest. It seems to have backfired since some of the players are unhappy when we increased the training intensity back to normal and I think is the main reason for our shambolic display this month. Friedl got injured and will be out for 7 weeks, which means he will stay instead of going out on loan. 

We went to China to play the Supercoppa Final. We actually started aggressively, with Sprocati hitting the post and the ball almost trickling it just after 20 seconds. Managed to keep the ball and Captain Stulac scored his first goal of the season with a good goal just outside the box. We dominated the first half, until the Jekyl went Hyde-ing in the 2nd half. Gagliardini towered above Olaza to head in the equaliser in 56th minute from a corner before Emmers scored the winner in the 113th minute, after a lightning counter attack by Inter. Brazao did well to save the first shot before the rebound found his way to the match-winner. Stulac played his best game and got 'Player of the Match' award but not the trophy. Tonali put in an encouraging and feisty performance. Hopefully he's on his way back to form as well.

Travelling back from China then 2 days later have another game against Cagliari, who was in 4th place. Kept the same XI and we were streamrolled. The worse performance by Parma under my tenure. First time I used aggresive team-talk with them. Haas(16th) scored a wonderful curling goal from outside the box but Brazao's positioning does seemed suspect, Han added two more goals (27th and 70th), and Bradaric (57th). We stopped Despodov from scoring but he played a big part in the win for them.

We bounced back well against Sassuolo, with Captain Stulac again getting 'Player of the Match' away for his 2nd goal of the season. He's getting into form but the team is not. En-Nesyri broke his arm and would have been out for 2 months. But for the first time in my FM experience, I decided to use the special protective casting for him to be able to play some of the matches. Gomez and Inglese are on a goal droughts.

The games were coming fast this month, and after barely enough time to train we entertained Napoli at home. After Diawaragot the lead for Napoli in the 23rd minuted, we never recovered and threatened to score. We did hit the post 3 times though. Combination of Inglese and Gomez were a factor for the lack of goal threats. Another home loss.

Coetzee out for 2 week, Xadas and Peda out with flu for 10 days+.

In the Quarter Final of Coppa Italia, I rested all the first team players and used the same team as from the Udinese match in the previous round. Whilst we didn't impressed this time around, Lazio was much better, we also didn't looked like conceding and was happy to have the match go into extra time and possibly penalties. We were knocked out by a 91st minute goal by Immobile in injury time. We did have 3 goals disallowed, 2 for offsides and one for a foul. There will be a new Champion for Coppa Italia this season. Wished we could progress as the games are helpful to develop my younger players. Only Hyso and Captain Botturi came out of the match with any credit (both got 7.0).

Coetzee had a reoccurrence of his injury and will be out for another 2 weeks.

Verdict: Forgettable, horror-show of a month. Team meeting was needed after the Lazio match. First time I've used it in this FM. January threatened to derail our fantastic first half of the season.

FEBRUARY

In my eagerness to turn things around, I actually played the first game before taking a screenshot of the table at the end of January.

Crazy month in terms of fixtures! Four big away games against bigger team than us!

Luckily, we started against 17th-placed Fiorentina. Captain Stulac again leading the way with another goal and another 'Player of the Match' award. Stulac finally scored a freekick, it's been a while. Last season he only scored one free kick if I remembered correctly. Gomez got an assist and a 7.2 rating for his performance, hopefully he will recover his form after this encouraging performance.

Verdict: Looking at my next run of fixtures, unlike I will get to rotate much again this month.

SERIE A - FIRST GAME OF FEBRUARY 2022

VERDICT SO FAR

I had high hopes of continuing our great form, and potentially winning the league for the first time since I took the reins here at Parma. It will be a struggle from now until the end of the season just to secure Champions League football I think.

THE MANAGER AND THE CLUB - OFF THE FIELD

Affiliate

So, after successfully getting Sochaux and Feirense as my affiliates, I requested another during the short Winter Break. This time it is the 'Youth Setup' arrangement as requested. Defensor Sporting of Uruguay is our new partner!

Contracts

En-Nesyri came around and dropped his unhappiness. It was a good chance to offer him a new one and he accepted a much lower request after this. His new contract went from £16k to £25k per week. 

Decided to keep Inglese despite him wanting to go back to Napoli. Gomez's poor form and En-Nesyri injury made me still want him around as an option. It is unlikely I will resign him for next season, though.

Internationals

I've been giving Ivonei lots of minutes and it's good he's on Brazil's radar now for the senior side! Brazao was not involved in this match.

 

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

Will post the next update for the rest of February.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 4.3

2021/2022

FEBRUARY OF FOURTH SEASON

FEBRUARY

After my last update, we had won against Fiorentina. Next is another difficult game against then 4th-placed Milan side. Used the same XI, except Kiyine replacing out-of-form Xadas at LW and Bennacer as the starting RPM. Played really well away from home was good for the 2-0 lead at HT. It was the introduction just after HT of Tonali in placed of Bennacer that helped us control the rest of the game. It was the first time I played Tonali further forward than his usual DM position. An interesting option for me. Gomez finally scored after 978 minutes draught. He added another in injury time, hopefully pushing on for the rest of the season.

Next up, Lyon. Looking back it was a cagey match, most chances went to the home side. Brazao was equal for most it, apart from a beautiful curling free kick in the 51st minute from Fekir, just on the edge of the box (I had thought Tonali had given away a penalty!). A moment of individual quality was enough to decide the game. Brazao was our best performer (7.2). All to play for in the return leg at the Tardini!

In our past seven games against Juventus, we are unbeaten. It looked like we would extend that sequence after equalising Bernardeschi's opener in the 25th minute with a goal against the run of play, En-Nesyri lofted a pinpoint pass for Xadas to finish from close range in the 84th minute. Changed to 'Cautious' and the next highlight was in the 90th minute.. and Mayoralgot in front of Bastoni to finish at the near post from a Douglas Costa cross. Gut-wrenching, I felt sick with that goal  A draw would have been a great result for us.

Friedl who just recovered from his injury is out for another week due to a virus. Joel Pereira will also be out for 5 weeks.

With the 2nd leg coming up against Lyon, I had a decision to make. Rotate my team and risked the game against Atlanta or start my strongest XI. I feel like I trusted my players enough to select them, and it was another vindicated decision. With the much-happier Gomez keeping his place, in the hope he could continue recovering his goalscoring form, with Bennacer creating two of the three goals in the game. Tonali also scored his first goal of the season from the RPM position further forward in midfield. Tonali and Vignato took knocks in this matches.

Verdict: Already a better month than January, but that last minute Juve's winner will haunt me.

SERIE A - END OF FEBRUARY 2022

VERDICT SO FAR

Contrasting two months, giving me hope we can still challenge Juve for the title, or at least keep our CL spot! Gomez is now on 5 goals, and he's becoming more threatening.

Next match: 2nd leg against Lyon at Ennino Tardini.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 4.4

2021/2022

MARCH OF FOURTH SEASON

MARCH

LYON: European night coming to Ennino Tardini, welcoming French side, Lyon. We lost the first leg 0-1 in Lyon, hoping our home advantage can overturn the the deficit. 

Before the match, Brazao was hit with a flu and could be out between a day to 4 days if left with the Physios. Decided to try that instead of sending him home (definitely out for 3 days if sent home).. and he's out for 4 days, meaning he will miss the match. Backup Pereira was already injured in February for 5 weeks, Ruffier was not registered. So, my only option was to give Hyso his 3rd start of his career, the first 2 being in the Coppa Italia. Not even made his debut in Serie A, yet here he is playing in the Champions League knockout stage.

Despite the goalkeeper situation, Hyso was only tested once, from a freekick. Remembered, in the first leg Fekir got the winner from a beautiful free kick. Luckily it was Rafinha who took the free kick this time and Hyso was able to get to the ball for his only save in the game. Parma dominated the game, especially after Aouar got his marching order in the 39th minute. We hit the woodwork 4 times in the match, before Ribeiro bundled in a goal from a corner, after Bennacer's initial header hit the bar and landed next to Ribeiro.

In extra time, we couldn't find another goal as Lyon started to set up shop and defended really well. Their goalkeeper Lopezhad a really good game, saving 17 shots coming his way. Lyon even lost another player, A. Toure, due to injury in the 110th minute. Initially, I had thought we could use a 4th sub in extra time, but the rules doesn't apply this time? We could have used a 2nd striker like Inglese in extra time, with the 2 man advantage.

In the penalty shoot out, I moved Gomez down to 6th in the list as he missed his previous 2 penalties for us. Hyso had done well to save the first Lyon's penalty, but Sprocati's and surprised-surprised Gomez's disappointing misses knocked us out. I just knew Gomez would missed again if it got to his turn! His attributes for penalty is the best at the club but I don't know why he can't convert any of them!

Not for Parma, you won't!

UDINESE: After the disappointing exit, we had Udinese visiting. We lost 1-3 at their place earlier in the season, but still I decided to rotate the squad. Again, it backfired as Udinese beat us 1-3 again for the 2nd time this season. Fofana (49th) gave the lead, before Casarini (56th) stole the ball from Scuffet in their box, who got caught dwelling on the ball after a backpass, and finished first time into the empty net. It was Casarini's first league goal for Parma. First time I've experienced this in FM19! Cool, right?

Not when it happened for a 2nd time, this time Hyso received a bad pass from Hiekkanen and Lasagna tackled him and scored into the empty net in the 69th minute. Lasagna killed off the game as we were chasing the equaliser in the 80th minute, as another mistake by Hyso caused us the goal. A header by De Paul hit the post then Hyso then the post again before it trickled to the centre for another easy finish into another empty net. Two cup games, one CL game, one league game.. Hyso is not ready!

On a positive note, Di Mario made his senior debut for Parma. It turns out Di Mario is a local born youngster (I think only one in my current squad).

SAMPDORIA: 10th-placed Sampdoria was in good form and it showed as they troubled us too much. Zapata (11th) caught us out with a simple tap in after a low cross across the goal. Gomez first goal was a headed goal from a corner. Birindelli went off injured in the 76th minute, just after using my last sub on Tonali in the 71st minute! Caprari (82nd) took advantage of the space vacated by Birindelli's injury and scored an easy goal. Birindelli will be out for 7 weeks. As the time ticking down, it looked like it will be another defeat for Parma.. before Kiyine got the ball and drive through midfield and threaded a through ball for Gomez to finish with aplomb in the 91st minute! A point gain, definitely!

GENOA: Gomez missed out with an injury he pick up for Uruguay during the international break (he would have missed out anyway with a suspension after 5 yellow cards). Inglese again suffered a virus and is out for 2 weeks. Luckily, En-Nesyri has now fully recovered after 7 weeks playing in protective casting. He will lead the line. 

Roldan gave Genoa a perfect start in the 7th minute with a good placed finish from outside the box. He's someone I've been following since his move to Genoa and I think he can be an option for the LW position, as he's similar to Xadas and I think can give him good competition. En-Nesyri's 11th goal of the season gave us parity going into HT before Hernani scored the winner for Genoa in the 81st minute. He had headed a cross against the post before finishing his own rebound. Another disappointing lost.

Verdict: As bad a month as January! Goodbye Juventus and the Serie A title!

SERIE A - END OF MARCH 2022

VERDICT SO FAR

The form is too inconsistent now and Cagliari is breathing down our neck. Train-wrecked of a start to 2022! Juventus is too far ahead and their great form means they won't be caught this season. A return to Juventus dominance in Italy?

Next match: 15th-place SPAL away.

THE CLUB - OFF THE FIELD

Youth Intakes

Happy to see our latest affiliate, Defensor Sporting, is already producing player for us. Unfortunately, only 2.5 PA. Surprising to see it was not Sochaux first, though.

Uruguyan, Ivorian, Nigerian, and an out of place Englishman! (I don't have any English personnel at the club). 

Unfortunately, only 2 of the players look promising. Roberto Aprile (GK) won't be better than Hyso, though. Kingsley Obi (CD) of Nigeria is the other.

Transfers

Enzo Roldan, someone I might be interested in signing, as cover and competition for Xadas at the LW position. He has been catching my eye since his transfer to Genoa this season.

This seems ages ago, that I don't even remember about this!

I thought Pellegrini's transfer (January, 2022) was the first £100m+ transfers in my game, but upon checking I missed out on a few!

Dybala - £126m (Juve to PSG, July 2020), Alli - £119m (Spurs to Barca, July 2020), and Arthur - £100m (Barca to Man City, January 2021).

Internationals

Finally! First Italian caps for a Parma player under me! Not one, but two players at the same time. Technically, Tonali got his first in the 45+2 minutes, whilst Bastoni got his in the 70th minute. Now, waiting for the first caps for my Brazilian players.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 4.5

2021/2022

APRIL OF FOURTH SEASON

APRIL

SPAL: Another away game, another lost. Lyle Foster gave SPAL the lead in the 4th minute, before Xadas equalised after another Kiyine's assist. Vicari volleyed a great goal on 45th+2 minutes. The fact that only 3 players had an average rating above 6.9 told the whole story, as we never got into the game, even in the 2nd half. Only Kiyine (8.2), Xadas (7.1), and Brazao(7.0) came away with their heads held high. En-Nesyri got a knock and will miss another week. Slammed the team for the 2nd time this season!

The 'Fans Inquest' and all this appalling form made me wondered what actually changed since the New Year. Surely, a full week of rest can't have this huge of a deteriorating effect on our form? Checked 'Dynamics' and I have 5 unhappy players. 2 contracts related (Kiyine and Ribeiro), 2 first team related (Gomez and Inglese), and Peda who wants to go on loan to Bournemouth despite playing most of our games  Decided to reopen negotiation with Kiyine and Ribeiro to see if that would improve our form.

Tactically, I don't think I have changed anything. Usually I only changed Zola's recommendation on 'Mentality' and 'Get Stuck In' or not. Zola been recommending 'Attacking' mentality for most of those away loses, though..  (Somehow my 'Defending Width' was narrow, I'm not sure if I had this during my great defensive run or I accidentally chose one of Zola's changes recommendation..)

INTER: So, I tried to do something different. Usually at home I would go 'Positive', this time I chose 'Balance' for Inter's visit. Diakhate missed out for the next 5 weeks with a groin strain. Our first fantastic performance in a while and we went 2-0 up before Jordi Alba was sent off in the 69th minute. Olaza had a chance to score from the penalty in the 70th minute.. but he missed! The first miss from him. We added two more, with Ivonei's injury time fourth a thing of beauty as he curled it from outside the box. Another false recovery?

CHIEVO: Hope not! But you can tell I'm worried with our form that for our game against bottom-team Chievo, I still kept 'Balance' mentality for the match. We got the win, albeit not a very convincing one. Stulac who got a bruised head prior to the game, came on and delivered an inch perfect free kick for Sprocati to head in.

PALERMO: Next up we played against in-form Palermo side, who got a point away to Juventus prior to our match. Again, kept 'Balance' mentality and we got another good win, this time playing slightly better. Olaza missed another penalty! Should I take him off penalty duty? And Stulac got another assist, this time from a corner for Xadas' goal. Inglese's made his 100th Serie A appearance for Parma in this match, all on-loan across 4 seasons. He has scored 55 goals for Parma so far in 122 total appearances. Should have been a 'Club Favoured Personnel' by now. Speaking of, Andrea Pereira's name seemed to have been removed from 'Favoured Personnel'. Any reason why?

FOGGIA: Whilst trying to get Gomez back into fitness, he damaged his knee cap playing for the u20s and will be out for the next 5 weeks - end of the season for him! In our previous encounter against Foggia, I underestimated them by playing my young-Coppa team. This time I played my strongest lineup possible.. and still we couldn't beat them! Somma got the equalising goal in the 89th minute for Foggia, who had Moha Ramos and Leao on-loan from us and playing really well for them.

Verdict: Now, it's about getting as many points as I can to finish in the top 4. Playing it safer even at home, so be it!

SERIE A - START OF MAY 2022

I forgot to screenshot the table before the Juve-Cagliari match on May 1st. Cagliari became the first team to beat Juve in however many matches. Righi is a regen loaned from Juve, haunting his parent club big time!

VERDICT SO FAR

As you can see from the table above, we are throwing our season away. All blame is on us! I need to figure out so this won't happen again in the future. Now, I'm only 6 points ahead of 5th-place Roma. Cagliari and Milan had overtaken us. Impressed by Cagliari front-three of Despodov-Helder Costa-Han, who will definitely improved on their 9th-place finish last season. Hanging on to the CL spot is now the mission for Parma.

Next match: 8th-place Lazio awaits.

THE CLUB - OFF THE FIELD

Contracts

Managed to get Kiyine's to accept a £40k per week payrise from his initial £28k per week wages (he wanted almost £80k in January). Brazao wanted a new contract as well in April, decided to offer him to avoid any detrimental effect on our fragile-form. He is now on parity with Club Captain, Stulac, at £45k per week (previously on £25k). Still on-going discussion with Ribeiro.

Transfers

Before Inglese's 100th Serie A appearance for Parma against Palermo, I had noticed he had signed a pre-contract agreement to move to the US. I didn't get any notification at all  Whilst I might not resign him next season on a Bosman, I would have consider offering him a new deal if things changes in the summer.

As of the Foggia game, Inglese's stats for Parma:

Total Appearances: 123

Serie A Appearances: 101

Total Goals: 55

Serie A Goals: 45

Seasons: 2018 - 2022

As I previously mentioned before, FM20 I will based my team around Inglese (I won't sign someone to replace him).

Youth Teams

The u18s won the Viareggio Cup (is it an official cup?) and the u20s retained Coppa Italia Primavera (despite a poor season in the Primavera 1 finishing in 9th place) and won the Premier League International Cup (why is Parma u20s playing in this competition?).

11 months out, there goes his potential! 

Awards

Hopefully Kiyine can follow in Olaza's footsteps and keep the award in Parma!

Internationals

Just realised Senesi got his first cap for Argentina last month, he's currently on loan at Roma.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 4.6

2021/2022

FOURTH SEASON

MAY

Not sure if there's even a "Title Race" anymore, but we started the last month of the season in 4th place. 4 away games and only 2 home games made this another tricky month.

After a straight forward win against LAZIO, we stayed in Rome to play ROMA 3-days later. Xadas took over Olaza's penalty duty to give us the lead.. before Vazquez equalised in the 91st minute. At this point I was really worried that my season will go down on a whimper.

Back in Parma, we got the needed win to keep our CL spot but it wasn't an easy game against TORINO, who scored in the 91st minute (again) to end the game on a nervous note for us. We at least confirmed a Europa League spot with this win. Togola and Trezza made their league debuts in this match.

2 days later, JUVENTUS beat TORINO 3-1 in the COPPA ITALIA FINAL.

Playing against FIORENTINA, the first fallen giant in my save, I decided to rotate most of my team. Comfortably leading 3-0 in the first half before Simeone got a consolation in the 69th minute. This win confirmed our CL participation next season, and sending Fiorentina down to Serie B.

Now, CAGLIARI. The best team and most exciting team of the season. Them playing at home. We are fighting for the automatic CL spots. Them ahead of us in 2nd place. And we win 7-0??? By far the best performance for us, totally unexpected! The red card did helped us, but considering the situation and our patchy form, I'm not taking anything away from the players their credits. A special match to mark Bastoni's 100th game for Parma! This result saw us jumped to 2nd place, 6 points behind Juventus with a game left.

Asking a bit too much to get 3 assists in the last game, though?

This tunnel interview  (To be honest, I had forgotten it would be Inglese's last game (as shown by not starting him), and I might have not subbed him in otherwise).

With the game tied at 1-1 after Ajeti had equalised in the 37th minute and without us creating many chances, Inglese came on in the 62nd minute to replace Sprocati, with En-Nesyri moving to the RW. Perfect FM script if any. Inglese scored 2 goals to win us the game and secured our 2nd place finish!

Verdict: Almost a perfect month! Only a Vazquez's 91st minute goal spoiled things. But the 7-0 more than make up for it. The board was on point as well, ALMOST a title challenger!

SERIE A - END OF SEASON

SERIE A AWARDS

2nd year running the 'Best Player' awards goes to a Parma player. Much deserved and his performance is not even a surprised to me anymore.

Might as well have come from one team due to the similar jerseys.. 4 out of 11 is a great testament to our progress! A shame not one of the CAGLIARI's players made it. Mandorlini did get 'Manager of The Year', though.

6 out of 12 nominations for 'Best Players' in their positions? Although, Leao got in for his loan performance for FOGGIA.

VERDICT SO FAR

It was a salvageable season in the end. We recovered enough to secure 2nd place and only finishing 6 points behind Juventus. The 7-0 is definitely the highlight of the season! Now need to figure out to sustain a title challenge.

Players: En-Nesyri has played himself into being almost undroppable. Question marks over Gomez and Sprocati as they were underwhelming throughout the season. Vignato also hasn't impressed me yet so far.

THE CLUB - OFF THE FIELD

Contracts

Ribeiro signed a new contract before the Torino game going from £16k to £28k per week. Now need to sort out Birindelli, Coetzee, and Diakhate, in the summer since they didn't create any fuss after talking with them about an improved deal.

Transfers Plans

I need to think what I want to do with Gomez and Sprocati, especially the latter since he wants another new contract despite a below-par season.

Leao had an amazing 6 months at FOGGIA. 20 starts, 12 goals, 2 assists, 2 player of the match, 7.22 ratings. It is unlikely he will feature in my plan, though.

Despodov will be my main target coming in, and apart from that I don't really have anybody I desperately I want to bring in.

As Bologna was his last game, Inglese's stats for his Parma career:

Total Appearances: 127

Serie A Appearances: 105

Total Goals: 57

Serie A Goals: 47

Seasons: 2018 - 2022

Internationals

Ivonei missed the last 3 games of the season due to the Toulon Tournament, despite it only starting 2 days after the season ended..

Others

Some interesting movement on the managerial front after the season ended, with Mourinho (Roma), Luis Enrique (Napoli), Valbuena (Lazio), Inzaghi (Fiorentina), all sacked. Henry is the new Atlanta manager.

Got a message from Zola saying that I don't have enough coaches. Yes, finally I have space to get Buffon in.. and there's no option to 'approach to sign' 

Reload my last save point after the Bologna game..  The other save was all the way in April..

1st of June..  I completely failed in both my pre-save mission to bring Buffon back to Parma, as a player and as a coach 

Failure. 

Next update will be for the month of June, since I haven't received the 'Club Awards' yet.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 5.0

2022/2023

SUMMER OF FIFTH SEASON

It's been a few weeks/months since I've played. My last save was on July 3rd 2022, so I've forgotten some of my thought process previously.

Transfers OUT

Sprocati was asking for £90k+ p/w wages, so there's no way I'm keeping him. Gomez was my highest earner at £65k p/w, but since he was unhappy and he didn't like En-Nesyri, decided to ship him out as well. Broke the transfer record received for Hernan Crespo previously (£34.6m to Lazio). This was all done before my long hiatus from the game.

Mauri was a mandatory loan fee, Leao was not needed (don't know why I bought him in the first place), Joel Pereira was unhappy by Juventus' interest and I had accepted a £6.75m offer by them, only for Inter to offer £7m, so cancelled Juventus' offer instead. Others were young players that don't have a future. Marcos Paulo didn't want to go out on loan again, so he will be part of the squad as backup.

Nobody was willing to meet my asking price for Palacios, but Juventus came in with a loan offer with £60m mandatory future fee. Negotiated that to £79m somehow, and I'm very happy for a player that didn't fit in my team. 

Verdict: Good summer in terms of clearing out numbers.

 

Transfers IN

Dionanton (regen) was arranged 2 seasons ago when he was 16. Got my main transfer target for his value price (£21m), which I'm surprised with. Hoping for big things from Despodov, who replaced Gomez as my highest earner at £65k p/w.

I wanted to add one more body in midfield. I had offers accepted for McTominay (went to Norwich instead) and Eljif Elmas(signed a new contract at Fenerbache instead). I've been watching Parma's matches this season, and Kulusevski have impressed me so far. The fact he can cover all midfield position was a bonus (in FM20 he can play as stiker as well I think). Whilst his current stats in FM19 won't be as good as he should be in FM20, it is a signing I'm looking forward to try. If I can make him a permanent signing in FM20 after his loan, he might just be my Parma's Player Project alongside Inglese (like Brazao, Stulac in FM19).

When I sold Gomez, I had planned to bring in Pedro (Fluminese). When the transfer window reopened, it surprised me to see that my non-EU quota was already taken (Matias Palacios last season and Farinez just short of 60~ days on getting his Spanish passport), so if Pedro were to arrive, he won't be able to play. Searching for a Pressing Forward, I couldn't find anybody that I liked within my wage budget (£65k p/w max). Some of the young Brazlians were interesting but are not natural Pressing Forwards (Kaio Jorge, Igor Jesus - they would be able to play due to their youth caps). Igor Jesus moved to Wolfsburg on a £100k p/w anyway.

Cavani came into my thoughts as he was released by PSG and he had accepted a £60k p/w for 2 years contract.. only to choose Porto for £47k p/w! Not meant to be.

At the end of the window, I only found Papagaio (not a natural PF) but interesting enough (left footed, good work rate and physical stats). Unfortunately, he didn't have Youth caps to qualify for the non-EU exemptions. Might be my main target for next season. Thought about reuniting Han Kwang-Song with Despodov, but I have doubts about his physical attributes to play in the role that I want. Will keep tabs on him still.

Verdict: Disappointing couldn't get a replacement striker in.

My First XI

GK: Brazao/Moha Ramos/Ruffier

RB: Birindelli/Coetzee/Schelotto

RCB: Ribeiro/Peda

LCB: Bastoni/Botturi

LB: Olaza/Friedl/Minelli

DM (REGISTA): Kiyine/Tonali/Hiekkanen

RCM (RPM): Stulac/Bennacer/Agoume

LCM (MEZZALA): Diakhate/Ivonei

RW (A): Despodov/Kulusevski/Marcos Paolo

LW (S): Xadas/Casarini

SC (PF): En-Nesyri/Da Graca/Dionanton

START OF SEASON

6-1 odds, predicted 6th. Hoping to push on to challenge the title this season, can I do it without a replacement striker?

En-Nesyri is in the running, can he do it? If he's injury free, maybe.

Bastoni is by far the best player at Parma, stats wise. Will be important.

JULY

Decided to tour China, and was surprised by the quality of the oppositions! Wasn't an easy stroll, especially in the 2nd and 3rd game. Toulouse invited me for a cup (my first invite!), so accepted it despite it being close to the Serie A opener.

Verdict: I can already see the schedule will all be messed up due to the Winter World Cup.

AUGUST

Good month, especially the home win against Inter. En-Nesyri was out for 8 weeks, so I only had Da Grace and Kulusevski as emergency backup. Dionanton was injured as well. Xadas played his 125th game for Parma.

Against Bologna, it was Xadas's 100th league game for Parma.

Stulac played his 125th game for Parma against Foggia. Da Graca - scored in the 8th minute, red card in the 25th minute. 

Disappointing performance against Crotone, conceded to the first lob goal I've seen in FM19, before Despodov scored his first freekick - 3rd in 'Goal of The Month'.

Verdict: Almost a perfect month before conceding against bottom placed Crotone.

UEFA Champions League Draw

2 big teams and 1 smaller one. Will be tricky. OL will be especially interesting as we had lost against them previously on penalties in the 1st knockout round.

SEPTEMBER

A bit of personal landmark, as Palermo game was my 200th game in charge of Parma!

The game against Lyon, as expected, was a closed one. We were behind 1-2, before coming back to get a deserved win. Stulacwith both freekicks goals and Kulusevski's making an impact as backup striker with his first goal (Da Graca is next to useless at the moment!).

Rotated heavily against Lazio and Vitesse, and both were a struggle.

Stulac scored his 3rd freekicks of the season against Torino, with one eye against Real Madrid next.

Not the easiest of game to break a record with.. 

Rodrygo scored a great goal in the 19th minute and was dominating the first half, before we turned it around in the 2nd half. First Kulusevski equalised, before Despodov followed a clearance from his own free kick to dribble into the box and placed a shot into the corner of the goal! Get in!

Verdict: Fantastic month! Delighted with the Madrid win!

SERIE A - END OF September 2022

VERDICT SO FAR

Despodov have been brilliant so far. His goals and assists are most welcomed. One thing that I just noticed, he does tend to lose the ball when dribbling forward. Something to look at for his traits.

Captain Stulac is closed behind, he's at his peak and his performance is reflected as such. 3 freekicks goals already!

Bastoni truly is the defensive leader. Without him in the side, huge difference can be seen.

Kulusevski surprisingly has been better than Da Graca playing as the striker, despite not having striker as one of his many position. En-Nesyri upcoming return hopefully help the team even more now.

Unbeaten heading to October! Hopefully this keeps up until before the Winter World Cup break, as I have a feeling my form will be affected by the long inactivity!

One thing to note, I haven't rotate as much as previous seasons, so some of the younger players barely played this season so far. Might have to finally look at letting some of them go.

Welcome any comments and feedbacks.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 5.1

2022/2023

FIFTH SEASON

OCTOBER & NOVEMBER

9 games in 29 days? Let's do this!

Had to fully rotate for the Empoli and Sampdoria games, with the returning En-Nesyri scoring his 25th goal for Parma in his 75th league appearance in the latter game. The 2nd goal was a beautiful curling goal as well from just outside the box.

Bastoni was making his 100th league appearance for Parma in the Udinese game.. and he also scored the winner!

The Real Madrid game.. I think this is the best way to describe it:

0-1 29' Rodrygo

1-1 31' DESPODOV

2-1 44' EN-NESYRI

2-2 45' Martial

2-3 51' Martial

2-4 55' Bastoni Own Goal

3-4 84' KULUSEVSKI

4-4 87' EN-NESYRI

4-5 88' Martial 

First lost of the season but proud of the comeback. Kulusevski was the catalyst after coming on in the 72nd minute. Hated that both times En-Nesyri scored only for Martial to score another within a minute. Martial must have a feud with En-Nesyri or something  Great game!

I have never seen this before, where 2 goals were scored in the same minute of the match. From the restart/kickoff, Diakhatereceived the ball and drive into space beating 3 players before finishing with a fierce shot. As you may know, Dao is my Ivorian regen (Wonderkid) who's been out on loan for the past 3 seasons. First points dropped in the league here. The after effect of the Madrid match can still be felt.

Somehow, I was less worried about Juventus visit this time around. And we rightly played them off the pitch, hitting the post 3 times. It was Brazao's 150th league appearance for Parma! At 22 years of age.

Going into the Lyon game, both Parma and Madrid are on 9 points, whilst Lyon with 6 points. So, a win could confirmed our progress. It came with a price though, with both Despodov (5 weeks) and Stulac (4 weeks) forced out of the game due to injuries. Luckily, the Winter World Cup means we have 2 months off and both of their nations didn't qualified.

Verdict: Perfect half season so far, but I'm still worried things will collapsed after the World Cup. Luckily the 2 injuries were not more serious as well.

SERIE A - START OF NOVEMBER 2022

VERDICT SO FAR

Building a bit of a gap over Milan and Juventus, which I think I will need.

Since his injury return, En-Nesyri has scored 5 goals and created an assist. Much needed presence up front.

Special mention to Kulusevski, who has scored 5 goals, mostly as a subbed. In 19 appearances, he only started 7 and most of those were as strikers due to the injuries early in the season. 4 of the goals were in the CL as well!

Despodov are leading with 6 goals and 5 assists, then Kulusevski, En-Nesyri, Diakhate follows with 5 goals. Stulac and Da Graca with 4, and Xadas with 3 goals and 3 assists just behind them.

Kulusevski below, very happy with his signing. Can't wait to use him in FM20 with better stats.

What do you usually do during the Winter World Cup? Lots of friendlies or rest?

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 5.2

2022/2023

FIFTH SEASON

DECEMBER

INTERNATIONALS

Only Bastoni will be involved for the FIFA 2022 World Cup. He scored his first goal for Italy on his 10th appearance in the group stage against Iran. Italy were knocked out by Spain in the 2nd round.

Spain went on to win the World Cup for the 2nd time. I watched most of the big games (10 games in total) and Spain were magnificent in the knockout stages with players at their peaks. From what I noticed, Koke, Saul, and Sergi Roberto are all World Class (is there a way to see a list in-game who is considered World Class?). They scored in the 120th minute to win their Quarter Final against Brazil, in the 117th minute to win their Semi Final against Germany - both times coming back from a goal down to force extra time. Portugal and Ronaldo was easily disposed 2-0 in the Final.

Paco Alcacer won both Golden Ball and Golden Shoe.

One curious thing I noticed during the Spain-Brazil match, in extra time, just minutes before the winning goal, Neymar was switched to RB. He was on 50% for his condition, might be the reason? Very interesting.

Deserved first cap for Kulusevki in the friendlies before the World Cup.

Farinez got his EU passport, hopefully next season I will get 2 non-EU slots.

CLUB NEWS

The stadium finally finished the much needed expansion, hoping it will fill out again like last season.

Just noticed Ivonei is now a Wonderkid as well. Developing well.

The fall out of the World Cup is here. Should I accept? I'm leaning to no at the moment as I don't really want the extra distraction and commitment now, as I'm not sure how long I will play FM19 now that FM20 is around the corner.

Besides, I don't feel like I deserved it yet since I only won the one Coppa Italia so far, and not using many Italians in my Parma squad.

On the other hand, it will be my last chance to manage 'real' Italian players, who might retire soon and be replaced by regens by the time the next opportunity (if I last that long) comes along.

Thoughts? What would you do?

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 5.3

2022/2023

FIFTH SEASON

As mentioned and discussed in previous update, decided to turn down Italy's offer. They hired Sarri, who resigned from his Newcastle job.

WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW

Friedl threw a tantrum about guaranteeing him as a starter and his episode made Olaza hates him. This was despite him playing 8 games whilst Olaza was out injured.  Then he was not happy about my team talk, so can only mean he had to leave. Good profit on a player I got on a Bosman, but would have liked to keep him otherwise. 

Molteni (regens) was on a Youth contract, and Sassuolo had been offering him between £100-250k on transfer. All rejected as they didn't want to go higher and they did the direct approach instead. First money I made on regens produced by the club.

DECEMBER & JANUARY

Only 3 friendlies during the break, sandwiched in between was a 10 day mid-season camp in Modena. I guess it was not enough, as we were lucky to win against Milan. The goal was against the run of play and it was a sluggish performance. Would have been happy with a draw before and after the goal. Brazao was my Man of the Match, despite Ribeiro officially getting it (both on 7.2 ratings).

Busy month in January means I had to do heavy rotating. Since already qualified for the next round, I used my 2nd team against Vitesse. Russo (regens) made his debut in this match.

An even younger team played in the Coppa Italia. My assistant manager, Zola, and Hyso (regens), my starting GK for this match, credited our team talk during half time for the turnaround. It needed extra time to win the match though. Two new debutants from Fornaciari and Cardona (both regens), who started the match at RB and MC, respectively.

Milan next, away. Will be hard, especially if I'm using the kids again.

Stulac was amazing in January. I kept getting questions in news conference about him, especially the fact he covers the most ground in Serie A. 3 goals in 3 games was an amazing Captain performance. Though, 2 of them were penalties. He did missed one against Juventues in the 2-0 home win in October.

Against Benevento, Diakhate made his 100th league appearance for Parma. On the same day I sold Friedl, Olaza also went off injured for 3 weeks 

Russo (regens) made his league debut against Genoa. It was another heavily rotated team as well, In preparation for the Milan game next.

Dionanton (regens) scored his first goal for Parma to give us the lead, before Vargas equalised. We went ahead again with Marcos Paulo's goal. Away from home with mostly young players. Only Tonali and Bennacer played as they needed the match fitness. We lost the game, first when I had took off Tonali and replaced him with Hiekkanen, then Minelli for Casarini. We lost control of the game then. Botturi and Hiekkanen made two mistakes to gave the game for Milan to win in extra time. Marcos Paulo and especially Kulusevski were amazing for Parma, getting 8.3 and 8.9, respectively. Pandini (regens) made his debut for Parma.

In Coetzee's 100th appearance for Parma, we lost our first Serie A game this season. It was coming, I supposed. In my minor update, I thought En-Nesyri had given us the lead. Chukwueze, just arrived on-loan from Dortmund, scored both the goals. One was a freekick that slipped under Brazao, and the other Ribeiro made a mistake on. 4 mistakes in 2 games from my defence. Joel Pereira played a great game, after becoming their new number 1 as Inter sold Marchesin in January. Should have sold him to Juventus, so he can forever be backup! 

Verdict: Good month, considering. Disappointed to lose in the Quarter Final of the Coppa Italia, as the board had expected a Semi Final appearance. Hopefully this won't mean we lose our form for the coming months after losing two matches on the bounce.

Champions League Draw

Looking at all the teams, any games would be hard for us. First time facing Dortmund, looking forward to it, as they are 'my German team'.

SERIE A - END OF JANUARY 2023

VERDICT SO FAR

Potentially only having 8-points gap after a heavy month. Hopefully form won't suffer that much. 

REGENS WATCH

1. My best outfield player produced so far by the academy. Made his debut against Vitesse in the CL as as sub, and another appearance against Foggia (made an assist) and Genoa. Was unfortunately injured for the Quarter Final against Milan.

2. Quite excited about him, as I don't have much options now in both fullbacks position. Made his debut against Foggia as starter.

3. Made his debut against Foggia as starter.

4. Made his debut against Milan as a sub. Played him as an MC, might contributed to the collapse in that match as he's not physically ready. A good prospect nonetheless.

5. Not bothered to lose him, though awesome mental and physical stats.

Will post a few others who hasn't made their debuts yet next time (and Hyso).

Thought and comments welcome!

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 5.4

2022/2023

FIFTH SEASON

FEBRUARY

Expected to lose away, hoping to get an away  goal at least. But.. wow, just wow. Very surprised and delighted. I would take this!

Verdict: A good month, Foggia is starting to become my most hated opponent. Always a hard game against them.

MARCH - NEXT

 

SERIE A - END OF FEBRUARY 2023

VERDICT SO FAR

9 points is better than 8, right?

Kulusevski now after a great month personally.

My first job interview offer, ever. Unfortunately, not interested.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 5.5

2022/2023

FIFTH SEASON

MARCH

Started the month with a Despodov's hat-trick against Dortmund. Disappointed to concede the 2 goals as we switched off a bit towards the end. Two great results, though!

Got Liverpool again, the hardest team I've played in this save.

Verdict: The CL distraction affected our form a bit, but at least only draws instead of loses.

SERIE A - END OF MARCH 2023

VERDICT SO FAR

Haven't fallen off as expected, so this could be our year?

Youth Intakes

Happy to see my affiliates were contributing to my intakes this year, but still no great foreign talent through the acadmey (without Italy as 2nd nationality). Buffoli is the best of the bunch, but I have too many attacking midfielders from the academy already.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 5.6

2022/2023

FIFTH SEASON

APRIL

Was luck to be even in the game by half time. Even Kulusevski's goal from the bench was against the run of play. Hate playing Liverpool.

The 2nd leg was over in the first 15 minutes, to be honest. Couldn't really push on after getting the away goal. Chiesa loves scoring against us, 4 goals in 2 games.

Verdict: Luckily the Liverpool hangovers didn't affect our Serie A form this time. Even Juventus was surprisingly tame encounter, but they were out of the title race by this point.

Just Parma and Milan left in the tile race. We could win it as early as against Milan at home! Would be amazing!

SERIE A - END OF APRIL 2023

VERDICT SO FAR

Final stretch of the season, and for the first time in this save, I'm feeling a bit of confident as it will be in our own hands.

Youth Intakes

Pandini surprisingly has developed better than Russo. My first regen through the academy to get 3 stars CA.

Good enough room to manoeuvre in the market.

Didier returning home? Hopefully Juventus will be better with him.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 5.7

2022/2023

FIFTH SEASON

MAY

Milan didn't even come to play for the title.. It was a boring match, even Parma didn't create many chances. Still, our first Serie A title in my 5th season! To win it at home is a treat for the supporters as well, against our title challenger no less! Surprised to find out it was Coetzee's first goal for the club as well. What a time to score it! Stulac even missed his 2nd penalty this season.

This was interesting, and I guess Sampdoria didn't get the memo 

Verdict: Disappointingly, the season was on cruise mode after the Milan win. Despodov and Ribeiro were injured for the last 3 games. Benevento got the point they needed to survive relegation against us as well, where we didn't turn up at all.

SERIE A - END OF SEASON 2023

SERIE A AWARDS 2023

Player of the Year was not won by a Parma player for the 3rd season running, Vargas of Milan got the honour this year. Got Manager of the Year award for the 2nd time.

PARMA END OF SEASON AWARDS

Despite Despodov strong debut season, he's surprisingly not in the top 3 for 'Fan's Player of the Season'. Kulusevski could have gotten 'Signing of the Season' himself.

One of my favourite success story! Can't wait to have him in FM20!

END OF SEASON REVIEW

Goals - Despodov (16), Kulusevski and Da Graca (11), Stulac and Diakhate (9), Marcos Paulo (7), Xadas and En-Nesyri (6), 13 others scored 3 goals or less.

Without a quality starting main striker, the goals were shared a bit this season.

Assists - Stulac (9), Kulusevski and Xadas (8), Despodov (8), Olaza (6), Ivonei (5) - who made 5 or more assists

Satisfied with my creative hub, with Kulusevski contributing greatly as a sub in both goals and assists.

Just how strong Liverpool is.. No wonder I hate playing against them!

RECORD-BREAKING SEASON

Might be the reason Despodov didn't get any awards this season? He seemed to play extra special in Europe.

INTERNATIONALS

CLUB NEWS

A pleasant news! Didn't even request for a new stadium!

Even Cagliari will have a new stadium, despite not playing well this season.

A return to Italy for Parma's Icon!

Next Season..

So, when I sold Gomez last summer, Stulac as the captain shared the team's concern about lack of quality in the attacking area. Since I didn't have anybody in mind to bring in then, I told him and the team that I will be using more youth for that position. When I said that I had Da Graca in mind..

Apparently, he's not considered a youth anymore, though! So, I tried using  Dionanton (regens) more.. Then nothing seemed to be working towards my promise to Stulac. Then I re-read again, it turned out it had to be an Academy player!

Hence, why I had been playing the regens more this season.. Except in the last game I didn't play any academy player and the promise-meter went back to 'disappointed' instead of green-happy.

Now, I have this problem to navigate with my captain for next season! Hope this won't destroyed my save!

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.0

2023/20234

SIXTH SEASON

Heading into the new season as Champione for the first time, I had a long pondering thought how I can push the squad to the next level? Whilst still trying not to break the self-imposed wage limit. Challenging for the title again and going further in Europe is the next step for Parma.

TRANSFERS OUT

With the record-breaking sale of Palacios, it will allow us to improve the depth a bit better, hoping for better quality overall. Decided to loan out some of my 'Youth Projects' as they are 22-23 now, so squad registration will be too bloated with them around. Of those out on loan, Peda and Bobsin will hopefully have a certain future at the club, depending on their progress and the situations when they came back. Only made some money on Senesi (should have been more) and Mahlonoka (failed project here, barely any progress in his development).

TRANSFERS IN

Bobsin was pre-arranged on a Bosman when it looked like Tonali was looking likely to leave in January. Nobody came in for him though, so Bobsin went out on loan as I would have to many bodies here.

I bought 3 new goalkeepers.. Why? I couldn't decide who I want to be Brazao's backup for this season. Moha Ramos's CA and PA is better than Brazao's, so he went out on loan to Leganes for 2 seasons instead of wasting all that sitting on the bench. Farinez, who just finished his 3 years loan with Leganes, came back but I decided to loan him out in Italy to see how he would do compared to Spain. Out of the 3, Carevic got the nod to stay as he's the more experience and is a current international. All 3 are Sweeper Keepers like Brazao.

As discussed in previous update, Captain Stulac was unhappy about our options upfront. Hence, the arrival of Kouame, who accepted a paycut of £20k+, to share the highest wage with Despodov at £65k. Stulac was still unhappy all summer still, and when Inter, Napoli, Leipzig made a £20m offer for Kean, I decided to get him as well, in the hope that Stulac will drop his unhappiness (I don't really want him but he did accept a paycut as well to £65k). Big nope, still unhappy and thought about leaving! My Captain!

Lucumi was brought in, initially, as cover for both DCL and LB. Then Olaza had a £32m offer from West Brom, which I accepted as he will be 30 soon and that's a good money for someone getting injury prone. I didn't offered him out, so it was up to him if he wanted to leave. In anticipation of him leaving, I brought in Ait-Nouri (this was before I found out he's one of the best young LB in FM20 as well) as another option for LB with Lucumi. Olaza rejected the chance to move, so I'm left with one extra player that I don't really need.

Now, Evander. I like his description of 'Midfield Orchestrator', never seen it before. In my mind, I have him replacing Xadas in my team at LW but maybe as AP-S instead. Whilst stats-wise Xadas is one of my best players, I found him to be missing in most games. He would usually be on 6.5 ratings before scoring a goal and sometimes making an assist. I want him to be more involved and pulling the strings. Hence, this signing. Besides, Xadas been getting interests past few season, if I get a good offer, I will sell him, just like Tonali. Evander is expensive though in terms of wages, he went from £7k to £50k p/w (he was requesting £88k!). Why the huge jump?

Coetzee is in his final year contract, and he's refusing to accept wages lower than £65k! He's currently on £15k and valued at £30m+. He's not my first choice despite better stats than Ribeiro, so was hoping I could sell him this summer but there's no interest from anyone! I will either let him leave on a free or try to sign him on a lower contract in the coming months before selling him off next summer. In anticipation of him leaving, I signed Armini as my backup option, who can cover across the back 4 and the DM, just like Coetzee.

Verdict: Lots of players, as it turned out, I don't really need. More of in anticipations of something else to happen than anything. Lucumi, Evander, and Kouame will be important part of my squad planning, hopefully.

Open to offers on Tonali, Xadas, and Coetzee. Olaza if he wants to leave, I won't get in the way but not actively trying to get rid of him.

Next update: Pre-season onwards.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.1

2023/20234

SIXTH SEASON

Champions League pitted us in a difficult group, all the teams I would say at around the same level. Monaco haven't lost against us in our 2 games, so they will be the favourite.

Pre-season: Evander impressed me by his style of play, his assists were beautiful to watch.

It was a hellish start to our season. To be fair, it was a very difficulty month in September.

Things started to look up against Napoli. Decided to drop Stulac for the first time to bench, as I feel his unhappiness is a contributing factor to our poor performances. And we won!

Also, credit to PoTM's Armini, who came in at RB as Birindelli and Coetzee both tried to outdo each other who can play the worse  Armini won the ball high up the pitch from his RB position, and created a beautiful assist for the opener. He created another one before scoring himself. This was only his 2nd appearance for Parma. He continued his form in the next game against Leverkusen, scoring 2 in 2.

Had injury nightmares as well since the start of the season with Olaza, Despodov, Ribeiro, Tonali, Diakhate, Xadas, Kouame, Lucumi all had overlapping injuries between 3-6 weeks out. The biggest lost I think was Ribeiro, as I could see during the matches the defence was missing something in all the goals conceded. He made his return in the Napoli's match. Coincidence?

Then the next day, I got the above message! Finally! All it took was to bench him? Our performances improved after this and Stulac made his return as sub against Leverkusen. He helped to turn around the match as Parma was going nowhere with the game before I introduced him in the 2nd half.

Will be a struggle and slow clim up the table, but interesting challenge compared to previous couple of seasons where I sort of lead the pack from the off.

Verdict: Hellish month, but our Captain is happy again! Time to start our turnaround?

CLUB NEWS

Got a new affiliate during the summer. O'Higgins of Chile. Great facilities!

Parma's not too bad, as well. State of the art now for all 3 facilities.

A bit disappointed that the new-planned stadium is only 36,175 seats. Not a huge difference from the latest expansion at 27,940.

Some of you may have noticed his name couple of times in the goalscorers section in the results page. He came out of nowhere, as it was expected another regen to be ahead of him. During the summer, he refused to sign his contract as Tottenham was major interested in him. Luckily, when the season started he signed a new one. I could have potentially lost my best regen so far on a free, otherwise. Been playing him as Mezzala in midfield since I don't use AMC in my formation.

Next update: Continuing where I had stopped and hopefully I can get to Winter Transfer window over the weekend.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.2

2023/20234

SIXTH SEASON

After our last update, we continued at home against Udinese. 3 good home wins, with Kulusevski performing really well from MC as Mezzala-Support (I usually played him as W-Su at LW or W-A at RW last season).

Came crashing down against Roma. I think my worse result? Bastoni had a nightmare, made 3 mistakes and finished the match with a 5.8 rating. Kean not far behind at 6.0 rating. Both accepted their 1-week fine. We did tried to make the score respectable by pushing for goals towards the end, but it wasn't just our day as we could only mustered 2. It's better than 0-6 at the 80th minute, at least.

I think Bastoni was distracted by Tottenham's interest in him, who had watched him 4 times, including the Roma's match.

The next 3 games we didn't really play particularly well, but did enough to win the games. Apart from innocuous penalty conceded in the 71st minute in the Sampdoria match - a harmless long ball from LB and Lucumi decided to get tangled up. 

Bennacer had been unhappy with his minutes and started complaining, but the other 5 midfielders went against him. Must be a lonely place for him at the moment at the club..

Finally, my first win against Monaco! Went 3-0 up before Geubbels threatened a comeback in the 29th minute. We paid back our away lost by the same scoreline. We did lost Xadas and Kean to injuries towards the end, though.

I might rest and rotate the squad for our final game away against Leverkusen.

Verdict: Performance dropping a bit in Serie A, so will try focus our efforts pushing up the table.

Roma lost their lead, and look at Palermo!

Verdict: I think Kean's my first choice striker at the moment, with Kouame always out injured for a few days at a time with niggling injuries. En-Nesyri hasn't really took his chances lately, when given.

CLUB NEWS

I hope this won't destroyed him, 3 months out with torn thigh muscle 

Next update: Continuing where I had stopped and hopefully I can get to Winter Transfer window over the weekend.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.3

2023/20234

SIXTH SEASON - DECEMBER

I'm not sure if December is a month I like or not, with so many fixtures, it can be fun rotating the team I guess.

We only dropped points against league leaders, Milan and Palermo.

A 2-0 win to start our Coppa Italia campaign. Only Birindelli and Marcos Paulo were regulars first team players involved.

Carriero (regens) finally made his debut! He has been out on loan at Palermo and Empoli for the past couple of seasons. Caputo (regens) had a particulary impressive game in an unfamiliar DM position, as he was involved in both goals by running through the midfield.

Another home tie, another chance for the youngsters to play.

A 1-0 win in the last match against Leverkusen was enough to secure top spot and be seeded for the next round.

Only wish was - not Liverpool!

Man Utd again! We had played them 4 times now so far.

5 games against Antonio Conte's sides, only 1 win..

Verdict: Happy with how the month went. Palermo was a hard game and they deserved their place above us at the moment.

6 points off Milan, the chase has begun!

Ronaldo has announced he will retire at the end of the season for Juventus.

Despodov has been one of my favourite find even in all my FM games. Always dangerous!

This is a good addition to Serie A! I'm a bit surprised to see him leave at the half way point, though Atletico languishing in 6th, 15 points behind Barcelona might be a factor! Simeone did win the La Liga and Champions League double last season as well.

Verdict: A good place at the midway point of the season for Parma.

CLUB NEWS

Our defence hasn't been as solid as in previous season, but we are scoring more at this stage of the season 

Another regen with a long term injury, 9 weeks out with a lower back stress fracture 

In the past month, I had 7 messages involving Bastoni and Tottenham.. Persistent! Assensio and Kane were effectively luring him, it is affecting his form as his heads are turned. I have a feeling I need to break my wage limit structure to tie him down to a new contract in the near future.

After six seasons, finally going on our first warm weather mid-season training camp! (I think) 

Next update: Winter Transfer window and players review so far.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.4

2023/20234

SIXTH SEASON

WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW

I had no plans to bring anybody in, so will be a quiet one on that front.

Had some big offers for Bastoni, Ribeiro, and Kulusevski.

Bastoni - £67m, £73m, £80m from Tottenham.

Ribeiro - £27,5m (Napoli), £29m (Monaco twice), £31m (Tottenham - after Bastoni's offers were rejected), £33.5 then £35.5m (both Inter).

Kulusevski - Sporting made a very low offers of £10.25m, £13.75m, and £19.25m.

ALL bids were, of course, rejected.

Luckily, Bastoni was very receptive to our conversation.

First time I had interest from the biggest clubs (Madrid, Barcelona, etc.) and it had to be Despodov 

Recalled the 4 players above because they were not used by their clubs and send them to new clubs for the next 18-months.

JANUARY

 

First trophy this season, and my first Supercoppa Italiana. UAE hosted the match and we got £1.79m as prize money.

Even though we had taken a 2-0 lead, we let it slipped away. Hyso, who made a mistake for the equaliser, was the hero for saving Barak's penalty. Russo had earlier scored his first goal for Parma.

More and more regens making their debuts now, after the 5th seasons. Will be good to anticipate for FM20 planning next time.

Genoa awaits us in the semifinal. Will persist with using the youngsters again.

Verdict: Not as hectic of a month as I thought. Stulac and Despodov are carrying the team with their performances.

Verdict: Exciting title race this year I think. Can Palermo maintained their challenge?

NEW PLAYERS REVIEW - 6 Months on

Armini - bought as backup, but has cemented himself as first choice at the RB position. I loved watching him sliding in midfield to win the ball and starting the attack. Possible cult hero!

Kean - Didn't really want him but he's playing better than both Kouame and En-Nesyri, 6 goals in Serie A and 9 total in 11(6) appearances.

Lucumi - dependable but had made 2 mistakes leading to goals. Used as both DCL and LB.

Ait-Nouri - attacking wise he is decent, contributing 2 assists but he is targeted defensively. Reoccurring injuries slowed his progress a lot.

Carevic - played in 4 Serie A matches so far (when Brazao was rested or not playing well previously), a safe hand.

Evander - expected him to displace Xadas by now, struggled to get going consistently. Appearances off the bench doesn't really change the game as well.

Kouame - biggest disappointment to date. Niggling injuries hindered him massively as Kean had pushed ahead of him in the pecking order.

CLUB NEWS

Another new affiliate, this time HJK - the Finnish Champions. Not the best one I could get, but there wasn't that much interesting options. Decided to go for HJK because as the usual champions, their participation in Europe might be useful if I have players that couldn't get any loans elsewhere.

Another regen with a long term injury, 5 weeks out with sports hernia 

This caught my eye a bit.. Bale and Neymar as the DMs? Talk about shoehorning them into the awards!

Next update: February onwards!

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.5

2023/20234

SIXTH SEASON

FEBRUARY & MARCH

It showed how bad the upcoming month was that I forgot to stop and just carry on playing into March, hoping it will turn around quickly.

Looking at the results, Parma don't travel well, do we? Another bad month in February.

March was slightly better, with good win against Inter, Man Utd, and Juventus.

Was not happy conceding late to Benevento, the bottom-placed team. Olaza scored a nice volley on his left foot after a beautiful curling pass from Tonali to the back post (Olaza just had taken a corner from the right-hand side), and 5 minutes later the Benevento's player out-jumped Olaza at the back post to head in the equaliser..

COPPA ITALIA

Both goals were scored by 2 of my best academy regens, Russo and Pandini. Obi would have made his debut earlier if it wasn't for an injury.

With our poor run of form, I had decided to use a much stronger team in the 2nd leg. Even then we didn't play that well, needing a late Armini goal to secure going into the Final.

Sampdoria awaits us in the Final! They had beaten last year's winner, Roma.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

3 days before the Man Utd game, Brazao had a fall in training and bruised his thigh, out for 5 days. Now, the problem is, Carevic is not registered for Europe, as we didn't have enough HGC. So, Brazao will have to play with a knock or Hyso will step up.

Decided to trust Brazao, despite not fully fit. It backfired massively, as all of the goals seemed easily conceded in my eyes. 

2 goals too far! We dominated the game and Diakhate scored his first goal of the season! Didn't realised his early season injury affected him this badly, as his bravery dropped a lot before this match.

Now, in the first leg, Xadas was the worst player for us, at 6.1 rating. I made a big decision in starting Kulusevski ahead of him for the return leg, and it was paid back handsomely. 3 good assists and driving our attacks until the end.

It took him until March to score his first goal in the previous Man Utd match, and he carried on with a brace against Juventus in the next game. 

Welcome back, Diakhate! 

We do miss his athletic presence form midfield and his consistent-goalscoring contributions.

INJURIES:

EN-NESYRI (3 MONTHS) - ABDOMINAL TEARS

KOUAME (4 WEEKS) - TWISTED ANKLE

TONALI (4 WEEKS) - HERNIA

STULAC (5 WEEKS) - DAMAGE FOOT (during MAN UTD's 2nd leg match)

BASTONI (2 WEEKS) - PULLED THIGH (a day before the Juventus's 5-2 match)

DESPODOV (4 WEEKS) - FRACTURED WRIST, fall in training. Specialists treatment. (A day before BENEVENTO's match)

Verdict: Two morale boosting victories, hopefully will allow us to finish as strongly as we can for the rest of the season.

The injuries to key players might have been the deciding factors in our struggling 2 months.

At one point, we were in fifth place and out UCL qualification. Can't let that happen again!

Amazed to see this from Palermo. A game of 2 halves.

Deschamps was sacked after our 5-2 match. Was hoping his return to Juventus would make for a stronger league.

Despodov will miss most of April because of his fractured wrist. He would have a good chance to challenge Icardi for the topscorer, I think. This happened last season as well where he was injured for 6 weeks towards the end of last season, missing the whole of May.

Unlucky?

CLUB NEWS

YOUTH CANDIDATES - SIXTH INTAKE (2024)

I was concentrating on the 2nd leg's Man Utd game on the next day, so this came out unexpectedly (I never really take notice when the dates of Youth Intakes are, it always surprised me when they came!).

Brazilian-sounding name made me really excited! I hope he will play for Brazil instead of Italy!

Then I saw this! 2.5 CA AND 5 PA?! 

He's a leader-type too! My previous intakes tend to have physical-type players.

I couldn't even watched the usual u18s vs YC match as it clashed with the Man Utd game (first time this had happened to me).

WOW! Definitely my best regen to date!

Definitely will assign him as setpieces and penalty taker! (Good starting stats on those)

Remember the 5-2 vs Juventus? That came 5 days after he was 'born' into the game! Surprised myself that I'm giving him his debut straight away!

More so that I started him despite him only having 73% condition, as he had played the u18 vs YC match and another u18 match the day before the Juventus match.

I would have played him against Man Utd, on hindsight, if he wasn't still 'on trial' then (not allowed to play trialist in official game). That would have seen him made his debut a day after he first appeared in the game.

As that meant he will get the Youngest Parma Player's record! He played the full 90 minutes too!

I usually wait and choose my 'Project Regen Player' (or favourite young academy player at the start of the game) to give them this honour. 

So, that means, Caio Felipe (regen) is that player! He just reinvigorated my interest in the game ten-fold 

He played well too against Juventus, finishing with a 7.1 rating for his debut! He even made Team of the Week 

So, let's recap:

Appeared in-game as Youth Candidate (YC): 11/03/2024

YC vs u18 (Man Utd match as well): 12/03/2024

Debut: 16/03/2024 vs Juventus (7.1 rating) - full 90 minutes played

Contract signed: 17/03/2024

Team of the Week: 19/03/2004

Must have been a crazy one-fictional week for Caio Felipe! 

The records section before it was broken by Caio Felipe! He will have 132 days to break the 'Youngest Parma Goalscorer' as well, and I will try my best to make it happen before the season ends! 

Now he will be out for a total of 12 weeks after a reoccurrence of his previous sports hernia 

So far his stats shows no signs of decreasing, hopefully it won't affect him that much.

INTERNATIONALS & TRANSFER NEWS

Sure, now you want to stay..

After the 2nd leg of Man Utd's game, Armini is under consideration for the Italy's squad. He's been impressive! Signing of the season!

Hiekkanen, who is out on loan at Bari in Serie B, also made his Finland debut in a 0-5 lost against England.

Was looking at the current Brazil's squad and I had thought Ribeiro was called up recently. He wasn't, so I thought I had imagined it. I checked the previous round games and it was for the previous call-up instead, unfortunately didn't come off the bench in both games.

Next update: April onwards!

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.6

2023/20234

SIXTH SEASON

REGENS' SPECIALS UPDATE

So, with the recent addition of my 'Project Regen Player', I thought I would look at all my intakes so far. Will only include 4 stars potential as the minimum, the next highest if there's none.

FIRST INTAKE - 2019

1. MATTEO ZANOLI

I didn't take a screenshot of the first intake group. Zanoli (9 months after) was the best at 3.5 PA but he didn't make it.

STATUS: Released on a free and is now with Carpi in Serie B. Zero appearances over 5 years at Parma, 38 appearances (4 goals) whilst on loan at Pistoiese in the 2021/2022 season.

SECOND INTAKE - 2020

Had a good group in the second intake, with Carriero, Cardona, Angeletti, and Pandini coming through.

Dubbed the 'Golden Generation', my one and only so far.

2. EMILIO CARRIERO

Carriero had a different route to his development compared to my other academy players. I guess he was my 'tester' as he was the most highly rated early on.

I sent him out on loan in the 2021/22 season to Palermo, where he made 25 appearances, 7 as a sub with 6.75 average rating in Serie A.

In 2022/23 season, he made 37 appearances, all starts, for Empoli in Serie A. Average rating of 6.76.

He hasn't developed as well as his PA suggested. So, loaning your player at such a young age might not be the best idea.

3. DARIO PANDINI

I'll be honest, Pandini came out of nowhere. I didn't really pay him any attention, then got a message that he is ready for the first team. Now he's at 3.5 CA with 5 PA.

I didn't realised he was in the second intake with Carriero, but looking back, he started as a 15 years old, hence more time to develop I guess.

STATUS: Part of first team squad now. Made his debut in the 2022/2023 season, with 6 appearances, 5 as a sub.

Now in his fifth season, 2023/2024, he has made 25 appearances so far this season, 15 as a sub. Scoring 4 goals and one assist, with one month left to go of the season still to go.

4. MASSIMILIANO ANGELETTI

Angeletti had 5 stars PA when he started, now only 4 PA. I guess he hasn't developed as well as Pandini.

STATUS: Made his debut in the 2022/23 season, 1 appearance as a sub.

Current season 2023/2024, he started 3 games in the Coppa Italia, with an average rating of 6.73.

Will need more opportunities to develop, so a candidate for loan next season.

5. PATRICK CARDONA

Started with 1 CA and 4 PA, he has actually improved really well. Now, he's 2.5 CA and 4.5 PA. 

Set-piece taker.

STATUS: Made his debut in the 2022/2023 season, with a sole start.

Current 2023/2024 season, he has made 4 appearances, 1 as a sub. Created a goal and got one PoTM, with an average ratings of 7.05. All in the Coppa Italia.

THIRD INTAKE - 2021

Hyso (GK) and Russo came highly rated from the third group. Farnedi (3.5 PA) is included due to his improvement in PA.

6. ARDIAN HYSO - GK (ALBANIA)

Hyso might be my future number 1. He only got his 3rd CA stars in April (my upcoming next update). Earlier than anticipated, he might displaced all my other goalkeepers as 2nd choice next season.

I wished he will stick with Albania as his initial nationality so he can play internationals earlier and earn more caps.

I will allow him to usurp Brazao, despite the latter being one of my 'Project Player' along with Stulac. As long as he developed into a much better GK.

STATUS: Made his debut in his 2nd season, 2021/22. Started 4 games, conceding 4 goals, 2 clean sheets, average ratings of 7.05. This was as a 17 years old!

2022/2023 season, 2 starts, 5 goals conceded, 6.85 average ratings.

2023/2024, in the current season, he has started 3 games and conceded 2 goals, with 6.90 average ratings. He is my starting GK in the Coppa Italia.

7. SAVERIO RUSSO

Started with 1.5 CA and 4.5 PA, now he's developing quite well with a potential 5 stars PA!

The reason why I thought he was the best regen from the academy last season? He was always the best rated player in training for the u20 throughout last season!

I received reports of him being ready for the first team way earlier than Pandini. After 4-5 months, Pandini jumped ahead of him and got the 3 stars CA first.

Currently retraining him as Winger for the RW position.

STATUS: Made his debut in his 3rd season, 2022/2023. 8 appearances, 5 as a sub, 1 assist, 6.84 average rating.

6 appearances this current season (2023/2024), 4 as a sub, 2 goals, 1 assist, and 6.92 average rating.

8. MARCELLO FARNEDI

His PA went up from 3.5 to 4 stars, so he's included in our review. A driven, left footed CB, who can also play as DM.

STATUS: Made his sole appearance in his fourth season (2023/2024), before injury limited his next involvement.

FOURTH INTAKE - 2022

Aprile (GK) and Obi were the 2 standouts at 4.5 PAs.

9. ROBERTO APRILE - GK

Yup, he's the one who's been having Sports hernia twice now. It seems unlikely he will be better than Hyso, but might have a future as the next backup. He's also not natural as Sweeper Keeper, unlike Brazao and Hyso.

STATUS: In his 3rd season now, but is yet to make his debut. He did increased his PA from 4.5 at the start to 5 now, so still have time to develop!

10. KINGSLEY OBI (NIGERIA)

Next up, Obi, who had been making appearances for Nigeria u20s. Recently, Italy u20s called him up, though. Like Hyso, I wish he will choose Nigeria for the long term.

Not the tallest, reminds me of Coetzee in that regards. Will need to improve his ball playing ability in order to make it.

STATUS: Made his debut in the Coppa Italia Semifinal first leg against Genoa earlier this season.

Like Aprile, his PA has improved from 4.5 at the start to 5 now.

FIFTH INTAKE - 2023

Buffoli was my 2nd 2 stars CA regens in the game, the first being 2020's Carriero.

Gaiani seems to be the most versatile regen so far and with good promise at 4 stars PA.

Special mention to Mura, who has developed beyond his initial PA.

11. GIACOMINO BUFFOLI

Is only now at 4 stars PA, despite improving quite well.

STATUS: Made his debut this season as a 17 years old, but struggled to make an impact in the 2 substitutes appearances. Not yet ready it seems. Might be the reason why his PA decreases.

12. DENIS GAIANI

His PA has gotten better now at 4.5 stars, but he hasn't improve as quickly as the others. Still a prospect to keep around as he can cover all defensive position, especially his natural LB with Olaza coming to 30 soon.

STATUS: Made his debut this season (2023/2024) as another 17 years old, making one start and one sub apperance. Average rating of 6.80 is not bad as a young defender.

13. CRISTIAN MURA

A very unique case so far, started out as only 3.5 stars PA, but now can potentially improve as high as a 5 stars PA!

STATUS: Only just turned 17 last month in April, so wasn't under consideration to make his debut yet (I don't play 16 years old until I found my 'Project Regen Player' for the 'Youngest Parma Player' record).

SIXTH INTAKE - 2024 (LATEST)

If you had been following my updates, you will know all about my best regen so far, 2.5 stars CA AND 5 stars PA!

Squizzato (GK) was the other potentially useful player, but with Hyso and Aprile just a couple of years ahead of him, will be a challenge for him to displace them.

14. CAIO FELIPE (BRAZIL)

Already showing signs of quick improvements! He will have further entry in the next season update. Started out wearing #55, so he might be given the #10 in the future!

STATUS: Already made his debut, holding the new record as the 'Youngest Parma Player'. Will be my 'Project Regen Player'.

15. MANUEL SQUIZZATO - GK

Still 15 years old, will be hard for him to challenge the 2 previous GK regen prospects, Hyso and Aprile (both 5 stars PA). A lot of time to improve, though!

Left footed but is not a Sweeper Keeper, similar to Aprile in that regard.

STATUS: Will be a while before he is under consideration to make his debut, if he make it that far.

REGENS LIST - POSITION (CURRENT AGE, CA, PA)

1. MATTEO ZANOLI - DR (20, UNKNOWN CA AND PA - RELEASED)

2. EMILIO CARRIERO - DC (20, 2.5 CA, 3.5 PA)*

3. DARIO PANDINI - M/AMC (19, 3.5 CA, 5 PA)**

4. MASSIMILIANO ANGELETTI - M/AML (20, 2.5 CA, 4 PA)

5. PATRICK CARDONA - MC (19, 2.5 CA, 4.5 PA)*

6. ARDIAN HYSO - GK (ALBANIA) (19, 3 CA, 5 PA)**

7. SAVERIO RUSSO - AMLC (19, 2.5 CA, 5 PA)*

8. MARCELLO FARNEDI - DC/DM (18, 2 CA, 4 PA)

9. ROBERTO APRILE - GK (17, 2 CA, 5 PA)*

10. KINGSLEY OBI (NIGERIA) - DC (18, 2 CA, 5 PA)

11. GIACOMINO BUFFOLI - AMLC (17, 2.5 CA, 4 PA)

12. DENIS GAIANI - DLC (17, 1.5 CA, 4.5 PA)

13. CRISTIAN MURA - MC (17, 1.5 CA, 5 PA)

14. CAIO FELIPE (BRAZIL) - DMC, DR (16, 2.5 CA, 5 PA)**

15. MANUEL SQUIZZATO - GK (15, 1 CA, 4 PA)

VERDICT: Players with ** will definitely be part of future Parma squad. Caio Felipe, Pandini, and Hyso will be the backbone of my future team.

Whilst * players have a strong chance to make it as well, or at least I'm hoping they will develop well enough.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.7

2023/20234

SIXTH SEASON

APRIL

Started the month losing Stulac for 3+ weeks.. So, that's him and Despodov missing for the month.

Missing two influential key players seemed to have a negative on our performance, let alone results. You would think the squad can cope readily, but performances against Bologna, Brescia, and a-meek-surrender-for-3rd-place-rival-Roma suggested otherwisse.

Yup, he's done it! He came on in the 61' and got his goal 7 minutes later!

He scored his first goal in only his second game, too! He didn't play the Benevento game (on the bench) after Juventus, as it seemed all 3 managers are trying to kill him by playing him all the games for u18, u20, and first team 

When he first appeared, in my head, I had envisioned his story as scoring his first goal on his debut or in the Coppa Italia Finalagainst Sampdoria next month.

To go and score 18 days after his debut is good enough! Now, I don't have to play him in all games with bad conditions fitness-wise, looking for that goal!

For the first time in this save, I'm afraid.. 

I checked the confidence of the board and when they mentioned it won't be expensive to sack me due to my contract, I got worried.

I'm worried I might missed out on the season's target, challenging for the title and UCL qualification..

How low does the % of Board's confidence go before they sack you? It was 57% at this stage.

Would be disappointed if I were to lose this long career save, especially now Caio Felipe has emerged.

Kean seemed to have stopped playing by this stage, and Kouame is next to useless (no goal in 20+ games and that was a couple of months ago I think!).

En-Nesyri just came back from his 3 months layoff and he also struggled in the 2 games back..

Before scoring the 2 goals with 2 thumping headers against Fiorentina! I fist-pumped both times 

That's how frustrated I am with my strikerr 

Milan match was a weird one, we played really well compared to the previous matches. Got an early goal and did't feel threatened.

A problem of motivation playing against lower teams, I think

Inter really came out of nowhere, Diego Simeone really is something special! They were bottom half when he took over, and now they are threatening to sneak past us into the top 4, especially with their 2 games in-hand!

Part of the reason why I'm scared to lose my job! Might be Parma who dropped out!

Another example of Palermo's game of 2 halves.

Low replacing Deschamps. Don't think it's a good appointment as he didn't do well at Napoli.

Despodov amongst the favourite again, but his month out will affect the award I think, just like last season.

CLUB NEWS

REGENS WATCH

How the records are looking now after Caio Felipe early exploits! 

Alessandro Melli was a Parma's icon as well, so no mean feat to get both his records!

Hyso is developing really well ahead of schedule! This mean that he will be promoted as the backup to Brazao's next season, I think. With the hope he can challenge for the first choice starting position as the season goes.

He's already ahead of Brazao, according to the comparison. Brazao's PA has reduced, unfortunately, from at least 4 stars to only 3 now.

Interesting situation! Not sure how I would approach it now.. 

INTERNATIONALS & TRANSFER NEWS

This will be very interesting! Imagine both Ribeiro and Bastoni playing as the starting centre-backs partnership for both Parmaand Italy!

Ribeiro hasn't been called up by Brazil again for the past 2 internationals since his first last year.

He also has a German nationality! (I had forgotten about this!) 

Next update: May, Coppa Italia, and how the Serie A concludes! 

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.8

2023/2024

END OF SIXTH SEASON

MAY

En-Nesyri played an important role in our push to secure Champions League football next season. In Parma last 8 games of the season, he scored 5 goals, a much needed presence of front after missing most of the season.

Feels like we are included as part of the 'Title Race', despite me personally feeling we are out of it already.

At least we played a part! 2 injury time goals helped us secured our Champions League spot, whilst sending Palermo to 2nd place!

In our last game of the season, Coetzee didn't even made a token appearance off the bench.. Out of favour! Different case and situation to Inglese, who I wanted to keep!

Apparently, Parma finished their season earlier than others, with Champions League's Final played on the same day as the last round of fixtures for Serie A.

Decided to attend and watch the Title Decider match for Serie A instead, where amazingly Palermo got the win they needed to win their first Serie A! Great story! Even better than Parma winning last season, I think, as Palermo came out of nowhere with mostly regens carrying them.

Palermo..

The best of their regens, the final day hat-trick hero!

COPPA ITALIA

A chance to get a trophy this season! I'm actually quite fond of Coppa Italia, truth be told!

Not great spectacle though, it seems..

First time I've seen the Social news made good sense in all their tweets   (Usually it's half-and half)

Second Coppa Italia for me with Parma!

Closer game and actually a good one!

Caio Felipe scored his 2nd penalty for Parma! Remembered in my previous update where I had imagined he would break the 'Youngest Goalscorer Record for Parma' either in his debut or in the Coppa Italia Final? He would have got the latter, if he hadn't scored his first against Foggia in Serie A after coming as a subtitute.

Another of my Academy product took centre stage, with 3 good assists!

Apparently it's considered a double?

With that trophy, I am now considered as a Parma Icon!

SERIE A TABLE

Not a great season for us, and will be even harder next season as I think Milan has been more consistent for the past 2 seasons. I think they are due a title with their performances.

But we will remember this season as the Palermo season! 

We haven't had a player amongst the top goalscorers since Inglese.. I missed him!

Farinez had a good season at Sassuolo, helping them to qualify for Europe. Crazy amount of clean sheets for a mid table team! They almost pipped Juventus into the final Champions League spot as well!

Inter was the other team that almost overtook Juventus, what a season for them since Simeone's arrival! I think they might challenge next season for the title.

CLUB NEWS

Surprised and proud of this! At least what I'm trying to do is working, though I didn't expect to have the best wages to turnover, especially for a top half team.

£120m in the bank is good, right? It is! You will know why in the next update! Being prudent with my wages and transfers had helped us to be in this position and situation, I think.

REGENS WATCH

Caio Felipe already got his first recognition.

Pandini as well.

He's been unhappy for 2 full seasons, so happy days!

INTERNATIONALS & TRANSFER NEWS

Another non-EU spot freed up!

Surprised to see Olaza and Lucumi missing. None of my Brazilians really been involved, so not surprising they are not included.

Better news in the European scene! Good to see Tonali called up as he hasn't been involved before this. His form for Parmahas picked up and he did played his best football this season.

And I don't really know who I want to definitely get at this stage..

Next update: June, Awards, Internationals and Transfer News! 

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.9

2023/2024

END OF SIXTH SEASON

JUNE

SEASON REVIEW

I don't even remember the 3-0 win, but the 6-2 is still fresh on my mind 

The Palermo Season. Parma target will be to finish closer to the title next season.

Will keep playing my youth players in the Coppa Italia next season, but I do like to win the competition again. It has grown on me.

Not my priority at the moment, but will try to go as far as we can again. Need better luck in our knockout draws.

Interestingly, 2 new teams in Bari and Venezia. Refreshing the Serie A!

CLUB AWARDS

Again surprised that Despodov didn't win it, but Bastoni deserved it as well and played more consistently (37 appearances) throughout the season.

Xadas is not even an international yet with Portugal. Is it just me?

 OTHER AWARDS

My target is to have him play 30+ games in the Serie A next season, to see if he can challenge for the top goalscorer award.

This was Despodov at the end of the season, my first 'Elite' player.

Surprised Brazao finished 2nd, it wasn't his best season since the start of the save.

He deserved it as well for getting a Europa spot, but Colantuono of Palermo should have won it.

It was a good goal, but Bennacer need to do more of it to stay with the club long term.

CLUB NEWS

Big news! Unexpected! I actually think it would be 2-5 years further before I see any news about the new stadium.

Though, didn't expect it to only be 36k+ seats. Hoping for a better name than just Parma Stadium.

I think my finance played a huge part. Went from £120m to £30m (including the £24m spent on Depaoli below). Might be the reason it went ahead earlier than I expected?

New stadium should break even more records! Now I have two things to look forward to, Caio Felipe and the new Parma Stadium!

NEW AFFILIATE

Ole's team!

INTERNATIONALS AND TRANSFER NEWS

Caio Felipe with Italy u19s.. 

DESPODOV'S WATCH in EURO CHAMPIONSHIP

So, Despodov had a great tournament. I started to check on his results after the Turkey's game. 5 goals in 4 appearances! Before bowing out in the 2nd knockout round.

As shown in his screenshot above, Despodov now has 24 goals in 54 appearances! Great rate (almost 1 in 2), with most of the recent goals from freekicks, I think.

Wow, just wow! £122m! 

Offered and broke my wage structure to have Bastoni signed a new long term contract within a few days of the above offer!

In hindsight, I would have liked to delay offering the new contract and see how high Newcastle would come back in for their offers (Tottenham did came back 3 times before).

A weird transfer, I don't really need him as I'm happy with Birindelli and Armini at RB. But when Leipzig, Milan, and Intercame in for him mid June, I decided to try for him as well. Stats wise will be an upgrade for the RB position, hopefully the performance will reflect that as well.

Before he went to Leicester, he rejected my offer as they had offered him higher wages. Could have gotten him earlier for £7m!

End of the journey with Coetzee, as if he had accepted a reasonable wage offer, I would have kept him. I was willing to offer him £50k p/w but he never wanted to negotiate below £64k from the start.

At one point, he was valued at £38m, I think. Unfortunately nobody was willing to offer his value.

His mentoring group was my most successful one, I think. Will miss seeing those 3 'Driven' characteristics in my squad!

Next update: July, Awards, Internationals and Transfer News! 

P.S: This is also where I will have to decide to reload my last save in July or continued my start of August save (as indicated previously). Will take a break from the game before deciding later when I came back.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 6.10

2023/2024

END OF SIXTH SEASON

JULY

TRANSFERS

Kean was valued £40.5m.. Very on the low side there, Man Utd! 

The fact he was my 2nd 'elite' player that I noticed after Despodov meant that he's going nowhere (Bastoni is the 3rd player I noticed now).

Besides, I'm having enough trouble finding a good striker to fit into my team anyway. Papagaio just signed a fresh new contract, so he wasn't interested in negotiation. Other players I scouted and checked were Iheanacho (more of a target man and a bit older than I would have liked), Isak (good physical presence and a good age but again might not be suitable to 'Pressing Forward' like Kouame), and Cutrone (Italian but a bit too expensive in both fees and wages).

Pinamonti was relegated with Foggia and I had a £6m offer and £65k p/w wages accepted, but he decided to choose Stoke's offer of £105k p/w instead. Would have been interesting, as stats wise, he might be similar to back-up player, En-Nesyri.

Not a huge offer but the fact it was Real Madrid made it exciting!

Doing something right with him but unfortunately he hasn't improved as much anymore. Peaking at 3 stars CA and PA, despite previously having 5 stars PA.

I guess sending him to do leadership courses 3 times and playing him from an early age really hindered his potential?

Should I be more cautionary with Caio Felipe?

Finally left the club and still commanded a good wage from Torino.

Parma Stats

January 2019 - June 2024

105 appearances

1 goal

(His only goal came in a 2-0 win over Milan to clinch the title in 2023!)

Would have easily kept him if his wages demand was lower, as he was not my first choice anymore. I lost out on his potential transfer value though, as high as £38m at one time.

INTERNATIONALS

Not sure why Olaza was needed as I preferred him to be resting this summer..

Surprised to see this! Thought someone would have overtaken him with the extra games he didn't get to have. 

Sarri's Italy won the European Championship, so he's doing a good job. They beat Croatia 2-0 in the Final.

Bastoni, Tonali, and Kean were part of the Italian squad winners.

2 players, Pride of Parma!

Tonali and Kean mostly played as substitutes from what I gathered.

Interestingly, only 2 regens included.

Macciocchi (Man City bought him from Roma for £72m in the 21/22 season) and Trbuhovic below (another Man City signing for £35m, on-loan at Dortmund for the past 2 seasons)

I haven't been paying attention to the u19s European Championship at all, and suddenly was interested when Caio Felipe won the Golden Ball! 

Italy came 2nd to France. Still wishes he will play for Brazil, though!

Checking the fixtures, Caio Felipe scored 3 good free kicks in 5 games to be in the running for the Golden Boot! Impressive from a defensive midfielder!

Of course this was rejected, but I unlocked the 'Headhunted' achievement on Steam. Didn't realised Italy's job was not bigger than Parma's!

I think I would accept an offer from Brazil, though. So I can call-up Caio Felipe! 

Next update: The rest of summer!

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.0

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

SUMMER

TRANSFERS

A bit of shuffling around this summer.

Kouame went out on loan in the hope he will rediscover his form and goalscoring touch, as 2 goals in 26 appearances for a £26.5m player is a flop. Ait-Nouri joins him as he hasn't convinced me he is ready.

Lucumi leaving because he was devastated to miss out on the Copa America for Colombia in the summer. I didn't give him enough chances, despite using him as a LB as well. Bastoni was too imperious in front of him. Less than £2m profit, lucky.

Victor Bobsin was another player arriving at the wrong time for the club. He joined on a Bosman in the thinking Tonali was going to leave two summers ago, but since nobody offered good money, Tonali stayed and out on loan to Sevilla, VictorBobsin goes. When he came back, Tonali just had his best season at Parma and now I don't want to sell him. PLUS, the emergence of Caio Felipe (regens) means there's no space for Victor Bobsin even as a squad player. (I also have Bennacerthere, who I wanted to sell but no good offer as well, so only one can stay).

SM Caen got a new sugar daddy as well, hence why their spending good money on their squad this season. +£36m profit on a Bosman signing, who never made his debut. Really wanted to fit him somewhere. Part of the reason I decided to sell as well was because of the stadium situation, depleting our finances.

Depaoli is the one major signing this summer, as I wanted to strengthen the RB position. I've cover him a bit in the June update.

Reabciuk was discovered when I watched their match late in the summer. Only 2.5 CA and PA, but his technical attributes are amazing for a LB. Will act as Olaza's backup.

Lukasz is a regen striker, nothing special, cheap as I wanted to add more bodies for the u18s as they don't have a good striker.

SEASON REVIEW

Surprised Juventus is still favourites in these odds, as they haven't been challenging lately and will be without Ronaldo.

Milan is my pick for the title this season.

Again, surprised En-Nesyri is here instead of Kean.

Nobody from Parma.. They never learned their lesson! 

Olaza (2021), Kiyine (2022), and Despodov (2024) have made the Yellow and Blue proud!

An even group, with two teams Parma have played before in Lyon and Dortmund. Lyon will be the harder match between them, from previous encounters.

INTERNATIONALS

Will he get to partner Bastoni internationally as well? Whereas I wanted Caio Felipe to play for Brazil, I don't mind if LucasRibeiro gets a call-up for Italy as he doesn't seemed to be in contention for Brazil.

No notification was given, but my three regens for Italy u23s won the Olympics! Cardona was the hero even! Pandini and Hyso were the other 2 players.

Next Update: Pre-season and rest of August.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.1

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

FIXTURES

AUGUST

Straight forward preseason. Good opening win against Udinese but dropped points against Calgari, conceding the equaliser in the 2nd half.

SEPTEMBER

Still unbeaten 2 months into the season.

Slow off the marks, but a good, late comeback win. Depaoli created both goals from right back!

Juventus' match was my 300th managerial involvement in the Parma's dugout! These landmarks seemed to coincide with a big match.

Kean got his goals 2 minutes after Dortmund's! It's one of those goal where the striker pressured the goalkeeper and steal the ball before scoring into an empty net (my first).

Dao (regens) made his debut for Parma, in his 5th season since signing! Though, he's been out on loan to Empoli, Stuttgart, and Roma (2 seasons) since.

Crazy first 8 minutes for us! Gung-ho football away from home! 

Caio Felipe's Watch: Made his first start this season and open the scoring from a free kick  

Also missed a penalty in the 67th minute 

Reabciuk, who has 'Oleg' on his shirt on the pitch, made his debut and did well with a 8.5 rating!

The last player to have a different shirt name for Parma was Kucka, who had 'Kuco' on his.

CLUB NEWS

This coincided with his up-turn in form, happiness really played a huge factor in players performances in this game.

INTERNATIONALS

Despite getting injured in training after his 2 assists against Atlanta, he still got called up and made the first of his 2 appearances against England and Wales in September.

Depaoli is my 4th Italian Internationals representing Parma under my tenure, with Inglese getting called up 3 times without making his debut. Birindelli was scouted by Mancini before but never called up.

Next update: October and November.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.2

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

MANAGER'S NEWS

Started the month with a new contract! 

Remember, last season I was worried I won't get to experience bringing up Caio Felipe as my first regen project and moving into the new stadium in 2026!

Now it is sorted, I am happy and can put off buying FM20 a bit longer! (I seriously almost bought it earlier when I thought I will lose my job )

FIXTURES

OCTOBER

Still unbeaten. We lost Lucas Ribeiro to a hamstring strain injury for 2 months during the Lyon game, in the 91st minute.

Caio Felipe's Watch: He missed his 2nd penalty against Torino 

Kulusevski scored a really good playing as winger at RW (he cut in to curl it to the far post )

NOVEMBER

Caio Felipe's Watch: He missed his 3rd straight penalty against Fiorentina  He would have won the game for us too! Will I removed him as the taker? 

Lucas Ribeiro made his return from injury against Sampdoria.. Before suffering a lower back stress fracture in training 2 days later! He will be out for 10 weeks! 

Kean got Parma's first hat-trick since.. Despodov vs Dortmund in March 2023 (3-2 win!)

Kulusevski created 2 goals as well!

Caio Felipe's Watch: Got an assist for Kean's 2nd goal, by heading a corner towards Kean.

His best game that I remembered! The one thing that I always liked about Kean (and a bit surprised) is he won his share of headers really well, despite not looking like a typical target man. Not even Inglese nor Maximiliano Gomez did that for Parma!

Great way to end your goal drought!

Comfortable win in the end, Dortmund's style of play suited Parma's to the wire, I think, hence better games against them so far.

Seriously, I love this guy! If you haven't been following my updates, I first knew about him when Parma announced it's first squad for a pre-season training camp in real life. I checked him in game, and he was only 3 stars CA and PA according to my scout! But I bought him anyway just to try him.

Glad I did, as he's been amazing for me! I will do everything to have him signed for my Parma FM20 save! 

Look at him now, rated as my best central midfielder (4 stars CA)! Versatile and effective as he always contributed everywhere I played him.  And everytime he came off the bench, he almost ALWAYS change the game for Parma with a good assist or goal!

Just imagine him with a boosted ability in FM20! 

Kouame scored an amazing goal! First time I've seen like that! He's doing well at Sassuolo, but from watching the matches, he doesn't fit to play as 'Pressing Forward' I think 

CLUB NEWS

INTERNATIONALS

Armini still under consideration for Italy, but Birindelli seemed to lose his chance already.

Next update: December.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.3

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

FIXTURES

DECEMBER

Suffered our first lost against the defending champion, Palermo!

Started the month with an amazing performance and result!

GR-EIGHT.. 

Four stars from Despodov! Still waiting on my first 10.0 player rating in a match! 

Interestingly, this was not the first time a Parma player scored 4 goals in a match.

In February 2021, Gomez scored 4 goals (1 penalty) against Cagliari in a 7-0 win at home.

In May 2022, Xadas scored 4 goals also against Cagliari in another 7-0 win, this time away.

Now, in December 2024, Despodov scored 4 goals against Bari in a 8-0 win at home.

The aforementioned first lost! It was also Dao's (regen) first league match for Parma!

Caio Felipe's Watch: Created his 2nd assist by squaring the ball from the left to Tonali, who shoot from just outside the box for the opening goal.

Caio Felipe's Stats This Season So far (As of the above match)

Appearances: 11 (7 starts, 4 off the bench)

Goals: 1 (Free kick)

Assists: 2

Remember, he only played his first game this season in the last game of September against Genoa (his only goal so far this season).

Andddd.. Despodov did it again! 

In February 2021, Gomez scored 4 goals (1 penalty) against Cagliari in a 7-0 win at home.

In May 2022, Xadas scored 4 goals also against Cagliari in another 7-0 win, this time away.

In December 2024, Despodov scored 4 goals against Bari in a 8-0 win at home.

Now, again in December 2024, Despodov scored 4 goals (1 penalty) against Venezia in a 5-0 win at home.

Trivia: Interesting to notice ALL 4-goals-matches involved a Cagliari-connection! Twice against Cagliari for the same scoreline and of course Despodov, a former Cagliari player!

Still no 10.0 rating! 

Another good win, but the goals are shared this time! 

Last game of the year!

Had to be Evander's best game for Parma so far! There is still hope that he can be a long term contributing member of this Parma squad!

Despodov won 'Goal of the Month Award' but I didn't get the achievement on Steam?

COPPA ITALIA

Genoa waiting!

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Good to see Palermo making it out of the group stages! In their first try as well! Chelsea, Valencia, and PAOK were their opponents.

We played them for the first time during pre-season earlier this season, but this will be a different test! Excited!

CLUB NEWS

RECORDS

So, I've broken the record twice now? 7-0 (twice!) and 8-0!

AWARDS

Despite not playing much this season, he's still attracting interest from other clubs.

This is also where I noticed Daramy is in FM19! (He's at Bayern) 

Next update: Winter Transfer Window.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.4

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW

Some of the big headlines, rumours, and transfer offers in January! Will anybody be leaving or joining Parma? Scroll down to the 'Transfers' section!

TRANSFERS

Grabara and Minelli were not used at all by Fiorentina and Perugia, so they were recalled and sent to Feirense instead, my feeder club in Portugal.

Vignato was an annoying player. He got Serie B 'Player of the Year' last season and he performed well in pre-season, hence I kept him around but when given the chance he just didn't performed. Leicester offered good money for him, so off he goes!

Unfortunately, I made a big mistake with Marcos Paulo. He was unhappy with his first team chances last season, but I played him more this season and he dropped his unhappiness. Then he got injured, and I kinda forget to offer him a new contract since I filtered 'unavailable' player off the squad screen. 

When he came back from injury in December, Despodov and Kean was in such good form (I'm playing him at RW and as a PF at SC), he barely had a look in as a starter (some substitute appearances only). His unhappiness reappeared straight away!

Then after the last game against Perugia, I had a message saying that he will be leaving on a free at the end of the season 

I didn't want him to leave as he's versatility can cover so many positions and he's doing well as Kean's understudy in the 'Pressing Forward' role (he rarely drops down from 6.8 rating when playing in striker position and he seems to be doing well aerially as well). I've definitely used him more than En-Nesyri when he was available to play.

Since he's definitely leaving, I had no choice to offer him out for transfer. 

Surprised Porto offered him £12m for a player with 6 months contract left! And then I noticed his new wages are really low! Should have inserted a 'Buy-back' clause (I've never ever used this in FM ), just incase I really wanted him back!

Lesson learned! New hope!

So many green attributes 

Marcos Paulo Stats for Parma

July 2020 - January 2025 

(On-loan at Leganes for 2021/2022 season)

72 appearances

17 goals and 4 assists

A regen from Algeria joined, as the only incoming transfer this window, to add more bodies for the u18s. 

I do have future transfers arranged for end of the season.

Botturi will be leaving on a free. He did well considering his stats, but I've got better players now pushing him out.

Botturi Stats for Parma

2014 - 2015, 2018 - 2025 

(On-loan at Bari for 2023 - 2025 seasons)

65 appearances

3 goals

Botturi was also the 'Captain' for my 2nd team in Coppa Italia or heavily rotated team in Serie A. Good servant for the club!

Now, Gboho is a player I first discovered when watching the 2021 Euro u21s Championship. I attended the Final and was impressed by him! Been keeping an eye on him ever since. Only reason I never made a move earlier for him was because I had too many players in midfield already.

Two of them, Agoume and Ivonei, had to go out loan since I just can't find space for them.

Now, Agoume is on-loan at Rennes for his 2nd season now. Every time a scout report appeared, I always check the match to see how he had done. And there's always one name who seemed to be scoring consistently..

By the end of January, Gboho already had 15 goals from midfield!

When Barcelona had made an offer for my regen, Dao, I noticed they were also tracking Gboho now! So they were really looking for an attacking midfielder it seems. I sent my scouts to check his latest report and for only £16m, a transfer was arranged for the end of the season! Happy with this!

Diakhate's position will be in danger next season as he is not the same player as he was in my first few seasons. That one big injury really changed him somehow.

CLUB NEWS

New affiliate, this time Zilina of Slovakia!

Next update: Half-way point - the table, stats, and regens watch!

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.5

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

WINTER BREAK

Some of you may have noticed, but I haven't include the league table once so far this season.. This was because I played the half-season in a day or so and I keep forgetting to take a screenshot each month 

The momentum was crazy and I think only losing once so far helped me to just carry on. The new contract helped as well I think, as I was genuinely relieved I got to continue my career save.

But here we are! Despite a good season so far, I'm only 5 points ahead of Milan! I forgot to mention that they lost LucasPaqueta to Man Utd last summer, so they are slightly weaker this season. They replaced Paqueta with Klaassen.

The surprised package is definitely Udinese! Whilst Palermo was in second place up until the last round of matches.

Roma and Juventus were just above the relegation zone at the start of December! Roma has improved slightly since bringing in Southgate as their new manager. Nagelsmann seems to have a slower effect on Juventus since coming in to replace Low.

Despodov is having his best period in terms of goalscoring since he joins Parma, though 8 of the goals did came in the 2 games against Bari and Venezia. Little Caio Felipe making his presence felt with the 'Best Pass Completion %'!

Very, very happy to see one of Parma player leading for a change. The last time this happened was in Inglese first couple of seasons with us. Kean not far behind is a bonus, considering he was pushing for a transfer to Man Utd last summer.

 

PARMA SQUAD & STATS

Whilst reading other threads, one thing I've noticed I haven't include in any of my updates are the squad page!

So, I have no records of how my squad did in terms of numbers over the previous season (unless I check each of them individually).

A new addition to the type of section I will be adding, hopefully it will be useful.

Is there any other field I should be adding to my columns view?

As per previous transfers update, Marcos Paulo and Vignato would no longer be in the squad page after this.

Apparently, Pandini has usurped Bastoni as the club's new key player over night! (Or rather gone unnoticed )

REGENS' WATCH

Which brought us to have a quick look at our regens and see how the have been doing with the first team squad!

Very impressive for someone who came out of nowhere. He doesn't shy away when given a chance, though he can be a bit inconsistent at this young age! Key player? Could be!

Caio Felipe's Watch: Remember when I had to decide if I wanted to restart the summer again because he went from 'Leader to Physical' type player?

I did restarted in the end, and he was a 'Leader' type for an extra 6 days compared to the previous attempt! Oh well! (2nd time around I didn't promote him straight away to the first team)

The player description might give a clue as to why, as he is a strong DM at 16 years old already 

Before Pandini, Russo was making all the noises in the academy. He's always the top player in training performances for u18s and u20s. It took him longer than Pandini, but he is currently a 'Wonderkid' as well (in early December last month). I'm retraining him as a winger on the right, as the long term cover for Despodov.

The one player who hasn't taken his chance well and hasn't improved that much due to the first team training lack of goalkeeper focus sessions. I tried to move him back down but he became unhappy, so I told him it was by mistake!

When I played Hyso, he seemed to concede easier goals compared to Brazao, despite supposedly better attributes.

I hope he hasn't lost his potential by promoting him too early to the first team squad!

The player everybody rated highly, Barcelona wants him! But I can't seem to find a place for him in my team. I've been retraining him as a 'Pressing Forward' but he hasn't played well there. I don't really want to retrain him as a CM, as that would mean another extra body in the most congested area of the squad. 

Dao just got a lifeline, though! In the guise of Marcos Paulo leaving this month, there's a spot available for the backup RW position. So, he will be retraining as a winger instead now. His bald head does reminds me of Marcos Paulo as well 

A chance for him to stake his claim in the first team squad, as I would have sold him otherwise to Barcelona!

Next update: Time to resume the season! Rest of January!

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.6

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

FIXTURES

JANUARY

Decided to use the 2-weeks Winter Break as.. a break! I didn't arranged any friendlies and I didn't add more sessions to training than their defaults schedules.

I think the club was still in in Christmas' spirit, as they even colour coded the results in alternate green and red! 

I played a much stronger side than last season (instead of mostly Academy players), as I feel it will be a harder game after the Winter Break (usually the first round is in December?)

Caio Felipe's Watch: Our boy created 2 goals in this match! That would be his 3rd and 4th assists of the season.

The first was similar to his assist for Tonali last time, where he passed the ball from the left hand side to Evander on the edge of the box to shoot home.

The second was another familiar assist for him, he headed a corner which touches Russo and deflect into the net.

Evander carried his good performance in the last game, to make it 4 goals in 2 games. He's playing better now as a 'Roaming Playmaker' in central midfield!

We suffered our 2nd lost to Palermo in as many months! They were by far fitter and more energetic than us in this game  I guess no friendlies back-fired slightly on me. Trophy lost!

We tried to make a good fight of it though!

Caio Felipe's Watch: His 5th assist is similar to his 4th! Another header from a corner, this time hitting the bar before Kean'sheaded it into the net.

Another hat-trick performance! Glad I kept him this season!

Our Genoa win sees us facing Milan in the Quarter Final.

Another lethargic display but Milan wasn't any better, truth be told. They countered us really well and got both of their goals that way.

Disappointed not to progress further as I had told the Board we would at least reach the Semi Final.

Caio Felipe's Watch: He started at right back for this match as I wanted to give Bennacer a game at DM. He created his 6th assists of the season by playing a short pass forward the into Dao in the box, who turned a placed it into the far bottom corner.

TABLE & STATS - END OF JANUARY

2nd lost of the season to Cagliari means our lead was cut down to only 2 now!

'

Caio Felipe's Watch: Look at that! Our boy is leading the assists charts! 

I think Despodov and Kean are both on-course to break the 20 league goals mark this season, barring any injuries I hope!

Not even Inglese managed that in his first couple of season (19 goals in 2018/2019 to finish as 'Capocannoniere' winner and 17 goals in 2019/2020 to rank 3rd in Serie A).

END OF WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW

Forgot to mention that I seriously considered buying Onguene for £33m (transfer listed after Conte was sacked) from ManUtd.

Would have been the perfect partner for Bastoni as a BPD-Cover. But decided against it as I want to be frugal with my finance due to the new stadium.

Another offer and another rejection for Bayern! 

 

Next update: Tomorrow's Juventus and February.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.7

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

FIXTURES

FEBRUARY

A good comfortable win, was disappointed to not keep a clean sheet.

Kean and Despodov, Despodov and Kean.. You will see a lot of these combo this season!

Champions League returns and our first trip to the Camp Nou!

Stulac's goal was against the run of play, but Parma played a bit better after that. Though, we didn't keep the ball as much as we usually do.

Turning point was when I introduced Kiyine, Pandini, and Dao as substitutes as I feel we need more dribblers than passers.

Kiyine got the goal after his 2nd or 3rd dribble forward and playing a one-two with Kulusevski! Comeback at the Camp Nou!

Unfortunately, Parma never got the chance to play against Messi (retired) 

Caio Felipe's Watch: Our Boy provided his 7th assist in this game, switching the ball to Diakhate to rifle in.

Must have been Diakhate's best game in a year or so! (After my mentioned of Gboho's arrival in the previous update )

 Never seen a player affected by injury as much as him! His attributes are still okay, but his performances have been dropping alarmingly.

Second 0-0 in Serie A against Milan this season, and Parma still haven't won against them in 3 games.

Similar to the previous games, Milan seemed to be happy to sit back and counter! Parma couldn't break them down.

Good tactical battle against Paulo Fonseca, which I'm enjoying!

END OF FEBRUARY STATS & TABLE

Proud every time I'm seeing our boy's name as stats leader! 

Couldn't do anything with Napoli.. 

Napoli's youth product, Ciro Ferrara, returns to Naples! He left Crystal Palace to return home. He is more famously associated as an Juventus icon in his later days, of course.

Can he do something for the City of his birth?  

CLUB NEWS

Caio Felipe's Watch

Prior to this, he had one unhappiness, 'training level is too low', despite filling most slots with sessions.

Turns out, I forgot he was still on a 'Youth Contract' 

His training improve massively (a few 10.0s training ratings already!) once he signed his first 'Professional Contract'!

A few days later he already got a wage hike 

20 league games by the time he was 17! 

Sometimes we forgot how young they are!

Next update: March!

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.8

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

MARCH

Since there are only 3 matches this month, I want to try a chronological order (as it happened day-to-day) format just for this update.

1. Here comes Barcelona! 2nd leg of CL 1st Knockout Round. (2-2 in the 1st leg)

Heart-wrenching! I was so nervous that when I decided against subbing on Caio Felipe during the penalty kick (he missed 3 already! ), I didn't make any substitution at all as I was worried Barcelona might score if I did..

They did anyway exactly at the 90th minute! It happened after a Parma corner was cleared up the field.. And there was nobody (ZERO!) player defending in our own half! Hyso even saved the attempts twice, and almost kept it out at the 3rd time of asking.. 

After going behind in extra time, Pandini took charge of the match by prompting our attacks! His goal came after he dribble forward in central midfield and beating two defenders to thump in the equaliser.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find the winner in the remaining time. Losing 5-5 aggregate to away goal was really something else 

2. Sarri was a guest at Ennio Tardini!

Hopefully he enjoyed the match a bit more than us  Hyso seems to have done enough to get his new attention 

3. So, I randomly attended Sassuolo-Inter's Europa League 2nd Knockout Round 1st leg match..

I liked to follow the progress of my players when I can! Farinez, Ait-Nouri, Ivonei, and Kouame are all at Sassuolo this season.

Then I pressed continue..

Which brings me straight to..

4. New Intake of Youth Players for 2025! Geez, always out of nowhere..

Looks promising! Interesting to see 2 of my recent new affiliates are already contributing their players as well.

 After Caio Felipe last year, I had expected a random range of poor-decent ability players only!

Another 2.5 stars CA and 5 stars PA! Cool name as well!

Meet Hamza Bennis of Morocco (for now anyway, Italy will call him up regardless of his first nationality )

At 15 years old, he's younger than Caio Felipe was! Very promising!

A striker? Just what we needed! Exciting!

But his personality is 'unambitious'  and he's only 179 cm tall.

Hopefully he will grow taller a bit so he can be an effective retrained 'Pressing Forward'.

I have dubbed my latest amazing academy product as 'Bennis The Menace!' 

The next best youth to come through this year.

5. Only our 2nd game this month..

Quite unremarkable really.. Even the goal was a gift from Farinez, who jumped and missed a cross for En-Nesyri to tap in into the empty net.

I swear we didn't pressured or bribed our own player to gift us the win! 

6. Sassuolo-Inter's Europa League 2nd Knockout Round 2nd leg match

I did not attend this one, but that scoreline and the manner of the goals impressed me!

Inter equalised on aggregate in the final 5 minutes of normal and injury time, before adding two extra time goals to knockout Sassuolo.

7. A quicklook at how the new Juventus manager is doing..

Only 5 wins in 20 games for Nagelsmann..

8. Longgggg International Break (29 days)!

At least Olaza got his first goal for Uruguay! Can't say much else about my time this month 

9. Caio Felipe's Watch!

Our Boy is now a Wonderkid! 

10. Final and only the 3rd game of the month..

Despodov and Kean again! Business as normal.

But what's this? Who's that at the end of the team list? A new name?

It's none other than Bennis The Menace! Wearing number 19! 

Unfortunately for him, I decided against subbing him in as I wanted to keep Caio Felipe as the record holder.

His 'Unambitious' personality also put a doubt in my mind, what if he doesn't developed like Our Boy?

11. In an Alternate Timeline.. 

I duplicated my save before the Torino match and this time I wanted to see the headlines if Bennis The Menace had made his debut instead..

Took me a few tries to get him to score his goal, though!

He would have beaten Caio Felipe's record by 154 days! 

He would have been 29 days younger than Amedeo Amadei's record in May 1937.

And by 172 days for the 'Youngest Goalscorer record'!

And by 36 days for the 'Serie A's record', where Amedeo Amadei scored his first goal 7 days after his debut.

That was fun to do! Loaded up my actual save afterwards (the 2-0 Torino win WITHOUT Bennis The Menace breaking all kind of records at 15 years old!)

Actually, thinking about it, at 15 years old, he would have been my final Regen Project as it would be very unlikely anybody can break it in the future.

I think my future first 3 stars CA regen might be the one to break Caio Felipe's records 

12. So, there you have it.. the month of March!

Never had such a relaxing month as this! Most of the players loses their sharpness 

13. Serie A Table at the start of April

3 points lead with a game in hand! Milan is relentless!

14. Serie A Stats

Almost breaking the 20 goals mark now!

15. Parma Stats & Finances

Despodov vs Kean AND Kulusevski vs Caio Felipe! Our Boy! 

Good competition and healthy rivalries contributed to our good season so far, I think.

16. Verdict

I actually enjoyed writing it in this format, more flowing for me. Might use it again next time when appropriate 

For those who did not read the whole way through, I would recommend to at least read sub-headings 4 until 11 

Our Boy have The Menace as a potential rival now 

Next update: April!

P.S.: This was the last update in the other old thread, from now on new updates will only be posted in this thread.

Hope to have comments and feedbacks from anybody!

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.9

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

FIXTURES

APRIL

The Inter win made it 8 matches on the bounce without losing for us. Good momentum!

You can see why I love him?

Another hat-trick performance!

Good win! Upon checking, Hysaj is a legend for Napoli? Had considered looking at signing him.

Pandini starting to control the game more and more when he plays.

14 seconds is the new record, though will miss Inglese's name in the records book!

Just as I was saying about Pandini.. A bit of petulance on his part, but he is young!

Poor result against a relegation candidate!

Decisive month and apart from Palermo, I'm quite confident with the remaining games.

SERIE A - TABLE, STATS & NEWS

Only a point ahead though with a game in hand going into the final month!

His hat trick against Fiorentina means he broke the 20 goals barrier this season! Will Kean follow?

No changes on the assist front.

Stark contrast to Nagelsmann's results at Juventus!

Good to see 3 out of 4 names were of Parma! Kulusevski made his first appearance here amongst the contenders.

COPPA ITALIA - NEWS & REVIEW

Two of Parma's players contributing to Sassuolo's Coppa Italia win!

Will hope to do better next season!

CLUB NEWS

Won't be making too many signings as I'm paying attention to the finances due to our impending new stadium move.

Will use this summer to renew most of the players' contracts instead.

The new stadium really took a hit for our finances, but it will be worth it!

He's progressing really well! But some of the goals he's conceding were a bit too soft in my eyes!

The Menace signed his pre-contract!

This is why I never considered Pellegri.. No way I can afford him! He would have been perfect for the 'Pressing Forward' role, though!

Ait-Nouri is progressing well at Sassuolo! He might be ready to replace Olaza as first choice in the future. He will spend a 2nd season at Sassuolo before coming back to Parma when Olaza will be 33.

Next update: Final conclusion of the end of the season.

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - Update 7.10

2024/2025

7TH SEASON

FIXTURES

MAY

Sampdoria was a team in good form towards the end of the season and we really struggled but did enough to come away with all 3 points.

Definitely in our hands!

This jumped at me, what a turnaround!

Could we afford to be dropping points at home this late in the title race?

Convincing away win and a Bastoni goal! 

The news conference said it was a "miracle" to see Bastoni scored a goal 

Six different scorers! I thought this would be the hardest game in the run in!

A goal and 2 assists for Our Boy!

With 2 games left to play as well!

You know it's serious when team meeting is called! Focus!

Thought you would never see this kind of headlines involving Juventus, eh?

Despodov and Kean again! With an own goal in between 

We did it! It took longer than anticipated but we secured it in the final 13 minutes of the game!

Milan deserved plaudits for challenging for the titles 3 seasons in a row consistently! Paulo Fonseca is doing an amazing job for them.

Our 2nd Serie A title!  I think we deserved it a lot more this time around as we played really good football throughout the season.

With a game left? That's a hard ask! Despite him already scoring 4 times twice this season 

Can he do it? At least it gives meaning to our last game despite already clinching the title.

Almost!!!

It was a really lucky 3rd goal as well, but it was amazing how the games work and he was within a goal of breaking the record in the last game of the season! I even changed to very attacking and demand more for the last 12+ minutes of the game 

Wished I had known earlier as I had rested Despodov for a game or two (as a sub) in these last month.

SERIE A - TABLE, STATS & NEWS

5-points win in the end but it wasn't easy!

Milan lost against Cagliari 1-4 was when I knew it would be our year, and in the next game Klassen scoring a 94th minute winner in the Milano derby just to show how much Milan didn't give up in their chase. Respect!

90 goals! Best attacking season so far.

Aided by best season in the goalscoring department by not one, but two of our players!

Surprised to see Caio Felipe held on to the assist rank, as he was unavailable for the last two games due to the u20 World Cup call up.

Happy with that!

Definitely something you don't see everyday or expect to see!

At the end of the day, they were never really in troubled as the bottom three were really poor this season as all 3 teams only spend a season in Serie A after getting promoted last season. They did have more fights in the 2nd half of the season to make it more interesting.

Despite only equalling Icardi's record in the 2019/2020 season with 27 goals, his final day hat trick was enough to have his name in the record book ahead of Icardi.

Was this because it was the latest entry or because of his Surname (D ahead of I)?

CLUB NEWS

The reason why I think it is because of the Surnames are because he also equalled Crespo's 28 goals in a season for Parma (1999/2000) but Crespo's name is still in the records book ahead of Despodov.

That said, I just realised despite Despodov 27 goals in Serie A, he scored zero goal in Europe this season in 6 appearances! His other goal came in the Suppercoppa 2-3 lost against Palermo in the USA.

Definitely needs him to contribute more in Europe if we want to progress any further next season.

Ever since the 2nd leg of Barcelona game, Kiyine has been majestic in his performances. Always prompting and driving forward from midfield and a huge factor in our upturn in goalscoring form this season. Well deserved extension!

INTERNATIONALS

There you go again.. Italy calling up Caio Felipe AND Hamza Bennis! 

Three of my more senior regens, the 3 best and the future of this Parma team!

3 in a row is a great achievement for Parma u20s!

Next update: June, Awards, and Regen's Watch!