[FM15] From Berlin to Turin: A Scotsman Abroad

[Deisler26]

Great Madrid result.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Going well so far

[john1]

Epic month Good win over Real Madrid. Inter bottom?

[JD nawrat]

Great Madrid result.

Going well so far

Cheers fellas.

Epic month Good win over Real Madrid. Inter bottom?

They sacked De Boer at the end of last season for finishing 7th/outside of Europe. They then replaced him with Malesani who got one win in the first seven games... so they sacked him.

I'm not gonna lie, if I got offered the job at Inter or Milan I'd probably jump ship but I don't want to apply for them in case I cost myself the job at il Toro... and for some reason they won't offer me an interview (my name doesn't even pop up in the rumour mills) so for the time being I'm just staying put at Torino. I'm not going to spend many more seasons here I don't think though, as I'm starting to lose a bit of interest in it. I'm enjoying my time but I'm sort of looking elsewhere and seeing other opportunities and wishing I was there instead.

More than happy to remain at Torino for the time being though, I'm taking them places as it stands and I'm not finished with them for now. But yeah, if the opportunity were to arise I'd be off to another side.

e: Inter job is still open. It is tempting to apply, I won't lie... They've got a fairly decent squad (nowhere near as good as it should be, mind you) that includes the likes of Sergi Roberto, Roberto Firmino, Remy Cabella, Alberto Cerri, Edin Dzeko, Samir Handanovic, Humam Tariq (who I tried to sign for Union Berlin at one point)... tempting, but not sure its worth it. If they offered me an interview I'd definitely attend but I'm not willing to risk my gig at Torino for this job.

[JD nawrat]

November 2019

Serie A

Still without defeat!

First of the month was a tricky away tie against Cagliari. We got off to a good start with two early goals and that more or less was that for our attack... we did not play well. It's become a theme and I'm leaning more towards it being a problem than us grinding out results as a good thing... it's not normal to grind this many results out, surely? And the draws are starting to affect us...this should have been a draw tbh, Cagliari deserved more.

Our only domestic home game saw Udinese travel to Turin in what would no doubt be a tasty affair. It was, with both sides threatening to score more than the two goals we saw. The first half in particular was very open and it seemed like there would be plenty of second half goals but it actually fell quite flat in the second half. Both teams continued to attack but the defences seemed a lot tighter... hey ho, not complaining. We did enough in the first half and we were solid enough in the second half that we got a deserved victory. Much to be pleased about from this game.

Lastly was a trip to Genoa to take on the only other undefeated Italian team in the top flight. We went there hoping to end the afternoon as the only undefeated Italian team in the top flight, but if not for Alex Telles scoring and assisting our two goals in the second half, then there's a very real chance that we'd be leaving the only undefeated Italian team behind... Sampdoria were the better side (see what I mean? It's worrying ) but Telles was so good that we got back to equal terms thanks to goals from two defenders. Not complaining, because Sampdoria away is always tough anyway.

Still undefeated but no longer occupying top spot:

Champions League

Eeeeeeesh. Ugly.

The good news about the Madrid game? If it had been over two legs, we'd have knocked them out on away goals (7-7, us scoring three in Madrid with them only scoring one in Turin). The bad news? We lost 6-3 Hideous defending - probably our worst defensive showing since Fiorentina skelped us 6-1 a season or two ago. We fought til the end but Real were just ridiculous. I was pleased that we opened them up enough to score three times and keep it respectable but I was not expecting to concede six ****ing goals

Olympiacos did us a huge favour in beating Shakhtar in the previous round and it meant that if we got a victory against Shakhtar by greater than 1-0, we were all but confirmed as progressives. And after six minutes, you could excuse me for thinking it was job done. Unfortunately, we bottled it like we did against Zenit last season when we took a very early lead only to get beaten 4-3 and lose out on CL RO16. Shakhtar didn't really deserve to win (I typed win and contemplated fixing it but it felt like a loss tbh) and their 88th minute equaliser was a total kick in the ballbag, but we have to deal with our own failures I guess...

At the halfway point of the group, the Champions League standings look like this:

Overall Thoughts

The league is going pretty great. I'm not disappointed to have dropped out of top spot tbh because we're still doing very well and it could have easily been second by virtue of less points had Telles not been a beast from LB. He's one of the bright sparks of the season, I'm pleased with how he's doing so far this season. One of my best signings on this save I feel.

The Champions League was bitterly disappointing tbh. We had the chance to qualify RIGHT THERE and we bottled it big time. Losing to Real was expected so not much to say about that but GOD DAMN. I'm actually furious the way we lost it to Shakhtar. Our home form has been great for much of the season so far too. Think we've won every game bar the Genoa 0-0 and now the Shakhtar 2-2. Stupid as hell.

Looking ahead to next month, our fixtures are like so:

Lazio [H], Inter [A], Olympiacos [A], Juventus [H], Ternana [A]

Tough month ahead. Two huge home games that I'm going to more-or-less demand victories from. We have to get something against Juventus, losing would be a disaster because travelling to Juventus Stadium obviously isn't likely to end well for me... Inter away will be tough as they've quickly improved under Mazzarri (back again) but hopefully we can get something... Ternana away isn't easy, they're one of those teams that you can't take anything for granted. I think they beat me last season at their place (final game of the season) but I'm honestly not sure... Out of those 12 available points though I want to aim for at least 10. I know that's a lot to ask for but that's what we need.

Olympiacos is a must-win. If we win and Real stop Shakhtar from winning we're through. Similarly, if Real win we'll go through on a point. So basically I'm just hoping to better Shakhtar's result. Shouldn't be too hard given it's Real they're up against. But we're **** away from home in Europe so I'm taking nothing for granted...

Huge month though. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

Oh and I've created a 4231 Deep/Wide which I hope will get the best out of the team... time will tell but for now I'm moving away from the 4231 Deep/Narrow because I don't feel it was doing enough for the team.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Thought you'd walk 2nd spot in that group, hopefully you can get what's needed in the last game. Tight in the league and a tough month ahead but you should be at least within a point or 2 of Juve by the end of it

[JD nawrat]

Tricky month, good luck. Did you manage to get your finances sorted?

Finances are great at the moment - balance stands at £51M and we've made a profit of £37M this season so far. Not 100% sure where the money came from (was so long ago that our finances got healthy) but pleased to see the improvement regardless.

Thought you'd walk 2nd spot in that group, hopefully you can get what's needed in the last game. Tight in the league and a tough month ahead but you should be at least within a point or 2 of Juve by the end of it

Will be posting the update shortly but like you, I thought I'd walk 2nd spot in the group... obviously hasn't panned out that way but I'll tell all soon.

Progress coming to a stand-still lately. Busy time of the month obviously but in the new year I hope things will pick up big time and I'll be posting daily again

Final month of the 10s coming up before we re-enter the roaring 20s

[JD nawrat]

December 2019

Serie A

Wanted 10, got eight.

First of the month saw us host capital-city side Lazio in a tasty affair. Lazio took a quick lead and went up 0-1 after just six minutes but we brought it back to 1-1 after just 17 minutes...only for Lazio to score directly from kick-off and net in the same bloody minute Ciro then equalised again to make it 2-2 for half-time. Shortly after half-time Ciro found his hattrick and, in truth, could have scored another couple of goals, but it wasn't to be. Things were going fine at 3-2 until Lazio scored - totally against the run of play - on the 88th minute. I was close to throwing the laptop out my window, no joke But then Rodolfo Montenegro popped up with his first ever goal just before the final whistle. Huge relief and big three points! Worth noting that we had 68% possession against Lazio...

Next saw a tough trip to Milan to take on Internazionale. The first half of this game was quite mental... All of the goal times: 26, 31, 33, 43, 45+1. All five goals within 25 minutes of each other. At 0-2 up you could excuse me for being quietly confident that the trip to Milan would be successful but looking at the half-time whistle about to go and finding us at 2-2 was a bit of a shock to the system. Kagawa popped up to make it 2-3 and we held on for victory through an exciting but scoreless second half. There was 47 shots in total (25-22) in what was a very open game. It was great to be honest but I didn't enjoy it too much at the time Inter probably deserved a point if I'm being totally honest. OH WELL.

And then the biggest game of the season so far... the Derby della Mole. For a game with such a huge reputation, it fell a little flat. The two top scoring sides cancelled one-another out but that might not be too surprising since both sides were also the two best defensive teams as well. It was a fairly uninteresting game with little talking points. Happy to get a point and avoid defeat but would have killed for a win. We went into the game two points clear of Juve (who drew when we beat Inter) so the prospect of going five clear was huge but we couldn't get there in the end.

Last of the decade of 10s was Ternana. Another strange match. We dominated possession but Ternana's possession game was insanely good. They scored three of their first six shots and were up 3-1 at half time against us. Thankfully, they were quite aggressive in the tackle and got themselves a red card just before half-time. I tore into the lads - as I always do, even if we're winning it feels - and we came flying out of the blocks. Telles and Coman combined down the left wonderfully to make it 3-2, with Telles crossing into Coman whose first touch flicekd the ball around his marker and he then feinted past the final defender before skelping the ball into the far post and leaving the goalie with no hope. We knocked and knocked but Ternana were stubborn and would not let us in. At this point it was all us but we couldn't make it count it seems. Finally the break-through came when a poorly defended free kick allowed Manquillo to tap into an almost empty net and make it 3-3. I threw everything forward after this but it wasn't to be and we limped to a 3-3 draw. A good comeback but a disappointing result, regardless.

The same situation as November sees us still undefeated but no longer top, and now embroiled in a three-horse race:

Champions League

Just the one for the month of December. Things literally could not have gotten off to a worse start as we found ourselves 1-0 down within the first 45 seconds of the game. They basically walked to the edge of our box, we kicked them a bit then they scored the free kick. Pathetic. But thankfully we came back strong. Dzagoev made it 1-1 fairly quickly. Real Madrid took the lead in the other game which meant that a draw favoured us, but Shakhtar quickly equalised and so it was a must-win for us if we were to stand any chance. I don't know why but I went with my 4th choice striker replacing Ciro and the academy product Dominici repaid me big time with a great brace which gave us the needed win. Champions League knockouts await! \o/ And the team? None other than Arsenal, who made the final last year (losing to Real) and a team who we faced in the groups, winning in Turin but losing in London... interesting draw, anyway.

The Champions League group stage ended rather pleasingly like this:

Overall Thoughts

Not unhappy, truth be told. We did well to qualify for the CL knockouts and the prospect of Arsenal over two legs is tantalizing because they are definitely a beatable team in my opinion. Over the two group games last season they beat us 2-1 but I think we're a better team...we're just not playing like it at the minute I'm hoping to sort that out before the time comes to fly to London...

In the league things aren't great. We've drawn 4 of our 9 away games this season and we've drawn over a third of our Serie A matches in total... last season we only drew seven times in total...almost matched that already this season. It's worrying to be honest. Need to sort it out.

Looking ahead to 2020 and January's schedule:

Palermo [H], Atalanta [A], Udinese [H], Catania [A], Crotone [H], Genoa [A]

Udinese is the first round of the TIM Cup and that's a competition I want to do well in (especially after last season's bitter disappointment) so will be hoping, somewhat expecting, for a victory there. The league matches are all winnable. Palermo are decent but we're at home where we've been great; Atalanta are in a relegation battle so are hopefully not going to be too tough for us. In the reverse fixtures earlier this season, we beat Catania and Crotone whilst drawing with Genoa. This time I think Catania away will be the toughie but with our away form I wouldn't be surprised if they were all tough... regardless, there's 15 points on offer and I want to take at least 13. I'm aiming high but if we want to establish ourselves as favourites in this three-horse race then we need to post form like that, because you know Juve and Milan will do similar.

[JD nawrat]

I dropped the 442 after my first season in Turin because of that choke. I felt the shape was to blame (that and my shoddy management ).

[DavidBeckham]

Terrific job so far and congrats for qualifying from the tough champions league group! Serie A is so tight too!

[JD nawrat]

Terrific job so far and congrats for qualifying from the tough champions league group! Serie A is so tight too!

Cheers mate

Serie A isn't even letting up either - got to the end of January (update coming soon) and the league is just as tight, if not tighter, as it is in the above screenshot. As long as I get top three (CL) and stay in a title challenge at the very least then I won't write this season off. Retaining was always going to be hard - Juventus lost for the first time in ages and spent an absolute fortune in order to reclaim 'their' title. Can't blame 'em, can you?

Got some transfer news to come up also. All outgoing - didn't sign anyone but let go of two players.

[JD nawrat]

January 2020

Serie A

Perfecto!

First of the month saw us take on Palermo in what ended up being an exciting affair. It was end-to-end with the ball seeing their end a little more. We struggled to create clear chances in the first half but an early penalty in the second half opened the floodgates and the game was a lot more open. Dominici scored his first league goal of the season off the bench to give us a 2-0 lead and we were coasting by this point. We dominated the game after the second goal... typical FM though - they score a corner with the last kick of the ball in the 90+3rd minute when only two minutes were added. Stupid.

The next test saw us travel to Bergamo to take on Atalanta. Despite being in the relegation zone, this game was not easy. Angelo Ronga scored his first of the season by popping up early on to nick in at the near post and score a little toe-poke. 1-0 didn't last long as Atalanta brought it back to 1-1 but Andrea Belotti - very out of sorts this season - had a big say in the outcome. He scored twice to give us the victory and take MOTM. He's been rubbish this season and was beginning to get on my nerves but after moaning just days before this game I decided to take the chance on him and he impressed. Rotation is fairly heavy so he hasn't featured a great deal since, still.

Home to Crotone would make it our second match in as many games against relegation battlers. Crotone succumbed to Robin Knoche-ing on the door and the big German put us 2-0 up inside ten minutes, both times from corners. Crotone brought it back to 2-1 before half-time and looked like they might snatch a draw but a little jig in tactics saw Jiménez move into CAM where he thrived and sliced Crotone open with his brilliant movement too many times for their liking. He managed to find the net and seal the game 3-1. Awesome.

Last of the month was another relegation battler in Genoa. ****ing Genoa. They were the first team to take points from us domestically in six games so I knew this would not be easy. They play defensive, ugly football. Clearly. We were NOT getting any chances whatsoever but a silly tackle on Benassi in the box gave us a penalty and the man who won it scored it to give us another three points and round off four wins in four games to kick off the new decade.

Undefeated still and with a game in hand, we could take top spot (at some point, not sure when we play it!):

TIM Cup

I know I said that we only had one cup game, but apparently winning the first means playing a second in the same month, so that's probably where our game in hand came from (not sure on that though because Juventus are also in the cup and they've played one more league game...hmm).

Anyway. First Round where we were dumped out last season against Ternana saw us take on Udinese. Kingsley Coman scored an early screamer to give us the win in what turned out to be a very open game, with 50 shots in total and almost 900 passes in total. A decent team performance; a clean sheet and a victory. I can't complain.

The victory also put us into the next round against Fiorentina at home. A win would see us into the semi-final which would be il Toro's furthest ever progression of this career and my best cup run to date (inc. European competitions). Thankfully Ciro and Knoche (again) gave us what we needed to make the semi-finals. La Viola did manage to score but it was a silly OG from Montenegro and totally undeserved for Fiorentina. Otherwise, we bossed this.

The TIM Cup draw:

Overall Thoughts

What a month! Six straight wins makes it my best ever run as Torino manager (sounds pathetic when I put it like that ). Things are going brilliantly in the league. I'm not totally comfortable with the positions of Milan and Juventus but what can I do about that? Just going to have to keep on going and eventually, hopefully, stop them and pull away from them. on the brightside, top three is looking fairly certain at this point. The fact nobody is able to beat us (for now) means we should be able to get into the top three fairly easily so at the very least, the season won't be a total disaster

The TIM Cup isn't valued by the board but I want to win it at some point and I wouldn't mind doing it this season. Against Juventus in both legs will be tough but hopefully we can pull through. Certainly, if we get through, it's not settled by any means. Sampdoria aren't quite the top three side they have been in the last few years but they're still quality and will still present a problem if we beat Juventus. But I'm getting way ahead of myself here - Juventus is an extremely tough task. I've only managed one win against them I think :o

Looking ahead to next month... goddamn it's busy:

Roma [H], Juventus [A], Milan [A], Juventus [H], Fiorentina [H], Empoli [H], Arsenal [H]

Colour co-ordinated for your eye-viewing pleasure Very tough month ahead with Empoli being the only 'comfortable' game there. Despite that, I want wins from this. Against Juventus in the Cup, I want to progress. I don't care what our scorelines are, I just want progression. Same for the game against Arsenal (second leg not til March). Would be nice to win the home leg though because travelling to London is never easy. League games of Roma, Milan, Fiorentina and Empoli are all very tough on paper but bar the Milan game they're all in Turin so I want to win the home games. Away to Milan will be very tough since they are a strong side this season but if we can take at least a point I'll be happy. I guess what I want overall then is 10 points, progression v Juve and a decent scoreline against Arsenal to put us in a position to challenge Arsenal in England.

One final thing: Transfers.

Neal Maupay - to Milan - £10M (+25% of future sale) - Milan were interested, Maupay wanted to leave when he heard of their interest, I didn't care. He looks great but he just wasn't putting in the performances I needed of him. He wasn't playing enough, I had too many strikers... it just made sense to let him go. I signed him a long time ago (it feels that way anyway) from Nice for £10M, so I didn't lose money on him and actually stand to make profit if/when he becomes a valuable player and leaves Milan... if he leaves them. I wish him all the best as long as he doesn't finish above us

Davide Monteleone - to Fiorentina - £3M (+20% of future sale) - MilanFiorentina were interested, MaupayMonteleone wanted to leave when he heard of their interest, I didn't care. Monteleone was signed 18 months ago and played 16 league games in that time. Yeah. I panic bought him tbh for £5.5M and only managed to sell him for £3M. The fans are unhappy but w/e. Don't care about the fans getting pissy over this. It also paves the way for young protégé Maurizio Cecere to become a first team player on a permanent basis now. He'll not play a great deal this season but in the future He'll come in as 4th choice.

I didn't replace either. Didn't feel the need. I have one striker spot and three guys for it and with Cecere in the first team now Monteleone has been replaced from within. I also promoted youth prospect Piergiorgio De Ruggiero from the U20s to the first team to provide some competition with Jiménez on MR. Well, not to compete because he a million miles away from that. But to at least give me a back-up option on the right. I didn't want to spend so I just brought De Ruggiero up. he's a youth academy graduate so that's always nice. I think if I can improve his Crossing, Dribbling and Technique then he can be a quality player. We'll just have to see how he progresses. I've neglected him a bit up until now I'm afraid.

[john1]

Good month Hope you can knock Juventus out in TIM Cup

De Ruggiero looks promising.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Good to see you finishing off the job in the CL group. Strong season so far and Juve are really going to push hard by the look of it. Hopefully you can beat them in the cup. Arsenal in the CL looks tricky but hopefully they'll be the Arsenal of real life and struggle soon as they get out of the group

[JD nawrat]

Good month Hope you can knock Juventus out in TIM Cup

De Ruggiero looks promising.

Cheers fella. He does looks fairly good, just a question of whether I can improve his technical ability or not. If not, he probably won't cut it at the top I'm afraid.

Good to see you finishing off the job in the CL group. Strong season so far and Juve are really going to push hard by the look of it. Hopefully you can beat them in the cup. Arsenal in the CL looks tricky but hopefully they'll be the Arsenal of real life and struggle soon as they get out of the group

Unfortunately they don't have Wenger in charge anymore (Paco Ayestáran) so they're not toothless... CL runners-up last season (to Real Madrid). Will be interesting to see how we fare, indeed. Played the first game and we're still in with a shout of progression so that's good, obviously!

February coming up just shortly. Taken me ages to get to this point.

[JD nawrat]

February 2020

Serie A

Three clean sheets in four games \o/ First defeat of the season /o\

First of the month saw us hosting Roma in what was expected to be a close tie. It wasn't. Despite a highly open game, we waltzed to victory thanks to three goals from defenders. Kempf nodded in a corner to open the score before prodding home an excellent free-kick from Kingsley Coman. Sead Kolasinac capped it off with a brilliant finish after a well worked attack from our own half. Most impressive all round. It was a bit of a struggle to begin with, really, but we at least finally got the scoring going and the victory. Three massive points.

Second was the trip to Milan. A loss on penalties in the Supercup was avenged thanks to a 3-1 victory in Turin against Milan, but Milan took the courtesy of evening things up with their own 3-1. Our own medicine does not taste good Dominici scored in the super cup tie midweek just prior to this game so was given the chance to start. He did so brilliantly by equalising to make it 1-1 for half time but just prior to the half time whistle things went sour - Dominici got injured and had to be taken off. Out for 3 months. Gutting. Not just for the lad himself but for the team, as he was the only one of our strikers scoring...as well as this, Silvestri was injured earlier in the game and is out for 4 weeks. BUT ANYWAY, not only did we suffer two frustrating injuries, we suffered two frustrating goals. Milan bossed us and deserved everything they got but damn...frustrating. First loss of the campaign and just makes things harder for us at the top.

Next up saw La Viola travel to Turin once more. We beat them at Olimpico last month 2-1 so we were hoping for something similar. What we got was similar, I guess. We won 1-0 thanks to Ciro netting a penalty but we were so poor offensively. Kept them out brilliantly but we were toothless in attack. Frustrating, to say the least. Three points are all that matter to us for now though, believe me!

Last of the month was the 'easy' game. Empoli at home. Thankfully we walked away with all three points. This ended up being a lot more frustrating than the scoreline suggests, though. It was yet another game that required a half time bollocking. I've been providing too many of these recently. Needed them against Empoli, Fiorentina and Roma...and that was just this month alone. El Neny opened the scoring with a penalty and the game opened a bit more. We found our 'groove' (hard to call it that tbh ) and Kolasinac scored his second of the month, a rasping drive from the edge of the box. At 2-0 with Empoli rarely threatening, we went quiet. Ciro popped up late on to make it two in two (league) games for him but besides that, not much worth talking about tbh...

Heading into March, the table looks like this:

Champions League

Just the home game v Arsenal. Fairly uneventful. I had hoped to win and we perhaps should have as we had three great chances but Szczesny (I hate this name, can't spell it (or can I?)) pulled off some great saves to deny us. Arsenal had the lion share of possession and shots but they struggled to make that count and, besides one good chance for Ox, they didn't threaten Horn's goal too much. We are in a decent position now. We won't win in London barring a minor miracle but we can definitely draw and so we're in a better position than Arsenal are. They'll fancy their chances though, I know, and we will have to be at our best to get through. I don't expect much.

TIM Cup

Horrific away performance!

6-2... we were down 1-0, back to 1-1, down 5-1, back to 5-2 and then 6-2 to end it. Embarrassing, to be honest. When you take into account our home performance and a great 4-2 victory, it just makes you question how different things might have been had we kept it respectable at Juventus Stadium, don't you? I'm gutted to have gone out, especially in this fashion, but at least we redeemed ourselves just a little with the home victory... there's always next year

Overall Thoughts

Out of the cup, probably out of Europe, lost in the league for the first time this season and struggled to all but one of our victories in the league... and yet it wasn't all bad. We didn't do ourselves too badly in the CL and despite losing in the Cup, it was essentially only by 2 goals, despite losing 6-2 on the bad side of town In the league, a loss was always expected at some point. I'm just annoyed it came against title challengers Milan to be honest. BUT, we are playing crap and getting results and that is massively encouraging. Our defence is improving massively too - in total we kept four clean sheets this month (from seven games) and we kept three in our four league games. Brilliant defensively (bar away to Juve) but our attack is a bit of a worry. Will try to sort it out without compromising our defence...

The biggest disappointment of this previous month was the injuries to Dominici and Silvestri. They're key to our system and they're both young (19 and 18 respectively). The three month lay-off to Dominici is especially gutting as that's a long time for a kid to be out. I hope he can feature before the season ends, but I'm not expect that.

Looking to next month:

Chievo [A], Napoli [H], Pescara [A], Cagliari [H], Arsenal [A], Udinese [A]

Only the two home games and they're both very tough, with Napoli and Cagliari sure to provide stern competition for our championship hopes. Despite that, I want to win both of those. In the league, Chievo and Pescara are rivals but both beatable and Udinese away is always tough. On paper the league games don't seem too tough but believe me, they are! I want to take at least 12 points from 15 next month, although that will obviously be tough. Against Arsenal I expect nothing but hope for everything. If we can get through I will love it. They're a great team so I don't expect a thing... we'll see!

[DavidBeckham]

Where did Milan come from?! Win the games in hand and you can still win the league good luck mate!

[JD nawrat]

Milan are a funny side. They lost two of their first five and have lost one of the next 22 (which was against me iirc, not sure if I played them in the first five - don't think I did). They've constantly been up there this season since about October, credit to them, but until Juventus' little slip and my lack of playing (bloody games in hand making them look better than us! ) they hadn't once been top of the league. Now they are.

I doubt they'll stay there but they have such good form at the moment, best form team around. Won something like 8 of their last 10. Similar record to us basically.

Think it'll go down to the wire for the title. Desperately want to retain it but think I have to acknowledge it will be tough unless I can get the team scoring goals again consistently. Will settle for top three and challenging the title to the very end though, which we look almost certain to do. Should definitely move above Milan before the end of this month but the dreaded away tie v Juventus is still to come... that's likely to have a massive say in the destination of the title unless there's some major slip ups.

Exciting stuff anyway. Will hopefully have finished the season before Sunday and then I will have my new laptop by then also meaning that after this week, progress should pick up tenfold. Feel like I've been neglecting the save.

[deltablue]

Shame you threw the Juve tie away.

[JD nawrat]

My first ever job interview offer whilst employed I'm not even going to attend the interview though, for three reasons:

1. Napoli is a step down from Torino. They're currently sat in 10th, a whole 30 points behind us.

2. Napoli's history isn't so great I find it to be a 'must manage' sort of club.

3. Napoli are the only major footballing team in Naples. There's no derby and so, even if points one and two above didn't apply, I'd reject anyway.

Still, very pleased to have finally been recognised by another team as a manager worth having.

And now my name is being included in the running for the possibly-soon-be-vacant AC Milan job Rijkaard's contract expires at the end of the season and there are rumours that he isn't wanting to extend beyond the contract, meaning that Mano Menezes (Valencia manager and favourite to take the job if Rijkaard does leave), Brendan Rodgers (Sevilla manager), myself and Gerardo Martino (Athletic Bilbao manager) have all been included as potential candidates to take on the role next season.

Milan would be very interesting. I think I might be forced to attend the interview just because it's Milan. I'd probably prefer to take over Inter as they've fallen into hard times very recently plus I think most (myself included) probably view Milan as being the bigger of the two Milanese teams (although it's not that big a difference tbf; just think Milan's European success puts them ahead of Inter's). Still, we're a long way from that. Rijkaard might extend his contract tomorrow

[JD nawrat]

March 2020

Serie A

Almost perfect!

So we started on March 1st with a trip to Verona to take on Chievo. Things got off to a marvellous start and we pressured Chievo until we scored. Belotti found the back of the net to make it 1-0 but we didn't let up - we chose to keep going for more goals and we found them. Or rather, Kingsley Coman found them. A stunner from range, a free-kick and a penalty all made it to the back of the net and Coman scored his first ever hattrick for the club. A magnificent achievement for the star man At half-time and leading 4-0, I told the lads how pleased I was. Apparently that meant "stop playing now okay?" as we threw away our clean sheet and conceded twice. Told them it was a real jekyll and hyde performance and they all seemed to agree. Bunch of dicks.

Napoli came from the South to take on il Toro in the next game of the month. It was a tigh and even affair with Napoli perhaps playing better in the first half, but a small tactical tweak at half-time threw it into our favour and Belotti came out flying. Should have scored moments before he slammed home a volley from the edge of the box at an awkward angle to make it 1-0. We lost Belotti to injury just moments later but we hung on well to make it three huge points.

Pescara was the next challenge...and what a challenge it was. After thirty minutes I had to make an on-pitch team talk because we were being destroyed by Pescara. Everything was theirs. More opportunities, more possession, more setpieces... we couldn't cope. Whatever I said has to have worked because we looked like a decent team thereafter. We won a penalty which El Neny expertly dispatched and went into HT at 1-1. Second half was much the same as the last 10 minutes of the first half - Pescara perhaps the better side but we got chances. Finally, Ciro went down in the box and El Neny scored another penalty, doubling his tally for the season in this one game (started with two, left with four) and making all of his goals so far this season penalties

Penultimate game of the month saw Cagliari travel to Turin to face the bull. A traditional tough opponent, Cagliari looked nothing like them usual selves. We bossed the first half with both DMs finding the net - first Angelo Ronga getting on the end of a Kingsley Coman square ball to prod home for the opener after just 10 minutes. The second goal came when Mo El Neny skelped the ball from about 28 yards out into the top corner and earned himself goal of the month, the first time any of my players have own it on FM15. Superb! A red card was dished out to Pablo Zabaleta in the second half and that just made things too easy. We let up at this point and just saw out the game expertly.

Last of the month was also the first defeat of the month. A massively disappointing defeat to Udinese saw us lose two in two (little spoiler for how Europe went) after Udinese bossed the first half. We came back into it well in the second half and really should have left with at least a point but it wasn't to be as we limped over the 90 minutes and suffered just our second defeat of the season in the league.

March over, the table looks like this:

Champions League

The return leg of the Last 16 Champions League tie saw us face Arsenal in London after a 0-0 in the first game. Unfortunately, thanks got off to a terrible start with Arsenal leading 2-0 inside 13 minutes. We never recovered and the team were visibly rattled. We had three great chances to score before half-time but took none of them and then Arsenal killed the game late on. A tough result to take but an important lesson all the same. Ah well.

Overall Thoughts

Great month up until the last two games to be honest. Not happy to lose to Udinese and not surprised to lose to Arsenal. Would have liked to have beaten Udinese or at the very least taken a draw but I can't have everything I guess I said I wanted to take at least 12 of 15 and I achieved that so I am pleased - very pleased - overall. Attack still not great but defensively we're at our best right now (Chievo game aside).

Looking on to April and it is a monumental month for our title challenge...

Sampdoria [H], Catania [A], Lazio [A], Inter [H], Juventus [A], Ternana [A]

Sampdoria will be tough as it always is but hopefully our fine home form sees us through safely to three points. Same goes for Catania, Lazio and Inter to be honest. None of those games I look at and think "oh, that's easy" but then none of them will fill me with absolute dread like the Juventus trip does... Ternana at the end of the month will be tough also as they are a good team when they play us apparently. Overall, I just want to have enough points to see us firmly in the title challenge we've been in all season. Up to this point we've been the best team in the league but April is likely to be the month where we find out if we are truly able to defend out title. It's basically six tricky ties with one of the six being a possible nightmare...BUT, it is a derby, and anything can happen, so I will remain hopeful Out of the 18 available, I am aiming for 14 I guess. Hitting at least 12 should be enough but I want to try and earn a little more than that.

[DavidBeckham]

Those job offers/links showed what a great job you are doing at Torino

And March was brilliant for you! I see some Belotti goals and a Kingsley hat-trick as well!

[Dexter_Morgan]

Shame about the CL result but you are still hanging in there at the top of the league so that has been impressive Good to see you get some offers from other sides too

[deltablue]

Juve will be huge!

[JD nawrat]

I'm going to do my April update despite not having finished April - the reason being that, at time of posting, the title challenge is between Milan and myself. Milan are 1 point behind, both teams have three games left. I'm going to do a game-by-game update for the last three games of the season and one of those three games fall in April (two game singular updates seem a bit pointless ).

So yeah, April will be up at some point soon.

[john1]

Tough April month coming up.

[JD nawrat]

April 2020

Serie A

Decent month but pretty leaky defence.

First up saw us host Sampdoria in a fairly exciting match-up. It was a tough game with Sampdoria being rivals but thankfully it was a victorious game for us. We got a good two goals thanks to Dario Silvestri's finishing - the first one being a nice bit of skill to put him on goal before playing it around the goalie; the second a simple shot from the penalty spot (not a penalty) beating the keeper down low. Straight forward but huge goals.

Next up we travelled to Catania in what was expected to be a tough game. In the end we breezed it. Belotti - out of form the whole season - finally looked like the player I'd come to expect and bagged himself a hattrick (then reverted to his usual ****** self after this game though). What's better though is that Piergiorgio De Ruggiero scored his first ever goal for the club. As a youth academy graduate this is immensely pleasing

A trip to the cpital saw us take on Lazio in what would turn out to be a frustrating game. We didn't deserve more than a point but we needed more than a point. We went down 1-0 fairly early in the half and then couldn't get close in the rest of that 45 minutes. I blasted the side at half-time and we came out fairly quickly; Kingsley Coman found the net with a great run cutting in from the left and he slammed it home to equalise. We spent the last half hour probing at their goal but ultimately our attempts were fruitless and we drew 1-1.

Fourth of the month was Inter take us on. We had to be at our best as, despite their lowly standing, they are a team able of beating us. We dominated them and should have been up 4-0 at HT but as it stood we were just 1-0 thanks to Knoche and Kempf combining after a corner to find the net. Things were going fine bar a few missed chances but then it went a bit hairy - Edin Dzeko slammed home an unstoppable drive just inside the box to beat Horn and then almost made it 1-2 just moments later. We struggled but eventually we scored another goal thanks to Alan Dzagoev smashing the ball down the throat of the goal only for Ciro to nick it past the goalie. Not sure if he meant it or if it was a fortunate deflection but either way Ciro got the goal so yay.

Last of the month was the biggest test of all... Juventus hosted us in a must-not-lose tie. We knew going into the game that Milan dropped points this weekend. We had to get at least one point to stay ahead of them, anything less would drop us to second (on GD). We were dominated and deserved nothing but we got the point. We probably should have won courtesy of a Ciro goal but the Italian finisher screwed our only real chance of the game - a neat little cutback from Kingsley found its way to him and instead of slamming into the net, the Hitman put it straight at the goalie. Thankfully it didn't cost us the point though and we managed to come out with a huge point.

With three massive games to go, the league looks like this:

Overall Thoughts

A good month puts us in a great position to hopefully retain our Serie A title. It's become a two-horse race between us and Milan; Juventus definitely cannot win it (which, even if we choke and lose it, is nice to know...didn't want it to go straight back across town). We did very well but the real test of our bottle starts now. With none of my strikers really in form, I'm not going to do well for goals I don't think. But, I finally have Luca Dominici fit again and the youngster will start in the next game (would've started v Juventus but conditioning was about 87%)... I've got hopes he'll come straight back into the side in the same form he left the side in

I've come to the realisation that Neal Maupay was just not being used properly... the young lad's record at Milan has been amazing so far: 8(2) appearances, 6 goals, 4 assists, 3 MotMs, 7.59 Avg. Rating. If he helps them win the league

Remaining games...

Torino

Milan

Basically the same teams... Milan drew with Ternana a couple of days ago whilst I beat Catania a couple of weeks ago. We both have Atalanta and Palermo to come. Will be a close fought thing, without a doubt. Stay tuned. Game-by-game updates to come

[JD nawrat]

Those job offers/links showed what a great job you are doing at Torino

And March was brilliant for you! I see some Belotti goals and a Kingsley hat-trick as well!

Cheers man Belotti's been way off the pace this season but that's more to do with my poor management of the striker position than anything else I think Kingsley is a beast though. Excellent on LM as a Wide Playmaker/Support.

Shame about the CL result but you are still hanging in there at the top of the league so that has been impressive Good to see you get some offers from other sides too

Cheers mate. CL was disappointing but it was our first ever venture into the CL knockouts. Next season...

Juve will be huge!

Ended up being massive! Thankfully got a big draw which I'm happy with. Funnily enough makes it 0-0 over two legs in the league this season between us and Juve

Tough April month coming up.

Was indeed tough. We dealt with it relatively well though and I'm happy with how we played

[JD nawrat]

Milan take an important three points to go top (at least for a few hours) thanks to goals from Konoplyanka and De Sciglio. A late goal from Palermo at least made it interesting but it was too little too late in the end. Over to us...

...And we ****ing choked The first half was a dire affair. We had a lot of shots (about 10 of them to their three or four) but created nothing to talk about. Dominici did **** all but that's not his fault, I just can't sort this position out. End of season tactical change, ahoy! Anyway, second half kicks off and Jiménez scores a brilliant goal from range. It was a clear cut chance because of a failed clearance but Jiménez had a lot of work to go. Did very well to bury it. Unfortunately, Alex Telles took it upon himself to volley the opposition in our box. A converted penalty made it 1-1 and then we couldn't score again. 1-1 draw and it leaves us second, one point behind Milan. Faaaaaaaaaaantastic!

Oh, yes, and that leaves our record like so: P36, W25, D9, L2... all these draws will cost us, I fear.

[JD nawrat]

Stop it Neal! Okay? JUST STOP IT! It's not funny anymore Milan breeze past Atalanta who struggled to get going... this Milan side are pretty dominant and I think they could be about to romp to the title. I'll only have myself to blame. But yeah, easy victor for them. Game sealed after 16 minutes ffs. Kept checking the score in hope that Atalanta would fight but back they never even came close. Useless ********.

At least you can't say we're not entertaining, huh? Failure to win here would have left us needing a miracle (three behind with about 5 GD behind, meaning we'd need to win, hope they lose, and have a 5 goal swing in the process...no easy task). And we almost didn't. After scoring two first half goals we were breezing it similar to Milan, I was actually hoping to make a decent dent into goal differences just in case (only difference they can make a difference from here is if we draw and they lose). But after half-time we ****ing threw it away, almost. We handed them two easy goals and things were looking like it was over until, out of nowhere, Kolasinac popped up with a header in the final two minutes to score the winner and give us hope!

Oh, one other thing - Palermo committed 26 fouls and got 6 yellow cards We committed two fouls in 90 minutes

We go into the final game needing to better Milan's result. Bettering their result if we draw means nothing because their GD is +3 better, so unless they lose by 4 goals (they have superior GF) then we're still not going to win. So basically, we have to win our game and hope Catania do something positive for us. Judging by how easily we scored against them, I think our hopes are all but dead. But we won't give up...there's still a chance

One small unrelated-to-title-race note: Internazionale sit in the relegation zone with one game to go. They are in a position where a win saves them and they are guaranteed safety (they'd move above one team could go down at their expense so one team would be guaranteed to finish beneath them) but they are away from home so maybe things won't be so easy. I kinda hope they get relegated

[JD nawrat]

This was, quite frankly, must-win. And we managed it. Eventually. We didn't cover ourselves in glory but we were, as usual, solid at the back. Atalanta caused us zero problems and we looked like we would score eventually. It took an OG then a cameo appearance from Dominici but we got there. All attentions were turned to Milan. If they failed to win, the titles was ours!

But it wasn't to be Milan win the title. We earn 90 points but that's not enough (despite being five better than our winning season last season). We also only lost twice, which is remarkable, but it was enough to give them the title thanks to us drawing a frustrating nine times (Milan drew seven, lost three). Goals cost us the title; we couldn't get enough of them.

ANYWAY, season over, I'll post a full season review either tonight or tomorrow. I don't know exactly when but I will.

Following on from my Inter note above - they drew 0-0 with Pescara which means... they're relegated! Unbelievable. They were runners-up just a few seasons ago, now they're going to be in Serie B. Insane stuff. Job is available, could apply... not that I will

[DavidBeckham]

Pity about the end, but 90 points is still very impressive, really unlucky there!

And Inter's relegation is shocking to say the least

[JD nawrat]

Pity about the end, but 90 points is still very impressive, really unlucky there!

And Inter's relegation is shocking to say the least

Just a shame that it was only 90 points - all of those draws meant a lot of dropped points. We could and probably should have hit one hundred. I'm annoyed we didn't win the league tbh

Inter don't even have too many players worth signing either. That's annoying. Was hoping to get a good raid going but most of their players are rubbish or old. Only about 4 who I'd actually sign and only one of them (Mammana) would improve my team, but he'll cost a fortune.

Applied for and got the Italy U23s job, which means I get to manage Italy at the Olympic Games this year Got a lot of Torino players in there (about 6) and hoping to do well in the competition. Also changed my system from a 4231 to a 4411... interesting how my tactics at Torino have morphed. Went from a 4312 to a 4231 narrow to a 4231 wide to a 4231 wide with MR/L instead of AMR/L and now to a 4411... won't be long before I come full circle and am using 442 again (not really, Silvestri too good at CAM to be moved up front)

Will use the 4411 with the Olympic team too. Fancy us to go far because the attack should be awesome. Defence is fairly sketchy, fullbacks are dodgy and only got one good CB (Cecere ) but the MC positions and CAM/ST are awesome. Wings are dodgy but MR has De Ruggiero so should be okay on that side at least. LM, LB, RB and LCB all shaky. Besides those, we have a quality side.

[john1]

Damn that draw against Ternana

[JD nawrat]

Damn that draw against Ternana

Ternana ended up having a huge say in the fight for the title - swung it into my favour by drawing with Milan then swung it back into Milan's favour by drawing with me

[Noel Gallagher]

Bad luck with Serie A but all the best in the Olympics - hopefully you will win that gold medal!

[JD nawrat]

2019-20 End of Season Review

Expectations

Serie A - Board Expectation: Challenge The Title - Achieved (Finished 2nd)

Italian Cup - Board Expectation: No Expectation - Achieved (Semi-Finals)

Champions League - Board Expectation: Reach First Knockout Round - Achieved (Reached First Knockout Round)

Supercup - Board Expectation: No Expectation - Lost

Serie A

Undefeated until February but it wasn't enough... Even despite that first loss, it came during a run which had us standing at 11 wins in 12 games... and it STILL wasn't enough I'm gutted to things transpired as they did but it wasn't a bad season, by any means. Milan were just as good as us, in the end, I guess. These things happen I guess.

Highlight of the season? Hmmm... probably battering Milan 3-1 at home. It was revenge for losing the Supercup and I also felt like that was confirmation that there wasn't any teams in the league better than us. And for a long time that rang true, but the return match which saw us lose 3-1 to Milan kinda hammered home that we were just about equals as the Supercup would have suggested. I was also disappointed to lose at Udinese. We should have done better. The only two low points I guess. Although a lot of those yellow circles were infuriating. We should have won most of them, not drawn.

The end of season table looks like this:

TIM Cup

My hopes of winning the cup were dashed when Juventus battered us 6-2 at Juventus Stadium. We managed to regain a little of our dignity with a 4-2 victory in the return leg but the damage was already done b then. Always next season!

Champions League

A famous win against Real Madrid was the highlight of this European campaign and to finally win away from home in the CL groups was nice, especially as it secured passage to face Arsenal in the Last 16. Unfortunately it was the end of the road for us and we lost 3-0 on aggregate to Arsenal. An important campaign even if it meant losing in such circumstances. Important lessons were learned.

Supercoppa

An exciting curtain-raiser that went all the way to penalties but ultimately, future-champs would best current-champs and they would lift the title. Ho hum, not important.

Finances

Compared to last year, finances are in the best shape they've ever been. The club is wealthier now than it has ever been and we're probably only going to continue to get richer with increased sponsorship deals to come, more European competition and player's value becoming more and more valuable.

Players of the Season

5. Alex Telles - One of the new additions to the squad over the summer was Brazilian fullback Alex Telles. The attacking defender had a good first season in Turin and will hopefully help the team next season when he will be fully settled to Italian life. I think he can be as good at LB as Gino Peruzzi was for us at RB. That's no small billing, obviously, but I think he can do very well for us next season. Deserves the recognition I've given him

4. Marc-Oliver Kempf - Alongside Telles at LB, Kempf at LCB was a new addition to my defence which was the most stubborn in the entire league, giving up the least goals of all. Kempf was a huge part in this thanks to his solid performances at the back. He also scored six times, almost all of which were absolutely key. The big German will continue next season as first choice for sure. Not a bad debut season in Italy; hopefully he will improve. He's also displaced Robin Knoche as my best CB; the partner of Kempf isn't listed in my top five for the first time in his time at Turin.

3. Agustín Jiménez - The Argentinian wide man finally found himself out wide for the club again, having spent the last couple of seasons at CAM. He also managed to show just how good he is from the wide area, assisting a total of 14 times and also bagging nine goals to earn himself the recognition of being my third best player of the season (almost got #2). He was listed as my fifth best player last season and has become even more important to the team as he continues to develop into a better player than I ever expected...with room for improvement, still!

2. Dario Silvestri - The 19 year old wonderkid is on track to become one of the greatest players I've ever managed. His quality knows no bounds. He just keeps coming up trumps when I need him most. He's not assisting as much I had hoped but he is almost always involved and that is exactly what I need and want from him. This is the first time I've ever really used him, this season, and he goes straight in at #2 on my list of best players. His stats might not seem great, but here is one massively impressive stat... he made 120 key passes in 41 games and was the highest rated player in the entire squad. He also made 87 of these passes in Serie A...next highest player was only on 73. Talk about creative

1. Kingsley Coman - I'll forgive you for expecting Andrea Belotti's name to appear here (first time the Italian hitman hasn't featured in my players of the season), but alas, it is not him. No, it's someone far better than I expected - Kingsley Coman The French creator can score as well as assist, marking himself as the top assister in the team, the third top scorer, the second highest rated player and the recipient of the second most man of the match awards. All this in his first ever real season of football after spending seasons upon seasons on the Juventus bench... he's never made more than 10 appearances in one season before this season... not bad for a free signing, eh?!

The Squad

[JD nawrat]

Bad luck with Serie A but all the best in the Olympics - hopefully you will win that gold medal!

Cheers mate... hopefully indeed! I think we've got a decent chance but I don't know much about the other teams in the Olympics, so maybe we don't stand much of a chance, I'm unsure.

[JD nawrat]

Some cracking news We might hopefully be 3rd seeds next season and it shows the brilliant progress that we are making in Europe. Another brilliant season in Europe and there's a very real chance of us becoming a second seed...

Also news came in (cba screenshotting) tha tSerie A has, once again, moved to be the third ranked league in Europe. This means, of course, that top four gets Europe once again. We had this a couple of seasons ago but after just one year as the third ranked league, Germany overtook us almost instantly. We've overtaken them again and will hopefully stay there. Top three is expected of us nowadays - I don't have any expectations of us dropping out of the top three positions to be honest (barring a major failure on my part of more than two other teams suddenly becoming brilliant) so that doesn't really bother me. But it's nice to see the nation/league doing a bit better than it has been.

e: Some other information...

Rodolfo Montenegro is not a CB. He's got quality stats but he can't win anything in the air so he gets bullied and plays crap as a result. He's getting moved to play the defensive midfield role and will rotate with Ronga. This means Fellaini hasn't got a position...which is fine, cos he's been sold to Hull. Kagawa is also likely to be on his way out after moaning like a little girl about his lack of playtime. I'll have to replace him, not sure who I'll do that with but I'll figure something out. Unless Coman gets injured (which didn't happen once bar at the very start of the season where I signed him injured and he was out for a couple of months and a couple of impact injuries here and there), the Kagawa-replacement will barely feature anyway. Might try and find someone from our youths who can take up the position.

So next season I will need: LM to back-up Coman; CB to rotate with Knoche; possibly a CAM to replace Dzagoev/back-up Silvestri; and probably a striker as Ciro/Belotti wasn't doing much for me. Might sell Ciro and bring in someone new. We'll see...

[DavidBeckham]

You just gave me an idea of another achievement to unlock with that job application for the Italian U23s! Hope you win that gold medal!

And Kingsley looks incredible, can't believe he's only 24!!

[JD nawrat]

You just gave me an idea of another achievement to unlock with that job application for the Italian U23s! Hope you win that gold medal!

And Kingsley looks incredible, can't believe he's only 24!!

Cheers fella!

Only just turned 24 the day before the screenshot was taken, too I honestly can't believe I got him for nothing. Won Midfielder of the Year and got into Team of the Season too I'm sure. He's so good. His tackling, marking, positioning, team work and work rate all make him so valuable - basically willing to do the nitty gritty when I need him to, makes him the perfect left-sided partner for Alex Telles who loves to bomb forward. The pair of them are excellent together, love it when Telles overlaps Kingsley but we lose the ball to Kingsley hammers back into Telles' position to give Telles time to recover. The little things like that which make me love him

[DavidBeckham]

Cheers fella!

Only just turned 24 the day before the screenshot was taken, too I honestly can't believe I got him for nothing. Won Midfielder of the Year and got into Team of the Season too I'm sure. He's so good. His tackling, marking, positioning, team work and work rate all make him so valuable - basically willing to do the nitty gritty when I need him to, makes him the perfect left-sided partner for Alex Telles who loves to bomb forward. The pair of them are excellent together, love it when Telles overlaps Kingsley but we lose the ball to Kingsley hammers back into Telles' position to give Telles time to recover. The little things like that which make me love him

Definitely a steal for you!

The next Paul Pogba perhaps?

[JD nawrat]

In real life there's that sort of buzz around him, definitely. He's still only 18 irl and he's already played a handful of games for the Juventus first team (played a couple of times for the PSG first team too iirc)... on his debut he got MOTM which is pretty impressive. There's a lot of belief that him and Pogba are 'the next big thing' basically... future is bright for France, the likes of Digne, Zouma, Pogba, Coman, Varane are all going to be big players in world football in the coming years.

I don't think he has the attributes to be the next Pogba but he definitely puts in performances that are comparable to the great midfielder

[JD nawrat]

Oh and another thing - Union Berlin somehow scraped by relegation yet again. They finished 15th (once place above the play-off spot) but had 30 points, the same as the team below them...and the team below them. In fact they were one point shy of finishing dead last (a place they spent about 75% of the season).

Their luck is going to run out soon enough

e: The fans hath spake...

Dario Silvestri - 40

Kingsley Coman - 26

Agustín Jiménez - 21

Other - 13

Well at least I correctly identified the top three players Not sure I agree with Silvestri being the best though, despite his average rating for the season agreeing with that, he had less important performances than Coman (although more MotMs tbf and a higher Avg. Rating).

[JD nawrat]

This is how good our finances are right now. Insane budgets

[JD nawrat]

Rather unbelievably... Angelo Ronga has just come to me saying that he wants to leave for Milan. I asked him what it would take for me to keep him and he says "I want to win league titles but I'm never going to do that here" (uhhh...you won a league title with us just 12 months ago?). The most frustrating thing though? I can't even tell him that I will win the league this season. I've been given the option of telling him to stfu, saying I'll sell him, offering him a pay-rise... I said I'll sell if a reasonable bid comes in for him. Not sure what else I can do tbh. I'm so pissed. One of my brightest young talents.

e: and Timo Horn's just said the exact same ****ing thing...about Milan. Again.

Proper pisstake right now, this. Milan just threatening to sign my players but not actually going near them, upsetting them then disappearing. Total horse ****, this is.

[JD nawrat]

Olympic Games 2020 - Italy U23s

First game of the tournament saw us taking on the Ivory Coast in what was an important game, as they were likely to be the other side challenging for the top of the group. We took the lead early through Andrea Belotti - one of my assigned over 23 players - and looked to be good value for money. Ivory Coast rarely threatened and we were slicing them open, but we couldn't seal the deal and Wilfried Bony scored late on to make it 1-1. A good point but a disappointing two dropped imo.

The US of A came up next. We tried to rotate but the ****** schedule makes it pointless...6 games in 15 days for a bunch of kids. How is this fair? ANYWAY. We stormed into a 3-1 lead and things were going smoothly so I told the lads to relax and waste time. Unfortunately the US had other plans and scored with a few minutes to go so I had to tell them to sharpen up and see the game out. Thankfully we just about managed it. A huge three points which meant one point v Australia was enough to qualify.

And we secured more than just one point. A triumphant 3-0 victory over Australia saw us qualify for the knockouts in first place (Ivory Coast second place on the same number of points but with an inferior GD). Angelozzi was really impressive in this game and throughout the tournament - I tried to sign him from Spurs after his performances for us but he chose to stay at the club and signed a new deal with them. Shame really as he could have been a big player for us next season. Good win.

Japan were first up in the Quarter Finals. The first half was a slog and neither team really impressed but thankfully we got going eventually and hammered two in seven minutes past the Japanese outfit to make it easy. A late goal for Silvestri after he missed a penalty and slammed in the rebound was the icing on the cake. This win put us into the semi-finals, meaning we had a really good chance of leaving with a medal.

To get a guaranteed medal, the Netherlands stood in our way. They were a breeze though. An early penalty eased us into the game and a well-used team talk helped us romp into a 4-0 lead. I told the lads to relax in order to try and rest us for the final (against France, it was known) and the Netherlands managed to take advantage and score late on but the 1 next to their name makes no difference to us.

The final was so pro-France it was embarrassing for us, really. We made them look like Barcelona whilst we took up the role of Accrington Stanley or something similar. We looked like we might hang on to win but a goal about 20 minutes from time knocked us and then we we were absolutely gassed from the tournament and couldn't handle the superior outfit. They were gassed too, don't get me wrong, but through the game they were in control and after 120 minutes things were just too easy for them. Whilst our conditioning was <50, theirs was ~60. A huge difference in the end. It told as they scored late on to prevent us taking it to penalties. Oh well. A silver medal is more than welcome to me

Dario Silvestri won Player of the Tournament.

Nicola Leali won Goalkeeper of the Tournament.

Dario Silvestri, Francesco Angelozzi (ST), Antonio Mencarelli (CAM) and Nicola Leali (GK) all made the Dream Team XI.

Giuseppe Erbetta (CB) made the Dream Team Bench.

Francesco Angelozzi won the tournament's Silver Boot (4 goals; Wilfried Bony had 5).

Dario Silvestri won Top Assister (4 assists).

[deltablue]

Tough missing out on the title last year.

[JD nawrat]

Tough missing out on the title last year.

I'll get over it quickly... hopefully by having my best season yet Got high hopes for this season, team should be at its best now tbh. Silvestri just keeps on improving, Coman had a great debut season, Kempf and Telles had very good debut seasons also. Hevista had his first 'real' season (was always a back-up til last season). Basically things should be getting to their best now. I'm gonna finally win the damn TIM Cup...hopefully and I have hopes of making the final eight of Europe. Oh and the Scudetto is returning to Olimpico with any luck

Got my new laptop today (AT LAST!) so just redownloading FM atm. After that I gotta move my save from my old laptop to the new one then sort out name fixes, badge packs, faces etc (might change my face pack, not decided atm). So yeah, probably not going to have the 2020-21 preview at any point tonight because most of today will be spent just getting everything together

[Dexter_Morgan]

Unlucky losing out to Milan, better use that kitty next season and make sure you win it