The Italian Job! Italian league thread is here!

[ajt]

8 hours ago, quee said:

Did City came in or you have to offer him out? Diouf does look really good though.

Good half season so far 

Man City were bidding but initially they wanted to only pay £16 million  I think it was a fair price and I doubt he would ever sign a new contract so better to lose him now for a decent amount.

I also sold a couple of other players in the January transfer window so I now have a £65 million balance to invest in new players if I need to. Unfortunately doing this has made the squad unhappy so nearly all the players only have an okay morale 

Diouf has got good attributes for my "carrilero" role in midfield and has been doing alright so far, 7.16 average rating.

 

I beat Young Boys 6-1 over the two legs and now face Fiorentina. We played them a few weeks ago in the league and the match finished 0-0

 

I managed to beat Fiorentina 2-0 in the second leg and luckily missed Liverpool & Juventus in the quarter final draw

 

Unfortunately we lost vs Athletic. A poor performance in the first leg left us at 4-2 and we only managed to score 1 goal in the return leg.

Probably for the best anyway as we can focus on trying to get European qualification for next season.

 

Edited August 3, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

Season 2024/2025

Competitions   _   Player Stats

Transfers   _   Finances    _   Facilities

 

It was an absolute rollercoaster (but very fun) season. In fact I'd say it's the most fun season I've had with any club on this years FM.

Our form up until January was electric, and I really believed we could make a bid for the title.

Unfortunately our form took a dip due to me selling Tonali and Romagna (I also sold Bernadoni & Colidio for good amounts but they weren't playing much for us).

The players morale all dropped to "okay" and stayed that way for months. I was unable to influence it at all due to Di Marco (highly influential) thinking we didn't have enough cover in defence (despite me buying a new backup CB for cover).

Luckily our great form earlier in the season still had us in a good position for a European place. In April the players increased their morale and we capitalised on it with a fantastic run in the league, and qualified for the champions league for the first time this save.

 

Best players

Matheus Pereira

Originally I didn't play Pereira a lot due to my two new wide players coming in. However he became a mainstay in the team towards the end of the season and ended up winning the Serie A player of the year!

I was even planning to sell him (thank goodness I didn't), but with two years on his contract I now plan to keep him to rotate with my other inside forwards.

I try to sign players that can be an inside forward on both wings to have plenty of cover since they are the hardest positions for me to fill.

 

Dani Olmo

A new signing for me in this years FM that I'm sure everyone knows about. I managed to sign him on a free transfer from Dinamo and he had a great season. He played both as AML IF & MC AP and performed well in each role.

He has a release clause of £25.5 million but I don't plan to offer him a new contract, if another club decides he's worth the money (I doubt they will as clubs don't tend to bid for a players actual value) then I'll be happy with however many seasons he spends in Brescia.

 

Angel Gomes

Signed on a free transfer from Man Utd (he has Portuguese nationality so he doesn't count as a foreign player due to my Brexit rules) and had a good first season.

Plenty of assists as another AML IF. I'm trying to improve his shooting to see if he can score more goals in the future.

 

Abdellah Afkir

The way my tactic works doesn't seem to be the best for my strikers scoring, but Afkir did well (he loves closing down the keeper and taking the ball off him for an easy goal).

I've been trying to increase his shooting for years now but I think he's pretty much maxed out his potential. Hopefully his mentals can increase a little more.

I've just signed him to a new bumper contract (my highest paid player by far - £110k per week) which runs until 2030 with a 1 year extension. A few clubs were interested in him (Leverkusen, Southampton, Everton) but I will never sell him willingly.

He cost me under £7 million from Lyon all those seasons ago and it's nice that he has actually fulfilled his potential (many of my regens sadly don't).

 

Mattia Viviani

He might not look like the greatest midfielder but I wanted to persist with him since he was already at Brescia in 2018. He paid back my faith with an excellent season as my main MC AP (a).

He's loved by the fans and hopefully he spends many more productive seasons in the heart of my midfield.

 

Thierno Diouf

I was a little worried about his transfer because I very rarely spend significant money in any save (£24 million) and usually rely on regens (which has led to me being sacked by Bayern in one long term save this year - which I then quit).

Diouf came in from Udinese and performed much better for us than he did for them. He scored the two goals in our final game of the season which clinched our Champions League spot over Udinese.

He has had a much bigger impact in our team (possibly due to me tinkering with my tactic a bit) than Tonali did so I am very pleased with the price I paid for him.

 

Youth

Matias Soriano

My argentinian scout found this guy playing for Estudiantes and boy what a player he is already. I started the season rotating him in goal with Bernadoni but by January it was clear that he was at least on par with him if not better.

I have had real problems finding quality goalkeepers in this years FM so I expect he could be at Brescia for the next 20 seasons (if my save goes that far ).

 

Marvin Nsiala

Nsiala's development was the main reason I sold Romagna in the first place. The only attribute he is lacking is anticipation but I don't really care about that (I'm taking less of a perfectionist mindset this save).

He developed well in my youth team last season and is now one of my main CDs.

 

Matej Degoricija

Selling Tonali freed up the DM position which mean't Matej got quite a lot of playing time (in rotation with Locatelli). I'm not sure how much headroom is left in his potential but he will be my main DM for more than a decade.

 

Andrea Consolazio

Consolazio was my backup striker for the season but didn't manage to score many goals. I still believe in his potential (he's described as a wonderkid) but it might be time to send him out on loan now that he is home grown at the club.

 

Nicola Vitali

Vitali went out on loan to Perugia and didn't score many goals. However this is probably because Perugia played poorly overall (they are relegated to Serie B for next season).

He isn't described as a wonderkid but I still have high hopes for his future. I will continue his development by loaning him out again next season.

 

Thierry Poisson

Thierry joined my youth team this season from Caen and has been developing well. I plan to use him as a backup CD next season.

 

Looking forward

Next season will be really great. We move into the new stadium on 2nd July 2025 and it will be interesting to see what the attendance is like as the current 20k stadium has been filled to capacity for years.

Abel Ruiz returns after a season loan at Napoli where he was the second highest scoring player in the league. With Consolazio and Afkir I will have 3 good strikers to rotate so I don't need to sign anyone new.

I have already finalised a few new regen transfers to come in and the only position I may need to strengthen is my DL as I plan to sell Di Marco (so he can never destroy another season). I also have other players that I will be looking to sell or loan out for fees.

I am excited to play in the champions league and financially the club is in a great situation (especially with the TV money we will recieve).

Edited August 4, 2019 by ajt

[quee]

How did you get that loan fees in? I only had one success offering out for £250k per month loans, even then it was dropped down to £160k 

Another great update, I can feel that it is an enjoyable save as you're doing good jobs in developing the team.

Interesting that Olmo is capped by Croatia as well.

[ajt]

2 hours ago, quee said:

How did you get that loan fees in? I only had one success offering out for £250k per month loans, even then it was dropped down to £160k 

Another great update, I can feel that it is an enjoyable save as you're doing good jobs in developing the team.

Interesting that Olmo is capped by Croatia as well.

I just offer them out at a high loan fee and then drop it down afterwards. I usually do 100% wages & £250k, maybe a bit more if it's a valuable player. I think his value has an impact on how much teams are willing to pay.

I'm really enjoying it, the only other save I've enjoyed as much this game was Servette from Switzerland but that one got a bit boring because I dominated the league so much (quit the save before I was challenging for the champions league).

Yeah Dani is doing really well, I'm currently training him as an AMR inside forward so that I have more cover. Croatia definitely got a good player there.

Just hit the first fixture of the new season now so hopefully I reach the champions league draw today 

Also Roma just made a crazy transfer for 31 year old Victor Lindelof of £37.5 million, meanwhile I signed this guy Punsi for £26 million with clauses from Sevilla.

 

First game at the new stadium and we've had a great crowd! This should mean we sell out and get some nice money from our home Champions League games.

 

Great draw in the Champions League! Both Zenit and Monaco should be beatable so I hope to at least get into the Europa League knockout if things go wrong.

Edited August 4, 2019 by ajt

[QWERTYOP]

Not sure if this is the right thread to ask this question. If not please move as appropriate!

Just moved to Inter Milan after spending the rest of my save at Burnley. One thing puzzling me about Serie A - How am I supposed to keep squad players fit? There's essentially no reserve team to play in unless you're very young. Completely puzzled as to how I'm supposed to keep back-up players fit. 

[quee]

26 minutes ago, QWERTYOP said:

Not sure if this is the right thread to ask this question. If not please move as appropriate!

Just moved to Inter Milan after spending the rest of my save at Burnley. One thing puzzling me about Serie A - How am I supposed to keep squad players fit? There's essentially no reserve team to play in unless you're very young. Completely puzzled as to how I'm supposed to keep back-up players fit. 

Some senior players can play for the u20s (just make them available). Apart from that, loan players out to reduce the numbers.

[QWERTYOP]

5 hours ago, quee said:

Some senior players can play for the u20s (just make them available). Apart from that, loan players out to reduce the numbers.

Shesh! I guess Serie A is going really hardcore on giving youth a chance, huh? To be fair, Inter do have some fantastic youth prospects. 

[ajt]

I got through the Champions League group easily enough, finishing second to Real Madrid. Unfortunately I got drawn against Atletico Madrid (who have some really good players) and lost 2-4 after a 0-3 second leg.

Not so bad though since it means I've been able to concentrate more on Serie A.

With 6 games to go this is how the title race currently looks.

My run in is pretty easy (a lot of clubs near the relegation places) so I think it really could be happening!

[ajt]

Season 2025/2026

Competitions    _    Player Stats

Transfers    _    Finances    _    Facilities

 

In the end we absolutely destroyed the league and finished 9 points ahead of Milan. We scored way more goals than last season and the defence was still one of the best in the division too.

It was dissapointing to go out to Atletico in the Champions League, but it definitely gave us an advantage in the league as some of the other teams were still in European competitions.

When I sold Tonali last season I was worried about what would happen, however the team is definitely much stronger now. Almost all of the players are influential and in groups, and this seems to have an impact on squad morale (it was very easy to keep it high this season).

It was Brescia's first ever Serie A trophy and I have now become an icon at the club (alongside Pep Guardiola and Andrea Pirlo). I was offered the job at Man Utd at the end of the season and used it to get my transfer budget increased by £7 million for next season.

The new stadium is great and has been filled out for nearly every game. It has just been announced that the stadium will be expanded by 9000 seats for a fee of £32 million.

Brescia have also climbed the European club rankings so hopefully we should get a good group in next years Champions League.

We continue to be one of the strongest clubs in Italy financially, and with a number of players to sell on I should be able to get a couple of great players in for next season.

 

Best Players

Matej Degoricija

Over the past few years Matej has quickly grown to be one of my most reliable players. He plays as my DM (defend) and although he isn't expected to do much offensively he gets good average ratings.

Already one of the best DM's in Serie A, I have no idea how incredible he can become by the time he is 25.

 

Angel Gomes

He had an absolutely fanastic season, playing both at AML and MC (AP a). He won the Serie A midfielder of the year award and his value has skyrocketed to £54 million.

 

Abdellah Afkir

Abdellah finally had his breakout season scoring 22 league goals. He was on fire towards the end of the season where he was scoring a goal pretty much every game. Like Gomes he too won an award, for Serie A striker of the year.

 

Abel Ruiz

Abel returned from last years loan at Napoli and performed very well (he even won the Serie A best goal award). He plays as my AMR inside forward, and although his left foot is weak he got many goals and assists.

 

Agustin Villoldo

My South American scout found Agustin playing for Nacional in Uruguay. I snapped him up in January for £7.5 million and he has had a good start to his Brescia career, winning us a couple of games by himself. He plays as my primary AML inside forward.

He is still quite young (wonderkid) so his attributes may improve a little in the future too.

 

Thierno Diouf

Thierno is the real deal as an MC and plays as my carrilero. He got quite a few long range goals and helps control the game for us. Selling Tonali and signing this guy is probably the best decision I made in this save so far.

 

Raoul Bellanova

He may only be rated as 3 stars by my assistant but I wouldn't swap him for anyone. Immense physically, he plays as a RB (defend) due to me not needing my fullbacks to do anything offensively. Very rarely gets caught out of position and is a consistent performer.

Bayern Munich bid £60 million for him in January but I didn't want to sell him.

 

Matias Soriano

Excellent season for Matias with 18 clean sheets. He has proven to be the perfect replacement for David Raya and even has room to grow over the years since he's still only 20 years old. Brescia's Iker Cassillas.

 

Joan Punsi

I signed Joan from Sevilla for a considerable fee and he delivered. He absolutely dominated in defence racking up a great average rating and at 22 can be a CB for years to come.

 

Cody Gakpo

Signed on a free transfer from Standard Liege, Cody has been used as my rotation/impact sub for the AML/AMR positions. He is apparently now worth £52 million, but I doubt I will sell him as he is great at what he does.

 

Youth

Marvin Nsiala

His partnership with Joan Punsi was key to our great defensive record, and he has grown his attributes a little too. Currently listed as a wonderkid, I think his mentals can get a bit better in the future.

 

Andrea Consolazio

Andrea didn't have a great season scoring wise (he was loaned to Cagliari who got relegated in 19th position) but his attributes did increase a bit. I still have high hopes for him becoming the Italian Icardi. I will loan him out again next season to continue his development.

 

Nicola Vitali

Nicola has had a good loan spell with Fiorentina, scoring 10 goals in 20 games. I expect I will loan him out again as Afkir plays pretty much every game for me as it is.

 

Bernd Pirson

Bernd has been in my youth team for awhile now and has improved considerably. I plan to use him as a backup CB going forward.

 

Cesar Ares

Good young LB's are hard to find, so training up Cesar for the past few seasons has been great. I rotated him into the team quite a lot this season and he will likely play even more games next season.

 

Michal Grunt

I found Michal playing in Poland and brought him in originally to play in my youth team. In the end I decided to loan him out and he played 36 games in Serie B. Will be loaned out again next season.

 

Looking Forward

My next obvious goal is to compete for the Champions League. To do this I will sell quite a few players and try to bring in 1 or 2 quality players for more squad depth. I have already targeted a CB & 2 CM (AP) who may be good enough to bring in.

Getting into the Champions League spots next season is imperative due to the loan that has to be paid for the stadium expansion.

Edited August 11, 2019 by ajt

[john1]

Wow! Fantastic to see you winning Serie A  Scouts founds some really hidden gems for you  

[zlatanera]

6 hours ago, ajt said:

Brescia have also climbed the European club rankings so hopefully we should get a good group in next years Champions League.

The seedings are based off your league placing, have been for a while now (2014-15 I think, part of the reason Man City struggled in the early 2010s is due to having no recent European history despite their title wins). So by coming 1st you should have made it easier for yourself, it just depends if you get the bad luck to draw the tougher 3rd and 4th seeds. 

Congrats on the league title though!

[ajt]

10 hours ago, zlatanera said:

The seedings are based off your league placing, have been for a while now (2014-15 I think, part of the reason Man City struggled in the early 2010s is due to having no recent European history despite their title wins). So by coming 1st you should have made it easier for yourself, it just depends if you get the bad luck to draw the tougher 3rd and 4th seeds. 

Congrats on the league title though!

Oh that's great I didn't realise! Haven't been playing many saves this year in the CL (was on Fm15 before this year's game). Yeah I remember the problems Man City had for a few years, what a crazy time that was.

[ajt]

11 hours ago, john1 said:

Wow! Fantastic to see you winning Serie A  Scouts founds some really hidden gems for you  

Cheers John. Yeah they have I can't complain. I just send them out to various countries and let them do their thing.

[Geordieboy52]

I'm really enjoying life in Bergamo as manager of Atalanta - in 2027-28 and successfully defended the Scudetto ahead of both Milan teams.  Have been lucky with a few intakes of youth, with three current 1st teamers coming off the assembly line and, like other here, I have found a few gems along them way. I have found the key is, upgrading scouting as soon as I can attract better 9I am playing FMT, so no packages to worry about). Melengoni is the only player remaining from the original squad (other than Traore, and he has barely featured) most were sold to help the team get better with the money they brought in.  Here is a sample of my youth and finds...

 

This lad was almost an immediate first teamer, came through after 1st season, never went out on loan and is immense

Brugni came through the season after and took a little longer to settle, I was close to getting rid but excellent spells at Genoa and Fiorentina made me think twice.

Marcato is my next big hope, although I have to coach his 'fickle' personality out of him.

I have high hopes for Diaw too, although I tend not to play with an anchor man, I may see how he develops.

Now onto the 'jewels of my crown'

Curcio cost me £3.4m from Milan and I have been tested with bids north of £150m but held firm.

 

This is the second of my DC pairing and I could not be more delighted - cost me £1.8 from Young Boys - wow!

 

Finally Frank Yao, the man everyone wants - £475k from ASEC and is possibly the best regen I have ever had.

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Geordieboy52

[quee]

You're ahead of everyone who's still playing in this topic, I think! Well done!

Yao looks amazing! 

[Geordieboy52]

 

9 hours ago, quee said:

You're ahead of everyone who's still playing in this topic, I think! Well done!

Yao looks amazing! 

Nah, that fella rocking it with Brescia is waaaay ahead of me.  i tried and failed massively with them.

[john1]

Cracking players you have got there @Geordieboy52  Yao looks absolutely insane!

[quee]

On 14/08/2019 at 03:35, Geordieboy52 said:

 

Nah, that fella rocking it with Brescia is waaaay ahead of me.  i tried and failed massively with them.

I'm still in the summer before my 5th season haha always spending a long time during the summer

[quee]

PARMA CALCIO 1913 - 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.

Edited August 18, 2019 by quee
Added Buffon's images

[john1]

Another great season for you @quee  Massive shame you couldn't manage to bring Buffon, back to the club  

[quee]

On 19/08/2019 at 04:49, john1 said:

Another great season for you @quee  Massive shame you couldn't manage to bring Buffon, back to the club  

Thanks, I would have signed him earlier if his coaching attributes weren't that helpful to develop my players. 

[99]

Oh well, today and for the first time (with FM19), I've embraced the italian job --- having seen Inter's latest signings, especially Lukaku, really clicked with me. Plus, the big challenge of trying to overthrown a super Juventus that is so strong that probably has too much good players to even be able to register them all. Think I will have fun. Mourinho, I'll be your successor!

[john1]

9 minutes ago, 99 said:

Oh well, today and for the first time (with FM19), I've embraced the italian job --- having seen Inter's latest signings, especially Lukaku, really clicked with me. Plus, the big challenge of trying to overthrown a super Juventus that is so strong that probably has too much good players to even be able to register them all. Think I will have fun. Mourinho, I'll be your successor!

Welcome to the club \o/ And good luck  

[quee]

19 hours ago, 99 said:

Oh well, today and for the first time (with FM19), I've embraced the italian job --- having seen Inter's latest signings, especially Lukaku, really clicked with me. Plus, the big challenge of trying to overthrown a super Juventus that is so strong that probably has too much good players to even be able to register them all. Think I will have fun. Mourinho, I'll be your successor!

Welcome!

[MAECK]

anyone who still plays with inter? if so who will you sell in first season? will play 4-4-2 has never before played in italy before

[jackthehack]

I rarely post here, but been playing with Roma recently and signed Pellegri. He's developed more than any player I've had in FM 2019.

[PT-KK]

Him and Fiete Arp are the best strikers I've trained on the last 4 or 5 versions of FM.

Pellegri in fact became a legend in Benfica, playing on my side, with 150 goals in 156 games

 

 

[ajt]

Nice one @quee, too bad about Buffon. Fiorentina really suck without Chiesa, they even rely on loans from me on my save to fill their first team.

Haven't been playing much recently since it's been nice weather here but giving it one last hurrah before Classic WoW gets released tomorrow (if my PC can process it quickly enough).

Just got my champions league group

 

Not too bad considering, will probably struggle vs Liverpool but the other two are beatable.

 

Also got the first silly offer for my GK Soriano

 

Was baffled as to how Mainz had any money but apparently they finished 4th in Bundesliga last season (above Leipzig & Dortmund).

Edited August 25, 2019 by ajt

[quee]

4 hours ago, ajt said:

Also got the first silly offer for my GK Soriano

Will you accept?

Nice CL group, should be a fun group.

[ajt]

15 hours ago, quee said:

Will you accept?

Nice CL group, should be a fun group.

Nah, I don't know any goalkeepers that can replace him, the only Argentinian better than him for example is a 26 year old at Tottenham who is valued at £40 million  My guy has 10 clean sheets in 19 games and he has to face many one on ones as I play with a very high defensive line & offside trap.

The group was fun indeed. Young Boys was 4-0 and 1-1, Athletic was 1-1 and 1-1, and Liverpool was 3-1 and 1-0 (Liverpool are top of the Premier League right now).

Despite finishing first in the group I have drawn PSG in the knockout round whilst Liverpool get FC Porto 

The PSG team is absolutely ridiculous according to my scouts (mostly 4.5 star players) and bloody Milan sold them Donnarumma for £37.5 million (Milan then bought Pineda from Shanghai SIPG for £51 million and play with a random regen loan keeper...).

 

My new stadium expansion has finally completed, and in the first home match vs Milan we had a sellout! According to Wikipedia Brescia only has a population of 200k, so over a quarter of the cities population would be at a game if it ever got expanded to the max 

 

Halfway through the season now and things are going well in the league. 10 points clear of Napoli and the teams around them are pretty close on points.

 

Unfortunately we lost the Supercoppa against Inter as the legendary Icardi strikes once again. Not removing the offside trap off vs him was a very poor decision.

We actually played pretty well though and had some decent chances. Hopefully Icardi takes some points off Napoli & Juve in the league.

 

Since I'm not sure how many more seasons I'll play on this save I went on the hunt for a new DM/MC to provide cover for Diouf/Matej.

Found this bloke playing at Dortmund & decided to pay his buyout clause of £75 million. Not sure he's worth anything near that amount but I had built up roughly £100 million in the bank so no worries.

He isn't as well rounded as Matej but is pretty similar defensively so maybe I can play all 3 of them in midfield to see if Matej can get some more assists.

 

First leg against PSG and it is one of the best games I've had in FM19. They absolutely dominated us in the first 20 minutes but we managed to hit them on the break a number of times.

I don't really want to change my tactic for the second leg, hopefully we can win on away goals.

Edited August 26, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

The second leg was a much more even game. Luckily Angel Gomes did the business with a hat trick so we managed to vanquish the mighty PSG.

I got really worried in the second half as they started bringing on £70 million substitutes 

 

Not a bad draw at all seeing as I skipped the spanish giants. Cannot believe that Milan & Roma are even in the competition, they're both shocking!

As far as the league, I'm 18 points ahead of Napoli with 10 games left.

I got dumped out of the Coppa Italia on away goals in the semi final against Torino.

 

Absolutely horrendous first leg  The first half red card left us totally useless as I had to play without a striker, then one of my MC's Bousquet got sent off at the end of the game too.

Will be a very difficult second leg with the suspensions but I still have hope. I'm going to go back to my balls to the walls tactic for what could be my final CL game.

 

Absolute banger of a second leg. Screw the more defensive tactic is what I say! Managed to hang on despite Matej ridiculous sending off.

Will be a tough first leg without him but at least we're in the semis. Hopefully we draw Roma, as I mentioned previously they are truly dire and we recently beat them 2-0 in the league.

 

We've managed to win the Serie A with 5 games to go. This is excellent news as the CL draw was not good at all.

Real Madrid are at least as good if not better than PSG so it will be a very interesting match.

 

Phenomenal! All out attack from the kick off brought a magnificent result. Abel Ruiz could have had 7 goals by the end of the match he was really something else.

Soriano got an assist by kicking the ball to the opposition area after he saved from a corner 

A 0-0 draw in the second league means we're through to the champions league final (my first one on this years version too).

We will face the mighty... Roma! Apparently I was completely wrong about them, although they cannot win in Serie A they beat Barcelona 6-4 over the two legs 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2019 by ajt

[ajt]

I'm so happy to have finally won the champions league in this years version. I failed to do it with Bayern, Milan & Servette after getting sacked for relying on developing regens too much.

Actually spending the money I had was definitely key, as Teo Lemaire came on for Diouf in the second half and had a great game. I said earlier that £75 million was an overspend but we won the cup so I guess it doesn't matter 

Having to beat PSG & Real Madrid, and beating them so comprehensively is definitely one of the highlights of my time spent playing CM/FM (I've been playing off and on since I was a young kid in 1999).

 

My whole team played great in the competition (even when I rotated during the groups my backup players did okay). Villoldo is really an insane player, he had quite a few injuries this season but he got 6 assists in 9 CL games.

I'm also happy since my dusty old i5-2500k managed to blast through the season just before WoW classic launches tonight. I'll do my final end of season review in a few days. Happy FMing everyone 

[john1]

Fantastic to see you winning the CL with Brescia

[quee]

Been busy and haven't played in a while, but news of Darmian joining reignited my interest to play again despite busy schedule.

Looking forward to him in Parma for FM20, that's a good signing.

[john1]

7 hours ago, quee said:

Been busy and haven't played in a while, but news of Darmian joining reignited my interest to play again despite busy schedule.

Looking forward to him in Parma for FM20, that's a good signing.

Definitely good signing for Parma :D  I am tempted to do start my first FM20 save in Italy, but not sure who 

[john1]

Been playing my Torino save and just completed 2024/25 season few days ago in background while reading story from you guys  Just a quick brief summary.

 

Won the league with ease and been rotating most games with young players, only losing 2 games (Juventus and Napoli) And beat Boca, in FIFA Club World Cup FInal to win the competition.

Got knocked out by Liverpool in CL Quarter Final   Also got knocked out on penalties against Inter Milan in Copa Italia  Semi Final. Been offered job interview for AC Milan, Barca, Man Utd and Bayern jobs.

Board are really frustrating me right now, Not got a single affiliated club since 2023 ffs, they wouldn't listen when I ask for a club to send young players out on loan or commercial club.  

[quee]

8 hours ago, john1 said:

Board are really frustrating me right now, Not got a single affiliated club since 2023 ffs, they wouldn't listen when I ask for a club to send young players out on loan or commercial club.  

When do you request it? I find that during the summer, when there's no fixtures for the youth teams, the board are more open to finding affiliates during those time.

[john1]

1 hour ago, quee said:

When do you request it? I find that during the summer, when there's no fixtures for the youth teams, the board are more open to finding affiliates during those time.

Whenever it comes up but they reject it, even tried it in the summer too.

[CRN711]

Great group for my first year at Inter...

[john1]

1 hour ago, CRN711 said:

Great group for my first year at Inter...

Not a bad group, with the players you have got, should be able to get in top 2.

[CRN711]

Le 04/09/2019 à 21:41, john1 a dit :

Not a bad group, with the players you have got, should be able to get in top 2.

 

That's overrating my managing ability

[Gungner]

I was thinking of starting one last save on FM19, and was thinking of Genoa... Anyone with experiences of them?

[john1]

2 hours ago, Gungner said:

I was thinking of starting one last save on FM19, and was thinking of Genoa... Anyone with experiences of them?

Not sure anyone managed them but on my save, they are very decent team, always hard to break them down. I would give them a go  

Edited September 8, 2019 by john1

[RandomGuy.]

Started an AC Milan save.

Restricting myself to only signing Italian players (trying to talk myself into Brazilians too due to the links there).

I can keep current players until their current contracts expire and then theyll have to go (Paqueta...), and same with youths who come through, only Italians will be kept on.

Saves me ruining the save by making huge signings every windows.

[john1]

On 08/09/2019 at 21:22, RandomGuy. said:

Started an AC Milan save.

Restricting myself to only signing Italian players (trying to talk myself into Brazilians too due to the links there).

I can keep current players until their current contracts expire and then theyll have to go (Paqueta...), and same with youths who come through, only Italians will be kept on.

Saves me ruining the save by making huge signings every windows.

You're not the only one I signed too many strikers on my Torino save and started to lose interest in that save sadly.

 

Good luck with AC Milan   

Edited September 9, 2019 by john1

[quee]

On 09/09/2019 at 04:22, RandomGuy. said:

Started an AC Milan save.

Restricting myself to only signing Italian players (trying to talk myself into Brazilians too due to the links there).

I can keep current players until their current contracts expire and then theyll have to go (Paqueta...), and same with youths who come through, only Italians will be kept on.

Saves me ruining the save by making huge signings every windows.

The non-EU rules should keep you from making too many Brazilians signings! I would say signing them is natural for Italian clubs, so don't limit yourself too much. (Italian only save can be boring as well).

[RandomGuy.]

On 11/09/2019 at 03:54, quee said:

The non-EU rules should keep you from making too many Brazilians signings! I would say signing them is natural for Italian clubs, so don't limit yourself too much. (Italian only save can be boring as well).

I think I've decided against the Italian only signing rules already anyway  

Only made one signing so far, as first window transfers were turned off. Free agent Montolivio has rejoined the club to provide cover in the DM position. He'll compete with Bennacer until Biglia returns from injury.

[RandomGuy.]

Hit the Winter break. Solid enough season, although barely scoring any goals. League title is already settled but the top four fight is incredible.

Suso is saving my job single handedly. Piatek finally hitting form just as we hit the break, annoyingly.

[quee]

Good job! Napoli was too strong in my first season as well.

[john1]

@RandomGuy. Wow, Napoli running away